THANKS TO VOLUNTEERS LOTS OF GENEALOGY INFORMATION IS FREE ON THE INTERNET

This week I looked into the LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA genealogy offerings. I was really impressedwith the obituaries that volunteers have uploaded of those who DIED IN MINING ACCIDENTS. These on -line obits have details as to how each miner died.

WHAT ABOUT THAT NAME POLLY? IS SHE REALLY MARY?

Everyone knows of people who don't go by the name on their birth certificate at all. Maybe it's as simple as turning their birth certificate name Karen into Caryn.

Maybe from the day they were brought home from the hospital everyone called the baby "Dinky" and it stuck, even though "Dinky" is really Angelica and 56 years old.

And then there is the fact that some people changed their names as simple as that; in the days before your social security number was really a citizenship enrollment number and you could be found through it and your credit you really could arrive in a new town, give yourself a new name, and start a new life.

When you're looking for genealogical records, it's important to know something about naming patterns by ethnicity, by family (once you have the chart together you may notice that a certain name has been passed from grandfather to grandson for generations), and through translation (so she was named Zsa Zsa Now she goes by Susan.)

Some Germans, for instance seem to have given their children up to 4 names, based on pattern, but then called the child by the second name.

In some families children are on census by their nicknames which seem to have no relationship to their birth names. In one family I researched the census taker assumed that a girl named Salley was really Sarah and listed her that way, which was incorrect. (The same census taker turned a girl named Toni into a boy named Anthony.)

Years ago someone who was stuck in their research could not find their Polish ancestor who they said was named Walenty in the New York census. The temptation is first to try various misspellings - or change the W to V (common), or to think maybe the man got called Wally. I found Walenty by researching to find that the English translation of this name is Valentine.

In colonial times a great many girls named Mary got called Polly. I have no idea why. I've just found it to be true many times. Patsy was really Martha...

So, if you can't find them by the name you expect, by all means try to find the name in translation, or by nickname!

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STEAMSHIP POSTCARDS! ADD SOME SIZZLE to your FAMILY STORY

This image is by Dover Publications and is free for use with a subscription and for non profit sites only.

SPAIN MAY CHANGE SURNAME TRADITION TO END SEXIST NAME BIAS

"Spain's Socialist government has found a new place to push for gender equality, seeking to erase all vestiges of male bias from the country's double-barreled last names.

Spaniards have two surnames, and under current law for registering babies, either the father's or the mother's can come first. Traditionally, however, it is the dad's and in cases of disagreement among the parents, the father's name automatically takes priority."

Read this news article now by clicking on the title of this post!

WW II SOLDIER RETURNS CHILD ART TO DAUGHTER

Link now to Yahoo News:

An American soldier during World War II found children's art on a dead Japanese soldier. He had the art on his wall for years and has just found the Japanese soldier's daughter, who he returned the art to. A war story with a happy ending...

The Japanese use items like these on ancestral altars to connect with the deceased.

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?


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TALES OF MEDIEVAL TIMES

 

Treacherous territory and valiant warriors live in the heroic tales of Old Europe.This image is from Dover Publications and is free with a subscription for use on non profit sites only.

I'M POSTING FROM THE FAMILY HISTORY CENTER - LOS ANGELES !

I'm posting from the NEWLY OPENED LATTER DAY SAINTS FAMILY HISTORY CENTER. (THIS POST IS POPULAR AND HAS BEEN UPDATED JANUARY 12, 2012)

I just took the tour and WOW!

The facility is larger and absolutely BEAUTIFUL; light, airy, cream walls and blue and green carpet with a leaf motif and large sepia toned photographs of ancestors of various ethnic groups - the Irish, the Poles, etc.

THERE ARE DOZENS OF COMPUTERS set up to link to useful genealogy research sites! There are large classrooms for telecasting classes from Salt Lake and teaching while being telecast to Salt Lake. The Church did not waste a dime in designing and implementing a state of the art facility.

HERE ARE SOME CHANGES :

ALL CENSUS RECORDS ON MICROFILM ARE GONE.ALL PASSENGER/SHIP RECORDS ON MICROFILM ARE GONE.

(This may not be so positive. I have in the past tried to duplicate my research on Ancestry (which is available for free at the Family History Center) and COULD NOT DO IT. I'm great at figuring out bad handwriting and most database entry people must not be... I would rather turn microfilm and read page after page than try guessing some of the mispellings that would lead to the same information. I've also found information ON THE BACK of handwritten cards and indexes.)

THERE ARE STILL MICROFILMS AND MICROFILM READERS.
TO ORDER FILMS YOU MUST DO SO ON LINE.

ALL THE BOOKS THAT ARE NO LONGER UNDER COPYRIGHT LAW ARE REMOVED TO SALT LAKE WHERE THEY ARE BEING DIGITIZED.

THE OLD MAP ROOM/MAPS IS GONE.

SOME OF THE LINKS ON THE COMPUTERS such as INTERNMENT.COM are still paid or trial; you don't need to come into the library to do that. FOOTNOTE DATABASE IS FREE OF CHARGE WHEN USED AT FAMILY HISTORY CENTER. In some cases I'm having better luck with Footnote than Ancestry. The name of Footnote is now Fold3.

