JAMESTOWN... ROANOKE... AND THEN THE PILGRIMS : HOW THEY MADE IT

The earliest American history is that of the Native Americans or pre-Colonial. Then Columbus and the Spanish explorers, then early colonies of the English, Dutch... Of course, there's a possibility that many others made it to our shores through migration, exploration, and ship wrecks.

I thought this video by the World History Channel was well made and interesting... 

The Pilgrims were religious Christians who were in conflict with the Protestant Church of England. They fled due to religious prosecution. King James gave permission for them to establish a colony in Virginia and Virginia was a great expanse at the time including parts of what is Pennsylvania and North Carolina today. William Bradford, one of those passengers on the ship named the Mayflower, left a journal and so we know a lot about their voyage... They departed weeks late and their provision ship, the Speedwell, leaked so they went on without it. They bravely went to an unknown country, going onshore far from their original notions of a destination and faced a harsh winter climate. They had not landed in Virginia at all.

THE FOLKLORE OF EGGS by RACHEL WARREN CHADD

FOLKLORE THURSDAY - MYSTICAL EGGS - FOLKLORE FROM MANY CULTURES

Rachel Warren Chadd

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR RELATIVES ABOUT RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

I recall that my dad used to advised that, when visiting, to talk about the weather.  What he meant was that controversial subjects were to be avoided.  Politics...  Religion... Perhaps knowing that these subjects will spark debate - or worse, arguments - during a family get together is trouble and, sure, I wouldn't want you to create an uncomfortable situation at a gathering. But then he was of the Silent Generation, and the Silent Generation wasn't talking about a whole lot.  

Things have changed, at least in some places and sometimes.

I can say that it came as a relief to learn that my ancestors were of various Christian denominations, which I wouldn't have suspected based on my upbringing. In my heritage - and I only know this because of genealogy research I have Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Reform Protestants (Calvinists), Lutherans, and also, it seems - some would say this doesn't fit the religion category - a Mason.

And so maybe getting a conversation going with relatives about ancestral religious or spiritual beliefs starts with past rather than the present.

It could be that you can't find what you need in the church records of the assumed Faith because those ancestors were converts or belonged to another religion.  And got buried in a churchyard or Faith based cemetery. 

And it seems like everyone in past generations belonged to some church or temple or organization ...

QUESTIONS

Was John baptized?  Who were his godparents?

Did he take part in rituals such as Communion, Confirmation?

Did John belong to a church as a teenager, as an adult?  

Did he sing in a choir?  

Did he do volunteer work for the church? 

Was he devout?  Or Religious. (Did he consider becoming a priest or minister or monk?)

Did he change religions? If so, why and when?  (Some families simply went to the closest church, wherever they moved to. Perhaps John was in a cult?) 

Did he get married in a church? How was it decided where he would marry?

Did he have children? Were they raised in a religion?  (This might bring up some different responses if the marriage was a "mixed marriage."  For instance, perhaps the children were allowed to join a different church or make up their own minds about spirituality as adults, 

Where is he buried? (Is this a Faith based cemetery?) or was he cremated?  Where are his ashes?

These questions can always spark a departure in the conversation. Back when I took Anthropology 101, it was noted that the definition of religion was "a way of life." Life in America has changed. Regular attendance at church services was normal for many people prior to the changes of the 1960's. Today many have decided that church is not for them.  As genealogists, we are looking for church records in addition to or instead of civil records to find our ancestors.

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

CHRISTMAS MAGIC SPELL

THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by CATHY BYRD : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

This is the rare story of reincarnation in the American and Christian context.  Author Cathy Byrd is the mother of a son who very young was obsessed with baseball.  He wanted to wear uniforms every day and play baseball constantly. The photo on the cover is her son, who became the first child to pitch the first ball for a game at Dodger's Stadium in Los Angeles, and became a honorary Dodger.

She, like many parents whose children start talking strangely about having been an adult, dismissed her son's obsessions and communications.  Bit by bit the story unfolds and part of that story is how she as a Christian was admonished by friends and finally sought out a Christian minister that she could trust to talk about it with.

For those of us who think there is something to reincarnation and do not think there should be a conflict with Christianity, my opinion is that is too sad. 

