TRAVELS WITH GEORGE : ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

Nathaniel Philbrick*** is adept at writing about the early inhabitants of the colonies and key figures in the foundation of the United States. This book is about George Washington, who took office in 1789 and was our first President after a successful Revolutionary War campaign. It's about his family, his wife Martha, and slavery, as well as other aspects of the man's personality and character. 

What Philbrick did was travel the route that Washington himself did: New England to South Carolina and a small area of Georgia. He went to some of the places where Washington's presence was well known enough to enjoy tours and reenactments today. He talked to people.  As he says on page 6, "But this wasn't going to be the same kind of carefree ramble enjoyed by Harry and Bess (Truman)  in the 1950's. We were, after all, following the travels of a slaveholder at a time when Confederate monuments were being removed across the South.  The country's political divide seemed to be widening by the day.  And yet I didn't want this trip to be about what separates us.  I wanted to find out how Washington attempted to bind us together into a lasting union of states.  Acknowledging and even delving into his weaknesses and failings, especially when it came to slavery, I wanted to know what Washington got right - what tools he and his generation had left us to begin to build a better nation.

Oh, and a little independent research on my part; our first three presidents, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison all spoke with English accents. They didn't just speak with that accent, they had that accent because they were British, and their thoughts had to be influenced by a certain mentality of that ethnic heritage, that political system - the King - even as they wanted different for a new nation.

(I try to think of my own ancestors who were in Europe in 1800.  I often wonder what they heard of the American Revolution and what they thought of it.)

There are a few passages in this book that I thought were especially telling or valuable which I will be excerpting. In particular the way Washington dealt with his slaves and those who were brought into the marriage by his wife Martha, called "dower slaves," was especially telling. Laws of inheritance at the time prevented him from decisions on Martha's.

As I have been, rather than do one extremely long session of excerpts, I will play it forward and readers who are interested in more can bring up all posts by clicking on the label or using the search feature...  Try the words George Washington.  This book is a recommended read for those of you who like to learn more about American History, especially as it might pertain to your own genealogy research.

Oh, and as a P.S.  The author and his wife took their dog with them on their travels.  Washington loved his dogs.  Page 23:  "Not only had he almost single-handedly developed what we call today the American fox-hound, but he had a great affection for his dogs, giving them names like Sweet Lips, Drunkard, and True Love.

C 2023  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

*** In the past I reviewed his book about the Mayflower.

 

I'LL BE CHEERFUL STILL

DOG GENEALOGY! DOG REINCARNATION! BACK FROM VACATION!

I'm back from vacation!

But like in the old Norman Rockwell painting of the family that leaves for vacation excited and comes back spent, I'm not so rested! 

Oh it was so good to come home to my dog!

I had a neighbor walking my dog for ten days and was sort of torn up when I heard she'd cried for me for a long time!  My poor dog!  She doesn't want to loose me!  I love her so much!   When next we saw this neighbor my dog was so excited, I never saw such an exaggerated tail wag!  I thought she was ready to go live with my neighbor and forget all about me!

Which reminds me of when I adopted her.

You see, I was out at the local city shelter looking for a cat for a friend when I first spotted her.  But while I knew I wanted to get a dog, I was thinking in a couple months.  I'd been reading dog training books and videos, trying to relate to the latest theories, and I believed that I would need to buy a fence and a kennel first.  Well, instead of the cat for a friend I got a dog for myself.  I brought her home and learned right away that she was totally housebroken and wanted to sleep with me.    My dog has become my personal trainer, insisting that I walk her for at least an hour a day, which I usually do in two or three walks.  I gave up the gym for her!

Ever since I brought her home I've known that I'm dealing with a soul that has incarnated into a dog this time around.  Of course I know she's not a human - a person - but she does have personality! 

Imagine my surprise when I went to pay her license fees in person after one year of ownership and the receipt print out was actually a RAP SHEET, or a kind of PAST HISTORY VIA DOCUMENTATION.  In our city you must show that you've had the dog vaccinated for rabies, and I get her other vaccinations that are not required as well.  To me these are a very good bargain if they prevent a dog who encounters all sorts of other dogs on walks and at the local dog park who have not been vaccinated from becoming ill.

I got home and looked at the three page receipt.  It started out with a description of her that said she was a year and a half old and white.  I called the City because this wasn't right.  Oh yes it is, said the clerk, that's about her WHEN SHE WAS FIRST ADOPTED FROM US!  I continued to read.  At age 2 she'd been picked up by the DOG CATCHER! (Animal Control) and she was roaming, in her third trimester of pregnancy. It meant her first owner had dumped her at the City Shelter, paying a $20 fee.  Her second owner paid higher fees so that she could take her out of there to be bred!  My dog had then become a mother, at least once, before she was SPAYED AND MICROCHIPPED!  That owner came and got her.
But when she was five, someone, a "possible owner" paid another $20 to dump her back at the city shelter for possible adoption.  She'd been in DOG JAIL three times!

