#genealogical method

[semioticapocalypse]

More about the Antique Photo Sage GPT: two case studies on Medium.

On one instance APS even provided me with the approximation of the camera viewpoint coordinates (!).

Case studies

Antique Photo Sage GPT

Comment, like, reblog to see your karma scores improved instantly (or maybe, overnight).

#vintage #retro #Antique Photo Sage #Custom GPT #ChatGPT #old photos #antique photos #visual research methods #visual studies #family history #genealogy #visual analisys #visiual history #LLM #AI #openai

[transmutationisms]

hi! was wondering if you have any recs for some good critiques of Foucault’s historical method (or lack thereof)?

I enjoy reading his theory but I know his methodology can be lacking and would love to learn specifically how. ty <3

i don't have a text off the top of my head that is solely dedicated to making this critique of foucault (usually it's scattered into various historical literature) but i can just tell you:

foucault the historian has the consistent problem of relying on too few primary sources, almost all of which are french or english, meaning his claims are often only applicable to limited local cases (even the differences between the highly centralised, bureaucratised french state and the british situation tend to get flattened). his sources also tend to be authority figures like doctors and government officials, and he frequently makes the assumption that the powers they claim to have (or claim they SHOULD have) are powers they actually do have, which leads to a 'top-down' history that presents authorities and institutions as almost infallible in their efforts to repression, with virtually no attention paid to how people actually received any such mandates, and whether they were actionable, or subverted, or both. he also has a real problem conceiving of liberty in any terms but individual; politics for him is frequently characterised by a group vs individual struggle, which is a problem if what you are trying to understand is, say, the history of class struggle.

as a philosopher foucault articulated some general methodological guiding principles that remain useful in history: genealogical and archaeological methods, the call to historicise (meaning, to problematise; to contextualise) institutions and ideas presented as timeless or transcendent. there are also concepts in his historical narratives that other people have since fleshed out further, nuanced, and grounded in better evidence and 'bottom-up' histories, like biopolitics. so it's not unusual to see his name pop up in historical footnotes, especially in an introduction or conclusion where he may form part of a conceptual framework the author is using to interpret their evidence and turn it into a viable argument. but even these usages are certainly subject to critique (eg, the emphasis on individual liberty that suffuses his conceptual work; the extent to which his arguments can apply beyond the specific early modern metropolitan french contexts about which he was writing) and he should pretty much never be cited as a historian because his methodology in that respect was at best lacking.

#foucault

[nethnad]

ok as someone with adopted family members can i just say how much i loved how the new doctor who christmas special showed the different relationships adoptees feel about their adoptions?

like. there's something about how both ncuti gatwa and millie gibson have managed to capture the kind of listlessness that adoption can cause. because at its heart adoption is a very alienating process.

and people have very different, and valid, reactions to this alienation. fifteen's very hesitant about looking into his own origins (and ruby's as well) because he's nervous about what he might find. which is an attitude i've seen from my own uncle about his bio family! and other adoptees, like ruby, actively seek out their bio families through methods like ancestry kits and genealogical organizations. and i feel like there's always this pressure to choose one of these paths - to either lean fully into your adopted origins or to search for your biological relatives - and it's rare to see them both shown as equally valid paths to take. like i felt like this special managed to convey that neither fifteen nor ruby's outlook is "wrong," and each were valid perspectives on their similar circumstances/origins.

and even as ruby's doing this search for her bio parents, there's this reinforcement of carla as her mum that i really loved to see idk. like my uncle is still My Uncle! but if he ever wanted to search for his bio family thats not a rejection. and i'm glad RTD showed this search as something that can coexist with having an adopted family.

and adoptees/fostered kids please feel free to tack onto this post!! i'm only speaking from a second-hand perspective here and i'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts on this episode.

#watching this episode made me go HOLY SHIT HES JUST LIKE MY UNCLE!!!!!! SHES JUST LIKE MY UNCLE!!!! #again second-hand perspective here so like. words are with grain of salt this is just my thoughts #dw spoilers #doctor who spoilers #doctor who

[travelingthief]

Zeus Devotions and Offerings

Learn About:

Clouds (what’s their part in the water cycle? How do you tell the difference between types of clouds?)

Weather (predominantly rain, wind, & thunder and lightning) (What causes these phenomena scientifically?)

The justice system

Eagles, hawks, and other birds

His myths and genealogy (there’s a lot there!)

His Roman counterpart, Jupiter

Political history in your country (or any country of interest)

Climate change and how you can help reduce it

Storms/Rain

Collect rainwater as an offering or for use in spells

(Safely) Watch a storm (I like to do so in my car)

If you can, safely offer shelter to those during storms (travelers, unhoused folks, or even stray cats/dogs!)