The only way to 'prove' something that is part of a belief that millions of not-Christian people have on this is to listen, take notes, do research, and see how much an innocent child reports is correct. Byrd does a convincing job of this.

Her son remembers a life as baseball great Lou Gehrig (1903 -1941) who died young of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neuromuscular disease that became familiar to Americans as 'Lou Gehrig's Disease." 

(According to Carol Bowman (not part of this book) most of the children who report past lives in the West seem to have died deaths that were not peaceful. In Gehrig's case, his death was untimely because he was relatively young and had much more to do. 

Just to make things more interesting, there is a possibly that Cathy Byrd is also the incarnation of Lou's mother. She learns by researching out to people who knew Lou and his mother that no one told Lou the truth that he was going to die.

Thumbs up on this one!

C 2022 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

Book Review - all rights reserved.

TEXTUS ROFFENSIS - PRE MAGNA CARTA ENGLISH LAW MANUSCRIPT - UNESCO's UK Memory of the World Register

I was going to link to the article in DailyMail Online about this, but for whatever reason it's not working.  

So, to reiterate, Rochester Cathedral is the second oldest in England (first called Saint Andrews and built about 604) and that is where the manuscript is kept. It is in old English. Called Textus Roffensis, it predates the 1215 Magna Carta and was a compilation of laws that go back before the Norman Conquest. Monks at the Saint Andrew's Priory at Rochester Cathedral likely created this illuminated manuscript. One of the reasons the monks may have created it is that at the time England was not unified and, for instance, there was a King who ruled Kent.  So, I see that if one were traveling from one Kingdom to another, one might want to know the various rules and regulations for each before hand.)

A little research on this cathedral and it is and has all along been a parish in which services are conducted. Because of its historical nature, there are also exhibits...

https://www.rochestercathedral.org/exhibitions

1400 years of prayer!

BIRD TREE

 

LIFE AFTER LIFE - DEATH AND BACK : FILM REVIEW

This film, which contains four testimonials by individuals who had near death experiences,

was possibly the most tremendous film on the subject that I've ever seen. It has beautiful images but the sincerity and the details of the experiences as spoken impressed me most of all. One person was an atheist. Another person was agnostic and telling her story to an atheist doctor ended up with her being put into a psych ward and doped up. What a shame! (Are most doctors atheist?) Fortunately, she got her life back and came away with new beliefs. These people had transformative experiences. 

I put the word Jesus in my tags. The film's not preachy. These are English speaking Westerners who live in a culture informed by Christianity.

I hope the film- maker, Craig McMahon, makes more film on the subject.

Every day people are born and people die. The sickness and death of the Covid Pandemic has effected our consciousness. Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid. Have an open mind and watch this one!

C 2021

DNA OF CHRISTIAN CRUSADERS NOT EVIDENT IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES

TECHTIMES : ANCIENT DNA REVEALS CRUSADERS...  by Allan Adamson 

EXCERPT:  Chris Tyler-Smith, a genetics researcher at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and colleagues extracted DNA from the 13th century remains of nine medieval crusaders.  The remains were found in a mass burial pit near a crusader castle in Sidon, Lebanon... "We show that all of the Crusaders' pit individuals were males; some were Western Europeans from diverse origins, some were locals (genetically indistinguishable from present day Lebanese), and two individuals were a mixture of European and Near Eastern ancestries, providing direct evidence that the Crusaders admixed with the local population,: the researchers wrote in their study.

And this DAILY MAIL - CRUSADERS MARRIED LOCAL WOMEN - SONS FELL IN BATTLE

EXCERPT: These mixed families were short-lived however, with brutal battles wiping out the offspring and modern-day inhabitants showing no relationship to the Crusaders.... Analysis of DNA extracted from nine skeletons dating back to the 13th century shows the family members often died together in battle from horrific wounds.

