LABOR DAY

 

This picture is attributed to Linnaea Mallette. 

I wish I knew the origin of it.

Notice that child laborers are included.

VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY : SOCIAL WELFARE HISTORY PROJECT : CHILD LABOR

Excerpt: Child Labor Defined: Historically, “child labor” is defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. However, not all work done by children should be classified as child labor. Children or adolescents’ participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays.

A GOOD STORY

 

MEMORIAL DAY

In 1890 every state in the United States (then in the Union) adopted MEMORIAL DAY to honor those who lost their lives in the service of the United States Military.  Since then service members may have their service noted on their tombstone or have markers placed by local veterans' groups.

Here is the link to the VA where a description of headstones, markers, and medallions, is given. National Cemetery Administration Headstones, Markers, and Medallions

Read about the no-cost benefits for veterans.

LOS ANGELES UNION STATION TRAIN FESTIVAL : MODEL RAILROADING GROUPS : ZOCAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Z SCALE MODEL RAILROADING GROUP

I was able to attend the "annual" train event recently for the first time. I went with a friend whose father road the rails during the Great Depression, hoping the coal fed steam engine trains to follow construction work. We got to see a black iron locomotive up close, hear the whistle, and see the smoke.

Although I've seen some model train displays over the years that featured some interesting scale set ups, I was unfamiliar with Z SCALE.  We loved the set up so at this time I want to give a little free advertising to the group.

ZO CAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Z-SCALE RAILROADING GROUP

FACEBOOK ZOCAL Z-SCALE GROUP

This isn't from the Union Station Show but is a display from the same group.

Link to some phots from the last show.  Maybe you'll want to go to the next. This link has a list of other model railroading groups...

UNION STATION LOS ANGELES TRAIN FESTIVAL 2025

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA "S" GAUGERS ORG : MODEL RAILROADING GROUP : UNION STATION TRAIN FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA S GAUGERS ORG  

Model train layouts always evoke the Christmas holiday season for me.  However, I also have the childhood memory of being in the car with my parents and stopping because a train was coming through, and counting the cars. If one was lucky, you might get a wave from someone riding in the caboose!

Back in the day the model train layouts I saw tended to portray quaint villages but as this video shows, these days city buildings and factories show another reality.

FIREWORKS

 

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BLOGSPOT BOOK REVIEW (AND A LIST OF TRIBES MENTIONED IN THE BOOK)

THE INDIAN CARD by CARRIE LOWRY SCHUETTPELZ

In this blog I sometimes post about Native American as well as African-American research as UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / AMERICAN research. From the hits I get on posts about Native American ancestry, I know that some of my readers are interested in making a claim to be considered "a member of the tribe." But I may have said this before; I have never gotten cooperation from the few tribes I've contacted, hoping that someone on that side would help a client become a member of the tribe. In the years since, as the Internet grew, more tribes have websites that provide information on what they consider and how they process enrollment, which is helpful. I've heard various "reasons why" some tribes are not helpful, including that those who have rights to money from casinos do not want to further share it. I'm always interested in what the processes to claim tribal membership might be.

The Indian Card, subtitled Who Gets To Be Native American, is a book about tribal enrollment from the perspective of a woman who is part of the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina. Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz has other heritages, but she focused on claiming the Native American aspect of her ancestry. Her mother had enrolled her when she was six. She was not raised to feel a part of that tribe, living over a thousand miles from where the Lumbee tribe is headquartered, but the card would be back in her hands years later after testing and reenrollment. In this book, she wrote about her personal experience as well as the frustrations of the attempt to collect information that might be valuable to anyone who wishes to do the same. 

In this book author Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz brings up the different ways that Tribes consider people for membership, the questions asked by the United States Census, the Dawes Rolls, and much more. 

You will find the following tribes mentioned - some detailed information, some just a note.

The Lumbee, Cherokee,  Navaho, Meskwaki, Oneida, Apache, Blackfeet, Checotah, United Keetoowah-Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Dakota, Seminole, Hopi, Iroquois, Kalona, Lakota, Lenape, Mohawks, Muscogee (Creek),Naticoke, Nooksack, Ojibwe, Quechan, Seneca, Seminole, Shawnee, Sioux, Tohono O'odham, Tulalip, Tuscarora, Wyandot, Wyandotte....

I highly recommend this book, which was so well written and thought out - so informative. For the purposes of Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot, I will excerpt information that will be especially interesting to my readers in the next few posts.