Participate in storm clean-ups

Splash in puddles/Dance in the rain

Thank Him for the rain and acknowledge how helpful it is for providing life to all of us

Take proper storm precautions, like buying enough food, having flashlights/candles on hand, and having non-electric ways to keep warm

Keep a rainy day fund

Spend rainy days with your [chosen] family

Meditate/fall asleep to rain sounds

Learn how to respond in the event someone is struck by lightning

Sky

Go cloud-gazing (try making up stories for the shapes you find!)

Go parasailing

Travel on planes

Hot air balloon rides

Ask Him to bless your flights and travels

Go birdwatching

Ride a zipline

Fly kites

Learn cloud divination

Order and Justice

Keep up-to-date with local political happenings

Participate in your city/school council

Attend protests and advocate for equality  

Vote in local, state, and nationwide elections

Take breaks for yourself when learning about politics! That shit can be overwhelming!

Learn de-escalation methods

Join a debate team

Keep your schedule in order

Maintain a clean and orderly environment

Advocate for a greener future

Visit your state house

Leadership and Protection

Trust yourself to take on leadership roles

Build your self-confidence 

Be assertive in your boundaries 

(If you're able to) Work out and build muscle

Take proper measures to protect your home (locking the door and windows or a protection spell/jar!)

Take self-defense classes/martial arts/wrestling etc.

Make your own self-love affirmations 

Do things that make you feel powerful!

Understand your power. So many people are afraid of power because of negative connotations, but power can be used for good as well

Carry yourself with pride

Speak with conviction

Misc.

Support small businesses

Check the weather and dress appropriately (or pack emergency backup clothes if the fit is too good)

Carry an umbrella on you! And a spare if you can, to pass out to someone in need!

Wear grays and sky blues

Travel and see the world!

(Safely and sanitarily) collect bird feathers. Make sure you’re aware of which bird feathers are restricted from being collected

Show Him things you’re proud of!

Set attainable goals and make a plan to achieve them

Offer hospitality to every guest, even if you’re not thrilled to see them

Be a pleasant guest, even if you’re not thrilled to be there

Offerings

Feathers

Bull/swan/eagle imagery

Rainwater/snow water

Representation of lightning/storms (Paintings, trinkets, drawings, etc.)

Imagery of Scales of Justice

Voting stickers/Absentee ballot envelopes

Political mail for causes you support

Homework you put a good effort into and are proud of

Pictures of the sky/clouds

Bird figurines

Crown imagery/figurines

Lastly, it’s undeniable that Zeus has a long history of assaulting and mistreating women. Everyone has their beliefs on the matter and I think it is entirely possible to worship/work with a god while fully acknowledging the messy past. Furthermore, as I dive deeper into the history surrounding the myths I gain a better understanding of the factors surrounding Zeus’s philandering, like the synchronization of Gods and Goddesses across religions and how Zeus likely assimilated past male deities and the people of the time created the stories of his many affairs to explain this merging.

There’s no way to justify the raping by our human standards. That being said, I don’t think it’s cause to completely shut Him out. He is the King of the Gods, the Bringer of Life! Surely that is something to celebrate. 

With all that, some final acts that support women:

Believing victims

Donating/volunteering at women's shelters

Learning the signs of domestic abuse

Learning and acknowledging red flags in a partner

Talking to friends about any major red flags you’re concerned about with their partner

Advocating for women’s rights 

Learning about domestic abuse/rape/abortion services in your area

Hoping this is helpful to someone! I see very few posts for Zeus on here.

#zeus #zeus offerings #zeus worship #hellenic polytheism #offerings #greek gods #witchblr #witchcraft #jupiter #hera #paganism #hellenic pagan

[romanceyourdemons]

edgar rice burroughs’ “a princess of mars” is so entrenched in the planetary romance and sword and sorcery genres that it forms a foundation stone of, as well as in the specific styles and bigotry of the first decades of the 20th century that there was little in it that i haven’t seen before, but there are two things that were noteworthy to me. firstly, the book clearly demonstrates that, in the fin de siecle white american literary imagination, the figure of the honorable southern gentleman of the confederate army was unquestioned as the latest link in a chain of chivalric heroes including cowboys, swashbucklers, and arthurian knights. secondly, the book follows much early-century science fiction into directly mapping the narrative of a method of white colonial expansion onto its protagonist’s interaction with an alien world—as a trip to the moon (1902) invokes direct colonial conquest and c.s. lewis’s space trilogy invokes missionary work, so this book invokes manifest destiny and “cowboys and indians” narratives—and it also follows the vast majority of science fiction in its orientalism, providing an almost textbook recreation of the narrative of an exotic, brutish people living in the ruins of greatness created by ancestors who have much more kinship to white people than they do to their own descendants. however, interestingly, this book frames the degeneration of the martians and particularly of the green men as the direct and explicit product of eugenics. i do not know enough about edgar rice burroughs to know his wider stance on the issue, but it does seem a striking stance to take in 1911, when eugenics was a darling of the scientific and popular community of europe and america. other than these two things, there wasn’t much of interest and import in the book, but it does contribute to several significant literary genealogies of modern science fiction and fantasy

#am i glad i read it? #well i’m glad i won’t have to read it again #and it was interesting to see the racist/orientalist associations of many sff tropes set out in open and unabashed terms #but i don’t think i would recommend it #ryddles

[demigoddessqueens]

ohh interesting idea. assassins react to their love joining the templars, rising to the top until they're in charge and then, once they are top dog, once they are in charge, they launch a massive and sweeping purge that kills off it's entire leadership and much members. Leaking every secret and info they have to the assassins only to then invite the assassins to take over.

