GENEALOGY FOR CHILDREN? : QUESTIONS FROM READERS of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

Q : At what age do you think children should get involved in genealogy?

A: My first response is MAKE IT FUN FOR THEM!

Like many things we teach children, we should take into consideration the stage of their development and innate intelligence and abilities. I've read that children do not actually understand that grandma is mother's mother for some time, until perhaps about the age of ten. They are not especially interested in reproduction until they themselves have the ability to. Until then the child may understand that the grandma is special to the family but not quite get the relationship... that grandma actually gave birth to or raised mom...

I feel a concern that children may think of genealogy as yet another subject they have to spend time on when they would rather be out playing or that it's more homework. It really isn't for everyone anyway and can be a rather serious subject.

I suspect the best thing to do as an adult is allow them to see what you're working on and talk to them about their heritage and tell family stories. 

You might get them involved in making artistic projects such as creating charts, putting together binders of their drawings, or scrapbooking greeting cards that have been sent to them. Give them books to read about their ethnicity or religion, or perhaps the history ancestors have lived through. 

You might ask them to help you in the kitchen and talk about these things while cooking a recipe that's been handed down.

I also think it can be interesting for children to interview relatives - including their parents and siblings.

Think of fun projects that can be completed in a couple hours or over the course of the school break or vacation!

Every once in a while a very young person will find genealogy fascinating on their own.

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

REINCARNATION SYMPOSIUM WITH CAROL BOWMAN and HER SON CHASE BOWMAN

A CHILD! A CHILD!

 

FOR YOU!

Image From Graphics Fairy 

CHILDRENS MEMORIAL YAD VASHEM

FOR YOU!

Image from Graphic's Fairy

 

SAUDI-FATHERED CHILDREN ABANDONED IN AMERICA - ONE MAN'S SEARCH FOR HIS FATHER

ABC NEWS SPECIAL : SAUDI CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND   Link to the YouTube video.

I'm linking to this video rather than embedding it because there is a commercial attached.  This is the story of one man, one of many children, whose pregnant mother was abandoned by his father, a college student in America at that time.  It focuses on the difficulty he has because of the fact that what his father did - having sex without marriage and with a woman not of his culture and religion - is a shameful thing among his own.  Certainly such men know what they are doing. So take responsibility already!

The man is able to connect with younger family members who do not have the same attitude, but his birth father shuns him, as he always did, even when he travels all the way to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabians are not the only college students who come for an American education and use the comparative liberalness of America and American women to experience sex and then abscond to their own far-away countries leaving women to raise the child without their support, without marriage. 

While not every foreign student is this way and the abandonment of women and children also happens by native-born men, the great numbers of people who approach me hoping to find a birth parent leads me to think seriously about this as an issue.

Recently I worked with a person who's mother - in her 80's - still wants to know who her mother's birth parents were. We got as far as learning that her adoptive parents died within a month of each other when this adopted girl was only 18 and using census, that they were born and raised in different states but managed to adopt when they were living in Chicago. Women were having their babies without fathers in Chicago at the turn of the century.  There is still hope.

C 2023-2025 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved

ANN FESSLER INTERVIEW ; THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY : BIRTH MOTHERS WHO GAVE THEIR BABIES UP FOR ADOPTION

THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY

As she talks about how horrible it was for women who got pregnant when not married in the 1950's and 1960's, it came to me that it was the same way in the 1970's and even today, depending on where a person lives, what religion the family is, and so on.

https://www.thegirlswhowentaway.com/   link to excellent reviews

GELLEY GIRLS IMPORTED TO BE DOMESTICS IN CANADA : MAIDEN VOYAGES

 

