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[riderinthestorm]

This message was self-deleted by its author (riderinthestorm) on Tue Nov 3, 2015, 08:47 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[yellerpup]

1. Congratulations.

We are all more related than most people can imagine.

[Little Star]

2. Nice write up!...

I'm going to PM you. Hope that's ok.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. I have a friend with a similar story

right down to the coarse hair being the only vestige of the heritage. Like your experience, not all family members were pleased with the results of the genealogical search.

In my own tree I've found many surprises, not all of them popular with the relatives

[riderinthestorm]

7. Yeah, if I didn't use hair products, it looks like Diana Ross hair - pretty wild!

I've gone through different phases of letting it be wild, and tamping it down.

My sister (who was in high school in the 70s when stick straight hair was all the rage) tells of sleeping with her hair rolled around orange juice cans at night to try to straighten it and tamp down the frizz factor (she's the other one in the family with the wild hair).

[riderinthestorm]

4. My mother has virtually disowned me over this story....

The article alludes to those who may be "upset" about this story going public, well my mother was who I was referring to. She's beyond horrified and into outright rage. She's never agreed about the Mormon Church's research into this (aka the Generations Project teevee show), and has always stood by the "Sampson family from Scotland" mythology...

She won't take my calls. Won't answer any messages. Told my other sisters that I'm "dead" to her for "publishing" this. She IS a racist and the thought that she may have been intimately involved with a mixed race man (clearly without her knowledge since this was all still a big secret then) is making her crazy.

I am STUNNED at the level of racism still existing within our civil society.

[csziggy]

5. What an interesting and wonderful family history

I find even the unwelcome and unhappy family history details fascinating and worth knowing. And isn't it fun finding new cousins?

I'm sorry your mother is upset. I hope she can work her way through her anger.

[CanonRay]

6. Great story, congrats!

Sorry your mother is P.O'd...hopefully she will get over it at some point. I could see my mother reacting in
much the same way.

[riderinthestorm]

8. Just as a general followup, Dawn Trice, the columnist who wrote this for the Chi Trib

says she's been flooded with tons of emails about the story - more than virtually any other column.

"Almost all positive" whatever that means. But hey, I think its indicative of how much people crave learning about their heritage, even if its other people's stories....

Genealogy is/can be so much fun!

[kdmorris]

9. What a great story!!!

I have relatively fair skin and hazel-green eyes, but my skin tans easily, hardly ever burns. And my hair... In high school they used to say I looked one of my parents was black. It's super curly, super thick, super coarse and super dry. The products they have for African American hair work wonderfully on mine (if I ever wash my hair and don't beat it into submission, then it looks like Diana Ross's hair when it was long and puffy).

In all my research, I've never found anyone that was stated to be African, black or even mulatto. But I DO know that, up until 1840's, my father's lines was definitely slave-owners (and all the the pictures I've ever seen of them, they have coal black hair and brown eyes. They are all listed in draft cards etc as having "med" or "olive" skin tone).

I don't know why anyone would want to deny part of their heritage now. I know why people used to do it, but now I wish there was more incentive to have people talk about race and how mingled everyone actually is.

[kestrel91316]

10. I love stories like this. My BIL's family, all Irish/German Catholic and Lutheran,

turns out to have some German Jewish ancestry, too, and only 4 generations back.

Nobody is ashamed or offended; they find it mildly interesting, lol.

[jwirr]

11. Very interesting. I also have family that was part black and hidden until I did the research. I was

not appreciated. I remember the great grandmother and her oldest daughter discussing their skin problems when I was driving them into town. They were not worried about anything other than how dark they get when they go out in the sun.

Because I did the research most know now but they are not happy about it. I for one am proud to have this history in my family. On one occasion one of the uncles said to me "Be careful what you are doing - you may get surprised at what you find." I laughed and said, "Oh, I have always wanted to find a Jesse James in my family!" I found a lot more than that.

My father always thought we might have some Jewish ancestry but I do not know how to research that. With my luck I would find some damned concentration camp guard instead of someone I could be proud of.

[riderinthestorm]

12. I never thought it was a problem. Then I told my mom.... (eek!)

She went batshit - the thought that she married a multi-racial man, and has produced multi-racial children has sent her over the brink (she's still not talking to me).

The one daughter of the Canadian 'war hero" in my story, she's also extremely upset about it. This is 2012 people!!

It horrifies me that ANYONE finds any of this to be a "problem".

So here's why I responded to you specifically, tonight I was just contacted by a major genealogist who wants to do extensive research on the Jewish side of my family. He's the President of the US Jewish Genealogy Association or some such organization based in Skokie IL, and wants to get some DNA sampling done, plus find out answers to a couple of other questions, and then present it all at some annual Jewish genealogy conference (who knew they even existed?) I'd be happy to get some tips from him (if you like) about where to go in your own search from him. He wants to play up the "reality show" aspect of the search - what did we know ahead of time, and what was actually a surprise but thinks a "backstage" view of the process of these shows would be interesting. He just wants some "surprises" to unveil himself for his presentation - heh.

When I get closer to actually meeting him, I'd be happy to take your info to this conference and let them rip.

[jwirr]

13. Thank you. Let me know when you need it.