IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE

[Murfreesboro]

Five hundred years is amazing! I don't think I can take any part of my family back beyond 1720, which is to say, I know very little about any of them on the other side of the Atlantic (father's people something of an exception, but with them I know only about the turn of the 19th century forward).

I suppose I could find out a lot more if I were to get serious about it, search the public records. I know mainly about things that were written down by previous generations and then passed down in family papers, etc.

I think most of the native tribes had oral traditions. I recall my husband (a poli sci major) telling me that there was a famous case of some tribal chieftain or story-teller (I don't recall which tribe) who recited his tribe's whole history before Congress. That was just so it would get preserved in the Congressional Record, since everything in Congress is written down. I guess he was afraid that no one would learn the oral history after him, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't forgotten. Pretty shrewd on his part.

You did say, however, that you weren't even sure which tribe your family had belonged to. Surely someone was born in an area where he/she had to have a birth certificate, or a marriage license, something? Maybe location could give you a clue about identity?

[Pumpkin56]

Someone on my father's side said they thought the Native American ancestry on that side was Blackfoot, but this was just what they thought or heard and nothing more.

My mom's side is quite a bit trickier because supposedly there is Native American ancestry on both her mother and father's side. She says that she heard it was Cherokee but I kinda take that with a grain of salt because 1) everyone claimes Cherokee ancestry and 2) I just really have no information on anything with her family. I was told that at some point in this country's history it was not a good thing to be an American Indian so some did what they could to hide that they were. Names were changed, records were not kept, and of course so many married whites and so eventually the physical evidence was no longer present. I think the closest ancestor on her side that may have been at least half was her great-grandfather. But he and his son had a falling out of some sorts so there is very little information on him other than his name which is rumored to have been shortened at some point from "Brownhawk" to Brown.

I think a person really has to be some kind of genealogical ninja to come up with anykind of decent records or facts on this subject.

[NeverMore]

I was told that at some point in this country's history it was not a good thing to be an American Indian so some did what they could to hide that they were.

True.

My great-great-something? grandfather took a Cherokee bride and was shunned from the family for it. Lucky for us he handed down the family bible which told the story, and traced his lineage back to the early 1700s, where our family was the McCrearys?, McClearys? from Virginia. Can't remember the exact details since it's been a long time since I've seen the bible. I know one thing for sure, I want to get my hands on that thing, update it (stops with my grandmother's mother), scan it, then give it to one of my sister's kids to pass on to their kids.

If I had a time machine, I'd go back to old Virginia, stash some of my ancestors' wealth, come back to the present, dig it up, live like a king (or a movie star).

[Pumpkin56]

I was told that at some point in this country's history it was not a good thing to be an American Indian so some did what they could to hide that they were.

True.


If I had a time machine, I'd go back to old Virginia, stash some of my ancestors' wealth, come back to the present, dig it up, live like a king (or a movie star).

Ooo that's smart thinking, Nevermore. And just think, if you actually could do that, you could afford to change your location from the "2nd level of Hell" to "Hell's Penthouse"

[NeverMore]

you could afford to change your location from the "2nd level of Hell" to "Hell's Penthouse"

Hmm! Thanks for reminding me. I should change that to third level. I better go out and get to work on my !*#&! truck.

[Murfreesboro]

I think it's possible I may have some Cherokee ancestry, too, but if so, it would be a long way back (like 18th century). And, yeah, for a long, long time, people wouldn't talk about that stuff.

Reading about the Cherokee tribe sort of breaks my heart. They did everything "right" and trusted in the white man's system, but they got the shaft anyway. And I think so many people claim Cherokee ancestry because they were so prominent in the Southeast. Lots of people did intermarry with them in those early years.

[Pumpkin_Man]

What I would really love to do is find out who my very first ancestors were, who converted to Christianity.

On an interesting side note, there is a methematic principal, that involves the power ot 2. IF some one paid you one cent a day, doubled every day for 30 days, you would be seriously rich by the end of the 30 days.

Now let's put that same mathematical concept into practice with generations of people. You are one person. You have two parents. You have four grand parents. You have 8 great grand parents. You have 16 great, great grand parents. You have 32 triple greats, 64 quadroople greats, 128 quintupple great and so on and so fourth. And I only went back 6 generations. Go back 30 generations, and your ancesters are litteraly the entire population of the earth at that time, if you go by the mathematics of it.

