HER DNA SUGGESTS RACE AND ETHNICITY - WAS IT MARRIAGE OR RAPE? : QUESTIONS FROM READERS of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

Question for Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

(Please note that this person showed me her results and asked me to interpret them.)

My genealogy research takes me back to Southern Poland and parts of what is now Slovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine. I know this was the Austrian Empire, but my ancestors always had their "ethnic I'm" as these ethnicities. I'm showing Asian ancestry on one side and Near Eastern ancestry on the other. Percentages would l be about one sixteenth of each - so that would be great great grandparents - right? Is this the end of my standard paper trail research?  Please comment.  Thanks.

G.

Answer from Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

Not necessarily.

First remember that all results are statistically based and dependent on all the people who have chosen to contribute their personal data to that particular company's results and that stats are reworked based on an ever-growing number of considerations. Also, as more understanding of genetics and DNA comes forth, it can get more specific - such as what tribe (be that Native American or Native European - so to speak). Sometimes this information can lead us past a block.

One sixteenth could be a great great grandparents. We each have two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, and sixteen great-great grandparents. However, it could be some other combination such as four of the thirty two great great great grandparents. Or some small strain in many ancestors that adds up.

Today many people simply feel American or Canadian or British - or whatever - though only one of their lines show that. Other people relate to an ethnicity or way of life - including attitudes and lifestyle - that they may be criticized for adopting because there is no biological evidence for it.  (This is one of the reasons I think sometimes that a past life experience is why.)

As for the paper trail - standard genealogy - it is always worth pursing even if it is at odds with the DNA or genetic results.  However, the notions that genealogy will prove generations of marriages - chosen and happy marriages - or unite a fractured family are myths. People may have lives that were more controlled or regimented or limited than we have come to expect as Americans, but there were still affairs and there was rape. Rape is so common that I doubt there is anyone alive who doesn't have some DNA as a result of rape.

Some areas of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine, experienced invasions and occupations that included murder and rape. I suspect you will not likely find church or temple records going into the 19th or 18th century that reveal that. You might want to read about the Tatars, Mongols, and Ottoman Turks.

In my years as a genealogist, I've rarely found notations in records that expand on the explanation of illegitimacy, for instance. (Once in a while an understanding priest wrote in "father in America" or something about a death before marriage - alluding to a romance or plan to be married when the unfortunate happened.)  It's so sad to me when I find a woman in the records who had one child after another without a father and see how soon those children died. I always wonder if she was a woman repeatedly taken advantage of by men in the village - perhaps an orphan or someone born without average intelligence - someone who might have been forced into prostitution.

A W G

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GREEN BOOK GUIDES REVEALED PLACES WHERE AFRICAN-AMERICAN WERE WELCOME

New York Public Library provides the GREEN BOOKS.  These were like local travel guides to help African-Americans find out where they were welcome when they traveled. 

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY - GREEN BOOKS - AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

EXCERPT: From 1936 to 1966, Victor Green, a postal worker who worked in New Jersey but lived in Harlem, published the directories known today as the Green Book. (The Actual titles were variously" The Negro Motorist Green Book; The Negro Traveler's Green Book; the Travelers' Green Book.) These listed hotels, restaurants, beauty salons, night clubs, bars, gas stations, etc. where Black travelers would be welcome.  In an age of sundown towns, segregation, and lynching, the Green Book became an indispensable tool for safe navigation.

A valuable aspect of African American History. 

You may find that some of the locations appear on the 1940 census and have residents.

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

FASCINATING STUDY OF ANCIENT ROME DNA PROVES ETHNIC DIVERSITY

STANFORD : GENETIC HISTORY OF ROME

Excerpt:  An analysis of some of the earliest samples more or less comports with what has been found around Europe - they represent an influx of farmers primarily descended from early agriculturalists from Turkey and Iran around 8,000 years ago, followed by a shift toward ancestry from the Ukrainian steppe somewhere between 5000 and 3000 years ago.  By the founding of Rome, traditionally dated to 753 BCE, the city's population had grown and diversity and resembled modern European and Mediterranean peoples.

WHAT'S UP at the FAMILYSEARCH - LDS FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY IN SALT LAKE DURING CORONAVIRUS-19 LOCKDOWN

The Family History Library owned and operated by the Latter Day Saints Church (ie. The Mormons) in Salt Lake City, Utah, is genealogy central in the United States.  The outside of the physical library now has the FAMILYSEARCH title on it.

So many generations of researchers and historians - since before there was Internet or on-line databases - have depended upon it.  The library currently holds more data than the Library of Congress.  Television series that focus on genealogy such as Who Do You Think You Are, depend on professionals and research assistants who spend about 1000 hours of research for one 40-minute program.

If you have a FamilySearch account, which is easy enough to sign up for, you can log in and watch live stream videos or find past live stream videos done on Zoon now archived on YouTube.  Some of these are instructional, others update you on what's happening there, and there are some question-and-answer opportunities.

I suspect that a lot of people are using their time indoors to do their genealogy research because every time I log in to FamilySearch and start a search the whirling icon keeps on whirling.