"This was my plan all along. We cannot play by our methods but by theirs if we want to win this war and free mankind. And it worked. I won. The templars are no more and we can finally really help humanity..."

basically unknown to everyone they played the role of a deep saboteur who always planned to destroy the templars once they got in control. somehow they did it despite everyone of their former friends and allies hating them and wanting them dead for their perceived betrayal and now learning the truth once their greatest foe has been defeated.

Oooh this is angsty one but across the board…

I feel like Altair, Edward, Ezio, Arno, Connor, Aveline, Assassin Shay, Bayek and Aya, Eivor, Basim, Jacob and Evie would be put-off by such an ambition knowing your true desires to it.

Plus, without a doubt, such extreme actions would have a ripple effect of going against the three tenets of the Brotherhood

Desmond would be an exception in that he would be new to learning his family genealogy legacy, but once he understood it, he would be shocked by the lengths you’ll go

#inbox asks #headcanons #assassin’s creed x reader #assassin’s creed

[jbird-the-manwich]

Re: your post about contacting ancestral spirits -- how might one go about this if unable to ask family about stories of certain ancestors/ascertain if anyone had that particular... vibe? (e.g. most family is long since passed, the few that remain aren't on speaking terms/just don't know). And furthermore... if one is unable to visit an ancestor's gave? (due to living in another state or country, making visit impossible). Is it possible to reach out and form a relationship/seek guidance with an ancestor's spirit at this point, or are the connections to my family and ancestors too... severed?

Links to information may be severed. It would be wise to look into your genealogy if at all possible. Dates of birth and death certificates, who was survived by who, where they lived etc. You may be able to find photographs of family members you had no idea about. If there's a knowing in you, you'll be able to discern the others, if you are careful and patient. At that point you'd have a name and a photo to use.

if all information links are apparently severed... blood is still blood. The post you are referring to is a very loose method. You may workshop it however best you feel would suit you. Provided you feel confident you can discern the true identity of anything that might come calling, and remove whatever isn't welcome. Grave access is going to be the fastest, surest way, but if access to a grave of even a recent ancestor isn't an option, you may have some luck calling up a psychopomp. I would be sure to use earthen clay, though. And approach from a liminal space - I would not perform that at my own home. A crossroads, a graveyard, a creekbed, a cave, even under a root mass at an overhang if it's all you've got. Don't forget safety measures.

[tanadrin]

i’m just starting Language Classification: History and Method by Cambell & Poser, and as part of their historical survey of the origins of the comparative method, they’re talking about the early modern etymologists--it’s very interesting how much evidence was recognized for Indo-European and similar language families as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, but what methodological hurdles held back actual progress on reconstruction. for instance, Dutch School philologists recognized that core vocabulary and sound correspondences were both better points of comparison than arbitrary shared vocabulary, or rarer words more likely to be borrowings--but having noted the existence of a sound correspondence like Greek glossa vs glotta, or Flemish water vs German wasser, the s/t correspondence was held to be valid for any two words in any two languages. So wild etymological speculation such as the perennially popular how-can-we-derive-this-from-Hebrew acrobatics was restrained (cf. Edo Nyland’s attempts to derive everything from Basque for a modern equivalent), but they still didn’t have a concept of localized sound laws that proceeded in a regular, temporally limited way. And, of course, they were still more often than not trying to fit everything in to a Biblical framework, like linking the classification of languages with the genealogy of the sons of Noah.

The only reason historical linguistics didn’t flourish earlier IMO is that it is hard to get data--the fact that it was the Age of Discovery helped a lot, not for any particular technological or scientific innovation, but just because more languages were being encountered, including languages that were already being written down. If you were trying to study languages during, say, the early Roman Empire, not only would it be very difficult to get information on distant languages, but very little of it would be in books--you would mostly have to be tracking down speakers of those languages, and interrogating them through translators.

Claudius Salmasius is probably the one to get closest to the later neogrammarian principle of regular sound laws first--he recognizes something like Grimm’s Law in the 1640s. But he still doesn’t have great sources from Sanskrit (if I understand correctly, he’s mostly getting his information  secondhand via Ctesias, and comparing that to modern Persian), and trying to fit his data into the Scythian hypothesis, which is a sort of proto-Kurgan Hypothesis that has confused the classical Scythians, their later mythologized version, Persia, and the (not yet so named) Indo-Europeans. (You might have been able to reconstruct PIE in the 17th century, if you had been really ahead of the curve, but modern archeology also definitely helped clarify our understanding of ancient cultures in a way that had a big impact on the study of historical linguistics.)

