Genealogist- Newsletter- June 17, 2023

15 Jun Genealogist- Newsletter- June 17, 2023

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, and other equity holders for a total enterprise value of $4.7 billion.

In regards to what I believe are the next four largest DNA sites:

23and me is publicly owned, and interestingly one of the co-founders was married to one of the co-founders of Google, but has since divorced.

My Heritage was founded by Israelis. In early 2021, MyHeritage was acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners for a reported 600 million dollars.

Family Tree DNA was acquired in 2021 by MyDNA an Australian company.

LivingDNA is still privately held.

GENEALOGIST- WERE THEY WRONG IN 1949?

A former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin.

The information, he says, has been illegally withheld from Congress, and he filed a complaint alleging that he suffered illegal retaliation for his confidential disclosures, reported here for the first time.

Other active and retired intelligence officials, with knowledge of these programs through their work in various agencies, have independently provided similar, corroborating information, both on and off the record.

The whistleblower, David Charles Grusch, 36, a decorated former combat officer in Afghanistan, is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). He served as the reconnaissance office’s representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force from 2019-2021. From late 2021 to July 2022, he was the NGA’s co-lead for UAP analysis and its representative to the task force.

Here’s the full article: https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/

GENEALOGIST- DID MANSA MUSA’S PREDECESSOR SAIL WEST TO THE AMERICAS?

Mansa Musa (reigned c. 1312 – c. 1337) was the ninth mansa of the Mali Empire, which reached its territorial peak during his reign. Musa is known for his wealth and generosity. He has been subject to popular claims that he is the wealthiest person in history, but the extent of his actual wealth is uncertain. His riches came from mining significant gold and salt deposits in the Mali Empire, along with the slave and ivory trade.
At the time of Musa’s ascension to the throne, Mali largely consisted of the territory of the former Ghana Empire, which Mali had conquered. The Mali Empire consisted of land that is now part of Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia, and the modern state of Mali.
Musa went on Hajj to Mecca in 1324, traveling with an enormous entourage and a vast supply of gold. En route, he spent time in Cairo, where his lavish gift-giving is said to have noticeably affected the value of gold in Egypt and garnered the attention of the wider Muslim world.
Musa expanded the borders of the Mali Empire, in particular incorporating the cities of Gao and Timbuktu into its territory. He sought closer ties with the rest of the Muslim world, particularly the Mamluk and Marinid Sultanates. He recruited scholars from the wider Muslim world, such as the Andalusian poet Abu Ishaq al-Sahili, to travel to Mali. He helped establish Timbuktu as a center of Islamic learning. His reign is associated with numerous construction projects, including part of Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu. Musa’s reign is often regarded as the zenith of Mali’s power and prestige.
Muhammad ibn Qu was the eighth mansa of the Mali Empire. He succeeded his father, Mansa Qu, and was Mansa Musa’s predecessor. The exact dates of Muhammad ibn Qu’s reign are uncertain, though his reign was certainly brief. His father’s predecessor, Sakura, was killed between 1298 and 1308, and his successor Musa took the throne in 1307 or 1312. Musa said that his predecessor (whom he did not specifically name) disappeared, leading an expedition into the Atlantic Ocean. Here’s more on that story: https://bigthink.com/the-past/mansa-musa-mali-king-atlantic/

GENEALOGIST- GENETIC GENEALOGY HAS BEEN USED TO SOLVE COLD CASES AND NOW IT HELPED SOLVE AN ACTIVE CASE

Read more about how the Federal, State and local investigators used genetic genealogy to arrest a suspect for a heinous crime:

GENEALOGIST- SINCE WE ALL NOW GET TO SEE A PRESIDENTIAL BATHROOM ON THE NEWS, I THOUGHT I WOULD SEE IF I COULD FIND OTHER EX-PREZ PRIVY PICTURES

I learned way more than I wanted to know. It turns out Thomas Jefferson had the wooden outhouse at the White House demolished and added two water closets.

The first picture is Franklin Roosevelt’s bathtub in his hideaway lodge.

The second is the bathroom that Roosevelt and Harry Truman used onboard the Sacred Cow. We covered the Sacred Cow in an earlier newsletter. Here’s the link:
https://dancestorsgenealogy.com/september-24-2022/

The third is Dwight Eisenhower’s bathroom in his Gettysburg home. The fourth is Obama’s bathroom in his Chicago apartment.

The fifth is Gerald Ford’s at his desert retreat. The sixth is a bathroom onboard the USS Gerald Ford, showing the fact that the 12 billion dollar aircraft carrier doesn’t have urinals. That way, the Navy can quickly convert heads depending on gender balance.

So, I witnessed this challenge in person. Roughly about 2007 or so, I and others had the opportunity through a Friends of the Navy / Vistage partnership to fly out from San Diego and land on the USS Reagan, 80 miles offshore of Mexico. We got to tour the ship, observe flight and disaster reaction operations (hopefully, my trip has been declassified), and meet in the captain’s quarters and ask questions.

My investigative journalist skills kicked in, and I asked the all-important question, how come all of the urinals were removed from the bathrooms? He said that they were all at the bottom of the ocean (no doubt forming a coral reef), as, among other issues, it was hard to convert the bathrooms based on gender. As we got ready to leave and were all encased in our flight suits, they asked if anyone had to use the restroom, as sometimes, being launched off of a carrier can cause a bladder control issue. Our lone female attendee thought about that and asked to use the restroom. It was quite a hike, as the few women’s bathrooms were not near the boarding area, so I could see that accommodeations needed to be made (intentional misspelling). However, all of us can say that we used Ronald Reagan’s bathroom!

For those of you enjoying potty stories, here’s more on LBJ’s bathroom power meetings: https://www.insidehook.com/article/news-opinion/the-weird-disgusting-art-of-the-toilet-power-meeting-lbj

GENEALOGIST- YOUR ANCESTORS ARE WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED!

Reach out to Dancestors and let us research, discover, and preserve your family history. No one is getting any younger, and stories disappear from memory every year and eventually from our potential ability to find them. Paper gets thrown in the trash; books survive! So do not hesitate and call me @ 214-914-3598.