Newsletter

16 Jun

Posted at 11:00h in Newsletter

FINDING YOUR FAMILY TREE- NOW HERE IS HOW YOU DECORATE! I came across this Sultan Family Tree with Osman I- Abdulhamid I (27 Ottoman emperors) at Gripsholms Castle in Mariefred, Sweden. Not where you expect to discover such an item necessarily. And speaking of family trees, I came across the story below FINDING YOUR FAMILY TREE - DAD, QUIT STARING AT MY FIANCE! Herman Wrangel came to Sweden around 1608. In 1612, he participated in the Kalmar War against Denmark. In 1619, Wrangel was commander of the Älvsborg fortress. He was appointed Field Marshal in 1621, Privy Councillor in 1630, and Governor-General of...

20 May

Posted at 09:52h in Newsletter

OBSERVATIONS ON ABORTION FROM THE 1700'S With the recent controversy surrounding Roe vs. Wade, I thought I would see what our ancestors debated in earlier newspaper articles (remember, back then, “s” was written as “f”) in regard to abortion. Instead, I found the article above that argued that requiring a marriage license with a 30-day parish residency requirement would result in more abortions. I also found an article that earlier in the story mentions “the people west of Hudson’s Bay” (that also says the same custom in Formosa, which is present-day Taiwan). The article discusses their traditions related to induced abortion, but...

05 May

Posted at 21:56h in Newsletter

IT'S NOT EASY TO BE HUGH! While searching for ancestors, I discovered that HUGH V of Lusignan my 33rd Great Grandfather married Almodis (her tomb at right) who was born about 1020 and was famous for her marriage career. They married about 1038 and they divorced due to consanguinity (meaning that they were close cousins of some sort). She later, with HUGH V's assistance, married Count Pons of Toulouse in 1040. Almodis was still Pons' wife in April 1053, when she was abducted by Count Ramon Berenguer I of Barcelona. Ramon kidnapped her from Narbonne with the aid of a fleet sent north...

23 Apr

Posted at 16:20h in Newsletter

  RIGHTING A WRONG AFTER 600 YEARS Most people have heard of the expression "the Spanish Inquisition". There was also a Portuguese Inquisition. The major target of the Inquisition were those who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, the Conversos (also known as New Christians or Marranos), who were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism. Many of these were originally Spanish Jews who had left Spain for Portugal when Spain forced Jews to convert to Christianity or leave. The number of victims is estimated at around 40,000. I was made aware that Portugal will now let those that can prove their descent from those...

09 Apr

Posted at 11:15h in Newsletter

WOW, 109 BILLION PEOPLE HAVE LIVED AND DIED! Dancestors Genealogy has discovered and preserved 131,000 people in our research over the last seven years, so we still have a lot of work to get them all into a family tree! DANCESTORS IS DOING ITS PART TO TRAIN THE NEXT GENERATION OF GENEALOGISTS AND SPECIFICALLY FORENSIC GENEALOGISTS Christy Walton and I recently had the opportunity to present to Career Day in the local school district, where 30 Forensics students asked excellent questions about our work. Will these future Crime Scene Investigators solve future big cases using a bit of what they learned from Dancestors? The Forensic...

26 Mar

Posted at 11:14h in Newsletter

THE NELSON STATUES, from left we have a statute of Lord Admiral Viscount Horatio Nelson, hero of Trafalgar in London, next in Dublin before and after the bombing, and the Spire that replaced the statue. I am sorry for skipping last week, but we were traveling to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day and we were really busy. My brother told me that before I headed to Ireland for the St Patrick's Day Parade to not use my surname in Dublin as people there hated Nelson, the hero of the English. I said, "but we're Swedish Nelson's, not English." He said it...

05 Mar

Posted at 13:51h in Newsletter

THE GREAT EFFORTS TO MAKE ABE LINCOLN LOOK MORE PRESIDENTIAL Included painting his head on another politician's posing. Ironically it was the fiery defender of slavery John Calhoun. The secret was kept for a century! https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/abraham-lincoln-photos-edited   WE NOW HAVE THE LARGEST EVER HUMAN FAMILY TREE, WITH 231 MILLION ANCESTRAL LINEAGES https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-create-largest-ever-human-family-tree-using-two-decades-of-genomic-data   WE GET 50% OF OUR DNA FROM EACH OF OUR PARENTS. BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME 50% - UNLESS YOU ARE IDENTICAL TWINS. Which is the most Irish of these four sisters? https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/whos-more-irish-you-or-your-sibling/?ancid=o4v2vr11lh&gclid=baa080a6-a39c-11eb-aacc-008cfa5b6750-7f6d63729700++355896011++9188562039++32710796134&o_xid=75807&o_lid=75807&o_sch=Content+Marketing   THE USE OF DNA TO TRACK YOUR FAMILY’S DISEASE HISTORY BACK 280 YEARS! How a Rare Brain Mutation Spread Across America. The Bowlin family knew they...

05 Feb

Posted at 16:38h in Newsletter

I WAS ALWAYS CURIOUS ABOUT WHERE HER NAME CAME FROM, AND HOW DNA TELLS THE STORY Caryn Elaine Johnson was born in Manhattan, New York City, on November 13, 1955, the daughter of Robert James Johnson Jr. , a Baptist clergyman, and Emma Harris, a nurse, and teacher. She was raised in the public housing project, Chelsea-Elliot Houses, in NYC. She has stated that her stage forename ("Whoopi") was taken from a whoopee cushion: "When you're performing on stage, you never really have time to go into the bathroom and close the door. So if you get a little gassy, you've got...

22 Jan

Posted at 14:07h in Newsletter

THE CON ARTIST WHO SOLD RICH INVESTORS A COUNTRY Nearly 200 years ago, Gregor MacGregor pulled off one of the most brazen real estate scams in history. https://thehustle.co/the-con-artist-who-sold-rich-investors-a-fake-country/?utmsource=join1440&utmmedium=email BRITISH FLORIDA The 1763 Treaty of Paris, signed after Great Britain's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War, ceded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for the return of Havana and Manila. Although most Spanish colonists in the region left Florida for Cuba, Florida became Great Britain's fourteenth and fifteenth North American colonies (West and East Florida). Because of the political sympathies of its British inhabitants, St. Augustine became a Loyalist haven during...

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