I'm reminded of this because yesterday, Christmas, I had an event to go to that went from about noon until 2 PM, and then another that started at about 6 PM. As a result, I had four hours to "kill" because I didn't want to turn it around and commute home, only to pit stop and go out again. I had a small suitcase and my dog and her carrier with me. For some reason I thought McDonalds was open on Christmas and headed there on foot, only to find it locked up, as it should be, I suppose.
I rarely eat at McDonalds but I do like their basic coffee, not too fancy or expensive. The McDonalds I go to has an outdoor area that is OK for tying up the dog, clean bathrooms (always a plus), and is forgiving about hanging out. I've been in there a number of times with my dog in her carrier; she sleeps in it and no one has questioned it.
So we crossed the street and walked to a Starbucks, a small shop that was open. The wind was kicking up and though my dog had on a sweater and I had on leggings under my slacks and layered tops and a hat to keep me warm, I didn't like the idea of sitting outside there for a couple hours. I also didn't like the price on their basic coffee which was more than double that of McDonald's. I went in and asked if I could bring the dog in, in her carrier, and the talk of making a "special exception" was a turn off. What if she were a service dog? I wasn't asked.
At this point we had walked a mile easy. There were some people sitting waiting for buses on the main street. A man without a coat or hat in a wheel chair rode over to me and asked "Do you know anywhere there's food?" He meant free food. Actually I did know a place that was having a potluck. A friend who is a member of AA told me they were having an inclusive event, no need to go to a meeting or be a member. I told him how to get there.
My dog and I continued to walk to an old shopping district that was mostly closed up. As we went we saw so many people who were clearly homeless on the street, bundled up.
Each and every one of them has a life story.
Each and every one of them was born to parents, alive or dead now, and was or is part of a family.
We found a small, old, independent coffee house open there. No problem about my dog in her carrier. We walked in and ordered a tea, then found a table to share. Though there were some writers on lap tops sitting here and there and there was a television on, there were also obviously homeless people sleeping sitting up. God Bless the owner. He decided that he would "see how it goes" before making a decision to close up at 7 PM.
I told the clerk I would be hanging out, waiting for a ride to a party, and he nodded. He had probably heard and seen it all. I tried to keep busy. I did a little list making, this and that, but mostly I felt bored and lonely. I texted the friend who was having the party to let her know where I was. Shortly she sent a relative over to pick me up around 5:30, as their location is high up and a bit obscure. When he walked in, it was as if the others were startled. When he walked in, what I told them all, that I was just there waiting, turned out to be true.
The party was wonderful. Possibly one of the best Christmas evenings I've had, and it was so good to be surrounded by other people who were also enjoying themselves in a beautiful home that was welcoming and warm. My dog fell asleep under a table, after I mixed some stew meat in with her kibble.
And so I was thinking about Mary and Joseph, and no room at the inns.
About Jesus being laid into a manger (a cow feed bin) after his birth.
Exhausted travelers on a budget far from home, on foot, not quite homeless as we know it to be now.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved
26 December 2018
08 December 2018
THE WALMART CHRISTMAS SHOPPING NIGHTMARE and THOSE DNA TESTS
The holidays as they are celebrated these days add more stress to family life.
I was thinking about this today because I had to go to Walmart. Yes it had to be Walmart. I had not been in one since last fall. But I went. The place was total confusion. Parents clutching fairy light sets and stacks of toys. Children running around undisciplined - maybe they lost their parents an hour ago? Greeters not allowed to leave their post to help you get a cart.
As is usual, it was near impossible to find an employee on the sales floor at all. I asked one about the pricing of some items that were unmarked and she told me to go scan for the price myself. And she was on her cell phone. As was the security guard. The line for less than 20 items was around and down an isle. Half way to what I thought was a register I learned I was in the line to check myself out. This company makes so much money, and they pay badly enough that employees have to get government help for food and shelter and a cashier was replaced by this check yourself out. I refused so I went into another line. What could I have been thinking when I went shopping at all for the holidays? There were things on my list that I could have also bought at Walmart, but I got out of there rather than look through picked over departments where things went unstocked or were disorganized. I once worked retail. There used to be pride in retail. More and more do it yourself at discount places.
One of the things I didn't find out was if Walmart is, like CVS, and some other places, stocking discounted DNA tests. CVS sells kits for determining parenthood as well as DNA heritage.
I bring this up because I got a call about helping someone actually figure out what their results meant.
Someone else used two different companies and got different results from each. What could that mean?
So here goes:
DNA test results are statistical analysis using a pool of candidates; the other people who also turned in their results to that particular company. Overall, the more people who contribute and are part of the statistics, the "better" or more accurate the results when it comes to ethnicity. Even then, ethnicity is rather a broad term because we are just starting to understand how it is that people migrated, how they bred. Overall, more males migrated than females due to their roles - gender assigned. For instance, more men were explorers, travelers, traders, in armies, in crusades. Sometimes a man settled somewhere other than where he was born and raised. (There were also army camp followers who were women - wives, prostitutes, nurses, but you get the idea here.) If you look at some of the websites that attempt to show the statistics using other kinds of charts - such as maps - you will see that the zones spread out. Also, be aware that as time goes on, there may be discoveries of DNA that is identified with different codes. When you look at any article or map or statistical analysis of DNA results, try not to read anything more than a year or so old. Really. Right now even the Out of Africa theory has a challenge.
Someone "reminded" me that we are all out of Africa.
It's usually someone who wants to "remind" others not to be prejudiced against people who appear Black.
There is more DNA variation in African Black people than anywhere else.
However, ethnicity is considered a fairy recent invention by anthropologists.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot
I was thinking about this today because I had to go to Walmart. Yes it had to be Walmart. I had not been in one since last fall. But I went. The place was total confusion. Parents clutching fairy light sets and stacks of toys. Children running around undisciplined - maybe they lost their parents an hour ago? Greeters not allowed to leave their post to help you get a cart.
As is usual, it was near impossible to find an employee on the sales floor at all. I asked one about the pricing of some items that were unmarked and she told me to go scan for the price myself. And she was on her cell phone. As was the security guard. The line for less than 20 items was around and down an isle. Half way to what I thought was a register I learned I was in the line to check myself out. This company makes so much money, and they pay badly enough that employees have to get government help for food and shelter and a cashier was replaced by this check yourself out. I refused so I went into another line. What could I have been thinking when I went shopping at all for the holidays? There were things on my list that I could have also bought at Walmart, but I got out of there rather than look through picked over departments where things went unstocked or were disorganized. I once worked retail. There used to be pride in retail. More and more do it yourself at discount places.
One of the things I didn't find out was if Walmart is, like CVS, and some other places, stocking discounted DNA tests. CVS sells kits for determining parenthood as well as DNA heritage.
I bring this up because I got a call about helping someone actually figure out what their results meant.
Someone else used two different companies and got different results from each. What could that mean?
So here goes:
DNA test results are statistical analysis using a pool of candidates; the other people who also turned in their results to that particular company. Overall, the more people who contribute and are part of the statistics, the "better" or more accurate the results when it comes to ethnicity. Even then, ethnicity is rather a broad term because we are just starting to understand how it is that people migrated, how they bred. Overall, more males migrated than females due to their roles - gender assigned. For instance, more men were explorers, travelers, traders, in armies, in crusades. Sometimes a man settled somewhere other than where he was born and raised. (There were also army camp followers who were women - wives, prostitutes, nurses, but you get the idea here.) If you look at some of the websites that attempt to show the statistics using other kinds of charts - such as maps - you will see that the zones spread out. Also, be aware that as time goes on, there may be discoveries of DNA that is identified with different codes. When you look at any article or map or statistical analysis of DNA results, try not to read anything more than a year or so old. Really. Right now even the Out of Africa theory has a challenge.
Someone "reminded" me that we are all out of Africa.
It's usually someone who wants to "remind" others not to be prejudiced against people who appear Black.
There is more DNA variation in African Black people than anywhere else.
However, ethnicity is considered a fairy recent invention by anthropologists.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot
05 December 2018
ALMANACH DE GOTHA as MATCHMAKING BIBLE?
Excerpted from the book Tying the Knot - A World History of Marriage by Amber J. Keyser
EXCERPT: OLD STYLE MATCH.COM
Between 1763 and 1944, European nobles looking for a marriage partner could consult a reference book called the Almanach de Gotha. Originated by a German chaplain in the city of Gotha, the book sorted and ranked all members of European noble families in great detail. Families used the book to determine which matches were acceptable. Specifically, marriage partners were supposed to be of the same rank - that is, a duke was supposed to marry the daughter of a duke, not the daughter of a man of lower rank. If a man did choose a lower-ranked wife, he entered into what was called a left hand marriage. During the wedding ceremony, he held the bride's right had with his left hand instead of the traditional right hand.
In 1998 a British company issued a new edition of the Almanach de Gotha, but critics noted that it was sloppily written. And even though some Europeans still inherit titles of nobility, these titles are mostly symbolic, For instance, the United Kingdom still has a queen, princes, dukes, earls, and other nobles, but they no longer run the country. Instead, citizens of the United Kingdom vote for their leaders. Since its no longer necessary to maintain power by marrying into another royal family, European noble no longer have reason to consult the Almanach de Gotha.
EXCERPT: OLD STYLE MATCH.COM
Between 1763 and 1944, European nobles looking for a marriage partner could consult a reference book called the Almanach de Gotha. Originated by a German chaplain in the city of Gotha, the book sorted and ranked all members of European noble families in great detail. Families used the book to determine which matches were acceptable. Specifically, marriage partners were supposed to be of the same rank - that is, a duke was supposed to marry the daughter of a duke, not the daughter of a man of lower rank. If a man did choose a lower-ranked wife, he entered into what was called a left hand marriage. During the wedding ceremony, he held the bride's right had with his left hand instead of the traditional right hand.
