CHEROKEES and THE CIVIL WAR : FULL BLOODED PRIDE MEANT TO BE OPPOSED TO WHITE SOCIETY : CHEROKEE AFFILIATE WITH CONFEDERACY : TRIBAL MEMBERSHIP CHANGES : TREATY OF 1866

Previously, the Cherokee, Creek, and Osage Nations who had suffered removal (Trail of Tears) from their territories and were now forced to live together  and signed a compact which was intended to establish unity - peaceful relationships and secure the general welfare. It was signed on November 2, 1843. The idea was to protect themselves from the United States.

Excerpt page 80 -

"Notably, Article I, Section 9, provided that "any citizen of one Nation may be admitted to citizenship in any other Nation, party hereto, by consent of the proper authorities of such Nation."

Excerpt page 81 -

"Throughout the 1840's and 1850's, as Cherokees settled into their new territory, the Nation found itself changing demographically... to be "full blooded" meant something more than racial pride; "it indicated a distinct social, political, and economic attitude" opposed to the impositions and relishes of white civilization. Traditionalists generally did not own slaves and largely disliked the practice... The tension (between Cherokee slave owners who were usually partly Caucasian and these Traditionalists) came to a boil by the time the Confederates asked the Cherokee Nation to join the Southern cause..."

The social divisions between Cherokee meant that there were different attitudes about joining up to fight in the Civil War, and because the Cherokee overall were cooperative, pressure was put up on them to do so, for the Confederacy, as the South was their original territory. Abolitionist Christian missionaries were also speaking out in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama - wherever they had churches.

Excerpt page 83 - 

"In May 1861, "Confederate forces annexed the Indian Territory as a military district" and by October of that year, Albert Pike, Confederate liaison to Indian Territory, had convinced each of the Five Tribes (ie. The Five Civilized tribes - Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations) to join the Confederacy.

The Treaty of 1866 came after the participation in the Civil War proved to damage the Cherokee Nation significantly.  As Union troops came through, many defected to the Union side, but the conflict included political divisions within the tribe as well as the consequences of violence.

This Treaty redefined membership and there were significant changes in who could become a member of the tribe - or remain a member, and it emphasized blood. This means that increasingly blood quotients were aligned with political viewpoints.

Excerpt page 83 - 84

... "The new Treaty defined citizenship of the Cherokee Nation as belonging to all native-born Cherokees, all Indians and whites legally adopted by members, all freedmen liberated by acts of their masters, and all free Black persons residing therein."

It's stated by the author, Aaron Kushner, that this Treaty has had ramifications to this day on who is or is not a member of the tribe.

If you are tracing your Native American heritage, please check the changes in such rules or laws as you go back documenting your ancestors, and by tribe. In the case of Cherokee, or perhaps the other nations who potentially agreed to unification in 18 43, who was where in 1866? (Check all Federal and State census...) The Treaty also put into place a time limit or line for those who fit these definitions within 6 months of the Treaty. Because both removal from native lands to new territories and the Civil War, people were displaced, fighting, or traveling, hiding, or had other reasons why they might not have been able to declare themselves or be recognized within those 6 months. 

In the genealogy I mentioned researching in my first post of this series, I found that my client had reason to think that at least some of his relatives (if not his direct line) married into Native American tribes. He also might have had melungeon relatives. Though in the South, he stated that his family had never had slaves and did not believe in slavery. The families he was closely related to did not show up on slave schedules as slave owners.  However a potential branch of the family in the deep south did own slaves. I found that one side of his family did fight for the Union, signing up in other states,  but also that there were Confederate highway robbers among his relatives. Relatives on both sides had married Native Americans. At least one unrelated Native American in their agricultural community - a neighbor so to speak - had owned a good number of slaves. Presently this client likely has relatives who are members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee whose DNA test would show them to have Scottish - Anglo - possibly French Huguenot ancestors. These Cherokee in general were not marched as they remained in North Carolina, in the mountains, married with Europeans.