EXCERPTS: Conditions in third class transatlantic ships had continued to improve markedly during the early 1920's, and now bore little resemblance to the horrors of the notorious steerage class before the Great War.  On the Zeeland, hot seawater baths were available with special soap that would lather in brine. The women could clean themselves and wash their clothes.  On one occasion an impatient chief steward tried to speed up the process by making two girls share the same bath. Edith insisted each woman should bathe alone, in privacy, and her argument prevailed.  Her tussles on behalf of her charges, who were looked down on by some of the crew as racially inferior, often  made her unpopular.  When she insisted that the third class women and children were moved to better quarters in the Zeeland, to minimizes the likelihood of them getting seasick, she encountered hostility from some of the crew, though she won her case...  (page 122)

Quote from Edith (page 123)

We had many Jews - all types -traveling as emigrants from Europe.  The looked as if a terror was behind them, running away with a real sense of fear... all the tragedies of the world seemed to be in their melancholy eyes.  They also seemed to have an awful fear of the sea on this, the first time they had ever seen the ocean, or  experienced what it could do when in the the mood.  How terrible it was for those poor, ground-down peasant types, and the persecuted Jews, to be storm-buffeted on a rolling ship, knowing little of what they might expect, only that it was a land of opportunity that awaited them - a strange land, a better life. Others had gone before and written home to say so....

Many of Edith's adult female charges had been recruited in their hone countries to be domestics, and were known as Gelley Girls, after the Commissioner of the Canadian Immigrations who had invented the assisted places scheme.  However, some would try to escape their escorts before their intended destination, having arranged clandestinely to meet a boyfriend or a family member.  They didn't get far...

*****

Edith also safeguarded unaccompanied children from possible sexual predators on board ships.  She would sometimes encounter very young girls who were being sent alone to a distant relative in the far country, and who had been laced, with the relevant photograph, on the passport of some unrelated male.  The man accompanying them was usually form the same home town or village, and of course this arrangement might be entirely innocent.  However, Edith would step in if she discovered that any young girl or boy had been booked into the same cabin as an unrelated adult male....

Picture Brides were another intriguing feature of Edith's shipboard life.  These were European born women who had consented to marry men already living in Canada or the USA without ever having met them. These women took life-changing decisions after answering a newspaper advert, then exchanging letters and photos, arranging their marriages by post... (page 125)

The Canadian immigration system was well organized' having interviewed each woman and noted her details, Edith would giver her a colour-coded piece of ribbon which showed her eventual destination: red for Manitoba or Saskatchewan, blue for Ontario, white for the maritime provinces.  The women proudly wore these ribbons like badges of honor, or campaign medals, pinned to their clothes....  They were grouped according to their ribbon colors  and then taken to their various destination all over Canada by so-called 'train girls.

(Page 126)

LIFE TO AFTERLIFE : MOM CAN YOU HEAR ME HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG ; ANCESTRY WORSHIP FILM REVIEW

LIFE TO AFTERLIFE : MOM CAN YOU HEAR ME   

HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG ; ANCESTRY WORSHIP FILM REVIEW

Craig is the interviewer, a good and patient listener who talks with 17 parents who have lost their children. These parents come from a variety of religious and spiritual points of view and their children died in a variety of ways and ages, from a horrific car accident that was a parent's fault to an addict's heroin overdose. Perhaps the most profound loss a loving parent can have, it's natural and part of the process of acceptance to want to communicate with the child who has left the body and life on earth. 

A few known psychic mediums make appearances giving their notions of the spirit world. Book authors make appearances too. It's the testimonials of the parents that is most important.

Perhaps these children knew or their parents knew they wouldn't be long on this earth. The young ones may have been enlightened beings. Some were kid peacekeepers, the type who stood protectively against bullies. They were Old Souls. Sensitive. Empathic. 

Some of the reported communication includes parents seeing balls of light, ghosts, having dream visitations, or feeling a hug from far away.

Despite most of these parents having anger over the loss of a child, according to James Van Praagh, one of the most known mediums today, in the spirit world they know what's going to happen and when and absolutely every one of us, upon death, is met by someone to help with our transition.

I know some people are afraid of mystical things and may be of different religious beliefs. However, this film is one of several to consider by Inspirter Films. I realize some of them will seem "way out" to some people while being of possible comfort to others.