In 1998 a British company issued a new edition of the Almanach de Gotha, but critics noted that it was sloppily written. And even though some Europeans still inherit titles of nobility, these titles are mostly symbolic, For instance, the United Kingdom still has a queen, princes, dukes, earls, and other nobles, but they no longer run the country. Instead, citizens of the United Kingdom vote for their leaders. Since its no longer necessary to maintain power by marrying into another royal family, European noble no longer have reason to consult the Almanach de Gotha.
24 November 2018
GENEALOGY CHART TUBE ART PROJECT
CUT OUT LOTS OF LETTERS FROM MAGAZINES
USE THEM TO SPELL OUT SURNAMES
TO PERSONALIZE YOUR TUBE
CUT OUT WORDS AND PICTURES FROM OLD
MAGAZINES THAT WILL
MAGAZINES THAT WILL
FURTHER PERSONALIZE YOUR PROJECT.
LOOK FOR FAMILY CRESTS,
LOOK FOR FAMILY CRESTS,
FLAGS FROM ETHNIC HERITAGE COUNTRIES,
OR ANY OTHER THINGS THAT
REMIND YOU OF YOUR FAMILY.
OR ANY OTHER THINGS THAT
REMIND YOU OF YOUR FAMILY.
PURCHASE OR REUSE A THICK CARDBOARD
MAILING TUBE THAT HAS PLASTIC CAP ENDS.
USING WHITE GLUE ON A PAINT BRUSH
COVER THE TUBE THINLY WITH GLUE.
WASH YOUR HANDS
AND THEN CAREFULLY COVER THE TUBE
IN THICK ALUMINUM FOIL.
WORK CLEAN, WIPING ANY EXCESS GLUE
AWAY WITH A WET CLOTH.
YOU CAN USE STRIPS OF PATTERNED PAPER
FROM SCRAPBOOKING OR WHATEVER YOU FIND
IN MAGAZINES TO BEGIN TO FURTHER DESIGN YOUR
GENEALOGY CHART TUBE.
WHEN YOU'VE COMPLETED THE OUTER DESIGN
AND ITS DRY. ROLL UP YOUR CHART AND PUT IT INSIDE
YOU'LL KNOW WHERE IT IS
AND THE CHART WILL BE PROTECTED
FROM DUST AND FRAYING.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
20 November 2018
THE TOY MONKEY THAT REUNITED A FAMILY LOST BECAUSE OF THE HOLOCAUST
NPR: TOY MONKEY REUNITED HOLOCAUST FAMILY
EXCERPT: After the war, my father moved to the United States. He left Sweden for New York as a young man of 22. He was an orphan. He had no siblings and he was alone. Again, he picked the toy monkey to come with him. But by now it was something different: the most tangible connection to his childhood, to a fleeting moment of innocence.
EXCERPT: After the war, my father moved to the United States. He left Sweden for New York as a young man of 22. He was an orphan. He had no siblings and he was alone. Again, he picked the toy monkey to come with him. But by now it was something different: the most tangible connection to his childhood, to a fleeting moment of innocence.
15 November 2018
NATIVE AMERICAN?! ARE YOU LIKE ELIZABETH WARREN?
Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for President of the United States, said she was part Native American and the media began to tear her up. Her DNA test said that was so, but the percentage was not impressive. About the same time, I was contacted for some free advice by someone claiming to be related to a famous Native American.
I'm willing to coach people through a question or two without expecting payment but don't coach through an entire project as a volunteer. If I haven't seen the documentation, what I can tell someone could be minimal. In this case I suspected rumoring of the connection to the famous Native American because the person said to be related is not proofed.
Please, be aware that genealogies posted on the Internet are rarely proofed to show accuracy. For me to accept a genealogy, the person posting would have to show their entire process and all the documents they found. There are too many documents people can easily tweak these days so I suggest a skeptical mind set. (Consider all the composite photos that go undetected, such as often happens in magazines, where editors are putting a movie star's head on someone else's body or using art techniques to slim them down.) Why would a person give away thousands of hours of research which also have meant thousands of dollars invested?) Sometimes you can get wonderful leads on the Internet, but you just can't take a person's word for it even if they're a family member.
I explained to this person who may be connected to the famous Native American that in genealogy we start with the living (though we are sensitive of their privacy) and proof or document in as many ways possible going back generation after generation. After doing this, we'd focus on the branch in which the famous Native American is said to be attached to.
The person got back to me rather quickly and said she saw it all on the Internet.
So the answer to her next question, how to join the tribe, was simple.
CONTACT THE TRIBE YOU WISH TO JOIN AND ASK THEM WHAT THEIR REQUIREMENTS ARE FOR TRIBAL MEMBERSHIP. Generally they expect proof of 1/16th blood. (In other words, if Elizabeth Warren does not have document proof and must rely solely on the DNA test, she probably cannot get into a tribe. And since DNA tests are statistical analysis , the identifications of ethnicity might change as more DNA contributors join a site.)
That's not the whole story of being accepted as a Native American by a tribe. There are people who have tribal affiliation and casino rights who would not pass the typical 1/16th blood test. And when it comes to casino rights, people who have affiliation - "card carrying" Native Americans - probably don't care to split the proceeds further.
How can this happen? Easy.
Let's say that your ancestor - a White Man - married a Cherokee woman and had children with her and they cooperated with the special census of Native Americans and are on census together. Maybe the land they farmed is documented too. That's documentation. That's one scenario.
Another is that the White Man and his Cherokee wife and children decided to live on the reservation together and/or that the children were born on the reservation. At that point the children are 1/2 Native American. The White Man was probably said to have "gone Native," accepting the culture. If that family continues with the tribe, they are considered Native American.
Continue forward with the marriage of the children and grandchildren with other people who have done the same. In several generations (and until recently a "generation" was about every 25 years) you can come up with people who are card carrying and tribal affiliated but who are not 1/16th Native American. There is you, your parents (first generation), your grandparents (second generation), your great grandparents (third generation). That's about 75 years. It's 2019. To your great great grandparents (fourth generation) it's about 100 years. If you have one great great great grandparent who was recognized as Native American in 1919 you have a chance. (This is a simplistic explanation.)
We live in a time in which people are not born with their identity but relate to whatever race, religion, social class, gender, and so on that they feel an affinity with.
I've met a number of people with blond hair and blue eyes who do have Native American affiliation - be it officially or by affinity. Some of them cherish their long ago heritage and study the culture one of some of their ancestors lived decades ago.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot This post has been edited and expanded to be a bit more clear. Every situation is different. DNA tests are not the whole story.
I'm willing to coach people through a question or two without expecting payment but don't coach through an entire project as a volunteer. If I haven't seen the documentation, what I can tell someone could be minimal. In this case I suspected rumoring of the connection to the famous Native American because the person said to be related is not proofed.
Please, be aware that genealogies posted on the Internet are rarely proofed to show accuracy. For me to accept a genealogy, the person posting would have to show their entire process and all the documents they found. There are too many documents people can easily tweak these days so I suggest a skeptical mind set. (Consider all the composite photos that go undetected, such as often happens in magazines, where editors are putting a movie star's head on someone else's body or using art techniques to slim them down.) Why would a person give away thousands of hours of research which also have meant thousands of dollars invested?) Sometimes you can get wonderful leads on the Internet, but you just can't take a person's word for it even if they're a family member.
I explained to this person who may be connected to the famous Native American that in genealogy we start with the living (though we are sensitive of their privacy) and proof or document in as many ways possible going back generation after generation. After doing this, we'd focus on the branch in which the famous Native American is said to be attached to.
The person got back to me rather quickly and said she saw it all on the Internet.
So the answer to her next question, how to join the tribe, was simple.
CONTACT THE TRIBE YOU WISH TO JOIN AND ASK THEM WHAT THEIR REQUIREMENTS ARE FOR TRIBAL MEMBERSHIP. Generally they expect proof of 1/16th blood. (In other words, if Elizabeth Warren does not have document proof and must rely solely on the DNA test, she probably cannot get into a tribe. And since DNA tests are statistical analysis , the identifications of ethnicity might change as more DNA contributors join a site.)
That's not the whole story of being accepted as a Native American by a tribe. There are people who have tribal affiliation and casino rights who would not pass the typical 1/16th blood test. And when it comes to casino rights, people who have affiliation - "card carrying" Native Americans - probably don't care to split the proceeds further.
How can this happen? Easy.
Let's say that your ancestor - a White Man - married a Cherokee woman and had children with her and they cooperated with the special census of Native Americans and are on census together. Maybe the land they farmed is documented too. That's documentation. That's one scenario.
Another is that the White Man and his Cherokee wife and children decided to live on the reservation together and/or that the children were born on the reservation. At that point the children are 1/2 Native American. The White Man was probably said to have "gone Native," accepting the culture. If that family continues with the tribe, they are considered Native American.
Continue forward with the marriage of the children and grandchildren with other people who have done the same. In several generations (and until recently a "generation" was about every 25 years) you can come up with people who are card carrying and tribal affiliated but who are not 1/16th Native American. There is you, your parents (first generation), your grandparents (second generation), your great grandparents (third generation). That's about 75 years. It's 2019. To your great great grandparents (fourth generation) it's about 100 years. If you have one great great great grandparent who was recognized as Native American in 1919 you have a chance. (This is a simplistic explanation.)