If you are seeking tribal membership, whatever the tribe, it is my strong suggestion that you continue documenting from the present to the past. Document entire families with birth, marriage, and death records, not just direct ancestry, find anything you can, because you may have success that way showing the lineage going back past the Treaty of 1866.

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CHEROKEE : 64 TOWNS : WARLIKE OR PEACEFUL? : SLAVERY BEFORE EUROPEANS ARRIVED : CHEROKEE ADOPTED BUT ALSO SOLD CAPTURED SLAVES : WAS IT RACISM?

Excerpt page 29 -

"By 1700, "the Cherokee Nation" consisted of sixty-four towns," loosely categorized as upper, middle, and lower, towns, depending on their geographical locations.  These towns, or villages, were politically autonomous.  Edmond Atkin, member of the South Carolina Governor's Council and Indian trader, reported on the status of Cherokee towns in 1755, noting particularly the difference between the upper towns and the lower towns. "The upper and lower Cherokees," Atkin wrote, "differ from each other, as much almost as two different nations."  The upper Cherokees were "much more warlike," yet were better protected by the mountains than their southern neighbors, the lower Cherokees, "whose Towns being the most and nearest (are much exposed), are glad to accept the Mediation of the South Carolina Government,: due to their more precarious position..."

The governments were identified by if they were "white" (peace loving) or "red" (war loving). However the Native councils themselves were not as dictatorial as state governments, allowed men and women to speak, even if what they had to say might be unpopular. Consensus, harmony and justice, was the goal. In the cases of murder or incest the council would prevail but punishment for lesser offences were often dealt with by public shaming. 

Excerpt: page 39 - 40

"Slavery existed in parts of North American long before European settlers arrived. Though slaves were traditionally taken as prisoners of war, according to historian Rudi Halliburton Jr., there appeared to have been a commercial traffic in some places as well. From the time of their earliest contact with Europeans, Cherokees had engaged in a practice of "quasi-slavery" and forced adoption among their Indian captives - a practice later used in the treatment of Caucasian and African prisoners as well... ...chattel Slavery as an institution did not exist prior to  European settlement.  Once introduced by English traders, Cherokees were quick to accept the European brand of slave holding as one of the benefits of white civilization. English traders in the seventeenth century began to establish themselves among the Cherokees through marriage and the spread of material wealth...  

Many Cherokees also took to institutionalized Slavery because of the benefits they received from stealing or returning runaway slaves.  English and French colonialists frequently urged Cherokees to sell them slaves stolen from the plantations or villages of their European adversaries. .... The return or barter of runaway slaves became so common that Cherokees were often known colloquially as 'slave catchers." .... "

But was it racism?  According to author Aaron Kushner, not exactly. The Cherokee were more focused on the otherness of both Caucasians and Africans and considered them both inferior... at least early on. Eventually, the tribe tackled with notions that would not see Freedman or  people of African descent as worthy of the same tribal membership status...

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TRACES : CLASSICS IV

 

Dennis Yost was the singer on this 1969 classic.

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.

WHAT'S IN A NAME CHANGE - WHAT MADES ME MAD - PART THREE

Use the Google Blogger search feature to bring up other posts on name changes, surnames, and part one and two of this tome!)


Besides ethnic pride and the discovery of roots, another reason for name changes, both given and surname, that I've encountered is numerology.  In part one of this post on NAME CHANGES, I mentioned that it seems acceptable to change your name completely to have success in Hollywood.  Well, believe it or not, some of those changes included the possibility that changing one's "numbers" would be good luck.  Numerology is the study of how letters add up as numbers.


I've known people who take numerology seriously when naming their babies, naming a business, or renaming themselves, because they want a happier life.  Imagine if you will growing up with a name that has felt truly impossible.  You're wondering what your parents were thinking when they gave you that name.  If you're really going to start over with a whole new name, why not take everything into consideration, even if it turns out there's nothing to it?