C 2021 - 2025 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved

HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG

THANK YOU FOR MUMMY AND DADDY

Some people have wonderful parents and some have not.

I want to acknowledge all the nurturers out there who may not have children of their own but have provided loving and wise guidance to children in order to socialize them, to educate them, to raise them to be productive adults. 

 

YOU CAN ASK : A SEALED ADOPTION STATEGY : ADOPTION #6

As previously stated, it's difficult to impossible to unseal a Closed adoption and judges don't seem to think medical or psychological reasons are enough anymore. However, in thinking about this, I think there may be a way around it that could work. 

If you're in a clinical trial that is about genetics or genes or family inheritance of medical or psychological problems, I think a letter from your doctor to a judge could be persuasive. While I haven't tried this, I do know such clinical trials and research projects do exist. A friend with OCD, whose father and brother also had OCD entered into one of these research studies at a university. They were asked about parents and grandparents.

What's happening with prostate or ovarian cancer research? Does "long illness" in an obituary for GGrandpa mean the same illness your dad or you have? Do you have death certificates?

*****

What you want is the information you would get if your adoption documents were unsealed.

First do a little research on the net or make some calls. Start with the county that has your birth certificate which, if you were adopted, was redone to replace the original.  (Birth certificates should be renamed to PARENTAGE CERTIICATES!) Some county web sites will tell you that they cannot release any information other than non-identifying information. That's a start. You should seek this information out. It may be a little or a lot. Others will actually give you some advice on how to go about things.  It's usually a Children's and Family Services aspect of the government that is in charge of adoption records,

You make an appointment to see a worker at the County where your adoption took place in person. Sometimes when a birth parent has sent a letter in saying it is OK to release more information to the child and it's there in your file, your appointment could go surprisingly well.

Let me explain what an appointment to get that NONIDENTIFYING information can be like. You sit across a desk from another human who has your file - a government employee who maybe has a degree in social work. They can read the file. You can't. 

It's unfair.

No, don't try to bribe them.

YOU CAN ASK QUESTIONS WITH A YES OR NO ANSWER.

Such as:

Does my mother's name begin with an A? With a B? Yes, people have gone through the alphabet one letter at a time. Is she between the ages of 21 and 25? Is she 22?

I've been told you should go in with a notebook and that you should persist with your questions and maybe -maybe- you'll find yourself alone with your file for a few minutes. Officially they are legally not allowed to reveal names of births parents, date of birth of the birth mother, and so on.

In today's modern attitudes about Adoption, which have been influenced by television shows featuring reunions and an acceptance of far less privacy than people wished to have in the pre-Internet era, you could find yourself with a sympathetic character who personally believes you have a right. 

Ssshhhh.

It's not in their job description to excuse themselves to use the bathroom and leave your file on the desk.

Have courage.

C 2021 Ancestry Worship Genealogy

Note: A genealogist specializing in adoption swears this scenario has been played out in California. I wasn't there.

Note: In my opinion the information gained from such an encounter will help you add more information in an Adoption Registry. Some counties say they will help you make contact.

Adoption Strategies - AWG

BEWARE BAIT AND SWITCH GENEALOGY: ADOPTION #5

I was recently asked for an opinion about a "free" adoption search offering by a large company on the Internet that provides databases at no charge, though they want to be credited for information they copied from original sources and own your research that you submit to them too.

What's free?

Listen. I'm offering information free here hoping my readers will "scouts honor" respect my copyright and keep to pro standards as hobbyists. I mean to be helpful. I'm not rich and I know my work has value. It could be argued that I can't afford to not charge. In some cases, maybe Karma is pay.

I've done free professional genealogy. I knew why.

I knew one person to be a senior living in poverty and it was an adoption search based on information her sister had. 

I worked free early on when I wanted to test myself in an area of genealogy I didn't have experience in.