That wasn't the end of her story, because the day I got her, I really was determined to get that cat.  I walked in fifteen minutes after the shelter opened to the public.  When I walked past the kennel she had been in for 10 days (when they usually only keep a dog for 5 days) and her picture was down and she was gone, MY HEART SUNK INTO MY STOMACH.

"I want her!"  I heard the words coming out of my mouth with a little squeak at the end.

"I'll go see if she's still available," the clerk said.  I heard "If she's still alive!"

So the clerk went into the door of the room where the dogs are in cages waiting to be put to death.  Came out fifteen minutes latter and said "You can have her!"

Luckily I actually had more than $20 on me that day.  Her fees were discounted.  I later learned that because she had such a sweet temperament and was so cute, they had actually done a lot for this dog.  Her before pictures testifies to neglect.  She was covered in dreadlocks.  They had bathed and puppy shaved her.  She probably had been roaming again, and had been eating garbage, because they had to deworm her.  She came in at 15 pounds.  When I got her to the vet a couple days later she was only 12 pounds.  She wasn't eating.  She was scared and crying.  When we put her on the table she started to shake.  They had given her a year's worth of vaccinations. She's still afraid of any metal table, any high table. 

He said "A cat would rather die than eat something it doesn't like.  But a dog, after four days, will eat anything - unless it's sick.  Give her one more day."

So I did.  I went to the grocer and brought back the hearts and livers of a chicken.  When I started cooking these, my dog came running.  She also came running the next day when I was steaming a cauliflower. 

Once she started sleeping with me, I realized she had not been crying to be taken to the curb at 3 am.  Once I started taking her to the curb I realized she need to walk a bit before she goes.

Sometimes I wonder about her other owners, what her life was life, if she ran away out of unhappiness or just got caught out chasing a squirrel, if they loved her, if they died, and I can never know, though I want to tell someone "it's OK I have her and love her now.  She wasn't put to death!"

Sometimes I just tell her "I know you are a little person in a dog body this life.  I know you've had it hard.  I know you have children out there somewhere, and maybe grandchildren."

I can tell you that my dog listens. She moves her ears.  She makes eye contact.  She was never trained to obey commands in any language but since she's been living with me, she knows GO, WALK, TREAT, SIT, and GO IN YOUR ROOM.

I asked the vet if he agreed with her paperwork when it came to her mixed breed.  He said "probably."  I asked him if people who were more concerned with breed than me had DNA tests run on their dogs.

He said, "Yes, and you would be surprised.  A dog the size of yours, just two generations back, could be from a dog like this..."  He spread his arms.

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

DOG DNA : MY NEW DOG IS A MIX : BUT WHAT I'M SEEING ON THE OUTSIDE MAY NOT BE HER DNA ON THE INSIDE

Took my new (old) dog to the vet recently and asked him if he agreed about her mixture from the looks of her. She's a rescue animal. My heart just sunk when I saw that she and her photo had been removed from the kennel where I'd visited her before, and heard she had just been "pulled." I apparently got her just a few minutes after she was to go to doggie Auschwitz.

She's in the MALTIPOO (Maltese - Poodle) category, at least from the looks of her hair, but I got her shaved of any fancy hairdoo and don't plan to go nutty with hair bows and so on. (I've never liked the Poodle or Maltese look, though I think this dog is beautiful. I picked her for her sweet personality.)

It's simply too hot here in Southern California to keep a dog that was meant to live in the snow belt, and so has a big coat, at least I think so. I don't want to run air conditioning all the time and frankly think it would be unfair to her, especially when the pavement is over 100 degrees and I see how fast she's run-walking with those little feet.

I told the vet that I thought knowing what breed an animal is might help me with her diet, her innate habits, and make me more knowledgeable about what ailments she's inclined to have. I told him I was very interested in DNA.

He told me that many of his clients had their dog's DNA run and that I would be very surprised, some small dogs turned out to be mostly large dogs genetically, and so looks are not such a great way to predict what might be happening inside.

My new (old) dog managed to leap over a barrier twice her height the first night she was with me so she is fearless. She also learned that whimpering will make me feel sorry for her and let her sleep with me. I'm delighted to say that within the week she has started to take her responsibility of alerting me to intruders very seriously. Like any new mom I've been living around her, worrying over her poops and if she's drinking enough water and why she hates her dog food.

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR DOG'S DNA TESTED?