We live in a time in which people are not born with their identity but relate to whatever race, religion, social class, gender, and so on that they feel an affinity with.
I've met a number of people with blond hair and blue eyes who do have Native American affiliation - be it officially or by affinity. Some of them cherish their long ago heritage and study the culture one of some of their ancestors lived decades ago.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot This post has been edited and expanded to be a bit more clear. Every situation is different. DNA tests are not the whole story.
10 November 2018
ABORTION and DEATH CERTIFICATES - NEW YORK 1970's
No doubt that abortion is a very difficult and controversial subject.
I recently became aware that in New York, in the 1970's, when "late" abortions were performed at about 20 weeks pregnant, women who delivered a dead fetus after a saline abortion had to sign a death certificate. This seems so very invasive of a personal medical issue that I hope these are sealed.
I would like to hear from you if you know more about this.
I recently became aware that in New York, in the 1970's, when "late" abortions were performed at about 20 weeks pregnant, women who delivered a dead fetus after a saline abortion had to sign a death certificate. This seems so very invasive of a personal medical issue that I hope these are sealed.
I would like to hear from you if you know more about this.
03 November 2018
COATS OF ARMS and ROYAL BASTARDY
According to Cecil-Humphery-Smith, in the book ROYAL BASTARDS, the coats of arms of bastards, which first appeared for the children of King Henry I, are different than for children born within the marriage of the royal personage. Some of these children were given land and titles but it wasn't until the Tudors and Stuarts that they were given titles of nobility and peerage.
"Often, the identity of the putative father can be discovered from the names given by the mother at baptism or registration." Suggested is that if the mother is named Mary Smith and names her child Bill Harrison Smith, then look for a Harrison or Bill Harrison in the records.
Another way that mothers of illegitimate children named them was by the PLACE of BIRTH.
The word Fitz as in FitzJames is an indication that the father himself is recognizing the child but the child will not carry his surname. His or her surname indicates the father's first or last name is James.
*****
I've noticed in my own research in another country in Europe that over a couple hundred years time it seemed very few children were illegitimate in the church records. But when a child was, it seemed they were given a name uncommon or exotic for the common, often repetitive, naming patterns of the others in the church.
There was one woman in the church records I read who had very many illegitimate children. She must have been so poor for her children died early and often. What a terrible life she had and yet she wanted it. I have so wondered about this woman. Was she the one and only town prostitute? Did one man after another take advantage of her? Was she in love with a married man? Was she an orphan? Was she perhaps slow? I see that the priest baptized her children. And I see that when she managed to live past the age of 40 a widowed man married her. Did he just need someone to cook and clean? Or was he the father of all those children?
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
"Often, the identity of the putative father can be discovered from the names given by the mother at baptism or registration." Suggested is that if the mother is named Mary Smith and names her child Bill Harrison Smith, then look for a Harrison or Bill Harrison in the records.
Another way that mothers of illegitimate children named them was by the PLACE of BIRTH.
The word Fitz as in FitzJames is an indication that the father himself is recognizing the child but the child will not carry his surname. His or her surname indicates the father's first or last name is James.
*****
I've noticed in my own research in another country in Europe that over a couple hundred years time it seemed very few children were illegitimate in the church records. But when a child was, it seemed they were given a name uncommon or exotic for the common, often repetitive, naming patterns of the others in the church.
There was one woman in the church records I read who had very many illegitimate children. She must have been so poor for her children died early and often. What a terrible life she had and yet she wanted it. I have so wondered about this woman. Was she the one and only town prostitute? Did one man after another take advantage of her? Was she in love with a married man? Was she an orphan? Was she perhaps slow? I see that the priest baptized her children. And I see that when she managed to live past the age of 40 a widowed man married her. Did he just need someone to cook and clean? Or was he the father of all those children?
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
30 October 2018
ALL SOUL'S DAY painted by JAKUB SCHIKANEDER,
Ran into a lady today who told me that Saint Theresa of Avila said, "if the saints fail you, try the souls" or something like that... basically it struck me that she was saying to pray to deceased ancestors. Found this painting looking for a public domain image appropriate for the season of Halloween, Day of the Dead, and All Soul's Day. If ever there was a celebration akin to ancestor worship in Christianity, this is it.
27 October 2018
BASTARDY of ROYAL PERSONAGES DEFINED by CECIL HUMPHERY-SMITH
Cecil Humphery-Smith, OBE, FSA, Principal of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, in the book ROYAL BASTARDS, previously posted on this month, explains the concept of BASTARDY...
This part of the book is the best part, because you're possibly going to research for your own, less than royal, family and ask yourself WHAT DOES IT MEAN.
Here are my notes.
Humphery-Smith states that who was regarded as illegitimate varied from time to time.
A child born of an annulled marriage or before his parents married might not be considered so.
(I think of the children of some of the Princes and Princesses of Monaco present day...)
Most European countries considered illegitimate children to be outlaws and where Roman law was, these children had no inheritance rights. The mother would be given rights but the father would have no legal obligation to support them. There was a stigma and through all classes of people, including the agricultural an laboring. The concern was that the people involved were Vagrants.
"That the church took a dim view of illegitimacy is obvious from the number of records of penances inflicted by the ecclesiastical courts for the incontinence of parents...." (Apparently there are records of penances and punishments to the parents for fornication and adultery.)
In 1610 a woman who had an illegitimate child went to the House of Corrections.
Laws against illegitimate children encouraged infanticide and abortion.
But by the 16th century more bastards are mentioned in church books and from the 1750's forwards it seems that the occurrence was becoming more common, and of less commentary.
"Knobstick weddings" were a means of forcing couples to marry even if they had no homes.
By the Acts of 1732/3 a woman had to declare who the father was. Public whipping of the woman was done. (One would wonder if this was meant to induce abortion!) As a result women were desperate to name a father and would sometimes name a wealthy man who was not the father, so that she'd have a better chance of gaining support for the child. Sometimes the woman would say the father was from another parish or district, making him hard to find. People bribed others to call the child legitimate.
The children were not well off. There are stories of children becoming slaves on farms, servants or whipping boys.
Of concern then, and now, is who supports the child of a parent or parents with no income. What happens to the social order, the responsibilities of family?
This part of the book is the best part, because you're possibly going to research for your own, less than royal, family and ask yourself WHAT DOES IT MEAN.
Here are my notes.
Humphery-Smith states that who was regarded as illegitimate varied from time to time.
A child born of an annulled marriage or before his parents married might not be considered so.
(I think of the children of some of the Princes and Princesses of Monaco present day...)
Most European countries considered illegitimate children to be outlaws and where Roman law was, these children had no inheritance rights. The mother would be given rights but the father would have no legal obligation to support them. There was a stigma and through all classes of people, including the agricultural an laboring. The concern was that the people involved were Vagrants.
"That the church took a dim view of illegitimacy is obvious from the number of records of penances inflicted by the ecclesiastical courts for the incontinence of parents...." (Apparently there are records of penances and punishments to the parents for fornication and adultery.)
In 1610 a woman who had an illegitimate child went to the House of Corrections.
Laws against illegitimate children encouraged infanticide and abortion.
But by the 16th century more bastards are mentioned in church books and from the 1750's forwards it seems that the occurrence was becoming more common, and of less commentary.
"Knobstick weddings" were a means of forcing couples to marry even if they had no homes.
By the Acts of 1732/3 a woman had to declare who the father was. Public whipping of the woman was done. (One would wonder if this was meant to induce abortion!) As a result women were desperate to name a father and would sometimes name a wealthy man who was not the father, so that she'd have a better chance of gaining support for the child. Sometimes the woman would say the father was from another parish or district, making him hard to find. People bribed others to call the child legitimate.
The children were not well off. There are stories of children becoming slaves on farms, servants or whipping boys.
Of concern then, and now, is who supports the child of a parent or parents with no income. What happens to the social order, the responsibilities of family?
20 October 2018
13 October 2018
ROYAL BASTARDS : A BOOK TO LEARN FROM : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW
Peter Beauclerk-Dewar and Roger Powell are the authors of...
ROYAL BASTARDS, which is a book to learn from. Not just because it gives bio-profiles of the circumstances of birth and royal and noble connections of a whole lot of illegitimate offspring of:
THE TUDORS
Edward IV (1442-1483)
Richard III (1452-1485)
Henry VIII (1491-1547) (yep!)
THE STUARTS
Charles II (1630-1714)
James II (1633-1701)
Charles Stuart (1720-1788)
THE HANOVERIANS
George I (1660-1727)
George II (1683- 1760)
as well as
Frederick, Prince of Wales (a Son of George)
George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV)
William, Duke of Clarence (Later King Willian IV)
as well as some Windsors…
But because we learn that the surname Fitz teamed with the father's given name was that of so many.
Because we learn that some of these children -and their mothers who were "mistresses," were treated well, but while other's were accepted and elevated their mothers were trashed and left to die in poverty and obscurity.
We learn that COATS OF ARMS/ SHEILDS were designed for some of them and by reading the code of the coat of arms there are clues of illegitimacy.
We learn that there was punishment for the parents of illegitimate children, and as a result the following happened (and this will challenge your DNA genealogy) people gossiped (to heal or destroy reputations), they lied (a mother could claim a better or wealthier man was the real father), that naming the child after a famous person - a noble or King - could indicate that he was actually the father - and that infanticide was not out of the question. The children were sometimes supported by the father, but they had no inheritance rights.
Sadly, women were far worse off when it came to punishment then the men, as if it were all their fault. (Sound familiar?) the Poor Laws of 1662 and the Vagrant Act of 1575-6 were harsh. What was being upheld was the economy, the fact that in marriage it was understood what man would be supporting what women and what children. It wasn't until the Tudors and the Stuarts that the illegitimate children got titles of nobility and entered into the peerage.