****
I'm lucky - and not - to "know" that one of my ancestors was alive in the 1400's. 

Trying to prove this, however, is a nightmare. I'm at about 1820 and only back to a GG Grandparent on this old, almost extinct surname.  When I imagine my long ago ancestors, I research the history of their time and place - their niche.  As this was a wealthy noble, I recently looked at a web site that gave some examples of the kind of clothing he would have worn and tried to imagine if he or any of his family were Crusaders. He was probably an Italian who moved to Central Europe. I'm not a snob about nobility.  One of the reasons it's exciting for a researcher to attach to nobility is that there is a greater chance of records and documents having been made and so being able to go back further.

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.

POLAR VORTEX FREEZES ME INTO PLACE

Here in Southern California, few people actually have the appropriate outer wear for cold, rain, or snow.  So it's kind of funny to be having coffee at a coffee house near a transportation hub, nice and warm inside, see the rain pouring down outside, and watch all the people who have used plastic trash bags to fashion rain-coats of sorts or who are holding plastic bags over their heads, racing down the streets. 


Umbrellas are sold here, particularly by enterprising street venders who buy some wholesale downtown and head out.  They are mostly made in China and good for one storm, one blast of cold air.  Then they turn inside out or break off and go into the trash bins.


It's been raining off and on for a couple days, and I'm seeing men outside without hats or  umbrellas, without sweaters or jackets.  I'm seeing women who have matching hats and scarves; they must have them stored away for years for the opportunity to wear them!


Maybe you can appreciate that we endured weeks of above average temperatures - in the nineties and the hundreds - this past summer, and that means that when it goes down into the forties or fifties we've experienced a temperature crash.  I'm OK with the outside temperature in the 60's but one recent morning at five, I needed to take my very patient dog outside already, and it was thirty seven degrees and windy.  There was black ice on the street.  I was creaking.  Steam came up from under the dog as she went.


THAT'S COOOOLD. 


But I promised I wouldn't complain about the cold when it was too hot out.


On the news, the POLAR VORTEX, the reason for this FREEZE.  I looked at the map and long underwear sales must be fierce in much of the United States.


I think of our ancestors who came to the states from the cold and remained living in the cold, as if cold was their heritage and their inheritance.  Seems like many of these people were bodily acclimated to cold weather.  Did they really not notice it?  Not mind it?  Were they just sturdier people?  I think of Native Americans.  I think of Colonials.  I think of dwellings without insulation or central heating.  Hovering near a fire place.


For me, this stretch of rain and cold just makes me want to burrow in.  If I could, I'd be cabin bound.  Instead I'm doing a little more decorating, baking, sewing, and crocheting, than usual.


Happy Holidays to All My Readers!

MEMORIES OF HEAVEN ; CHILDREN's ASTOUNDING RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TIME BEFORE THEY CAME TO EARTH : Ancestry Worship Geneaology Book Review

MEMORIES OF HEAVEN ; CHILDREN's ASTOUNDING RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TIME BEFORE THEY CAME TO EARTH

by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer and Dee Garnes

(note: Dr. Dyer died a while back but this book was something that he and Dee Garnes were working on before that.  It is a collection of stories sent by parents with some personal introductions by Dyer.)

This book is a lot about angels, of the Christianity type, and there is barely any negativity in it, which means that there is no mention of hell, purgatory, or ghosts who are earthbound, but a lot about ancestors who have passed away who are watching over the child or the family, who the child thinks of as an angel. 

As the subtitle suggests these accounts are about children who remember before they came to earth, and so there is mention of previous lives. Researchers working on pre-life memories, past life memories, and reincarnation like the testimonials of children, because they are far less likely to be tainted with exposure to informative education via school or exposure to media.  It is understood that their level of child development means they are more innocent, and have no reason to lie. (Though we've all met children who tell one made up story after another.)  So these accounts read simply, and have some parental interpretation involved.  For instance some of these parents are astounded that their child is taking about angels, heaven, the spirit, etc. because they have little to no exposure to religion.  Generally by the age of five most children do not seem to remember the spirit world, heaven, their pre-earthly life, other lives, or their once well known reasons for picking their parents/family, reason for coming to earth, or that they have angels.

What this means is that adjustment to this life comes gradually... and I suspect transition to the next may also come gradually as well.

Among the accounts there are children reporting that their mother's previous miscarriages (one child said he tried to come to her three times before), Children alive who know their mother is pregnant with another child before she does,  children whose invisible playmates are actually relatives and friends who have passed over, children who report having been their mother's mother, and Jesus asking a child to pick parents among many couples.

Interesting and an easy read, you'll only feel challenged if you're sure this life is it.

C 2016  Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot   All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

POLISH CATHOLIC NUNS RESCUED HUNDREDS OF JEWISH CHILDREN DURING THE HOLOCAUST

YOUR LIFE IS WORTH MINE
How Polish Nuns Saved Hundreds of Jewish Children in German-Occupied Poland, 1939-1945

By Ewa Kurek
Introduction by Jan Karski
C 1977 Hippocrene Books
Originally published in Poland as Gdy Klasztor Znaczyl Sycie  C Zvak Publishers

The book starts out with a translation of a poster that was posted in German and Polish during the occupation.  It says:

"CONCERNING THE SHELTERING OF ESCAPING JEWS
A reminder - in accordance with paragraph 3 of the decree of October 15, 1941, on the Limitation of Residence in General Government (page 595 of the GG Register) Jews leaving the Jewish Quarter without permission will incur the death penalty.  According to this decree, those knowingly helping these Jews by providing shelter, supplying food, or selling them foodstuffs are also subject to the death penalty.  This is a categorical warning to the non-Jewish population against 1) Providing shelter to Jews 2) Supplying them with Food 3) Selling them Foodstuffs.  Dr. Franke - Town Commissioner - Czestochowa 9/24/42."

This book was first published as a graduate student thesis and it is very detailed, informative, and most importantly strives to show both sides honesty and fairly. So it begins with just what the interaction of most Jews with most Christians was before the Holocaust, and that was minimal, but for the professional classes which would have come in contact with each other mostly in business.  (That would include Doctors and Lawyers.)

One of the reasons I'm posting this book review/recommendation on Ancestry Worship - Genealogy is that sometimes Industrial era immigrants from Poland and other countries effected by the holocaust have suggested to later generations that someone in the family was a convert from Judaism to Catholicism or another Christianity. I then often hear that this had to be "impossible" because Jews and Christians had little to nothing to do with each other in the old country.

Well, now that you've read what the law was, you know that indeed, anyone who helped a Jew survive could be put to death themselves.  Such people, when recognized for their sacrifice are called "Righteous Gentiles" by Jews today.

Page 33
According to the estimates of the Remembrance Institute of Yad Vashem in Jerusalen, of the nearly one million Jewish children in Poland, only five thousand survived the Holocaust.

Page 35
Many Jews refused the offer of help for their children because  they did not want them to be converted.  Conversion was one of the reasons for those offers. "The Catholic clergy has always made use of hard times in the life of Jews (pograms, deportations, etc.) for winning both adults and children."  Additionally, some clergy could offer shelter and hide children under the threat of death but they could not necessary afford to feed and support the child and charged money for this.

Page 45
"On the eve of World War II, there were 74 active convents and11 contemplative ones in Poland, in which over 20,000 nuns lived." ... "The nuns belonging to the active orders in Poland worked among and for the Polish people.  They satisfied Polish society's great needs concerning child care through their work in orphanages, nurseries, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, and boarding-schools; they too care of the poor, the sick, the homeless, as well as outcasts; they constituted the bulk of the junior medical staff in hospitals all over Poland; they taught religion and helped with the work of numerous Catholic parishes.

Yes, in order to hide the children under watchful Nazi eyes, the children had to learn the prayers, dress differently, and sometimes remain silent in order to hide an accent or the fact that they did not speak Polish, but Yiddish.  Still, most likely some Nazi's knew or suspected that some of the children they saw when they showed up at these nunneries were Jewish.  Perhaps they respected the nuns enough to pretend not to know.

This book contains the testimonials of some of the children as adults as well as some of the nuns.  It also contains a list of the orders of nuns by location, for instance  Baworow was the Albertine Sisters, Chorzow, the Dominican Sisters, Grodzisko, Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, Kostowiec, Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary.

A valuable book, that covers a part of history that many people's families took part in on one side or the other.

C 2014  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy

HOW JEWISH IS THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE, CATHERINE? HOW ABOUT HER HUSBAND WILLIAM?

Once upon a time I took Journalism classes in college and I'm miffed.  Why are so many publications simply refusing to call the former Catherine "Kate" Middleton, her proper name which is, since her marriage, Catherine Windsor, or Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge?  

Since she is now expecting another child, there is so much press coverage of Catherine and her husband, William Windsor, Duke of Cambridge, and reading around it for a couple hours the other night I discovered that there is a controversy circulating that Catherine is Jewish, or some small part Jewish.  One website I looked at said "She is not Jewish but she has Jewish ancestry."

Apparently this is a big issue because there is also speculation that Diana, Princess of Wales, the mother of William Windsor, Duke of Cambridge, was also Jewish, through her mother, and if the speculation is to be believed, Diana's genetic father may have been a Jewish man that her mother might have been having an affair with, making her the half sibling of Jemima Khan and the Goldsmiths.  One site declares that someday both the King and Queen of England will be Jews.

I find this all interesting, and I suppose the main importance of it would be that someday if William becomes King, it will be up to him to uphold and be the head of the Church of England.

On the side of "is Jewish" is that the surname Goldsmith, which is the maiden name of Catherine's mother, is supposed to be a "Jewish only" name from the days when only Jewish people were to be involved in precious metals and the making of jewelry.  One sit ehad a chart of the women in her mother's line, first names, surnames, and dates.  Back in the 18th century there was a Rebecca, for instance.  Well, I know Christian Rebecca's. 

Then there is the long held Jewish notion that the child is Jewish if the mother is.  That's by Jewish standards. But this doesn't take into account that people may have been practicing another religion for generations or be uninterested in religion.  Here, after many generations, we have the ONE DROP philosophy, which is that if a person has one ancestor who is Jewish, or Black, then they ARE, as if all those other ancestors should be discounted.  Having met people who wished to self identify with this rather flimsy evidence I back off and say "as you will." 

How someone looks has something to do with it, no doubt.  How society and culture in a time and place looks at a person, also has something to do with it.  DNA may also throw such controversies to the curb; I know one Black woman who just found out that her first American ancestor was a white Irish woman in early America in indentured servitude and who married a Free Black man.  She feels this has thrown her self identity.

Historically there have been a lot of people forced into conversion.  But there are also people who openly and willingly change religions.  Dare I say there are a lot of people who don't care all that much and just go along with the program?  For instance, in Europe people changed religion by command of whomever owned the land they lived on.

Clearly, when it comes to belief, both William and Catherine are members of the Church of England, which is Protestant Christian.  They are not Jewish.  They are not Catholic.  They were married in the Church of England.  Their children will be raised in the Church of England.  To me, no matter what their DNA, or the history of their families, they are what they are in the here and now.


C  2014 Ancestry Worship Genealogy  All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights

ALL SOULS - CHRISTIAN AND BUDDHIST or HINDU or JEWISH PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD GOLDFISH?

...to be released from Purgatory or Bardo to Heaven or Eternal Bliss...

I believe there is an afterlife. I also believe there is an experience best described as reincarnation. I eagerly read about the experiences those who "almost died" come back with. Although the tunnel of light and loving ancestors and friends who have passed on seems to be the most commonly reported experience, I have also read some very dark stories, some intent on converting the reader.

My most favorite reference to the near death experience is from prolific author and psychic, famous through television, Sylvia Browne. Sylvia has such a forthright personality. She tells it as she sees it, even if it's a little ouchy, at first.

OK, Sylvia Browne says that all the PETS you have owned and loved in ALL YOUR INCARNATIONS are also waiting for you when you make it through that tunnel of light to the OTHER SIDE... the very idea makes me smile.

CAN YOU IMAGINE YOUR PET FISH over there swimming, swimming, swimming in the ether? Waiting, waiting, waiting...

You know what? I can't. I am afraid that long ago I accidentally, through ignorance, killed some pet fish! One time I killed three fancy goldfish in their mucky mucky because I had the brilliant idea to put clean fresh water in their bowl! But maybe in eternal bliss they forgive me.

The turtle that never came out of hibernation in our basement: him too?


C Ancestry Worship Genealogy. All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.