[newhistorybooks]

"What is the relationship between criminal law and settler colonialism? In Thresholds of Accusation, George Pavlich presents an erudite and compelling genealogy of criminal accusation as a long process of criminalization that continues to conceal the coercive and violent effects of settler colonialism on Indigenous communities today. Pavlich asks us to consider how the vast inequities in the Canadian criminal justice system, especially the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples, are the effects of what he calls ‘a dispossessing colonial rule by law.’ The book is brimming with theoretical and methodological insights. Pavlich distills his arguments of accusation as a performative foundation of colonial law through close readings of archival documents. His analysis repudiates archival research as historical discovery and offers innovative methods for writing legal history. This is a must read."

#uwlibraries #history books #canadian history #indigenous history #legal history

[bookofjin]

Tilling the fields, QMYS, Section 1

The Qimin yaoshu齊民要術 (“Essential Techniques for the Common People) by Jia Sixie (fl. c. 540), is the oldest Chinese agricultural treatise to survive in its entirety. Jia Sixie served as a mid-level official of Eastern Wei,as such the focus is on the dryland farming practices of his home region in modern Shandong rather than the wet rice agriculture of Southern China. The book itself mixes Jia Sixie's own advise and descriptions with quotations from earlier works, many of which are now lost. The QMYS is therefore not just an important source for the author's own times, but for the agricultural writings and practices of the preceding centuries.

Section 1 covers the different aspects of tilling the fields in preparation for cultivation, and contains advise for how to clear new fields, ploughing, harrowing, different soil types, and so on.

(To go straight to the translation, jump to "Section 1, Tilling the Fields")

[Translator's preface]

[The QMYS is not illustrated, but texts of this nature really should come with some visual aides. I have therefore included here some drawings and pictures from later eras. All images from Wikipedia.

[Farming tools]

Han era scholars agreed that China's first plough had been a tool called leisi耒耜, but lacked a clear of concept of how it actually looked like. Later authors simply repeated their statements. The drawing below from Wang Zhen's (1271-1333) Nongshu is therefore at best a reconstruction from literary evidence.

(Leisi耒耜, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

The main plough was instead the ox-pulled li犂 frame-plough.

(Li犂, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

(Shantung plow, from King, 1911, Farmers of forty centuries)

QMYS also refer to the lighter feng鋒 plough.

(Feng鋒, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

The QMYS is the oldest Chinese text to refer to the iron-tined harrow, which it refer to as loucou𨫒楱

(Ba耙, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

The lao勞 bush-harrow was made by weaving thin sticks around the cross-bars.

(Lao勞, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

The preferred tool for sowing was the seed drill, lou耬

(Louche耬車, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

In addition to these ox-drawn tools, there were of course a varity of manual tools in different shapes and sizes, hoes, shovels, etc.

(Youchu耰鋤, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

(Nou耨, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

(Chan鏟, from Wang Zhen's Nongshu)

(Method of using the broad, heavy hoe in producing surface mulch, as seen in Shantung, China, from King, 1911, Farmers of forty centuries)

[Crop plants]

Later sections of QMYS treats the cultivation of the individual crops in much larger detail.

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), gu穀, was the main staple crop.

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), shu黍

In addition to gu and shu, different varieties of foxtail and broomcorn millet were known under a large number of other names.

Mung beans or green gram (Vigna radiata), lüdou緑豆 (lit. "green beans"), used as green manure in crop rotation with millet

Adzuki beans (Vigna angularis), xiaodou小豆 (lit. "small beans") served a similar function

Wheat (Triticum aestivum), mai麥 (same name also used for barley) was primarily a winter crop in ancient China.

[Books quoted by QMYS in Section 1, in order of appearance]

The Zhoushu周書 (“Book of Zhou”), also known as the Yi Zhoushu逸周書, is a Warring States era collection of documents about Western Zhou, but the book has a complicated textual history. It is quoted once in QMYS, in Section 1. The quoted text is not found in the transmitted version.

The Shiben世本 (“Generational Roots”) records the genealogies of mythical rulers, the origin of the clan names, and mythological and historical inventors. Several versions existed, by different authors. The full text now lost, but it is quoted numerous times in other works. It is quoted once in QMYS, in Section 1.

The Lüshi chunqiu呂氏春秋 (“Spring and Autumn of Mister Lü”) is a collection of treatises and essays attributed to the retainers of Lü Buwei, the (in)famous Qin chancellor. It covers a very wide range of topics.

The Erya爾雅 (“Approaching the Correct”) is the oldest surviving Chinese glossary. Modern scholarship dates the book to the late Warring States and/or early Western Han periods. It is quoted numerous times in QMYS.