I can't say that this blog or anything else I've given or gave willing turned into paying clients yet I'm not entirely skeptical about what's free. Just to clarify, these days I find myself frustrated with the unprofessional undocumented, speculative, and family rumor stuff posted on various databases (and the way it's copied into others) where there is no human supervision or accountability. 

I let one person know they'd posted information erroneously, that Is been checking for documents every six months for years, and this person never contacted me and -this is scary- auto reported me as abusive. In recent months the potential source for his rumor became available in another country. I've read page by page hundreds of pages related to the church, town, villages, etc. and there is absolutely no documentation and his chart is still wrong.

Increasingly looking at other peoples' so called research work in databases and on the net is time wasting. Time is money. It's better for me not to look at other peoples' work and just start the research looking for documents and do charts of my own knowing I can trust myself.

And I'm under no obligation to submit my work to any site. Neither are you.

But this post is about BUYER BEWARE.

I have a friend that was ripped off by a genealogist in Ireland. He had her related to founding fathers. Wonder how many people he told that to? She found out when she went to Ireland with the chart and learned no such family existed. She went to the church, the archive. A priest told her the chart was impossible due to long lost documents.

Thousands of dollars spent.

She also paid an American to find a branch of her family in upstate New York. He reported finding no connection. (I've since reviewed his work and more about that later.)

Both the Irish genealogist and this American were either fakes or incompetent. This year she found the connection herself in New York.

How many ancestors have found themselves in the afterlife wondering why they've been called into a Baptism for the Dead since they know who they're related to and it's not to you? They must be so confused! (Along with Anne Frank and several others who were being given - spiritually - the option to give up being Jewish!)

You're better off working with a pro you can meet with than a volunteer you'll never meet in person.  (At least on Zoom!) Why? Because while professional standards genealogists are no more psychotherapists than hairdressers are, we are told secrets and are keepers of them. On an adoption search I think you need the wisdom and empathy that comes from dealing with individuals and families who want to know about their heritage - good or bad - the truth.

Sometimes the pro thing to do is admit you cannot go further and that's a difficult thing to do, however, my primary concern re bait and switch is that free adoption searches might lead to being told to sign up for DNA testing that costs money. What private DNA test results become owned by a company and when? Will they sell that information?

Also, will your privacy be invaded when information gleaned from you and their search is placed in a database and even becomes the intellectual property of that company? I suspect freely given information will one day be sold for profit. Why not? Volunteers have done so much free labor, especially database entry, that has been sold for profit.

You see, a volunteer can't do anything more than the adoptee can so I suspect they'll suggest DNA testing. You (or a lawyer you hired) are the only person who can plea you have rights or sign papers asking for the release of information. Now, a pro can guide you to do those things and maybe a volunteer can too but ask yourself and then question them about the use of that information. Read the fine print. This is your personal business. Your family's personal business.)

You can sign up for adoption registries and DNA tests without a genealogist, paid or volunteer. 

The time to take a DNA test might be after you've met someone through a registry or been given possible results by a genealogist. Then a DNA test showing you're related is an affirmation.

Ask if the information you give or are given remains FYI or if it will be entered into a database or Internet site for anyone on earth to see. I personally think that, if so, it opens you and your children to Invasion of Privacy including possibly medical privacy in the future.

Ask yourself why it's important to know who gave birth to you. If the parents who adopted you were loving and good people, maybe it's enough. 

Hey, maybe you're rich and looking for an heir?

THE MAIN REASON I'M SUSPICIOUS OF THESE FREE ADOPTION SEARCHES IS THAT THE BAIT and SWITCH (when they can't do it) IS TO SELL YOU A DNA TEST and you can be those results may not be forever private.

C 2021 Ancestry Worship Genealogy

Adoption Strategies - AWG

INTERVIEW YOUR PARENTS AND RELATIVES : ADOPTION #4

I've heard many a story from adoptees about what and when their adopted parents told them they were adopted, and why.

