Newsletter

29 Jul

Posted at 10:21h in Newsletter

GENEALOGY- SEVEN GENERATIONS OF OF A PREHISTORIC FAMILY MAPPED WITH ANCIENT DNA An adult man buried some 6,000 years ago in what is now France was the son of the man from whom dozens of people also buried at the site are descended. In the mid-2000s, archaeologists excavating a burial site in France uncovered a 6,500-year-old mystery. Among the remains of more than 120 individuals, one grave stood out. It contained a nearly complete female skeleton alongside a few assorted bones that looked like they had been dug up and moved from another grave. Ancient DNA from the enigmatic relocated remains shows that...

08 Jul

Posted at 14:01h in Newsletter

LEGACY- JEWISH REFUGEES IN SHANGHAI One of our clients shared a story about her husband’s ancestors fleeing Nazi Germany by going to Shanghai. She had a small book listing all of the refugees. I had to look up that story. An estimated 17,000 German and Austrian Jews first trickled into Shanghai after the beginning of Nazi persecution of Jews in 1933, and then, following the 1938 violence of Kristallnacht streamed in like a flood. These early refugees usually immigrated to Shanghai as families. Stripped of most of their assets before fleeing the Reich, these thousands of refugees swarmed into Hongkew because they...

29 Jun

Posted at 18:10h in Newsletter

ANCESTRY- ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S FATHER-IN-LAW GOT TAKEN FOR A RIDE A statue of the Revolutionary War general, newly prominent thanks to the musical “Hamilton,” has been removed from its place outside Albany City Hall because he enslaved people. Lin-Manuel Miranda said that the portrayal of Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other white historical figures by black, Latino and Asian actors should not require any substantial suspension of disbelief by audience members. "Our cast looks like America looks now, and that's certainly intentional", he said. "It's a way of pulling you into the story and allowing you to leave whatever cultural baggage you...

15 Jun

Posted at 11:16h in Newsletter

GENEALOGIST- BLACKSTONE BEATS GENETIC PRIVACY LAWSUIT Some folks were upset about or did not know that Blackstone had purchased Ancestry.com back in 2020, and sued, but the suit was dismissed, see the link: https://www.kirkland.com/news/in-the-news/2023/05/calling-lawsuit-bare-bones-7th-circuit-rejects-genetic-privacy-claims-over-ancestry-com-acquisition However, it's not like Blackstone bought it from a bunch of genealogists. It was previously owned by at least four other private equity firms (see below), Were they good stewards of all of those DNA tests? New York, December 4, 2020 – Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) have completed their previously announced acquisition of Ancestry® from Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity, Permira,...

02 Jun

Posted at 10:28h in Newsletter

GENEALOGY- MORE ABOUT DARIEN- GEORGIA THAT IS, AND THE SCOTSMEN'S ATTEMPTS TO PROHIBIT SLAVERY, AND LETTING DAUGHTERS INHERIT LAND The British built Fort King George in 1721 (see picture), near what would become Darien. At the time, it was the southernmost outpost of the British Empire in North America. The fort was abandoned in 1727 following attacks from the Spanish. Its remains constitute the oldest fort on the Georgia coast. The town of Darien (originally known as "New Inverness") was founded in January 1736 by Scottish Highlanders (some found in your genealogy) recruited by James Oglethorpe to act as settler-soldiers protecting the...

17 May

Posted at 22:29h in Newsletter

ANCESTORS- DARIEN GAP HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS LATELY We all know Teddy Roosevelt led the building of the Panama Canal. However, I bet you didn't know that his Great-Great Grandfather had been there 200 years earlier as part of the Darien Scheme. Teddy may have wondered where are my ancestors from? The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing New Caledonia, a colony in the Darién Gap on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the colony, located on the Gulf...

19 Apr

Posted at 21:02h in Newsletter

FAMILY HISTORY- THE INTER-CONTINENTAL TRAIN FROM PARIS TO NEW YORK WILL FINALLY PUT FORT NELSON ON THE MAP! Snowpiercer is a fictional train, its 1,001 cars carrying humanity’s last survivors as it endlessly loops a frozen Earth. Shown on this map, the InterContinental Railway (ICR for short) doesn’t quite go all the way around — but then again, it isn’t entirely as fictional. The Snowpiercer movie and series were based on Le Transperceneige, a French graphic novel from 1982. On the other hand, the ICR is being proposed by engineers and entrepreneurs who believe it can and should become a reality. You can...

05 Apr

Posted at 21:16h in Newsletter

LEGACY A NEW HANGOUT FOR GENEALOGISTS? A million bodies are buried here. So now It’s becoming a park. Hart Island, a potter’s field where part of New York City's legacy is that they have buried its unclaimed dead for over a century, will finally accept visitors this year. Hart Island is located at the western end of Long Island Sound, in the northeastern Bronx in New York City. Measuring approximately 1 mile long by 0.33 miles (0.53 km) wide, Hart Island is part of the Pelham Islands archipelago east of City Island. The island has been used as a: • training ground for the United...

22 Mar

Posted at 20:50h in Newsletter

Genealogist --HOW EARLY MODERN EUROPEANS VIEWED PREGNANCY AND THE WOMB-- Genealogist When the womb began to appear in printed images during the 16th century, it was understood through analogy: a garden, uroscopy flask, or microcosm of the universe. Rebecca Whiteley explores early modern birth figures, which picture the foetus in utero, and discovers an iconic form imbued with multiple kinds of knowledge: from midwifery know-how to alchemical secrets, astrological systems to new anatomical findings. Read more Genealogist stuff here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/picturing-pregnancy-in-early-modern-europe?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email Genealogist --ANOTHER WEALTHY IN PERSON YOU PROBABLY NEVER HEARD ABOUT-- Genealogist Stephen Girard (May 20, 1750 – December 26, 1831; born Étienne Girard) was a...

08 Mar

Posted at 21:40h in Newsletter

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND OTHER ANCESTORS HEAD TO OUTER SPACE Buckle up dead American presidents, you’re going to space whether you like it or not. The DNA of four past US presidents will be blasted into deep space as part of a symbolic space burial flight alongside a number of high-flying names, who will all have part of their remains placed in special capsules and sent into solar orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. The gesture will be carried out by burial company Celestis, which specializes in sending DNA into deep space to join part of a future human colony, as...

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