I've known artists and writers who have a career or "brand" name different from what's on their driver's license, and sometimes it's just so they can hide their other self and way of making money from a boss!  (More difficult these days than ever to do.)


To me being able to make enough money and get past being in survival and subsistence and moving forward in your life is a great reason to change your name, and it doesn't imply that you're greedy, materialistic, or a jerk.


There's only one reason a name change is bad and wrong and that's when the intention is to hide criminal activity.


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WAYS AROUND THE MARRIAGE LICENSE and RECORD

You may have used a database that has an index or text version extracted from the original records that were originally on printed forms but handwritten. Depending on the database you've used, you may be satisfied with what comes up.  But I advise "go further."  Go to the actual document and if it's not available on that database send away for photocopies of the original from the county or state or city where those documents are held.

I recently looked at an original and there in neat but tiny handwriting were the words "real name Polasky" under the bridges name information.  This bit of information proofed an oral history as well as confirmed that a possible reason that the bride's family wasn't coming up on census records and so on was that, though it was a first marriage and she was just 21, there had been a name change in the family quite soon after immigration; these immigrants Germanized their surname. 

This means to me that:
1) They could have done so because they thought or knew that it would mean work.
2) Quite likely they also spoke some German, as well as their native Polish.
3) That could mean they were from the part of Poland that was once the Austrian Empire since people went to school for free but learned in German.
4) Perhaps someday I will go back a generation or two and find some of their ancestors in Poland were German and had German surnames.  Or that they left Poland but more recently lived in Germany.

Because the bride stated it was her first marriage, I knew that this name change was not a result of marriage.

But from the license and the civil paperwork submitted by the person who performed the marriage, it was not clear if that person was a priest, justice of the peace, circuit judge, preacher, or some other person officially able to conduct marriages.  The family was also not sure, because the groom married a second time quickly after this first wife, I'll call her the Polasky bride, died, if these were religious marriages.  Rumors flew that the Polasky bride was Jewish. The next step was to run the addresses of the bride, groom, and the officiate, as well as to check what day of the week they filed for licenses and the day of the week they married.  Did they have a church wedding?

And what did he mean "real name?"  Most likely, the family did change their name, but they might not have gone through a legal process.  At the time many people did not.

I was able, because historical information came up on the Internet, to verify that in both cases, the marriages were performed within a week of the license and during the middle of the week.  This means there was no long engagement and it's less likely I'll find any announcements of engagements, marriages, or honeymoons in newspapers.  They decided and they went ahead and were married.  In one case, the certificate was signed by a priest who did not mention he was a priest, and in another it simply says "clergy." Though I suspect that there wasn't a special wedding Mass said for them, and that these weddings were a bit closer to a simple ceremony, in each case though, the marriages were performed in Catholic Churches, the first a Polish parish, and the second a Hungarian parish.  I learned where the records are kept for each.  One of the parishes is still functioning a hundred years or so after being founded, and there is a cemetery attached. 

The Polasky bride's death certificate gives both names she used.  I called the cemetery and they don't know where she is buried.  There is no headstone, if there ever was one.

Then I ran the names through FamilySearch were someone has submitted for some branch of the family.  The name of the Polasky bride's parents are not the same as the one submitted, nor are they in the same state.  But the submitter shows that there was a name change - and it matches the family I was searching for.

What this means right now is that I feel certain that the family in the other state is that of her uncle and his children.  His birthdate makes him old enough to be her father, and I would guess that her father is an older or younger brother.

However, unless I eventually find her and her parents that match her wedding license, and I suspect I will with their names horribly written and further transcribed distant from the actual surname. There are some other speculations I must deal with:

That her birth father was in the United States for a while, but went back to Poland, leaving her, and possibly some siblings as adults to support themselves.  Also a possibility is that I have found her father but he has remarried, and was married three times, her mother being a brief second marriage.  Possibly her mother died.  Finally though I have a second possible clue that links me to a family in another states and that is the oral history that her mother was named Veronica.  Her mother was not named Veronica, but if she is linked to this family, she would have an older sister or half sister named Veronica who was also on the census in the same place as she was married - briefly.