One person told me she always felt something was amiss because at a young age she realized she looked nothing like her parents and when she grew to be much taller than them and the rest of the family she started asking. They ignored her, then denied it. Then, during the chaos of her parents' divorce, they admitted she was adopted and started begging her not to find her birth mother. In an argument between her and her mother, the name of an attorney who had arranged a private adoption was spoken. She tracked him down. He was retired and claimed his files in his home garage had burned. (I don't believe it. How did files burn inside a garage? Spontaneous combustion?) Their unwillingness to be helpful scared her. (And these parents probably called this attorney and told him not to give her information.)

She also said they were Jewish and she felt herself to be a Christian. 

This person was emotionally blackmailed as she searched for her birth mother. Her adoptive mother started sending her cards saying "I love you" frequently. Mom also, however, didn't want her daughter to feel that she'd stayed with her husband all those years just to give her a father.

It all scared her.

In high school I met a person who, along with a sibling, had been adopted by a couple, he a non-practicing Christian, she a Kosher observant Jewish women. As a couple they adopted two children who were born Native American and then raised them Jewish. (I believe children are better off adopted than in the foster care system but today there's a notion that Native American children belong with Native Americans.) This person told me that she had no cultural awareness of her origins as a child but school children made comments about her looks, so she felt different. She said that she and her sibling were adopted was clear to them, as they'd been in foster care. Although her childhood wasn't terrific, as an adult she honors her adoptive parents for providing her and her sibling good educations, a nice inheritance that allowed her sibling to start a successful business, and most of all that she grew up with that sibling and has her today. And they identify as Jewish and married Jewish.

Someone else found out they were adopted by going through papers after their father's death.

It seems some parents avoid telling their children or they do and then don't bring it up again.

Do parents have good reasons to shield a child from facts about their adoption? Yes, some do. But also, some parents don't know about their adopted child's origins. 

Is there a right time to tell a child they were adopted? Or, with today's technology, conceived through medical science, such as a surrogate mother? 

There is. It may be dependent on the stage of development a child is in. For instance, I read that most children are about 10 years old before they understand that grandma was their mother's mother. Till then she's a woman older than their mother who they visit and love. 

Parents should be telling their children that they will go through puberty before they do. It seems to me that about the time a parent tells a child the facts of life, a child should be told they were adopted.

Children in some households today are exposed to sexuality on film and the Internet by parents who don't supervise. It seems to me facts of life conversations should happen before children see such film content.

It's my feeling that before teenage years and rated R or X is a best time.

It's a time to tell children about love and commitment as well.

If you are searching for a birth parent and your adoptive parent(s) will be open to it, interview them before you search. Maybe they'll remember some details they didn't mention before when you were younger. But only if you're sure they won't try to sabotage your efforts. This interview is about them too. Some people have felt abnormal because of their own infertility. They may feel ashamed or embarrassed about it. Or feel it is private and not your business. 

There are also situations in which an adoption was unofficial or never legal such as when friends or a family member take in a child. 

INTERVIEW SUGGESTION

Q: Why did you decide to adopt?

When?

Q: Was it a long process? Did you go to agencies? A lawyer? 

Q: Was I born to a relative or family friend or neighbor?

Q: Do you have any paperwork? Letters? Documents? That I should have or copy now that I'm an adult?

Q: Did the agency or lawyer work with any particular church or organization?

(Research that organization. Ask them if they took in children born or living in a diocese or region or from other states.)

Q: What were you told about me? Did you personally visit a home? Institution? Foster parent?

Q: Is my sibling also adopted? From the same place? Mother?

Q: Are you comfortable with my search for my birth parent? Do you want to be involved or know about it? Will you tell me if you remember anything else?

Note: Back in the day before IVF and surrogates, and hormone treatments to increase fertility, it wasn't uncommon for a doctor to have one patient who wanted a child and another who had an unexpected pregnancy.

More Possible Questions:

Why did you decide to adopt?

How did you find me? (Friends, family, doctor, lawyer, agencies?)

How long did it take?

Was I baptized? Where and when?

C2021 Ancestry Worship Genealogy

Adoption Strategies - AWG  is the label on this series.

THE GHOST INSIDE MY CHILD : ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT FILM REVIEW

THE GHOST INSIDE MY CHILD : ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT FILM REVIEW

The title is bad.  Wrong. These are not ghost stories.  These are stories of children who have had spontaneous past life recall.  The editing is overly sensational.  I hate the close ups that reveal every pore.  I hate the glowing red eyeballs.  Really, the editing and production that was inclinded to raise the hair on our heads cheapened this series.  I wasn't scared.  Nor should you be.

Ignore all that.  Reincarnation is natural.  It's human nature.

And it's a message all of us who fear death need to hear.

This series features one interesting story after another, most of which include the parents or some other person doing research to verify that such a person existed.  And no, for you skeptics, the girls don't all remember being Cleopatra and the boys don't all remember being Harry Houdini.  Hey, some of these children are a different race, ethnicity, or gender this time around.

Remembrances in Season One and Two include, the memory of being a fighter pilot shot down during World War II, the memory of being a girl whose family was killed by Indians - later she was traded to a more peaceable tribe, the memory of a girl who died in Hollywood during the Silent Film era at age 14, an actress who probably died after an abortion - so many others!

In many cases, the children go to the place they remember living or dying, or at least a museum - which often helps them let go and get on with this life.

So, despite my recommendation - should anyone producing this series be reading - that you cut the silly boo-hooey - I suggest that watching this is worth your time and if you aren't familiar with reincarnation will be a wonderful introduction. 

C 2020-2025  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot Film Review  All Rights Reserved

CHILDREN's PAST LIVES by CAROL BOWMAN on NIGHTMARES

CHILDREN'S PAST LIVES
How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child
by Carol Bowman
C 1997 by Carol and Steve Bowman
A Bantam Book

page 257 by Carol Bowman

Some Children have NIGHT TERRORS... a series of sleep disturbance that is not in the same category as regular nightmares. "In a typical night terror episode, the child screams, thrashes about, and may even walk or run around and get violent, all while appearing to be awake. But afterwards, unlike a nightmare, the child has absolutely no memory of the incident and no dream story that might explain the bizarre behavior. This alone makes night terrors extremely difficult to treat. Scientists have no satisfactory explanation for what causes night terrors and no reliable remedy. But they do know that they occur during the deepest sleep cycle, and that they commonly begin between the ages of three and four, and fade by thee ages of five or six.

Since we know know that some nightmares have a past life cause, it makes sense that some night terrors would too. Perhaps during deepest sleep, a state furthest from waking consciousness, these children are being terrorized by vivid memories of a past life trauma. I think it's significant that night terrors occur at the same ages when children are most likely to have spontaneous past life memories...

C 2020  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

SR. JIM TUCKER REINCARNATION LECTURE

From 2014 - Poster notes audio will improve at about five minutes in. Dr. Jim B. Tucker (M.D.) is Bonner-Lowry Associate Professor Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia.  He's the person whose been continuing the work of Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia.  Both men have published interesting books.

CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD by PHILIPPE ARIES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD 

A fascinating book well worth the time it takes to read it:

I was loaned a paperback copy, circa 1962. I see copies exist for sale and that there is a full text available for free (as above) so I'll start by saying that the author was respected and that the information is still valid as it was heavily researched and wonderfully transmitted. Translated from French, this book is a lot about France, with small references to other European countries and starts with the Middle Ages and moves forward into the 19th century. Most likely, though things developed along the same path in various countries, when is the question.

Childhood as a state of being separate from adulthood developed over a few hundred years until it is what it is today. Families experienced their children's deaths frequently, especially in infancy and early childhood, but there's a question about how emotionally involved they might be.  Paintings depict children who have died as family members though distant memories.  At the same time the death of a child was supposed to be aligned with the desire for a replacement.