The Jianwei shiren犍為舍人, the “Retainer from Jianwei”, lived during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han and wrote a commentary on the Erya. The book is now lost. The quote in Section 1 is the first of three in QMYS.

The Zuanwen 纂文 (“Compiled Graphs”) by the Liu-Song scholar and historian He Chengtian何承天 (370 – 447) is now lost. It is quoted once in QMYS, in Section 1.

The Shuowen 說文 (“Explaining Graphs”) by Xu Shen許慎 (c. 58 – c. 147) analyses the composition and reasoning behind the different characters. It is quoted numerous times in QMYS.

The Shiming釋名 (“Analysing Names”) by Liu Xi劉熙 is a glossary in the style of the Erya written c. 200 AD. The quote in Section 1 is the first of three in QMYS.

The Liji 禮記 (“Ritual Records”) is a collection of ritual treatises compiled from older texts during Former Han, it became part of the textual canon as one the Five Classics and also as one the Three Ritual Classics. Its usage in QMYS is restricted to the Yueling chapter.

The Yueling月令 (“Monthly Orders”) chapter of the Liji is a calendrical treatise describing for each of the twelve months the position of the stars and other seasonal markers, important state rituals, and which activities should be undertaken in each month. Its inclusion in the Liji ensured it what read by every person aspiring to an education and it inspired a whole genre of similar texts, such as the Simin yueling. It is extensively quoted in QMYS.

Zheng Xuan鄭玄(127 – 200) was a famous scholar at the end of Han who wrote an influential commentary on the Three Ritual Classics. In QMYS quotations from the Yueling and Zhouguan are usually accompanied by quotes from his annotations.

Mengzi孟子 (“Master Meng”, theLatin Mencius) collects the teachings of the famous Warring States era philosopher Meng Ke (372–289 BC). The quote in Section 1 is the first of three in QMYS.

Wei Wen-hou魏文侯, Marquis Wen of Wei, ruled Wei during the early Warring States era. The single quote in QMYS attributed to him is found in the Huainanzi.

The Book of Miscellanea on Yin and Yang雜陰陽書 was apparently written during the early Han, but is now lost outside the quotations in the QMYS. The quote in Section 1 is the first of eight in QMYS.

Gao You高誘 lived at the end of Han and wrote commentaries on several texts, including the Lüshi chunqiu and the Huainanzi. The quote in Section 1 is the first of eight in QMYS.

The Huainanzi淮南子 (“Masters of Huainan”) is a collection of philosophical treaties compiled during Western Han at the court of Liu An (179 – 122 BC), vassal king of Huainan. It covers a wide range of topics. The quote in Part 9 is the second of nine in QMYS, the first being in the preface (which I have impudently skipped).

The Fan Shengzhi shu氾勝之書 (“Book of Fan Shengzhi”) is the oldest known Chinese agricultural treatise. Fan Shengzhi might originally have been an easterner, but during the early Western Han served as an official in the Guanzhong region. The original book has been lost, but it is extensively quoted in the QMYS, and also by Tang and Song encyclopedias.

Cui Shi崔寔 (d. c. 170) was a Han official and author of multiple works, including the Simin yueling and Zhenglun.

The Simin yueling 四民月令 (“Monthly Orders for the Four People”) is written in the style of the Liji Yueling, detailing each month's agricultural activities at the large estates of late Han North China. The original book is lost except as fragments in other books. It is very extensively quoted in the QMYS.

The Zhenglun政論 (“Essay on Government”) criticizes what Cui Shi considered the decline in morals and lax administration of law in his time. The original book is lost except as fragments in other books. It is quoted once in QMYS, in Section 1.

[Lettered notes]

The original text is a mix of large and small characters. I have collected the small text sections together in idented lettered notes within {} brackets.]

[Translation starts here:]

Section 1, Tilling the Fields

[Dictionary definitions]

The Book of Zhou says: “In the time of the Divine Farmer, Heaven rained millet [su粟]. The Divine Farmer thereupon tilled and planted it. He created pottery, cast axes and hatchets, and made the plough-shaft and ploughshare [leisi耒耜], the long- [chu鉏] and short-handle hoe [nou耨], to clear the grass and thickets. Afterwards the Five Grains supported and helped, and the Hundred Fruits were stored in abundance.”

The Generational Rootssays: “Chui created the plough-shaft and ploughshare. Chui was a vassal of the Divine Farmer.”

The Spring and Autumn of Mister Lüsays: “The ploughshare is six cun wide.”

The Eryasays: “To mow[qu斪] or weed[zhu斸] are spoken of as to settle [ding定].”

The Retainer from Jianwei says: “To mow or weed is to hoe [chu鋤]. They are names for settling.”