I would have a tough time just keeping track of all my 5 greats grand parents.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I have considered that exponential increase of ancestors many times, Mike. And when you consider that there are more people alive now than at any other time in history--well, obviously, we are all related to each other. It cannot be otherwise, mathematically.

Interesting thought--to revisit the ancestors who first converted to Christianity. For many of us, that would mean going back to an era so long ago that we wouldn't even be able to speak the same language!

Speaking of time machines--a couple of days back I was looking up something on the Smithsonian web site, and I ran across a video from the 1930s of Confederate veterans doing the Rebel yell. I was fascinated, because I had always wondered what it sounded like. These were old guys, about the same age as WWII vets are today, but they could still give an idea of what it had sounded like. If you are interested, here is a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6jSqt39vFM

[Pumpkin_Man]

Murf, my father personaly knew several people who were Civil War veterans. Every year they would march in parades on the 4th of July and on other patriotic holidays. This was in Chicago, however, so they were all Union Veterans. IT's not hard to imagaine that since my dad was born in the year 1909. There were still quite a few Cival War vets around back then. When I lived over on 111th and Polaski, our house actualy had an upstairs flat that was rented by a very old man who, as it turns out, was a veteran of the Spanish American War. He was in his id 80s back in the late 60s and early 70s when I knew him. I was but a little kid myself.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Yeah, I was thinking about my own father a few months ago. He was born in 1907. When he was a child, his father's parents lived in the home with them, and his grandpa was a Confederate veteran. I had never even considered that before, how he grew up with a Civil War vet in the house, at least in his earlier childhood.

It helps you understand how someone like William Faulkner (born 1897) remained so obsessed with that War & its aftermath, because he was living among people who remembered it.

My mother attended a Confederate Veterans Reunion in 1928, when she was about 14. She said her aunt, a schoolteacher, made her do it. She wasn't interested at 14, but many years later, she was glad to have the memory.

When I was a child in the '60s, every adult man I knew was a WWII vet. Now so many of them are gone.

I don't think I ever knew a Spanish American War vet.

I had to smile when you said your dad had watched Civil War vets march in the Fourth of July parade. In Mississippi, people didn't even celebrate the 4th for decades after the war. I believe Vicksburg (which fell on the 4th) didn't celebrate it again until sometime during WWII. When I was a child, it was still quite common for people to shoot off fireworks on Christmas night, because people didn't do it on the 4th. That changed, though, when I was a teenager. Now, and for many years, Southerners (Mississippians) do celebrate the 4th.

[Li H'Sen Chang]

I gave up on trying to invent time machine but I do plan to invent teleporting machine in the next 5-10 years.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Very interesting, Murf. The 4th of July is my 2nsd favorite day of the year. I love fireworks. I can't imagine the 4th of July with out them, all though they very well may be legislated away for good.

At any rate, the Spanish American War vet was a very old man back in the 60s, when I was a child. He died in 1975 in a nursing home in 1975. His brother died about 6 months later.

I actualy knew and met relatives who faught in both world wars, too. All of them are dead and gone now. Many of the WW2 vets still alive are in their late 80s and early 90s. There are no World War 1 vets still alive, I don't think. After all, WW1 started almost 100 years ago. Being that most of the men who were in that war were in their late teens or early 20s, they would be pretty old.

Today the Vietnam vets are in their 50s and 60s. My brother, Bob, who went to Nam in 1965 will be 70 next year. Talk about feeling old.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

My husband has the habit of thanking veterans for their service whenever he seems them in public (he can tell from hats they wear, or decals on their cars, etc.). It is a shock to me to see how elderly many Vietnam vets look nowadays. I can remember when they were as young as anything. It doesn't take very long to get old.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I think in many ways, the Vietnam war was very hard, especialy when they came home to being called "baby killers" and the like. When my brother came home from Nam, we had a huge party for him. So many people showed up that it actualy became like a block party, and they all came to welcome Bob home. This was the Summer of 68 or 69, I don't remember which. The celebrations went on for several days as people who we haven't seen in years came to welcome Bob home and wish him well.

Unfortunately some idiot spray painted the words "Baby Killer" on the front of our house after all the celebrating died down. They also vandalized my brother's car with simular insults, and broke his windows.

So it's no suprise to me that the Vietnam vets aged so much faster.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I'm sorry to hear that your brother experienced that hatefulness. At least it sounds like he was much-loved and appreciated by the people who actually knew him.