As I was reading this book I was thinking that in my research of small towns I sometimes found that illegitimate children, as indicated in church records, were often given exotic names as if a given name might compensate for a maiden name.
I'm going to post an EXCERPT from this book soon. I found that the APPENDIX and definition of bastardy by Cecil Humphery-Smith - who has a long list of honoraria after his name was the best part! I'll post excerpts from that soon!
C 2018 Book Review by Ancestry Worship Genealogy
ROYAL BASTARDS, which is a book to learn from. Not just because it gives bio-profiles of the circumstances of birth and royal and noble connections of a whole lot of illegitimate offspring of:
THE TUDORS
Edward IV (1442-1483)
Richard III (1452-1485)
Henry VIII (1491-1547) (yep!)
THE STUARTS
Charles II (1630-1714)
James II (1633-1701)
Charles Stuart (1720-1788)
THE HANOVERIANS
George I (1660-1727)
George II (1683- 1760)
as well as
Frederick, Prince of Wales (a Son of George)
George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV)
William, Duke of Clarence (Later King Willian IV)
as well as some Windsors…
But because we learn that the surname Fitz teamed with the father's given name was that of so many.
Because we learn that some of these children -and their mothers who were "mistresses," were treated well, but while other's were accepted and elevated their mothers were trashed and left to die in poverty and obscurity.
We learn that COATS OF ARMS/ SHEILDS were designed for some of them and by reading the code of the coat of arms there are clues of illegitimacy.
We learn that there was punishment for the parents of illegitimate children, and as a result the following happened (and this will challenge your DNA genealogy) people gossiped (to heal or destroy reputations), they lied (a mother could claim a better or wealthier man was the real father), that naming the child after a famous person - a noble or King - could indicate that he was actually the father - and that infanticide was not out of the question. The children were sometimes supported by the father, but they had no inheritance rights.
Sadly, women were far worse off when it came to punishment then the men, as if it were all their fault. (Sound familiar?) the Poor Laws of 1662 and the Vagrant Act of 1575-6 were harsh. What was being upheld was the economy, the fact that in marriage it was understood what man would be supporting what women and what children. It wasn't until the Tudors and the Stuarts that the illegitimate children got titles of nobility and entered into the peerage.
As I was reading this book I was thinking that in my research of small towns I sometimes found that illegitimate children, as indicated in church records, were often given exotic names as if a given name might compensate for a maiden name.
I'm going to post an EXCERPT from this book soon. I found that the APPENDIX and definition of bastardy by Cecil Humphery-Smith - who has a long list of honoraria after his name was the best part! I'll post excerpts from that soon!
C 2018 Book Review by Ancestry Worship Genealogy
07 October 2018
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE ; ARE YOU THE LAST IN YOUR FAMILY?
Some of you are realizing that not only has your once huge genealogy chart turned into an inverted pyramid, but you may just be the last descendant of the family, or the last carrying the rare name.
If you're reading this blog, ANCESTRY WORSHIP -GENEALOGY, you may also be thinking about or in the process of documenting the family you're from, as that last member.
Some thoughts on this.
A man who knows not much about the Latter Day Saints, said to me "And every man gets his own planet or something."
I said that was my understanding too. The man and his wife, and all their descendants. But think about this. The Latter Day Saints may have a certain cosmology in place when they envision the after earth life in eternity, but they also know how family charts connect, and so really this is a vision of a connected membership of their church in the after life. And they are interested in collecting the work of non-members because these also connect to LDS families and provide opportunities for more Ordinances to be done.
(My understanding is that by uploading your information to their databases, THEY ARE CLAIMING COPYRIGHT. If this is true, well, I don't like it. It challenges the notion that everyone whose name appears on a chart or who can be connected to dead persons don't mind their privacy being invaded.)
What I'm getting at is it might turn out that there are some living persons who you are connected to as family who aren't in your pyramid at all, inverted or upright. I can't say that you'll find them through any means and that they'll welcome you to visit. I have met people who were invited to family reunions after connecting due to genealogy. (There are even family reunions for people with certain surnames, related or not.)
Soon after talking to this man with the idea that every LDS man gets a planet, I attended a Fundamentalist Christian Bible Study with a new friend. There people at the Bible Study were talking about End Times and the Rapture. The group leader was asked a lot of questions. One person asked, "And we'll all be naked?" The group leader said, "We'll be like Adam and Eve again." She meant before the fall, when they themselves didn't notice or care about nakedness or feel any body shame. My answer was that a person in the After Life (I'm assuming heaven) would be in their Spirit Body was not well received. Probably the term "Spirit Body" was a bit New Age for this group. When asked "Will we recognize each other?" the group leader said, "Yes, but we won't be MARRIED anymore."
Instead we'll all be united with God.
So, here is where the Latter Day Saints vision is different. In LDS afterlife you are still married if Sealed to the same spouse you have. You will be with your family.
Frankly, I like the idea that you could perhaps want to go it alone after a long earthly marriage, and you could choose to. I also like the idea that you will be you. And recognize your friends. At least at first, until you move on to a "higher plane" of heaven. As a society we are just getting used to the frequent occurrence of Near Death Experiences and trying on the notion of Past Life Regression. We can only say that a person has been to heaven - and back - if they tell us how it went.
I'm fascinated by it all.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
This post has been edited July 2019.
If you're reading this blog, ANCESTRY WORSHIP -GENEALOGY, you may also be thinking about or in the process of documenting the family you're from, as that last member.
Some thoughts on this.
A man who knows not much about the Latter Day Saints, said to me "And every man gets his own planet or something."
I said that was my understanding too. The man and his wife, and all their descendants. But think about this. The Latter Day Saints may have a certain cosmology in place when they envision the after earth life in eternity, but they also know how family charts connect, and so really this is a vision of a connected membership of their church in the after life. And they are interested in collecting the work of non-members because these also connect to LDS families and provide opportunities for more Ordinances to be done.
(My understanding is that by uploading your information to their databases, THEY ARE CLAIMING COPYRIGHT. If this is true, well, I don't like it. It challenges the notion that everyone whose name appears on a chart or who can be connected to dead persons don't mind their privacy being invaded.)
What I'm getting at is it might turn out that there are some living persons who you are connected to as family who aren't in your pyramid at all, inverted or upright. I can't say that you'll find them through any means and that they'll welcome you to visit. I have met people who were invited to family reunions after connecting due to genealogy. (There are even family reunions for people with certain surnames, related or not.)
Soon after talking to this man with the idea that every LDS man gets a planet, I attended a Fundamentalist Christian Bible Study with a new friend. There people at the Bible Study were talking about End Times and the Rapture. The group leader was asked a lot of questions. One person asked, "And we'll all be naked?" The group leader said, "We'll be like Adam and Eve again." She meant before the fall, when they themselves didn't notice or care about nakedness or feel any body shame. My answer was that a person in the After Life (I'm assuming heaven) would be in their Spirit Body was not well received. Probably the term "Spirit Body" was a bit New Age for this group. When asked "Will we recognize each other?" the group leader said, "Yes, but we won't be MARRIED anymore."
Instead we'll all be united with God.
So, here is where the Latter Day Saints vision is different. In LDS afterlife you are still married if Sealed to the same spouse you have. You will be with your family.
Frankly, I like the idea that you could perhaps want to go it alone after a long earthly marriage, and you could choose to. I also like the idea that you will be you. And recognize your friends. At least at first, until you move on to a "higher plane" of heaven. As a society we are just getting used to the frequent occurrence of Near Death Experiences and trying on the notion of Past Life Regression. We can only say that a person has been to heaven - and back - if they tell us how it went.
I'm fascinated by it all.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
This post has been edited July 2019.
23 September 2018
THE MISSING PERSON - GENEALOGY versus THE DETECTIVE
I recently met someone who is related to a MISSING PERSON. The missing person went on a vacation to see relatives and rented a car, deciding to go to another city that is a tourist trap before returning home. Who hasn't used an extra day or so when near some attractions to go see them, a once in a lifetime opportunity, when far from home? Months ago he was last heard from by cell phone. All seemed to be well. He was a loving father and family man. They didn't actually think of him as missing until about a week later when he didn't use his return ticket. Until then a lot of rationalizing was going on. The cell phone was never found but went dead. Later the rental car was found with no evidence of him in it. The family feels they did all they could do including making appeals for information on television, posting on Facebook, and so on. Now they have faith in God and see him in their dreams.
MISSING PERSONS! The mystery of what happened to them and when, not knowing if and when they were a victim of criminals or an accident, or if they went missing deliberately for some unknown reason, challenge loving family in every way possible. I personally feel this person is not on this earth, but it is too soon too soon to give up hope.
I find that the work of David Paulides
CANADIAN AMERICAN MISSING - DAVID PAULIDES is quite fascinating.
Paulides is broadcasting via interviews and YouTube almost weekly, focusing on some of the most mysterious disappearances in National Parks, in a very open minded way that might include BigFoot or UFO's, which I realize turns some people off. Yet, he remains on the side of true detective work and skepticism and is probably the person most responsible in North American for working on the problem of ineptitude in investigations, unaccountably of and bureaucratic messes in governmental agencies when it comes to missing persons.
Listen to him and you'll begin to wonder how so very many people could be simply gone.
He says that one should never go hiking without a partner, am electronic device that would help locate you (not just a cell phone), and a weapon.
So, is there a way to use genealogy instead of a detective to work on this missing person case?
The answer is NO. The situation is too new. Possibly if the situation is old enough, there might be some evidence that the person just went away and settled somewhere else.
I consider birth parents gone missing to be traceable using some genealogy methods. I was able to locate one father within hours of being asked to. He had not changed his name.
A person may not actually be "missing" if they did not go out of their way to change their identity, such as changing their name. Because of electronic databases and informational services, to go missing on purpose is more difficult by the minute. But once in a while you hear of someone who just went away, found employment, someone who never divorced but remarried. Their neighbors are astounded to find out that they were actually a WANTED PERSON all those years when they'd been considered to be pillars of their community.
Police detectives have access to databases that may help track a person's movements and expenditures. Making missing persons reports with police is a first step. It's often not enough. A person who wants to disappear is probably not going to use their credit cards or the same phone. They are probably going to leave with a lot of cash on hand and have made plans to go from here to there - such as another country - in advance. It's not impossible but generally difficult to have that much cash in hand if you're an ordinary individual. Off to another country we might consider how well did they speak Spanish or Polish when they left? Yet, I reason, everyone has a secret life, a self they keep private. It's possible that the missing person had some associations his wife and children knew nothing about.
Sometimes it's just that an agency budgets only so much time and money to a case. Then it goes COLD.
If there is a person who is missing that you want to find, try to avoid certain assumptions such as that they are missing because their Facebook page is static or taken down. Maybe they're just taking a time out from social networking. Additionally, maybe they are taking a break from YOU. Maybe the relationship was not as good as you imagined it. (Are you a stalker with an imaginary romance?)
One person asked me, "What if they went into a Witness Protection Program?" Well, I don't know exactly how that works. From reading around it, the person being protected has to check in frequently with law enforcement. To start a new life elsewhere the FBI may have helped with name changes and ID's and so on. And the person or family has to be ready to be moved again - and again. I doubt that an individual with a loving family would go and leave them behind without telling them but in the Witness Protection Program, it can be no-contact. Usually people in this program are in it because they are considered to be on hit lists or in deep trouble because of their testimonies against criminals. Witness Protection Program people live very controlled lives.
So, Blessings to those who are missing someone they love, as they cope with the changes in their lives because of the mystery of what happened.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
Update July 2019.
The missing man's remains were found, in a field not far from where the rental car had been found. Foul play is suspected.
MISSING PERSONS! The mystery of what happened to them and when, not knowing if and when they were a victim of criminals or an accident, or if they went missing deliberately for some unknown reason, challenge loving family in every way possible. I personally feel this person is not on this earth, but it is too soon too soon to give up hope.
I find that the work of David Paulides
CANADIAN AMERICAN MISSING - DAVID PAULIDES is quite fascinating.
Paulides is broadcasting via interviews and YouTube almost weekly, focusing on some of the most mysterious disappearances in National Parks, in a very open minded way that might include BigFoot or UFO's, which I realize turns some people off. Yet, he remains on the side of true detective work and skepticism and is probably the person most responsible in North American for working on the problem of ineptitude in investigations, unaccountably of and bureaucratic messes in governmental agencies when it comes to missing persons.
Listen to him and you'll begin to wonder how so very many people could be simply gone.
He says that one should never go hiking without a partner, am electronic device that would help locate you (not just a cell phone), and a weapon.
So, is there a way to use genealogy instead of a detective to work on this missing person case?
The answer is NO. The situation is too new. Possibly if the situation is old enough, there might be some evidence that the person just went away and settled somewhere else.
I consider birth parents gone missing to be traceable using some genealogy methods. I was able to locate one father within hours of being asked to. He had not changed his name.
A person may not actually be "missing" if they did not go out of their way to change their identity, such as changing their name. Because of electronic databases and informational services, to go missing on purpose is more difficult by the minute. But once in a while you hear of someone who just went away, found employment, someone who never divorced but remarried. Their neighbors are astounded to find out that they were actually a WANTED PERSON all those years when they'd been considered to be pillars of their community.
Police detectives have access to databases that may help track a person's movements and expenditures. Making missing persons reports with police is a first step. It's often not enough. A person who wants to disappear is probably not going to use their credit cards or the same phone. They are probably going to leave with a lot of cash on hand and have made plans to go from here to there - such as another country - in advance. It's not impossible but generally difficult to have that much cash in hand if you're an ordinary individual. Off to another country we might consider how well did they speak Spanish or Polish when they left? Yet, I reason, everyone has a secret life, a self they keep private. It's possible that the missing person had some associations his wife and children knew nothing about.
Sometimes it's just that an agency budgets only so much time and money to a case. Then it goes COLD.
If there is a person who is missing that you want to find, try to avoid certain assumptions such as that they are missing because their Facebook page is static or taken down. Maybe they're just taking a time out from social networking. Additionally, maybe they are taking a break from YOU. Maybe the relationship was not as good as you imagined it. (Are you a stalker with an imaginary romance?)
One person asked me, "What if they went into a Witness Protection Program?" Well, I don't know exactly how that works. From reading around it, the person being protected has to check in frequently with law enforcement. To start a new life elsewhere the FBI may have helped with name changes and ID's and so on. And the person or family has to be ready to be moved again - and again. I doubt that an individual with a loving family would go and leave them behind without telling them but in the Witness Protection Program, it can be no-contact. Usually people in this program are in it because they are considered to be on hit lists or in deep trouble because of their testimonies against criminals. Witness Protection Program people live very controlled lives.
So, Blessings to those who are missing someone they love, as they cope with the changes in their lives because of the mystery of what happened.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
Update July 2019.
The missing man's remains were found, in a field not far from where the rental car had been found. Foul play is suspected.
14 September 2018
05 September 2018
LAST VOYAGE OF THE LUSITANIA : NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DVD
The luxury Liner, the Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine - a maritime disaster. Of the 1959 people aboard, 2/3rds died because it sank in 15 minutes - much faster than the Titanic.
Dr. Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic and the Bismarck beneath the sea, wanted to find the ship and through scientific means discover if perhaps it had been carrying secret arms or ammunition which could have blown up, making the damage so much worse.
I'm eager to find the ship manifests or a list of those who went down with the ship.
Dr. Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic and the Bismarck beneath the sea, wanted to find the ship and through scientific means discover if perhaps it had been carrying secret arms or ammunition which could have blown up, making the damage so much worse.
I'm eager to find the ship manifests or a list of those who went down with the ship.
The National Geographic Society - the magazine - the exploration they fund - to me has always seemed like one of the best investments. They fund quality exploration, films, and articles, time and time again...
02 September 2018
AMERICAN WOMEN HAVING FIRST BABIES LATER IN LIFE
NEW YORK TIMES : AGE AT FIRST MOTHERHOOD RISES
Take a look at the charts - college women seem to be completing their educations first. And the average age of first motherhood in the United States is 26 plus.
31 August 2018
ANGEL GOWNS - BEAUTIFUL GARMENTS MADE FROM WEDDING DRESSES FOR THE LITTLE ANGELS
At one time, when I was just starting to understand heaven and hell and knew that babies were to be baptized, I asked my mother what happened to babies that hadn't been baptized yet. She said they went right to heaven.
I went to a Christian Music festival held in a park in Southern California recently and, as I went around the booths, I came to one that had a wedding dress hanging and little outfits on the table. I didn't make the connection right away and when I asked what ANGEL GOWNS was all about, tears sprung from my eyes. What a beautiful idea.
ANGEL GOWNS is an effort that goes on all over the nation, and so rather than give you a specific link, I encourage you to put those words in a search engine and find the closest location to you or go to the national link here : https://www.nicuhelpinghands.org/programs/angel-gown-program/. Volunteers get together to sew ANGEL GOWNS at various locations. There is an art to it, such as deciding how to cut a wedding dress just right to make it most useful. I'm told that women come in with their boxed wedding dresses and love that the dress will be re-purposed for such a good cause.
Basically, many of the little angels who will wear the garments made from DONATED WEDDING DRESSES, are newborns and infants who have died. They were preemies or too ill to make it. The parents appreciate the gift of one of these beautiful garments to dress their baby.
C Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
I went to a Christian Music festival held in a park in Southern California recently and, as I went around the booths, I came to one that had a wedding dress hanging and little outfits on the table. I didn't make the connection right away and when I asked what ANGEL GOWNS was all about, tears sprung from my eyes. What a beautiful idea.
ANGEL GOWNS is an effort that goes on all over the nation, and so rather than give you a specific link, I encourage you to put those words in a search engine and find the closest location to you or go to the national link here : https://www.nicuhelpinghands.org/programs/angel-gown-program/. Volunteers get together to sew ANGEL GOWNS at various locations. There is an art to it, such as deciding how to cut a wedding dress just right to make it most useful. I'm told that women come in with their boxed wedding dresses and love that the dress will be re-purposed for such a good cause.
Basically, many of the little angels who will wear the garments made from DONATED WEDDING DRESSES, are newborns and infants who have died. They were preemies or too ill to make it. The parents appreciate the gift of one of these beautiful garments to dress their baby.
C Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
26 August 2018
22 August 2018
SHIP MANIFESTS and THE ELUSIVE POOR ANCESTOR
There is so much romance attached to ancestors coming through Ellis Island in steerage, that you may be surprised to know that the 1st and 2nd class passengers could skip the whole Ellis Island scene and were left off first in New York.
It may surprise you to learn that your ancestor actually didn't make just one trip, but several back and forth before having taken care of all their business in the old country, such as selling property, settling old mom - too old to immigrate - with relatives.
It may also surprise you to learn that there were other, busy ports, including Canadian ports, or that your ancestor may have taken a trip to Argentina first, checked it out, and then decided to come to the United States. Your ancestor may have also come on a ship that wasn't one of the big-line steamships. There were people coming in as crew. There were still sail ships operating coming into smaller and unofficial ports. You may have checked all the available databases out, straining through near unreadable handwriting, missing manifests, and so on; all you know is that they are suddenly on a census.
If you find their naturalization papers, you will probably learn that they declare the date they arrived and the name of the ship. For some, obtaining evidence of this voyage, if they didn't still have a ticket /paperwork still on them, was a step towards naturalization. Even if those ship manifests or passenger lists no longer exist they will name the date and ship and often place.
During the pre-aviation era, ships were the way to go. The romance of immigrants coming in by ship sort of negates what else was going on. Such as people who were traveling back and forth to Europe on business, such as spending sprees for fashionable clothing, banking and investments, and visiting relatives or taking long vacations for pleasure. People walking across borders. People who skipped Ellis and questions about disease and mental health. If an immigrant wanted to bring a sibling along who probably wouldn't pass through Ellis, say because they were "slow," they might suggest the person was a shy twelve year old rather than a budding fifteen.
What reminded me of all this was a relations question about our great-grandmother. By using oral history about the age of the first child, said to be in her mother's arms when they arrived to meet up with our great-grandfather, I had not found her on my first efforts with microfilms of ships coming into New York. I assumed New York. The assumption turned out to be right. But I calculated after finding the first child's birth date on the Social Security Death Index to another date. This time the first microfilm I rolled had them there. Previously I had found great-grandfather's immigration. Yes he was there before she was. My relations questioned the parentage of this first child. Without knowing if she was possibly born premature or late, and based on her strong resemblance to him, I had not doubt she was the child of our great-grandparents. Yet, this made me go back into the ship manifests to check out other men with the same name.
As it turned out I was able to verify that indeed great-grandfather had made two trips. On one ship manifest it says WHERE DID YOU LEAVE? Since this village was near the larger town that both referred to as having come from, well.... on the first trip it says WHERE WERE YOU BORN? In this case the man with the same name gives a different answer. He refers to a larger region that contains the village that he left, and this lead me to realize that he was probably not BORN exactly where he left. This actually has opened up the place I can look for records of his birth and possibly their marriage.
In any case, though two trips makes sense, I won't consider this proofed until I can prove that two men of the same age, name, and region, did not exist at the same time.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
It may surprise you to learn that your ancestor actually didn't make just one trip, but several back and forth before having taken care of all their business in the old country, such as selling property, settling old mom - too old to immigrate - with relatives.
It may also surprise you to learn that there were other, busy ports, including Canadian ports, or that your ancestor may have taken a trip to Argentina first, checked it out, and then decided to come to the United States. Your ancestor may have also come on a ship that wasn't one of the big-line steamships. There were people coming in as crew. There were still sail ships operating coming into smaller and unofficial ports. You may have checked all the available databases out, straining through near unreadable handwriting, missing manifests, and so on; all you know is that they are suddenly on a census.
If you find their naturalization papers, you will probably learn that they declare the date they arrived and the name of the ship. For some, obtaining evidence of this voyage, if they didn't still have a ticket /paperwork still on them, was a step towards naturalization. Even if those ship manifests or passenger lists no longer exist they will name the date and ship and often place.
During the pre-aviation era, ships were the way to go. The romance of immigrants coming in by ship sort of negates what else was going on. Such as people who were traveling back and forth to Europe on business, such as spending sprees for fashionable clothing, banking and investments, and visiting relatives or taking long vacations for pleasure. People walking across borders. People who skipped Ellis and questions about disease and mental health. If an immigrant wanted to bring a sibling along who probably wouldn't pass through Ellis, say because they were "slow," they might suggest the person was a shy twelve year old rather than a budding fifteen.
What reminded me of all this was a relations question about our great-grandmother. By using oral history about the age of the first child, said to be in her mother's arms when they arrived to meet up with our great-grandfather, I had not found her on my first efforts with microfilms of ships coming into New York. I assumed New York. The assumption turned out to be right. But I calculated after finding the first child's birth date on the Social Security Death Index to another date. This time the first microfilm I rolled had them there. Previously I had found great-grandfather's immigration. Yes he was there before she was. My relations questioned the parentage of this first child. Without knowing if she was possibly born premature or late, and based on her strong resemblance to him, I had not doubt she was the child of our great-grandparents. Yet, this made me go back into the ship manifests to check out other men with the same name.
As it turned out I was able to verify that indeed great-grandfather had made two trips. On one ship manifest it says WHERE DID YOU LEAVE? Since this village was near the larger town that both referred to as having come from, well.... on the first trip it says WHERE WERE YOU BORN? In this case the man with the same name gives a different answer. He refers to a larger region that contains the village that he left, and this lead me to realize that he was probably not BORN exactly where he left. This actually has opened up the place I can look for records of his birth and possibly their marriage.
In any case, though two trips makes sense, I won't consider this proofed until I can prove that two men of the same age, name, and region, did not exist at the same time.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
18 August 2018
JEFFERSON DAVIS - AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT : DVD FILM REVIEW
JEFFERSON DAVIS - AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT The Life Story of the First and Only President of the Confederacy a Kultur DVD
ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW:
This 3 DVD set was so enlightening! I promise I will watch the film in its entirety one more time! I realized just how ignorant I was of the Confederacy. In this portrait of the man, I learned that until the Civil War Davis first and foremost considered himself an AMERICAN. He was an Army officer, a congressman, the Secretary of War, and a two term Mississippi senator, and one of the greats who found the Smithsonian Institute, and "largely responsible" for the current design on the U.S. Capitol. As things turned out Davis was on the wrong side of the Civil War and lead years of life afterwards in which he struggled to support his family or again live to his potential. Jefferson Davis also had a profoundly tragic personal life, like his old colleague Abraham Lincoln. His life spanned that of the 19th century.
_____
Personally, I dislike that various confederacy statues and historical displays are being taken down. Just because the South lost? Or because there is an assumption that the South, and all who were on that side, were all about racism - rather than economics. I realize this is not a politically correct opinion, but I think that if this continues, all the California Missions will be taken down too. Off the go to "graveyards," but some day they will be refound and unveiled; this has happened in other countries.
Leave them up and learn history! A tour guide can always make such things part of a discussion. For instance one tour of a California Mission I took was guided by a fake Franciscan Friar in his brown garb with the rope belt and sandals whose personal opinion was against the Catholic Church. Believe it or not. Yet I've met a couple Native American ancestry people who think that they are better off because they became Catholics - this is Arizona.
GENEALOGY DOCUMENTS sometimes prove that things taught in classrooms are not true. For instance, I was taught Mexicans and Native Americans were always friends.
Some Americans believe all Native Americans were peaceful and unified when it fact some of them warred with each other. Some Native Americans owned slaves, some married them, and I've seen that on census records. The Civil War issues split up some families.
So I like to say that history is "niche specific."
ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW:
This 3 DVD set was so enlightening! I promise I will watch the film in its entirety one more time! I realized just how ignorant I was of the Confederacy. In this portrait of the man, I learned that until the Civil War Davis first and foremost considered himself an AMERICAN. He was an Army officer, a congressman, the Secretary of War, and a two term Mississippi senator, and one of the greats who found the Smithsonian Institute, and "largely responsible" for the current design on the U.S. Capitol. As things turned out Davis was on the wrong side of the Civil War and lead years of life afterwards in which he struggled to support his family or again live to his potential. Jefferson Davis also had a profoundly tragic personal life, like his old colleague Abraham Lincoln. His life spanned that of the 19th century.
_____
Personally, I dislike that various confederacy statues and historical displays are being taken down. Just because the South lost? Or because there is an assumption that the South, and all who were on that side, were all about racism - rather than economics. I realize this is not a politically correct opinion, but I think that if this continues, all the California Missions will be taken down too. Off the go to "graveyards," but some day they will be refound and unveiled; this has happened in other countries.
Leave them up and learn history! A tour guide can always make such things part of a discussion. For instance one tour of a California Mission I took was guided by a fake Franciscan Friar in his brown garb with the rope belt and sandals whose personal opinion was against the Catholic Church. Believe it or not. Yet I've met a couple Native American ancestry people who think that they are better off because they became Catholics - this is Arizona.
GENEALOGY DOCUMENTS sometimes prove that things taught in classrooms are not true. For instance, I was taught Mexicans and Native Americans were always friends.
Some Americans believe all Native Americans were peaceful and unified when it fact some of them warred with each other. Some Native Americans owned slaves, some married them, and I've seen that on census records. The Civil War issues split up some families.
So I like to say that history is "niche specific."
C 2018 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot
15 August 2018
14 July 2018
FIVE SISTERS ALL HAVE A DIFFERENT MAIDEN NAME FOR MOM : GENEALOGY RESEARCH QUESTION
QUESTION FOR ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY
My mom, who was born in the 1930's, died a few years ago. I started doing the genealogy for her family. My four sisters and I got together and we all have remembered a different maiden name for mom. Three of the names begin with a the same letter.
I took a DNA test - maternal - and mom said she was Italian - but no Italian showed up on the test. Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak areas did.
Your advice, Please!
ANSWER
The situation isn't as uncommon as you may think. I suggest you proceed with standard research methods and see what comes up. Mom may not have known her own ancestry, she may have been adopted - and not been told, she could have been lied to or her own mother might have been. Or she could have been born with one name and her own mother might have remarried and her new husband adopted her.
1) Get a copy of her death certificate and/or burial and see what maiden name is mentioned.