The Compiled Graphssays: “In the way of tending sprouts, the long-handle hoe [chu鋤] is not as good as the short-handle hoe [nou耨], the short-handle hoe is not as good as shovel [chan鏟]. A shovel is two chi long, with a blade two cun wide, and is used to level the ground and remove grass.”

Xu Shen's Explaining Graphssays: “The plough-shaft [lei耒] is for hand-tilling with a curved wood. The plough-share [si 耜] is the plough-shaft's straight end. The weeder [zhu斸] is for cleaving [zhuo斫]. In Qi they speak of it as the ziji鎡基. Some say the axe handle [jinbing斤柄] is curved by nature. A field [tian 田] is laid out [chen陳]. Where is planted grain is called a field. [The graph] resemble four 口, and the 十 is the pattern of paths and cross-paths. To till [geng耕] is to plough [li犂]. [the graph] comes from “plough-shaft” 耒 with the “well” [jing井] sound. Some say it is the ancients' well field [system.]”

Liu Xi's Analysing Names say: “A field [tian田] is full [tian填]. The five grains fill up within it. A plough [li犂] is profit [li利]. To profit, turn over the soil and cut off the grass at the root. The short-handle hoe [nou耨] resembles hoeing [chu鉏], with crouched back hoe among the stalks. To weed out [zhu] is to execute [zhu誅] someone. The ruler uses execution to dig up a matter at the root.”

[General advise]

In general, when opening uncultivated mountain and marsh fields, always in the 7th Month cut down and mow them. When the grass has dried, set fire to it. Arriving at spring, begin to clear out those of its groves where the wood is large, peel off the bark to kill them. When the leaves are dead and not casting shadow, they will readily yield to tilling and planting. After three years, when the roots have withered and the stalks decayed, use fire to burn them (entering the ground fully), till the uncultivated land to the end, and use an iron teeth loucou𨫒楱 harrow to rake it twice everywhere, hurl broomcorn non-glutinous millet, and bush-harrow [lao勞] it again twice everywhere. Next year then it is fitting to be a millet field.

In general when tilling eminent or inferior fields, do not ask about spring or autumn, [you] must pay attention to dry or wet to obtain what will be good. If flood and drought are not in concert, it is better with dry and not wet {A}. For the spring tilling, immediately take in hand the harrowing{B}. For the autumn tilling, wait for the turn to white to harrow{C}. [When the soil starts to dry, the surface turns white, which Jia Sixie refers to as 白背.]

{A: With dry tilling, then even if there are earth-clods, as soon as there is rain, the earth will pulverize and dissolve. With wet tilling, it will harden when it dries, and for several years will not be good. The proverb which says: “Wet tilling and damp hoeing is not as good as going home.” tells that it is of no gain and will be damaging. In the case of wet tilling, when it turns white quickly use the loucou on it, and there will likewise be no injury. If not done, it will be very bad.} {B: The ancients said you耰, now we say lao勞. The Explaining Graphs says: “The you is a tool for rubbing [mo摩] the fields.” Now people also name the lao bush-harrow a “rubber” [mo]. A vulgar saying is “till the field with the rubbing harrow”.} {C: During spring, there is much wind, and if [you] do not soon harrow, the earth will surely be empty and dry. During autumn the fields are soaked solid, and wet harrowing will make the earth stiff. The proverb which says: “To till and not to harrow is not as good as making it go to waste” perhaps tells that wetlands are difficult to handle, and delights in Heaven's timely chances. Huan Kuan's essay on Salt and Iron says: “Underneath a thick grove there is no lush grass. Between large clods there are no excellent sprouts.”}

In general, autumn tilling want to be deep, spring and summer tilling want to be shallow. Ploughing want to be narrow, harrowing want to be double{D}. In the autumn to till and cover over what is green is the best.{E} The earliest tilling want to be deep, and the turned over earth want to be shallow.{F} On land with themeda or cogon-grass [jianmao菅茅], [you] ought to let loose cattle and sheep to trample it. Then if in the 7th Month [you] till it, it will die{G}.

{D: Plough narrow and till finely, the ox then will not tire. Double-harrow and the land will ripen, during drought it will likewise protect the moisture.} {E: Reaching the winter months, the green grass that has regrown will be as excellent as adzuki beans [xiaodou小豆].} {F: If the tilling is not deep, the land will not ripen. If the turned over is not shallow, the stirring will bring forth the soil.} {G: If not the 7th Month, it will regrow.}

In general, the rule for excellent fields, is for mung beans [lüdou緑豆] to be first, adzuki beans and sesame [huma胡麻] is next to it. Thoroughly for all of them sow densly [?] within the 5th and 6th Months, and in the 7th and 8th Month plough and cover over to kill them. [This] will make a spring millet field with a harvest of ten shi on the mu, in excellence comparable to silkworm excrement and mature manure.