It's my intuition that the oral history that she had a mother named Veronica is actually that her mother died when she was born or young, and that this older sister, so long as she was still living in the same place, still looked in on her though there was a remarriage.

This particular situation has really challenged by genealogy myopia (we all have it at times).
If the records are correct, she came in 1904 with someone.  The possible uncle in another state also states he came in 1904.  She married in 1916.  Had a first child in 1918.  Died in 1920.

Proofing of course is needed!

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WHAT'S IN A NAME CHANGE - WHAT MAKES ME MAD - PART TWO

(Continued - part one was posted about a month ago.)


I know of a Celtic /Irish American author who has been defamed by one biographer by adding a second L...


If you are researching a "difficult to pronounce or spell" surname, first, use on online translator that has speech capability or talk to someone of the ethnic heritage (that may mean contacting a Native American tribe or special ethnic research group), and get the SOUND of the name.  Write down what it sounds like to you.  Ask other people to write down what they think they are hearing. 


Use SOUNDEX to bring up names that sound like that.  (Be aware that Soundex (s) aren't perfect.  One is considered to be Germanized.)  Try to imagine what it might be to a German speaker who is a census taker.


Become sensitized through the use of SOUNDEX or database opportunities to bring up names that are close in spelling.  Though so many names are common, in particular names based on professions, that it doesn't imply descendants are from one massive family.  However, you may find that the name has changed through time as people you're related to moved from country to country.


When it comes to snobbery, I've heard many people criticized for have a van, von, or other prefix indicating land ownership, if not also nobility, before their surname.  Some families dropped this when they accepted the democratic ideals of the United States of America, but if your family was using it in the Old Country, then that's your name!  Remember that wealth and elite status then isn't what it is now.  They could have had inherited land but be broke.)


(part three coming!)

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS into THREE KINGS

I'm lucky to live in a place where Christmas continues on for a few more days, through the feast of the Three Kings (or Wise men or Magi or Magicians or Astrologers) on January 6th, when these men, likely merchants who traveled the trade routes around the Mediterranean, followed a bright star in the sky that lead them to finding the baby Jesus and presenting their finest gifts.  This means that many of my neighbors of the Eastern churches still have their holiday lights up outside and inside.  So while others have thrown their live spent trees out for pick up to be turned (sans fake snow or flocking) into wood chips, I've kept mine up because of the children nearby who expect these lights to help their slightly delayed gifts arrive to the right homes.


It's been raining and the weather people say this is the wettest season in years, and that's a good thing because of the terrible drought we've been having.  But I lived in Southern California for years without using an air conditioner or a heater, and the leaves changing color and falling from the trees is rather new too.  My fairy lights have continued to twinkle in the dark and the rain, and I think they are safe, because I took care to wrap the electrical connections in plastic.


This year I met some Russians and Armenians, as well as Ukrainians, who are celebrating their traditional Christmas season, and who have not been here long enough to know that what they are experiencing is exceptional weather for Southern California. Coming from colder climates they seem quite happy for the relief of too high temperatures and dryness that characterized another rather insufferable summer.  Also, they are quite happy when they go out of the city to smaller towns that are not so expensive, congested, or where the crime is so high.  I completely understand.


For the first time in years, I decided to bake gifts.  I toyed with a few recipes to make them my own and the results were quite pleasing.  I hand delivered on the Winter solstice.


My dog is also very into the holidays.  I'm sure that the smells of the earth and the leaves have changed as they became wet and fell and those trees waiting pick up have been interesting for her to do her business near too.  My precious little one, who likes to stay under the warm covers when its cold outside!  She is such a California girl that she does not know how to deal with the rain and thunder scares her.  I get her out onto the front lawn, but she wants to make it fast, and run back into the house!