2) Get a copy of her birth certificate and see what maiden name is listed.
3) Send away for her original application for Social Security which she probably applied for in the 1950's for her first job.
If the maiden name is consistent on these three, or appears with a slight variation, it's probably correct.
Consider the following: That the maiden name was pronounced in another language but could have been assumed to be spelled a certain way by the person who was writing it down. That a formal or informal surname change may have occurred. Run an Internet check on the surname and see if it comes up as clearly Italian or Ukrainian or what ethnicity it suggests. See if you can find one of those on-line translators that also has a voice that pronounces the word and think about how you'd spell that. Find the meaning of the name. Consider that the name might mean the same thing - or similar - but in different languages. Or changed to reflect a pronunciation that is "easier."
I've encountered the following: An S added to the ending of the name. A common name in Hungarian turned into the same meaning in English ie. Szabo is Tailor. The suffix of a name, such as ski, szke, son, dottar, removed from the name to make it shorter. Siblings with different surnames due to being half siblings - which they knew but descendants did not. Silent first letters of names eliminated in pronunciation. Surnames that are changed to eliminate confusion of multiple consonants.
4) Since she was born in the 1930's let's get her on the 1940 census and see if we can follow her parents or siblings back to the 1930's, 1920's, as far back as we can go. If the confusion continues, well, try to find her parent's marriage certificate. Did they marry in the Old Country or here? In the Old Country, their marriage may be in a church record rather than a civil registration.
Finally DNA is proving how nomadic or mobile humans have been and how much ethnicity and race are mixed. Quite possibly your mother's ancestors simply moved from a Central-Eastern European country to Italy and considered themselves culturally Italian.
I can't wait to hear what you learned!
Ancestry Worship Genealogy
My mom, who was born in the 1930's, died a few years ago. I started doing the genealogy for her family. My four sisters and I got together and we all have remembered a different maiden name for mom. Three of the names begin with a the same letter.
I took a DNA test - maternal - and mom said she was Italian - but no Italian showed up on the test. Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak areas did.
Your advice, Please!
ANSWER
The situation isn't as uncommon as you may think. I suggest you proceed with standard research methods and see what comes up. Mom may not have known her own ancestry, she may have been adopted - and not been told, she could have been lied to or her own mother might have been. Or she could have been born with one name and her own mother might have remarried and her new husband adopted her.
1) Get a copy of her death certificate and/or burial and see what maiden name is mentioned.
2) Get a copy of her birth certificate and see what maiden name is listed.
3) Send away for her original application for Social Security which she probably applied for in the 1950's for her first job.
If the maiden name is consistent on these three, or appears with a slight variation, it's probably correct.
Consider the following: That the maiden name was pronounced in another language but could have been assumed to be spelled a certain way by the person who was writing it down. That a formal or informal surname change may have occurred. Run an Internet check on the surname and see if it comes up as clearly Italian or Ukrainian or what ethnicity it suggests. See if you can find one of those on-line translators that also has a voice that pronounces the word and think about how you'd spell that. Find the meaning of the name. Consider that the name might mean the same thing - or similar - but in different languages. Or changed to reflect a pronunciation that is "easier."
I've encountered the following: An S added to the ending of the name. A common name in Hungarian turned into the same meaning in English ie. Szabo is Tailor. The suffix of a name, such as ski, szke, son, dottar, removed from the name to make it shorter. Siblings with different surnames due to being half siblings - which they knew but descendants did not. Silent first letters of names eliminated in pronunciation. Surnames that are changed to eliminate confusion of multiple consonants.
4) Since she was born in the 1930's let's get her on the 1940 census and see if we can follow her parents or siblings back to the 1930's, 1920's, as far back as we can go. If the confusion continues, well, try to find her parent's marriage certificate. Did they marry in the Old Country or here? In the Old Country, their marriage may be in a church record rather than a civil registration.
Finally DNA is proving how nomadic or mobile humans have been and how much ethnicity and race are mixed. Quite possibly your mother's ancestors simply moved from a Central-Eastern European country to Italy and considered themselves culturally Italian.
I can't wait to hear what you learned!
Ancestry Worship Genealogy
07 July 2018
WHEN DID COUSINS STOP MARRYING IN YOUR FAMILY?
NEWSCIENTIST : STUDY ON COUSIN MARRIAGE
EXCERPT: Joanna Kaplanis at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, and her colleagues, collected 86 million publicly-available profiles from Geni.com. Users on this crowd sourcing website create family trees, which are then merged with others when matches occur.
*****
Basically, in the 19th century people started living further away from each other but cousin marriage persisted for about another 50 years.
Another article based on this same study by another publication, which I'm not linking to due to the ads, said that the tree goes back 11 generations, the participants (willing?) were 85% North American or European, and BEFORE 1750 the spouse was found within 6 miles. (So read those census records around town!) After 1950 the geographically desirable were within 60 miles. (Makes sense to me. You are now willing to drive an hour each way to date!) Before 1850 it was socially acceptable and common. 1800 to 1850 people traveled further but it was still OK. After that it became less acceptable to marry your cousin. But you'll have to read the study to know if they mean first cousin or fourth!
04 July 2018
20 June 2018
16 June 2018
FAKE GENEALOGY IS ALL TOO COMMON
Recently I was reminded that fake genealogy is all too common.
In a few books about the Bouvier sisters - Jacqueline - who was to become Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and her sister Lee - who was to marry a few times but is best known as Lee Radizwill, it is reported that Jackie's own father presented a mythological genealogy to the daughters that both believed, elevating a French immigrant cabinetmaker - a very good one by the way - into nobility. Then Lee herself falsely claimed to have the Lee family of early Virginia as ancestors. Apparently she even had a big genealogy on a wall that she could point to. As I read it, apparently Lee was so good at reporting the historical accuracies of this family, though her connection to them was not, that she was still accepted as a kind of honorary member of the family.
Ah well, what reminded me was that someone I'm related to by marriage, told me not to bother doing the genealogy for her family as cousin So and So had already done it, all the way to "Queen Antoinette." She meant Marie Antoinette, a German brought to France, who had four children, none who lived long enough to reproduce, meaning that Marie Antoinette left no direct descendants. Could this "Italian" family actually have German and French nobility in it's chart?
I don't normally do someone's genealogy who doesn't want it done, but because the children of this marriage are related to me, I put a little time into following the surnames of their grandparents, and discovered that very likely they started out as Sephardic Jews who left Portugal, went to Salonica, Greece, and then to Calabrese Italy. Could Marie Antoinette be covering up all that?
Though there are those who fabricate illustrious connections because they are snobs, there is probably more fake genealogy out there due to ignorance on how to conduct genealogical research. I once met a woman, a member of a Santa Barbara, California genealogy club who told me that she traced the wrong family for a decade out of ignorance. She had made a leap very early on, not documenting properly, and so it went.
So there are three things I want to express to my readers here.
First, if you are new to genealogy and a do-it-yourselfer, it's a good idea to document every way you can, and remain skeptical of what the family oral history is until you find those documents.
Secondly, if you have been away from your genealogy for some time, go over everything once again, making the connections where they are, questioning yourself.
For instance, I had great difficulty finding an oath of allegiance to the U.S. in New Jersey for an immigrant because the New Jersey swearing in did not require a lot of information, the surname was common, the witnesses must have been friends, not family members who already had their citizenship, and the place of birth was within the county left behind but not the same as what it said on the ship documents. Through a process of elimination I was able to be about 95% certain that the swearing in I found was correct. However, there is no mention of all the other family members who also got their citizenship that day along with "dad," and I suspected one of the children got his in another state, because he immigrated separately and lived separately. I have looked through records from multiple counties and states and records held at the National Archives and cannot find any evidence for this person being naturalized, and so I assume - but am skeptical - that he was included in on his dad's.
It does not matter though in terms of proofing his lineage.
The problem is finding that dad's lineage in another country where again I have search numerous church records and for which nothing is coming up. I'm doing everything right. The information simply may not have been preserved. The problem? He was born during an uprising.
Third, it's a good idea to have a professional go over all your research looking for information that can proof. If you can't afford the pro, team up with someone else you trust and go over each other's work.
A person who worked to help people into the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution once told me that some members had been asked to leave because information that had been provided long ago was now considered questionable. You don't want that to happen to you.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blogspot
In a few books about the Bouvier sisters - Jacqueline - who was to become Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and her sister Lee - who was to marry a few times but is best known as Lee Radizwill, it is reported that Jackie's own father presented a mythological genealogy to the daughters that both believed, elevating a French immigrant cabinetmaker - a very good one by the way - into nobility. Then Lee herself falsely claimed to have the Lee family of early Virginia as ancestors. Apparently she even had a big genealogy on a wall that she could point to. As I read it, apparently Lee was so good at reporting the historical accuracies of this family, though her connection to them was not, that she was still accepted as a kind of honorary member of the family.
Ah well, what reminded me was that someone I'm related to by marriage, told me not to bother doing the genealogy for her family as cousin So and So had already done it, all the way to "Queen Antoinette." She meant Marie Antoinette, a German brought to France, who had four children, none who lived long enough to reproduce, meaning that Marie Antoinette left no direct descendants. Could this "Italian" family actually have German and French nobility in it's chart?
I don't normally do someone's genealogy who doesn't want it done, but because the children of this marriage are related to me, I put a little time into following the surnames of their grandparents, and discovered that very likely they started out as Sephardic Jews who left Portugal, went to Salonica, Greece, and then to Calabrese Italy. Could Marie Antoinette be covering up all that?