I know my browser needs updated but I cannot at this time do it.  It's annoying that the message comes up EACH AND EVERY TIME a new page shows up on my screen.  What a pain in the butt.

The library was affected by the recent earthquake that occurred in Salt Lake just shortly after it all closed down due to the virus.  The shelves are sturdy and bolted so none of them fell but some ceiling panels and books did land on the floor.  This is good news.  Should it reopen and you be researching there, you're not likely to be hurt in an earthquake of the 5.7 or less category.

5.7 is a good shake but nothing compared to the Northridge quake of 1994 which was 6.7.  (The earth experience earthquakes all over every single day, this we know due to the latest technology.  However, it does seem to me that earthquakes are occurring in more places that don't expect them and where housing might not be built or fortified for them.)

Enjoy your research.  Try to take good notes you can read in the future, so you know where you stopped, what your goals are, and so on.


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ERASING YOUR DNA : HEATHER DEWEY-HAGBORG

A BLOOMING ROW OF TREES

REVISITING THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS

I was quite excited to find a handwritten testimonial from a relative about his experience in the CCC's recently.  I posted about the CCC's several years ago and wanted to revisit the web site.

CCC LEGACY ORG

Now that I have the names of two different camps he worked in, I will check the states for the camps by name.  There are photos of some of the camps... and an opportunity to share.

Of the many links there is this one: THE LIVING NEW DEAL which has interactive maps where you can find ART /PUBLIC WORKS made by New Deal craftsmen and artists.

Using the Dollar Times Inflation Calendar that I have on my side posts, I learned that $30 in 1940 is equal to $550.66.

Just a note October 2022 : Click on the label CCC's or Civilian Conservation Corps to bring up other informative posts on this subject.

YOU CAN GET CENSUS INFORMATION 1950 -2010 with HEIR PROVISION

CENSUS - UNITED STATES OFFICIAL SITE

72 years of privacy guard most of us from having our private information displayed to the world - at least from this agency.

You may have reason not to want that information out - now or forever.

Maybe you were in a hospital or shelter or orphanage. 

Maybe you don't want your family to know where you are.

Maybe you want to die without anyone else knowing it.

But so many people are living beyond 72 years of age these days.

The 72 years was originally based on the idea that most people would not be alive when this information about them would be made available.

As a researcher you can occasionally bypass the 72 year wait.

Read the forms at the official U.S. Census site and see if you are eligible to have them do a search for an individual.  The reason will be to confirm an age for a delayed birth certificate or locating someone due to an inheritance, some implied legal reason.

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NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM - NOT JUST FOR "DUTCH" : JEWISH GENEALOGY post #3

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AMSTERDAM

The story of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews being converted or being expelled is that they went wherever they were welcomed and Holland and Amsterdam was one of those places. (Greece and Italy were also popular and generally you will find that some Sephardic Jews also lived in Germany, Poland, and Russia.) Sephardic means Spanish speaking.  Over decades of marrying within their own people, Sephardic Jews sometimes feel they are distinct genetically and culturally from German Jews or Jews of Slavic lands. They may have changed their surnames or used one name as a kind of civic name and another among their brethren.

For genealogists the search is for IMMIGRATION RECORDS.

Within the National Archives of Amsterdam site, you may find the following that will be helpful to that quest.

NAME CHANGES as a means of assimilation to a new culture.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION or SPONSORSHIP.  Not so different from the requirements of immigrants in the United States during the 19th and early 20th century, you had to know someone who would write that you had a good character or that they would support you financially.  Find one of these letters and you may verify where the people came from.

Also within this archives are a huge collection of SURNAME oriented collections.  So use the surname, be it Belmonte or Schonenberg, to see what others have given over.

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HUNTINGTON LIBRARY DOCUMENTS : SALT WORKERS IN WEST VIRGINIA and SLAVERY

LA TIMES LEGACY OF INDUSTRY FUELED BY SLAVERY : SALT WORKERS WEST VIRGINIA by Makeda Easter - an excellent article.


Excerpt:  Inside the cramped and dusty attic overlooking the pale green Kanawha River in the Appalachian Mountains, stacks of 100 year old business records - deposit books, letters from customers, employee records - balanced precariously on cabinets, lined shelves and sat scattered across the wooden floor.

***

The Huntington has acquired at auction documents of the slave trade and Underground Rail Road.  This acquisition is exciting to me as a genealogist.

HUNTINGTON ORG:   This link tells more about the salt works acquisition as well as another important slavery acquisition.


Excerpt: The first group of materials includes the papers of Zachariah Taylor Shugart... a Quaker abolitionist who operated an Underground Railroad stop at his farm in Cass County, Michigan. The centerpiece of the collection is an account ledger which contains the names of 137 men and women who passed through Shugart's farm while trying to reach freedom in Canada...

...

The second collection is the archive of some 2,000 letters and accounts documenting the history of the Dickinson and Shrewsbury saltworks, a major operation founded in 1808 in what is now Kanawha County, West Virginia...

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT