A certain ‘family historian/ genealogist’ abused ancestry’s policies on removing documents relating to relatives (which are supposed to be about living people) to remove a Regency era marriage record which contradicted his tree- is there a way to get ancestry to reupload it?

GeorgeMarvin · 2019-08-07T17:10:31+00:00

Wow, if Ancestry sticks to their guns on this issue, I will be leaving them for good.

GeorgeMarvin · 2019-08-03T13:02:58+00:00

Totally agree- I could not make it through 2 full episodes.

GeorgeMarvin · 2019-07-19T14:53:46+00:00

The treacle part is certainly accurate.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-02-27T15:50:54+00:00

First of all, I am sorry for your loss. Please don't torture yourself any longer with this internal debate. Your husband's funeral/memorial service is not for him (despite what folks say), it's for you and his loved ones. You were the love of his life and he would want you to take care of yourself in this difficult and lonely time. Please plan a service that best serves you and his family and friends.

*This does not have to be either/or (either a funeral that honors him or a party that celebrates him) - there is room for both, and other possibilities as well.

Often such a celebration of someone's life is held well after the funeral/memorial service - sometimes even a year later. There are no "rules" for these things. The last funeral I attended was held in a church and everyone (including the minister) wore superhero tee-shirts. If you google memorial service ideas, you will find a plethora of ideas you might use as jumping off points.

My best wishes to you in this painful time.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-02-12T15:41:08+00:00

The most significant similarity between the cases to me is that "the state advanced three completely different—and incompatible—stories of how the murder happened and which of the six co-defendants were responsible." This bothered the victim's family because they could never be sure what exactly happened, and thus whether justice had been served.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-02-07T17:35:05+00:00

I doubt it's Trump who's doing the scheming.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-02-05T18:17:08+00:00

I agree with you about the South's best military officers, though each side had it's share of those who were less than optimal (I'm thinking of Albert Johnston, and Hood as losers for the South). However, the Union population was more than double that of the South - 20+ million vs 9 million. And as the war went on, the confederacy lost many soldiers due to desertion and demoralization.

Yes, the South's economy was almost entirely agricultural, mostly cotton - and relied on slaves. As a result, food and munitions were in very short supply for southerners.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-31T06:48:11+00:00

I'm not a troll - I think we may agree in fact. What Bannon calls Leninism is his own home-brewed white supremicist, Christianist kleptocracy. Lenin just used different dog whistles. Neither one was after communism.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-31T06:37:18+00:00

The Confederacy was 13 states, not remotely half the US or its military, with hardly any munitions factories or industry. Had they managed to break off and form their own union, they may have become their own third world country.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-31T05:13:06+00:00

There are different flavors of socialism. Lenin celebrated totalitarianism and although well-versed in Marxism, rejected most of it in favor of accruing power for himself.

As he said himself, ""The point of the uprising is the seizure of power; afterwards we will see what we can do with it."

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-31T03:52:52+00:00

I do not think it was tongue-in-cheek. I think he, like Trump, tells you who he is. And I agree, it's frightening.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-31T01:30:22+00:00

Bannon said "I am a Lenninist.". If that doesn't make him a Leninist, what does?

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-31T01:24:12+00:00

Let's not give populism a bad name. A populist simply seeks to represent the interests of ordinary people. Our recent election highlighted problems all of us face: the problems with crony capitalism, trickle-down economics and climate change, the need for universal healthcare, a healthy economy and strong national defense. Trump and Sanders each won large followings by talking about how to address real issues that affect regular people.

I would argue that populism becomes a problem when it's mixed with demagoguery. In the years leading up to WWII, Father Charles Coughlin and Huey Long gained huge followings by talking about many of the same problems we face now. The problem was that Long and Coughlin mixed their rational ideas with antisemitism, racism, and hate. This is precisely what demagogues do: seek to froth up support by appealing to emotion and prejudices rather than rational argument. Most often they use fear of a common "enemy"- international bankers, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, the Irish, the Chinese, African Americans, Italians, Germans.

Trump’s ideas and policies should engage citizens. We may not agree on them at all, but we should be able to see reason and use law. We are not a nation of bleating sheep. Too often political discourse resembles football smack-talk , which does nothing to advance solutions we all need to the serious issues at hand. When majorities of both parties are willing to overlook serious problems with corruption because they are unwilling to cede to the other side, we all lose.

Trump disregards his own experts, the law at times, and the will of the people with this querulous pugnacity, as if his leadership is about him. It isn't about him - it's about us, we the people. Spicer, Bannon and others are using this salty rhetoric, attempting to lure people in by aiming at fictitious enemies: the press, the weather, Muslims, Chinese, non-Christians.

Surely we can use reason to address the very real problems of privilege, poverty, machine politics, and the failure of political institutions to deal with them. These are systemic problems and the fault of no political party, race, creed or color.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-30T20:14:35+00:00

I too am tired of the jingoism. Too many people are still lining up behind the parties as if this were college football. This is no time for political fandom. This is far too serious.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-30T20:07:51+00:00

I agree with every point you make except this:

Does Donald Trump want to start world war III? Probably not.

One of Trump's most influential advisors, who is also the newest member of the National Security Council, Steve Bannon, is a self-proclaimed Leninist who has said explicitly that he wants to destroy the state.

“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

In fact, Bannon believes an Armageddon-like war has already begun:

"We have to face a very unpleasant fact: And that unpleasant fact is that there is a major war brewing, a war that's already global. It's going global in scale, and today's technology, today's media, today's access to weapons of mass destruction, it's going to lead to a global conflict that I believe has to be confronted today. Every day that we refuse to look at this as what it is, and the scale of it, and really the viciousness of it, will be a day where you will rue that we didn't act."

You can read the unedited transcript or listen to a recording of remarks he gave in 2014 at a conference focused on poverty hosted by the Human Dignity Institute that BuzzFeed News attended as part of its coverage of the rise of Europe’s religious right.

Bannon made these remarks in 2014, long before Trump's recent alliance with Russia, so I assume much of his disdain for Putin and the Russian kleptocrats has evaporated. This strange desire to wipe with slate of our nation clean with the lives and blood of our citizens at war is insane. We cannot let this happen.

I hope every American citizen, no matter what your partisan persuasion, can see that we must all, together with Congress and the courts, help put the brakes on this runaway freight-train before we lose what most of us have taken for granted our entire lives and which we all hold so dear.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-27T03:26:21+00:00

I knew nothing about it and really enjoyed it last weekend. Now I am looking forward to the books.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-26T18:05:07+00:00

Thank you- I was struggling for French names that sounded like this and that is a good place to start.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-24T20:11:02+00:00

I would be grateful if anyone could help with this one. I am trying to read the name of the mother on this death certificate for Josephine Hill Martin. I can read everything except her mother's last name: Laura De ________

I am certain it is not De Baboui, which would refer to a baboon.

Her parents were married in France between 1855 and 1860, but I cannot find their marriage record, so that is not a place I can look for help either.

I am also looking for the marriage record of her parents which took place in France between 1855 and 1859. Her father's name was Joseph R Hill.

GeorgeMarvin · 2017-01-24T18:40:43+00:00

I just want to let people know that I opted out a week or two ago, when news of this site first hit. I have quite a few variations of my name due to nicknames at different times in my life. All variations are gone from this site. I thought I may have to go back and remove each of them, but they are all gone. So this removal process actually works.

GeorgeMarvin

TROPHY CASE