Children "played" for a short while in their early years and then were considered to be adults. They participated in adult activities as their development allowed and that meant work. Of course, before compulsory education that was work around the house and farm or workshop with parents and other adults as teachers. At the same time housing didn't allow much for private spaces. So a person became aware of the realities of life in their place and time by observation and being expected to participate.

Over the years education as a destination, a place to go and be taught by a Master, such as boarding schools, developed. The "grade" one was in also had more to do with when one began schooling or what one already knew than age and so students at the same level could have a wide range of ages in the classroom. Depending on one's class or status the expectations and affordability varied quite a bit. The house developed into a dwelling with rooms and with separate rooms developed the idea that one had a right to privacy. One might sleep on the floor of the school along with other students and the teachers.

Clearly children also were aware of sexuality and may have participated in it without the expectations of a future age.

If you're like me and want to be left alone to read; for most of known history this would have been an impossibility especially for a woman.  And yet over time a distinction was made between a person who becomes educated and then graduates to a life long learner (me again).

C 2019 Ancestry Worship BlogSpot  

CHILDHOOD WITT and SAYINGS a PART OF FAMILY HISTORY WRITING

A new friend and I started reminiscing about all the things our parents said to their children when the children were playing creatively or rough. We were watching some other people's children throw sand in the air and yelled and that sparked the conversation.  We didn't want anyone's children to get sand in their eyes or ears. The children were having such fun though. They proceeded to go exploring on a big mountain of compost.

My friend said his dad used to yell "Don't run with a spoon in your mouth."

I recalled that in my childhood home there were a lot of ways to "break your head open." These included racing up stairs and around swimming pools, swinging on the swing set too high, and well, just about all dangerous activities.

We agreed though that today's children are overprotected, and making them wear helmets to ride bikes and plugging up electric sockets, for instance, makes for the implication that they are fragile and (too) precious.

My friend and I compared notes and decided that though we are of the same generation and the sayings we heard growing up to warn us of danger and injury had seemingly not made it all the way to the next state.

Childhood wit and sayings that are part of your upbringing ought to be included in your family history writing. They tell the story not only of your generation but of race, class, ethnicity, of generations - of time and place. They will certainly sound odd to future generations.

C Ancestry Worship Genealogy 2019  All Rights Reserved

THE ORPHAN TRAINS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

THE ORPHAN TRAINS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

In 1853, a minister named Charles Loring Brace, decided to address the urgent problem of immigrant children who were homeless, on the street, or living in deplorable conditions.  This film doesn't say it, but these children were not just begging, or singing for donations.  Many of them probably were being used for sex or sex trafficked.   Many of them were orphans or the children of unmarried women.  His Children's Aid Society moved 150,000 of these children to the Midwest, usually to farms, between the years of 1854 and 1929.  Some of the people who were moved to homes this way were still alive to testify for this documentary film.  Overall the film presents both sides.  Stories of a child who was worked to death like a slave and lived in fear, children who became the beloved adoptees by excellent parents. Children who stayed in one place and came to appreciate that they had been given a chance that saved them.  Others who moved from one place to another, who were hard to place. Other charities followed this example of placing children who had no real home to go to.

While watching this film, I couldn't help but think of all the children today who are awaiting foster homes or adoption or who are homeless and living in vehicles or motel rooms. Today I do not think this system of putting children on trains, having them get off at a stop, being chosen or rejected, and then putting them back on to another town until someone wanted them would be allowed.

PBS ORPHAN TRAIN SITE

Are you researching to find more out about someone who did or may have been adopted this way?  My advice is to find that person on a census at as young an age as possible.  Then inquire at the county they lived in to find out if any legal adoption was necessary.  I've found that adoption was often not a legal or formal procedure and the text to this program suggests that.  However, the Childrens Aid Society did ask any locatable parent to sign paperwork in which they agreed not to contact the child or interfere in their life, until they were an adult.

CHILDRENS AID SOCIETY NEW YORK  still in existence.