THERE IS SOMETHING POSITIVE TO BE SAID FOR A DESTINATION THAT IS DEVOTED TO GENEALOGY and to BE SURROUNDED BY OTHER RESEARCHERS. I CONTINUE TO BE INSPIRED BY HEARING OTHER RESEARCHERS STORIES including their research methods.

There are some rules and regulations stated which I am glad for. One of those is no sexual harassment or vulgarity. I am glad this is the case as that is a problem I had with a male or two while researching a few years ago. It was enough to make me stop using LDS and moving my base of operations elsewhere.

IS THERE A GHOST UNDER THAT ARMOR?

PEONY IN LOVE by LISA SEE : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK EXCERPT and REVIEW

PEONY IN LOVE by LISA SEE : ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK EXCERPT and REVIEW

Page 19

"I lit incense, knelt on a pillow, and looked up at the two large ancestor portrait scrolls that hung on the wall above the altar table. On the left was my grandfather, an imperial scholar who had brought great dignity, security, and wealth to our family. In the painting, he sat in his robes, his legs spread, a fan open in one hand. His face was stern, and the skin around his eyes was wrinkled from wisdom and worry. He died when I was four, and y memory of him was of a man who preferred silence from me and had little tolerance for my mother or for the other women in our household.

"To the right of the altar table in another long school was my father's mother. She also wore a severe expression. She had a position of great honor, in our family and in the country, as a martyr who'd died in the Cataclysm (note: this is the overthrow of the Ming dynasty by the Manchus). In the years leading up to her sacrifice, my grandfather had served as the Minister of Works in Hangzhou. My grandfather left the Chen Family Villa here in Hangzhou and traveled two days by boat and by palanquin to live with him in Yangzhou. Not realizing disaster was coming, my parents went to Yangzhou for a visit. Soon after they arrived, the Manchu marauders invaded..."


Page 112

"Forty-nine days after my death, my family crowded into our ancestral hall for the dotting of my ancestor tablet and final goodbye. Storytellers and a handful of singers gathered in the courtyard. Someone of great distinction - a scholar or member of the literati - is always given the honor of placing the final precious dot on the ancestor tablet. Once this was done, a third of my soul would be transferred to the tablet, where it would watch over my family. The dotting would allow me to be worshipped as an ancestor and give me a place to inhabit on earth for all eternity. My dotted ancestor tablet would also be the object through which my family would send their offerings to sustain me in the afterworld, make requests for my help, and provide comfort to me as a way of averting potential hostility In the future, when my family embarked on a new business venture, named a child, or considered a marriage proposal, they would consult me through my tablet..."

C 2007 by Lisa See
Random House Publishers

REVIEW: PEONY IN LOVE was a wonderful read as a novel. It is set in a turbulent time in which some Chinese women took advantage of a revolution to venture out of lives lived actually hobbled by foot binding and the seclusion expected of upper class women. These women became poets and writers, many writing of the suffering of love. It's also apparent that Lisa See did her research not only on the literary progress of women in China in the 17th century but also into the Chinese spiritual belief in hungry ghosts, those who died without having family to honor them. The excerpts above is from the early stages of the novel and in the voice of Peony who becomes a hungry ghost herself. I hope I've tantalized you into reading this novel!

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THE HEIGHT OF SOCIETY - THE MILLER SISTERS - COME FROM MAYFLOWER ANCESTRY

Marie-Chantal Miller married Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, and her wedding in London was attended by royals and aristocrats - so many that some had to watch on TV at the reception. Her sisters married into the Gettys and the Von Furstenbergs. Would you believe that these daughters of a billionaire come from all American roots on their father's side, traceable to Mayflower passengers?

William Addams Reitwiesner presents his research at the site linked here, and it really is so much fun to read some of those old names: Hugh Squarebriggs, Experience Mitchell, and Hepzibah Washburn.

Their only illustrious ancestor seems to be a Jewish businessman named Isaac Samuels, born in Poland/Prussia ca. 1785 and worth $100,000 dollars in the 1850's.

FALL is a TIME OF HARVEST, REST, REMEMBRANCE, and ANCESTOR WORSHIP

At this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, the Fall equinox has recently passed, the Harvest Festivals are in high gear, and Thanksgiving in the United States - celebrating plenty and prosperity - is not far away.

Until recently, until the Industrial and then Technological Revolution, our ancestors lived around AGRICULTURE, and fall was a time of rest before the harshness of snowy and sometimes bitter winters.

It is during this season that the remembrance of our ancestors, be it through the Mexican DAY OF THE DEAD festivities (all those sugary funny skeletons going through the paces of daily life in the afterlife!) or ALL SOULS DAY (throughout Christendom).

Today I try to imagine what life so close to the earth and the weather and so dependent on local crops must have been. Today we live lives extended through better nutrition (vitamins!) and medicine, but in the past, at this time of year many people must have wondered if they would live through the winter to see the spring flowers bloom.

Today we are sheltered from death in many ways. We expect to live a long time and plan accordingly. When someone dies it is not so often at home but in a hospital, where professionals come to take the body away; it used to be the relatives did so and laid the person out at home.

This is a good time to collect the memories of our living relatives and to ask their cooperation in our genealogy and family history projects. You may want to record the stories of funerals - the wakes, walk around cemeteries recording information from tombstones, or simply light a candle to those ancestors who help you in your research!