THE GROWING NUMBER OF AMERICANS WHO REPORT BEING NATIVE AMERICAN ON UNITED STATES CENSUS

Excerpt  Introduction : If you, like me, track the results of the U.S. Census because nothing in this cold world makes sense except the hard facts of multivariate data analysis, you've seen it, too: the population of people in this country who self--identify as Native has exploded.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, about 4.1 million people checked the Indian box, a term I use to describe the carousel of options that have appeared for Native Americans and Alaska Natives. By 2010, that number had increased to 5.2 million.  And in 2020. 9.7 million people - more than twice the 2000 county - self-identified as Native.

Certainly, there have been a few changes to the way we count. In 2000, for example, for the first time in census history, people could check more than one box for race. So, if we assume that people were previously choosing between their racial identities, the 2000 census presented an interesting change in methodology.  In deed, the number of people who identified as Native in the 1990 census was just under 2 million, less than half the number in 2000. There has also been a significant push to count more of the Native people living on reservations, a population that has a higher census :undercount" of any population in the United States, at 5.6 percent...... Over the last ten years, increased Tribal consultation has taken place, as have efforts to "get out the count" in native communities.

C 2025  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

Book Review and Excerpt selections

All Rights reserved including Internet and International Rights

Just a note: I always hope that if my excerpts intrigue you, you'll buy a copy of the book or request that your library does!

YOUR ANCESTORS LIVED THROUGH HISTORY AND WE ARE TOO! I CANNOT MATCH THE STRENGTH and COURAGE OF MY ANCESTOR, ROSE

It's always a pleasure to research and write this genealogy blog which includes American History with it's main focus being genealogy in the United States and for Americans. 

I was reminded recently that we too are living through history.

The other day I was showing a new friend some photos I had found, my immigrant ancestors on their 50th wedding anniversary, which took place in the 1950's. My new friend comes from one of the oldest American immigrant heritages there is - Dutch into New Amsterdam. His heritage has been part of is family story as long as he can remember, including the name of the wooden sail ship his ancestors were on that came across the Atlantic in the 1600's. I, on the other hand, had almost nothing to go on but the names of my grandparents.

I told him the story of my ancestors in particular the woman named Rose, whose strength and courage I cannot match.

All I had known as a girl of ten, who was beginning to understand that I was actually related to some of the people I met when we visited, was that Rose had been an orphan. I didn't know until years later that in Europe an orphan was a fatherless child, but Rose had been "Double Orphaned." It was assumed she had been alone as a child, without siblings or relatives. 

Rose passed before I had any idea that I should be asking questions and what those questions should be. So, on a trip to visit relatives years later, I asked her youngest daughter, "How was Rose orphaned?"

The story came forward sans any details.  One parent "burned up in a fire" and the other was "killed on the road."

When Rose was in her 80's she stayed with this relative for a couple weeks summer vacation. One morning she was up especially early. She explained that she had just had the most wonderful dream. She explained that in her dream a man had come to her and said, "At last I have found you!"  Then, in the dream, they danced and danced and danced.

Rose was a humble women who always wore a long house dress and an apron and it was not easy to imagine her dancing. One wondered if she'd had a boyfriend before marrying at nineteen and coming to American with a baby onboard the steamship.

The man she had dreamt about turned out to be a brother!

All these years later, scraps of stories that I overheard, or that were all that was left of memories that may have been considered too horrible to relay to children, have been rooted in genealogy research and embellished with historical and cultural research.

Rose, it turns out, was the result of a marriage of a woman who had been widowed and a man who had been widowed twice. Her mother had three children, so she had three half siblings. Rose's father (who most think was the one "killed on the road" was thus the step-father to three. She also had two brothers, who had come to America but decided to go back to Europe after they realized the conditions they would have to live in if they worked in factories here rather than farms there.

But, Rose said, "When we were orphaned, my brother" (the one who had come to her in a dream) said, "Don't worry, you will always have me."

What happened to him?

"He went down with the ship."

For years now I have from time to time worked on finding out what ship and when it went down.  It was not the Titanic (everyone asks). Though I don't have the name of the ship, or know if he was on crew or a passenger, through genealogy I've been able to narrow the years this could have happened between a visit or immigration of his wife and her remarriage in Europe a few years later.

As a woman who lost both of her parents as a child, likely before the age of thirteen (the death records are nowhere to be found), and who went to work that young, who married a man their friends arranged, and immigrated to America, Rose was likely traumatized, yet she and her children prevailed, She not only come to America with a baby in her arms but also have birth to many more children.

I sometimes weep a bit for Rose but I more often think that compared to her I'm weak and cowardly!

I take inspiration from her...

I'm proud to have met her!

How do ancestor's figure in your story?

Happy Holidays!

Christine

C 2024 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

SENTIMENTAL FAMILY REGISTER

 

AFRICAN AMERICAN REGISTRY presents THE HEADRIGHT PROPERTY SYSTEM IN AMERICA

THIS IS A HISTORY - EDUCATIONAL WEBSITE that is searchable by topic including by names.