Though there are those who fabricate illustrious connections because they are snobs, there is probably more fake genealogy out there due to ignorance on how to conduct genealogical research. I once met a woman, a member of a Santa Barbara, California genealogy club who told me that she traced the wrong family for a decade out of ignorance. She had made a leap very early on, not documenting properly, and so it went.
So there are three things I want to express to my readers here.
First, if you are new to genealogy and a do-it-yourselfer, it's a good idea to document every way you can, and remain skeptical of what the family oral history is until you find those documents.
Secondly, if you have been away from your genealogy for some time, go over everything once again, making the connections where they are, questioning yourself.
For instance, I had great difficulty finding an oath of allegiance to the U.S. in New Jersey for an immigrant because the New Jersey swearing in did not require a lot of information, the surname was common, the witnesses must have been friends, not family members who already had their citizenship, and the place of birth was within the county left behind but not the same as what it said on the ship documents. Through a process of elimination I was able to be about 95% certain that the swearing in I found was correct. However, there is no mention of all the other family members who also got their citizenship that day along with "dad," and I suspected one of the children got his in another state, because he immigrated separately and lived separately. I have looked through records from multiple counties and states and records held at the National Archives and cannot find any evidence for this person being naturalized, and so I assume - but am skeptical - that he was included in on his dad's.
It does not matter though in terms of proofing his lineage.
The problem is finding that dad's lineage in another country where again I have search numerous church records and for which nothing is coming up. I'm doing everything right. The information simply may not have been preserved. The problem? He was born during an uprising.
Third, it's a good idea to have a professional go over all your research looking for information that can proof. If you can't afford the pro, team up with someone else you trust and go over each other's work.
A person who worked to help people into the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution once told me that some members had been asked to leave because information that had been provided long ago was now considered questionable. You don't want that to happen to you.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blogspot
03 June 2018
18 May 2018
THE ROYAL WEDDING and COATS OF ARMS
I'm getting up in the wee hours to watch the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and his American bride Meghan Markle. Reading around the subject of this wedding, here are some things you might find interesting.
1) It was required that Meghan, raised Catholic, convert to the Church of England and she did.
2) Her title, unless the Queen grants her and Harry other titles, will be Princess Henry i.e. this does not acknowledge her as a Princess but entitled because of her marriage.
3) Very likely, as she did when she created Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the titles Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen will create Duke and Duchess title for Harry and Meghan Markle.
4) Like other things surrounding the Royal Wedding that people bet on, there is betting on which title the Queen will grant them. The decision is the Queen's but she is likely to consider the reputations of the last title holders and how long the title has been unused.
Right now it would seem that the Sussex title is a favorite.
5) So there are only so many titles that can be granted. Some sort of go into a long hibernation.
6) When Catherine Middleton became engaged to Prince William, one of the things her family had to collaborate on with the official coat of arms/shields people was a new one to represent the Middletons, specifically prior to the wedding, although they are commoners and the family does not have titles or have their rank raised. As I understand it Michael Middleton, Catherine's father was especially helpful. This coat of arms shows three acorns to indicate his three children.
7) Likewise, even if her father's heath was too poor for him to make an international flight to escort his daughter down the isle, the Markle's will likely also design a coat of arms to represent Meghan, though she will remain a commoner as will her family.
I did once spend time in England and did the quick tour of the Windsor Castle's grounds and around the small town it sits in. It was an unexpected vacation that I took and I always said that I would like to go there again for a longer period and less formal touring.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy
1) It was required that Meghan, raised Catholic, convert to the Church of England and she did.
2) Her title, unless the Queen grants her and Harry other titles, will be Princess Henry i.e. this does not acknowledge her as a Princess but entitled because of her marriage.
3) Very likely, as she did when she created Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the titles Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen will create Duke and Duchess title for Harry and Meghan Markle.
4) Like other things surrounding the Royal Wedding that people bet on, there is betting on which title the Queen will grant them. The decision is the Queen's but she is likely to consider the reputations of the last title holders and how long the title has been unused.
Right now it would seem that the Sussex title is a favorite.
5) So there are only so many titles that can be granted. Some sort of go into a long hibernation.
6) When Catherine Middleton became engaged to Prince William, one of the things her family had to collaborate on with the official coat of arms/shields people was a new one to represent the Middletons, specifically prior to the wedding, although they are commoners and the family does not have titles or have their rank raised. As I understand it Michael Middleton, Catherine's father was especially helpful. This coat of arms shows three acorns to indicate his three children.
7) Likewise, even if her father's heath was too poor for him to make an international flight to escort his daughter down the isle, the Markle's will likely also design a coat of arms to represent Meghan, though she will remain a commoner as will her family.
I did once spend time in England and did the quick tour of the Windsor Castle's grounds and around the small town it sits in. It was an unexpected vacation that I took and I always said that I would like to go there again for a longer period and less formal touring.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy
16 May 2018
STOLEN GENEALOGIES - THEFTS THWART INHERITANCES
These days there are so many opportunities for people to play at genealogy and share information (proven or not) that the answer to the question of what information is stolen is rather fuzzy. But in this post I consider genealogies that were actually physically stolen!
It just so happens that over the last couple months I've run into two couples who are upset because the genealogy of their family was stolen along with other items from their garages! OK, a typical garage is NOT the place to keep a family genealogy. I believe that it should remain in a house that isn't damp or filled with insects or rodents or the gas fumes and if you inherit some old paperwork, it deserves to be copied. Consider taking it to a place that does big blueprint copies for architects and designers. Then put it into a mailing tube and seal that up. Consider putting copies into the archive of a library or to be held in another family member's dehumidified attic. Do something to preserve it! (And remember to go over it and proof everything yourself, just in case someone in your family was too eager to tie you into royalty or casino rights!)
In the cases I recently heard of though, INHERITANCES were being tied up because someone died without a will or or had a will but did not have the names and addresses of those family who were to inherit. One of these cases takes place in the United States and the other in England.
To begin with the English case, the American family contracted with some company over there YEARS ago to track down those due to inherit. I'm sorry to say I believe that this company did nothing or is claiming to be doing something but hasn't or this couple have been uniformed because they were cut out. I suggested they get with the company and find out what is going on. If you are in the United States and in this situation, and there is a nice sum of money you need possibly waiting for you to claim, be aware that you do not need to hire some person or company in England to do the work. Granted it's possible that a judge in a court there might find a local company rather than a distant one more believable but not necessarily. First of all records for England are usually quite good, it's a small country, and a professional there should know the resources and how to get to them quickly. After all, the person who died only died five years ago. So I think, just to show that you are not passively waiting or entirely ignorant, you should hire a genealogist who can contact those resources long distance. (There is always e-mail.)
As for the American family, the person died just a couple years ago with a hand-written will, referring to certain members of the family who he had no contact with for many years, and the effort is a little closer to hiring a private investigator than a genealogist. Let's just say that I've done PI type work but using genealogy methods as well as genealogy ethics and standards - no schemes, no tricks, no lies (not that all PI's operate this way but some surely do!) The genealogist verifies the relationship to the person who has died, such as sibling, half sibling, step sibling, third cousin, Great Aunt, and can often locate these deserving people though typical public databases.
I believe that good old snail mail is the best method for introducing yourself and requesting additional information to be submitted to courts, such as official ID's. Because there is so much identity theft, some people usually do need assurances that the genealogist is working for the benefit of a court or legal representative.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy All Rights Reserved.
It just so happens that over the last couple months I've run into two couples who are upset because the genealogy of their family was stolen along with other items from their garages! OK, a typical garage is NOT the place to keep a family genealogy. I believe that it should remain in a house that isn't damp or filled with insects or rodents or the gas fumes and if you inherit some old paperwork, it deserves to be copied. Consider taking it to a place that does big blueprint copies for architects and designers. Then put it into a mailing tube and seal that up. Consider putting copies into the archive of a library or to be held in another family member's dehumidified attic. Do something to preserve it! (And remember to go over it and proof everything yourself, just in case someone in your family was too eager to tie you into royalty or casino rights!)
In the cases I recently heard of though, INHERITANCES were being tied up because someone died without a will or or had a will but did not have the names and addresses of those family who were to inherit. One of these cases takes place in the United States and the other in England.
To begin with the English case, the American family contracted with some company over there YEARS ago to track down those due to inherit. I'm sorry to say I believe that this company did nothing or is claiming to be doing something but hasn't or this couple have been uniformed because they were cut out. I suggested they get with the company and find out what is going on. If you are in the United States and in this situation, and there is a nice sum of money you need possibly waiting for you to claim, be aware that you do not need to hire some person or company in England to do the work. Granted it's possible that a judge in a court there might find a local company rather than a distant one more believable but not necessarily. First of all records for England are usually quite good, it's a small country, and a professional there should know the resources and how to get to them quickly. After all, the person who died only died five years ago. So I think, just to show that you are not passively waiting or entirely ignorant, you should hire a genealogist who can contact those resources long distance. (There is always e-mail.)
As for the American family, the person died just a couple years ago with a hand-written will, referring to certain members of the family who he had no contact with for many years, and the effort is a little closer to hiring a private investigator than a genealogist. Let's just say that I've done PI type work but using genealogy methods as well as genealogy ethics and standards - no schemes, no tricks, no lies (not that all PI's operate this way but some surely do!) The genealogist verifies the relationship to the person who has died, such as sibling, half sibling, step sibling, third cousin, Great Aunt, and can often locate these deserving people though typical public databases.
I believe that good old snail mail is the best method for introducing yourself and requesting additional information to be submitted to courts, such as official ID's. Because there is so much identity theft, some people usually do need assurances that the genealogist is working for the benefit of a court or legal representative.
C 2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy All Rights Reserved.
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