In general, after the autumn harvest, the oxen's strength will be weak. For those not yet caught up for autumn tilling, at the bringing down of [?] the foxtail [ gu穀], glutinous broomcorn [shu黍], non-glutinous broomcorn [ji穄], large grained [liang 粱], and glutinous foxtrail [shu秫]millets' stubble, then move the exhausted ones to quickly use the “spear-point plough” [feng鋒] on it. The ground is regularly soft and moist, and is not hard and tough. Then when arriving at the beginning of winter, [you] usually get to till and harrow, and not worry about it being dried up and arid. If the oxen's strength is small, only harrow it once during the 9th and 10th Months, and arriving at spring, sow without ploughing [?], is also doable.

[Excerpts from the Monthly Orders on tilling]

[This whole subsection consists of quotation from the classic text the Monthly Orders [Yueling 月令], a chapter of the Ritual Records [Liji禮記], accompanied by quotations from commentary by the Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan.]

The Ritual Records' Monthly Orderssays: “In the Month of First Spring, … the Son of Heaven therefore on the inaugural day pray for grain to the High God [shangdi上帝]{H}. Then, selecting the inaugural chen day, the Son of Heaven personally conveys the plough-shaft and ploughshare. … He leads the Three Excellencies, the Nine Dignitaries, the various feudal lords, and the great men, to till themselves the God's Acre [Di ji帝籍]{I}. This Month, Heaven's breath descends down and Earth's breath rises up. Heaven and Earth are in harmony with each other, and the grasses and trees sprout and stir{J}. … He instructs the ministers for the fields{K}. They skilfully assess the hills and mounds, the slopes and defiles the highlands and lowlands, for what is suitable among the land and ground, and what to plant of the Five Grains, so as to teach and guide the people. … Field affairs having been put in order, he first settles the guidelines and responsibilities. Agriculture was therefore not in confusion. ...”

{H: Zheng Xuan's Annotations says: “It speaks of the first xin day, and the suburban sacrifices to Heaven. The Spring and Autumn Transmittals says: 'In spring the suburban sacrifices to the Lord of Agriculture [Houji后稷] to pray for farming affairs. Thus after the commencement of hibernation, the suburban sacrifices. After the suburban sacrifices, the tilling.' The High God is the god of the Grand Tenuity [taiyi太微].”} {I: “Inaugural chen is perhaps a propitious chen day after the suburban sacrifices. … The God's Acre is the field by which is regulated the Heavenly Divinity's lending the people strength.”} {J: “This is the yang breath ascending through the surface, a portent that there can be tilling. The Book of Agriculture says: 'For the best growth cover over the stakes. When they show the base and can be pulled out, those who till urgently set out.”} [This Book of Agriculture [nongshu農書] is apparently the same as the Book of Fan Shengzhi which is quoted in more detail on this topic further down.] {K: “With minister it speaks of the 'field surveyors', the officials in charge of agriculture.”}

“In the Month of Middle Spring, … those who till have a short rest, they then repair their gate and door leaves [heshan闔扇]{L}. There are no great affairs undertaken which would hinder agricultural affairs. … ”

{L: 'Rest' [she舍] is similar to 'pause' [shi止]. Hibernating insects open doors, and with tilling affairs a little tranquil, they then put in order their gates and doors. When they use wood it is called he闔, when they use bamboo or reeds it is called shan扇.”}

“In the Month of First Summer, … he encourages agriculture and motivates the people, and there are not anyone who neglects the season{M}. … He instructs the farmers to apply themselves to action, and not rest at the capital{N}. ...”

{M: “He puts weight and effort in encouraging [them?] to come to him.”} {N: “He presses and urges the farmers. … The Rites for the King Residing in the Bright Hall says: 'There are no sojourners in the state'.”

“In the Month of Last Autumn, … The hibernating insects altogether curl up inside, and everyone plaster their doors.{O}”

{O: “With 'plastering' [jin墐] it speaks of smearing plaster [tu塗] to shut them. This is to avoid the killing[?] air.”}

“In the Month of First Winter, … Heaven's breath rises up and Earth's breath descends down. Heaven and Earth do not communicate, they shut up and hide, and achieve winter. … He encourages the farmers to rest and comforts them{P}. …”

{P: “'The Ward Corrector [dangzheng黨正]' 'drinks wine with the people belonging to him, and correctly arrays their ranks.'”} [Zheng Xuan here quotes from the Rites of Zhou]

“In the Month of Middle Winter, … ground affairs are not undertaken, care is taken not to open up what is covered, and not to open rooms and buildings. … [otherwise] the Earth's breath would further spill out, this is spoken of as opening the house of Heaven and Earth. The various hibernating [insects] would then die, and the people would be ill and sick{Q}. …”

{Q: “When the Great Yin employed in affairs, it especially puts weight on closing up and keeping safe.” Note that in the present era's tilling in the 10th and 11th Months is not straightly disobeying the Way of Heaven, and harming hibernating insects. [If] the earth likewise was not made moist, the harvest would surely be meagre and small.} [The words “Note … small” are not part of Zheng Xuan's commentary, but are rather Jia Sixie's own comments.]

