GENEALOGY'S ROLE IN HEALING and WORKING WITH TIMELINES

Over the last few months I've had a lot to contemplate about the role of genealogy research when dealing with family, in particular family problems.  Genealogy can sometimes be an instrument of healing if understanding results from documents and can sometimes bust through mythologies that family believes as truth.

In one situation that was and is very difficult I finally came up with the solution: a time line.
I don't always use time lines and when I do I often find them to be most helpful as a reminder of what time-sensitive documents I may want to look for or perhaps overlooked as valuable.  In this case it was developing the time line of a person's grandmother and mother than created the beginnings of a healing, for it is what the person does with the information for themselves that is most important.

The situation was that the mother had due to illness and poverty had to give up the child to the care of others, which included her parents, fostering programs, and eventually an orphanage while the mother was in long term care.  The child had also been taken in by one particular aunt and uncle who had a few children to support and raise of their own, and one of these children, now an adult, had reported to me that the situation was never comfortable. 

Before the person who needs the healing was an adult, his mother had died and his father was remarried, fathering several children, but not available to him as a father.

He and his wife were bitter that his grandparents had "thrown him out."

Did they really throw him out when his mother, though ill, was alive?

First by developing a time line for the grandmother, we were able to reveal her childhood poverty, her lack of formal education (which must have been frustrating, for she was an intelligent woman, and the poverty of the family she and her husband had established in America.
During the 1940 census era, one adult child was supporting his parents and all remaining children in the household.

Using maps, we situated their row house not far from a river and using history of the area we were able to establish that this row house was across the street from a factory spewing fumes at all hours.

We were able to show that the family had not been in the city directories (which charged a fee for listing) or had a telephone until well past the point where most neighbor's did.

Using census we were able to establish that the older children left home by 14 to work as servants, other's joined the military to begin self supporting adult life.

Using church records we were able to establish that the family found religion important to them and had sacrificed to send their children to at least three first years of school in an ethnic church where they were able to begin to learn to read and write in English.

Using Social Security applications, we were able to establish the family expectation that all children begin to work for pay by 16 even when in high school.

But the time line was what made the difference because we progressed Grandma's life year by year.  Giving birth, having so many children in the household already. 

Very simply, by the time she had a grandchild to raise, this woman was worn out, exhausted, and by today's standards old enough to enjoy senior discounts.  Her husband, the grandfather was even older.

So if you find yourself or someone else in need of healing through understanding, I recommend doing a time line.


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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

Founded January 15, 2009

FATHER TIME - 1909 Postcard

TREE IN THE LIGHT OF A SLIVERY MOON

FIVE GENERATION FAMILY TREE

A BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY ARRIVED IN THE MAIL

At this special time of year I like to tell a special story.

I recently learned of a something quite beautiful that happened for a man who, because his mother was very ill for many years and his father abandoned them, had to bounce around with relatives, was put into foster care, was himself in a children's hospital for some time, and then went to an orphanage. He was born into poverty and his grandparents who took care of him were elderly and ailing when it was decided that when he started school he would have to move from their household. This man is nearing 80 years old now.

Several years ago a mystery package arrived in the mail.

I contained a carefully put together scrapbook.  Someone had put all the letters that had been received from his mother in chronological order. The person who sent this scrapbook is probably not the person to whom the letters were addressed.

He and his wife sat together and read one letter after another that his mother had written, expressing her love for him, her concern for him, and they cried their eyes out.

His mother had died in the 1950's.
Someone had saved the letters.
The person that they were addressed to cannot be found, they say. It was too long ago.

Soon I'm going to try and find someone who might be related to her.

Just in case.


Merry Christmas!

THANKSGIVING IS FOR FRIENDSHIP TOO

Our harvest festival of PLENTY.

THANKSGIVING DONE RIGHT is my favorite holiday.

It's spiritual, not religious, and it's important to invite your friends who don't have

local family.

PILGRIMS IN THE FAMILY TREE ?

EXCERPT:

Alden was among the 100 or so European men, women, and children who boarded the Mayflower bound for America in September 1620, but after the first winter only about 50 remained to face the New World. From that modest number came estimated millions who could claim a direct lineage to the Mayflower voyagers. Yet very few of those have assembled the irrefutable proof to join the official ranks of Pilgrim descendants.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, an organization whose mission is to “honor the memory of those who made that perilous voyage,’’ was chartered in Boston in 1897 and now had 52 chapters nationwide. Only those with Pilgrim blood ties are admitted as members. About 82,268 descendants have been documented in the 113 years since the society was established.


YOU CAN ASK THE MAYFLOWER SOCIETY FOR SOME HELP, but it's up to you to prove you're related.


http://archive.boston.com/news/history/articles/2010/09/12/pilgrims_in_the_family_tree/

ROY HAMILTON - CHEROKEE NATION GENEALOGIST - LECTURE

Roy Hamilton, Cultural Advisor, Genealogist, and Project Manager with the Cherokee Nation

CHEROKEE BY BLOOD or BY CITIZENSHIP of THE CHEROKEE NATION?

BIOLOGY DOES NOT MAKE YOU A CITIZEN OF THE NATION.

ARE THE DAWES ROLLS THE END ALL?

NOTES:

1830's began the notion of blood quantum.

For the Cherokee you were or you were not.  The mother is the key, the mother holds the clan.

Trail of Tears - Cherokee Towns in various locations (currently many states).

Nancy Ward descendants.

FAMILY RECORD