ANDREW JACKSON : GOOD - EVIL - AND THE PRESIDENCY : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

Someone who told me that they were a descendent of Andrew Jackson was lying or Andrew had a love child that few know about. 

Watching this PBS special, I learned that Andrew Jackson and his wife were childless. I also learned that they had married when Rachel left her first husband and unhappy marriage to take off with Andrew.  His wife Rachel, a divorced woman, though their marriage was long and strong, was not accepted by Washington society women.

YOUTUBE link to ANDREW JACKSON Documentary

 Andrew Jackson was orphaned by 13 and, with daring-do, a strong sense of personal integrity about right and wrong (characteristically for the times he found nothing wrong with slavery), he was highly important to the formation of the United States as we know it. 

He wasn't considered to be the most sophisticated of men with his back-woods beginnings, roughhousing, military might, and so on, but he was very much OF THE PEOPLE and that's why he got to be president.

C 2022-2025  Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot

RIDING THE RAILS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

RIDING THE RAILS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

I used YouTube to listen to a reading and talk author Errol Lincoln Uys gave after publishing this book and selections from the PBS documentary and was so impressed, especially because I've never realized that about 350,000 youth under the age of 18 were riding the rails in the 1930's Great Depression here in the United States.

The youth tended to be displaced or runaways, girls too, some orphans, about 10 percent out for an adventure. Hunger was a fact of life.

Do you know the difference between a tramp, a hobo, and a bum?

A bum lives a transient life style not wanting to work. A hobo wants to work, be it an odd job for a meal or following crops. A tramp is a traveler who may not be rich but has means.

I was impressed at the way the author proceeded. A small add brought in thousands of letters, communication with about 500 began, and then 20 ex riders of the rails in youth were filmed giving testimonials. Their stories are supported with historical film footage.

The film also TR reveals there were African-American travelers but the life was worse for them. It also brings up child labor st a time when there were no government benefits. 

I recommend this film to those if you who have Great Depression ancestors, would like to learn more about the economic history of the United States, and all of you who are interested in or experiencing homelessness. 

Back in the day youth experienced danger catching trains and staying in encampments, including going missing and sexual harassment and prostitution. 

Think about it.

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INFLUENZA 1918 - WATCH THE PBS VIDEO and DECIDE ABOUT WEARING A MASK

INFLUENZA 1918 - LINK TO WATCH VIDEO

Catching up on documentary films these days (as well as working on my own personal genealogy research).  Been wearing a mask.  Some are bandanas wrapped around and knotted, some are hand sewn, and a friend made me one too.


GOT TO ADMIT I HOPE THE DAY WILL COME WHEN I CAN HAVE A MASK BURNING PARTY!

HALLOWED GROUNDS - AMERICA'S OVERSEAS CEMETERIES : ANCESTRY WORKSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

  HALLOWED GROUNDS - AMERICA'S OVERSEAS CEMETERIES : ANCESTRY WORKSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW 

HALLOWED GROUNDS focuses on the cemeteries in Europe where soldiers from World War I and World War II are buried. Turns out that simple crosses lined up like soldiers feature in most of these cemeteries. Most touching is that some Europeans have picked a soldier, learned of his sacrifice for their freedom, and have adopted him, bringing flowers since his own family is not likely to visit.  These cemeteries are in England and France, Italy, Luxemberg, Belgium.  Why was I surprised to learn that there are locations in Tunisia and the Philippines?

My meditation on this film was also that, sadly, we seem to be essentially hung up on World War II.  What about Viet Nam?  What about undeclared war?  I think maybe if it's not officially a war than it can't have official heroes (and heroines!)

According to this film at least 125,000 American military men and women are buried in these cemeteries.  Then there are so many more who are missing.  Probably forever.

Worth watching!

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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. 

BUFFALO BILL : ENACTING HISTORY - EMPLOYING NATIVE AMERICANS : PBS HOME VIDEO

Interested in learning a bit more about American History this summer?  I just learned a lot I didn't know about Buffalo Bill and his Wild West shows.


First this PBS HOME VIDEO:

Actual moving pictures of Buffalo Bill's show - in Europe!

I had no idea that the show went on for decades or that the troop toured Europe, with American's cowboys and Indians (i.e. Native Americans, not just people acting as) there to do dramatic renditions of American History, such as Custors Last Stand, or how well regarded William F. Cody was.

To Europeans America was considered quite strange.  Though in the shows the White man usually won over the Native Americans, the Indian Horse Riders and others who toured with Buffalo Bill liked him. 

After being entertained, ticket holders could go visit them in their show-side encampments, which brought them a little closer to understanding Native Americans as people.

Bill's personal life was in shambles but in the end he retired with the original wife he had married in his youth, a woman who still loved him though she'd threatened divorce since he had been so rarely at home.  In his later years Bill wasn't much interested in show business but his years of being Buffalo Bill was so much part of his life and fame and reputation, he could never really separate himself.

PBS : BUFFALO BILL - WILLIAM F. CODY Read more about him.

AUTRY MUSEUM of THE AMERICAN WEST  A great place to learn more about our American Western Heritage, Native Americans, and showman like Bill. (Artifacts from his shows in a gallery.)

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BUILDING THE ALASKA HIGHWAY : DID YOUR WORLD WAR II VET SERVE IN ALASKA? WORLD WAR II DRAFT REGISTRATIONS : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

BUILDING THE ALASKA HIGHWAY : DID YOUR WORLD WAR II VET SERVE IN ALASKA?

LINKING TO THE PBS PAGE FOR BUILDING THE ALASKA HIGHWAY

Did you know that during World War II our largest state, Alaska, was considered terribly undefended from the Japanese?  Did you know that our service men built a 1520 mile road, facing temperatures so low that men cried, and when the thaw came, mud called muskeg so deep that logs had to be used to float  a road across the muck?

If you're ancestor served in World War II and you've looked at his World War II Draft Registration or service records on one of the databases such as Fold3 and it says ALASKA then he may have served to build the road which helped make Alaska defensible.

The road building began in May of 1942 and eventually went across sub Artic Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory involving thousands of U.S. soldiers at a time when troops were segregated. In this video we learn also about the respect that African American men earned though their hard labor.

While watching the archival footage you'll be tempted to want to stop the film to see if you recognize anyone.  Could that be Grandpa?

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