The Rose Bowl Parade is interesting to me (while football is not) because of all the creativity and hard work involved.  I must say it was great fun to see that Lucy Pet Foundation surfing dogs float!  What a talented surfer that one bulldog was, in particular.


So, slowly, I am gearing up for another year of challenging and rewarding genealogy research, so very slowly, for I too like to spend some extra hours under warm covers when it's cold and wet outside.  I watched some films that I think would be of interest to my readers as well, so I think I'll start out this year's ANCESTRY GENEALOGY BLOG by covering some of them.


Happy New Year 2017!

ARE HOMES THAT PEOPLE DIED IN DEVALUED?

DIED IN HOUSE . COM SITE

At "Died in House" you pay to get the details on who, if anyone, died in your house.   You might find out someone died in their own bed in your bedroom.  You might find out there was a murder or a fire.  DOES THIS REALLY DEVALUE A HOME when it's up for sale?

JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE DIED IN A HOUSE (something that used to be very common before the hospital or hospice became the place to go and die) DOESN'T MEAN THE HOUSE IS HAUNTED, but these days people from many cultures, including our own New Age culture, are concerned about BAD VIBES.

And if a house has bad vibes, what can you do about it?

You can have the home blessed by a priest.  You can do Feng Shui or maybe burn sage and candles and make up your own ritual.  Of course this means you are telling any ghosts or entities (orbs anyone?) that they must go so you think or believe they are there.  If you read around this subject you'll learn that psychics think The Other Side is not so far away from us at all.  One psychic says you can tell if they are earth bound or on The Other Side by how high up they are.  See a ghost walking on the same floors you do?  Then they are earthbound.  A few feet up?  Not!

Is it all total superstition?  After all there are millions of people on this earth who are going to die - somewhere.  For a person who is terminally ill to pass on in their own home is often their last wish.  I think it would be mine!

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ARE YOU HAUNTED BY YOUR PAST? MISSING RELATIVES YOU LEFT BEHIND?

One of my friends confided in me that she recently went on the Internet and searched for information on some family that she left behind.  She said that since then she cannot get these people out of her mind even though more than a decade went by from when they lost contact and she searched for them again.  She even dreamed of meeting some of the children she saw in pictures on the Internet.  She hadn't really wondered about them through those years and she had no reason to think they missed her. 

She found out about a divorce since she found out about a re-marriage, which she finds shocking.  She knows where they live and work now.  She's thinking about the positives and negatives of trying to reunite with them, or at least visit them.  She did all that without any genealogy database research.  However, she feels certain that if she does decide to reignite a relationship she needs to honesty tell them about the things they have said and done as individuals and collectively that hurt her and so her reason for moving on.  She pretended not to hear or know when she was around them.  She played dumb for many years.  She doesn't want to be that way any more.

The reasons for her departure from this branch of her family are considerable.  She said for years she made efforts to keep relationships going and found it to be very one sided.  She also said that though her income was average she got the feeling they were dismissive of her because she was considered to be the poor relation.  Last but not least, when she thought about it, theirs was a very different family culture, and she wasn't sure if this was just about their family or that culture.  She thought of them as materialistic and greedy.  She thought they were always looking at relationships in terms of what they were getting or not getting from people but didn't give as good as they got.  She thought of them as poor examples of their religion.  She thought the females dominated the men and the children were never raised to actually leave home.  They were a rare multigenerational and extended family.

I could sense the pain in my friend.  So I asked her to consider what she would want out of a reconnection after over a decade.  Did she think maybe they changed or would be more participatory or nicer to her?  (There is always the chance that they've changed! but do people ever really change because you want them to?  Well, I've changed!  Have you?) Would a reunion just result in more pain?

I don't have those answers for her but it occured to me that maybe she was inspired by the recogniztion of her own mortality to see them. Maybe she, at least, wanted to leave this earth without any grudges.

Can genealogy or family history projects heal families?  I think the marketing of genealogy promotes that idea.  My experiences is sometimes but it's not something to count on.  When I was teaching genealogy I had students whose families were extremely cooperative and who could easily put together big books of photos, documents, and warm memories without actually doing research.  Others were alone in the project from beginning to end.