AFRICAN AMERICAN REGISTRY ORG - SEARCH FOR TOPIC

I tried the words ATLANTA and ACTIVIST

Excerpt: Slavery and the headright system

Plantation owners benefited from the headright system when they paid for the Middle Passage. This, and the increased amount of money required to bring indentured servants to the colonies, contributed to the shift toward chattel slavery.  Until 1699, an enslaved person was worth a headright of fifty acres. According to records, in the 1670s, over 400 enslaved people were used as headrights in Virginia.

This number increased in the 1680s and 1690s. Many families gained power in the colonies by receiving large tracts of land when they imported enslaved people. For example, George Menefie purchased sixty enslaved people and received 3,000 acres in 1638. In 1699, it was decided that a headright would only be granted to free citizens and that transporting indentured laborers or slaves would no longer be a guarantor of land.

Issues with land patent records

According to records, there was a large discrepancy between the number of headrights issued and the number of new residents in the colonies. This gap may be explained by the high mortality rates of Blacks and the inhumane conditions they endured crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the colonies. Landowners would receive headrights for the dead; thus, the gap would widen between population growth and the number of headrights issued. Another explanation suggests that the secretary's office that issued the headrights grew laxer. There were few regulations in place to keep the headright system in check. Because of this, several headrights were claimed multiple times, and people took advantage of the lack of governance.

C 2024-2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved

HEADRIGHT LAND GRANTS BEGAN IN THE COLONIES WITH THE VIRGINIA COMPANY

What was the incentive for a person to leave Europe and immigrate to a new country across the Atlantic Ocean? Transportation was on a wooden sail ship - small - called a bark (a bark had three or more masts) and rugged.  One might not survive the trip or leave family behind, never to be seen again.

Often it was the promise of land by HEADRIGHT or of employment.  Back in Europe those who were not in line to inherit, because they were not first sons, thought the idea of owning land despite the risks was the only way to get ahead.  But what if you were already here and experiencing a labor shortage?  You could import a laborer and become entitled to land!  Head in the term headright refers to ONE PERSON and that person might come as an indentured servant or as a laborer.  Many American Ancestors came this way.  The system spread from 1618 in Jamestown, Virginia  - from The Virginia Colony (which was the same as the Virginia Company) to other states such as Maryland, Georgia, and the Carolinas. For those who imported a laborer, the grants away usually fifty (50) acres per HEAD.

The system, which spread also to the Plymouth Colony, is controversial also because the indentured servant might spend about seven years paying off their voyage costs to the person who imported them, but then slaves were also brought in this way.  In a future post we'll look at the implications of that practice.

If you're searching for Colonial American Ancestors, consider learning the history of the region you find them and also look for documentation of land ownership or grants.

HERE is a link to AMERICAN HISTORY CENTRAL

Excerpt: In 1618, the Virginia Company approved the “Charter of Orders, Lawes, and Privileges” that implemented the Headright System. The system provided an incentive to wealthy investors to send more workers to Jamestown and the Virginia Colony.

Most of the workers the investors paid for were indentured servants or enslaved people.

The investor retained ownership of the land they received for each worker.

The system contributed to the growth of the population in the colonies, especially Virginia, along with the expansion of the lower class and chattel slavery.

The Headright System was modified in 1699 so investors could not receive land for indentured servants or slaves.

MEMORIAL DAY

We Americans have this day off in order to remember our veterans, 

but there are so many "wars" our ancestors fought on the home front, and personally.  

Let's remember them all.

LORDS PRAYER FAMILY CHART 1890

This image is from The Library of Congress.  The description says it is a print showing an oval design composed of flowers in frames fashioned from tree branches, at center, within the oval is a young girl kneeling before a book open to The Lords Prayer...

It was created in Louisville, Kentucky by C.D. Phelps  C 1890 

FLAG DAY U.S.A.

 

This is the day to honor the emblem of the United States of America, the Flag, to fly it and learn to fold it.  Speaking of, it's been a while but in the past I've gotten some great information I needed from the genealogy database called Fold3.  The name Fold3 came from the folding of the flag into a three pointed triangle.  The site came upon the scene with military records.

PATRIOTISM IS VOTING

 

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.

BACK TO SCHOOL!

 

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN : FRANK SINATRA

MAP OF THE UNITED STATES WITH THE NAMES OF THE STATES TRANSLATED

MAPS OF THE STATES WITH THEIR NAMES TRANSLATED 

Thought this was interesting and fun!  Do you live in the Milky Water?  The Thicket Clearers?  Or perhaps the Mythical Island Califa?

MEMORIES