I think just about every family has some secret that they collectively do not wish to discuss or recall.  You could say whole families are haunted by something. 

Such as?

Such as domestic violence, molestation, even a murder.  Membership in Organized Crime or someone in prison.  Sexist favoritism of the males in the family that left the females floundering or forced to endure unhappy marriages.  Unwed motherhood was a big one, though far more common and acceptable now.  Mixed marriages or someone leaving the religion of the family is also something that has ripped families apart in the past but is now more common and acceptable.

As a genealogist none of these things shock me.

ANCESTOR WORSHIP and HALLOWEEN OR SAMHAIN

Here is a video that retells a tale about Stingy Jack and the Devil by a Pagan Witch Collective!

ANCESTOR WORSHIP and HALLOWEEN

The Halloween that is celebrated in the United States is rooted in Celtic traditions and is associated with the cycle of life and death.  The carved Jack O' Lantern pumpkin we are familiar with now had its roots in Celtic Ireland where a turnip was carved to hold a candle and held in hand.  The turnip was probably a practical idea since a turnip was  simply available.  I'm not sure how or when pumpkins were used and then turned into laughing Jack-O-lanterns, but maybe it was as simple as that pumpkins grew in the Americas.

In the South-West, and that includes California and wherever Mexican immigrants have settled, a Halloween-like celebration is called The Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is a day - even a week - for family to gather at the graves of loved ones, to celebrate with food and drink (and offer them some).  With humor many creations of sugary skeletons include skeletons participating in all aspects of life, singing, dancing, and simply performing their earthy professions, and are sold in special bakeries.

While Halloween has taken on horrific, even evil, connotations, that many of us do not involve ourselves in and it has even turned into an "anything goes" weekend, to those who are more interested in the spiritual tradition, Halloween is a time when the"veil" between this world and the world of the afterlife is especially thin and so communication with those who had passed on before us.  Some people do rituals to contact these ancestors, others simply light a candle, do special prayers (All Souls Day of the Catholic Church), or mantras to release any soul that is in Purgatory to Heaven.

The belief of ancestor contact has roots in the Pagan or Country or Folk beliefs and is tied in with the agricultural cycle of the year, which is also coordinated with the seasonal weather cycle.  Fall is the time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, the European countries, when the harvest takes place.  The pumpkins and gourds are about to be harvested.  Some plant and tree life is only resting and will grow again after dormancy in the spring.  Soon the earth will cool, snow will come, and people will spend more time indoors.  To our ancestors who lived generations ago in caves and other dwellings, staying close to the burning fire, busy themselves with crafts, and resting was essential, as was relying on many foods that had been stored. 

From watching the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of life, a great many early cultures decided that reincarnation makes a lot of sense. 

ABE LINCOLN WITH THE BLUE OF HIS EYE : COLORISTS OF CIVIL WAR PHOTOS BRING HISTORY CLOSER

DAILY MAIL : CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHS COLORIZED  by Alex Greig

British colorist Jordan Lloyd, 27, met fellow colorist Mads Madsen, 19, from Denmark when he started posting on Madsen's subreddit 'Colorized History'...

If you haven't seen this series of American Civil War Photos that have been colorized, you've got to check this link.  Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Mark Twain, General Custer... so many others. 

I notice that when I see black and white photos I tend to think of the times they were taken in as very long ago. There is a distance there. When I saw film and photographs that had been taken in color of the World War II era, I realized that wasn't so long ago.  The feeling is the same here.

WHITE STAR LINE R.M.S. OLYMPIC

MIDDLETON COAT OF ARMS : THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW NOBLE FAMILY

Thought this article was one of the best about the new Coat of Arms used by the Middleton Family, which of course includes daughter Catherine, Kate, Prince William's wife, the Duchess of Cambridge.

DAILY MAIL : MIDDLETON FAMILY COAT OF ARMS link

The simple design features 3 acorns to represent the Middleton's three children.

Illustrations and this:

..."Coats of Arms came into being during medieval tournaments like jousting when knights would be recognised by the motifs on their shields or helmets and heralds quickly learnt the different ones in use, taking up responsibility for the control of their use.

Their use declined in competition and battle but they became more widely used in society.
The College of Arms, a branch of the Royal household, is the official body in the UK that deals with coats of arms and their team of experts - funded by the fees they charge and not taxpayers money - design and research heraldic or genealogical issues.

The arms are given for free while the money people pay is for the research and design of the coat of arms.

However, that doesn't mean that just anybody can pay the fee and get a coat of arms. The cumulative knowledge of the Earl Marshal gathered over hundreds of years has given them the skill of tactfully suggesting that people don't proceed with their application.
The late Peter Gwynn-Jones, a former Garter King of Arms, once said: 'In practice, eligibility depends upon holding a civil or military commission, a sound university degree or professional qualification, or having achieved some measure of distinction in a field beneficial to society as a whole.'..."

CRESTS AND SHIELDS

TIS THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

ANCESTRY WORSHIP - Genealogy

BODY MEMORY : DOGS HAVE IT and SO DO PEOPLE?

The other day I was trying to explain the notion of "Body Memory" to someone and I found myself talking about my dog.

The dog I'm the person of was a rescue animal.  I got her at a county run animal shelter that is not a "no kill" shelter; most in big cities aren't.  Just recently when renewing her license, I learned I was not her second owner, but her third.  I still feel sure that her name has always been the same and that she was born in the home of her original owner, who may have been a backyard breeder.  I also learned when I adopted her that she has at least one liter, but for all I know she may have given birth many times, and then was spayed.

My dog reacts emotionally, shaking, when her feet are on stainless steel.  Doesn't matter if this is at the vets or in a sink, or anywhere else - the feel of it frightens her. I think she associates the feel with pain and loss.

When I first brought her home she always pulled her feet or paws away if I tried to touch them.  Over many full body massages and months of learning to trust me and not exhibit signs of separation anxiety, she stopped pulling away and started waiting for me without crying.  Now she lets me touch her feet and paws and I sometimes hold them in my hands.  Again, I think she associates the feelings - physical and emotional - with pain.

I took my dog into the closest groomers, a store that also sells cute doggie items, and depending on what sort of barking she hears she will either, wag her tail and look up at me with excitement (small chirpy sounds) or shake with fear and even back away (the harsher barking of a larger dog) and this is very specific.  Because she has exhibited fear, which is uncharacteristic for her overall friendly temperament, I don't want to leave her at a groomer and groom her myself.  I recently took her to a benefit for the shelter and she peaceably sat near a massive Irish Wolf Hound and German Shepherds.  All well behaved.  The dogs at the groomers were further away, leashed, and also well behaved, but yet the VOCAL SOUND of dogs either made her think she was going to meet a long lost relative (maybe her mother) or an enemy!

My dog can't tell me what she's feeling or thinking in any moment, but it's clear she is reacting.  Memories are inside her - maybe her mind which is part of the body, or her body itself as mind.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HUMAN BEINGS?

I'm convinced that some people practice genealogy to gain a different perspective on themselves, by way of getting to know more about the people they are genetically related to, especially so if that person has always felt different, as if they were born into the wrong family.  (At last you've found an eccentric sea captain a few generations back who seems to be the only other person in the family besides yourself who loved to sail!)

I'm also convinced that some people are very influenced by their past lives.  (You sailed and were the sea captain yourself!)

Some people think that there is no such thing as past (or future) lives, as is the case for reincarnation, but that people do have BODY MEMORIES and these can be inherited.  (You love to sale because you have the body memory of the sea captain!) A body memory might, as in the case of my dog, give you a reaction - positive or negative - that  maybe makes no sense.

Say tuned for more on Body Memory in the future posts of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

C 2013 Ancestry Worship Genealogy