“In the Month of Last Winter, … he instructs the field officials to announce people to bring out the Five Seeds{R}. He instructs the farmers to plan their plough-pairs and tilling affairs, repair their plough-shafts and -shares, and prepare their field tools{S}. … This month, the sun has gone through the stations, the moon has gone through the positions, and the stars have cycled around Heaven. The numbering is soon about to end{T}. The year will once more begin. Pay attention to your farming people, and do not have them sent about{U}.”

{R: “He instructs the field officials to announce to the people to bring out the Five Seeds. The great cold has passed by, and farming affairs are about to begin.”} {S: The ploughshare [si耜] is the metal of the plough-shaft [lei耒]. The ploughshare is five cun wide. Field tools are the types of hoes [ziji鎡錤].” {T: “It tells that the sun, moon, and stars have travelled around until this month, when they all have made a circuit to their old locations. The 'stations' [si次] are the lodges [she舍]. The 'positions' [ji紀] are similar to lodges.”} {U: “er而 [“thy”] is similar to ru汝 [“you” or “your”]. It tells to pay attention solely to the hearts of your farming people, and make people prepare their resolve for the affairs of tilling and sowing. It is not possible to conscript them for labour. If conscripted for labour, their resolve will scatter, and they will neglect their profession.”}

[Other quotations on tilling]

Master Meng says: “A gentleman's assignment is like a farmer's tilling.”{V}

{V: Zhao Zhu's annotations says: “It tells that to be hasty in your assignment, like a farmer who does not till, is impossible.”}

Marquis Wen of Wei says: “People in spring put their effort into tilling, in summer use their strength for weeding, and in autumn they gather their harvest.”

The Book of Miscellanea on Yin and Yang says: “When on hai亥 it is in the Heavenly Granary constellation, it is the start of tilling.”

The Spring and Autumn of Mister Lü says: Fifty-seven days after winter solstice, sweet flag [chang昌] grows. Sweet flag is the first to grow of the hundred hundred grasses, and at this point tilling starts.

The Masters of Huainan says: That which does the affairs of tilling is toil, that which does the affairs of weaving is trouble [?]. They are affairs of toil and trouble, yet those people who do not rest know they can be used for clothes and food. A person's feelings are not capable of being without clothes or food. The way of clothes and food surely starts at tilling and weaving. … Those who, if they till and weave, who will start at the beginning with considerable toil, and end with certain profit, are the multitudes.

It also says: “To be unable to till and yet want glutinous broomcorn or large grained millet, to be unable to weave and yet want to sew attires, to have nothing in their affairs and yet seeking their merit, is difficult.”

[Quotations from Fan Shengzhi]

The Book of Fan Shengzhisays: “In general, the root of tilling lies in determined timeliness, harmony with the ground, applying oneself to manure and moisture, and to hoe early and harvest early.”

“At spring when the frost disperse, Earth's breath starts to permeate, and the soil's sole harmony disperse. At the summer solstice, Heaven's breath starts to heat, the yin breath starts to flourish, and the soil again disperse. Ninety days after summer solstice, when day and night are split, Heaven and Earth's breath are in harmony. Using these times to till the fields, one will yield five, which is called fertile bounty, all then are times for work.”

“At spring when the Earth's breath permeates, [you] can till the hard and tough earth with black, lumpy soil, immediately level and rub down its clods to give growth to grass. When the grass grows, again till it. When the sky has a little rain again till and harmonize it. Do not make that which has clods await the season. This spoken of as 'if strong soil, then weaken it'.”

“A spring portent that the Earth's breath has started to permeate: Hammer down wooden stakes, a chi and two cun long, cover over a chi [so that you] see two cun. After the advent of spring [lichun立春], the soil clods will break up, and the top will slide down the stakes. When they show the base, and can be pulled out, after twenty days from this time, the harmonious breath will leave, and promptly the soil will stiffen. With timely tilling, one will yield four; till when the harmonious breath has left and four will not yield one.”

“When the apricots start to flower and flourish, immediately till light soil and weak soil. Wait for the apricot flowers to fall off, and then till again. Till and immediately roll it [lin藺]. When grass grows, and there is rain and moisture, till and heavily roll it. For soil that is particularly light, use cattle and sheep to trample it. Like this the soil will strengthen. This is what spoken of as 'if weak soil, strengthen it'.”

“If at the spring breath is not permeated, soil fully fitting will not protect its moisture, and for the remainder of the year will not be suitable for sowing, and no manure will not dissolve [?]. Take care to not till dry land. Wait for grass to grow, and to arrive the time it can be tilled. When there is rain, promptly till it, The soil will be close with each other, sprouts only will grow, grass and weed will rot, and [you] will always achieve good fields. This way one tilling will yield five. If not done like this, but dry tilled, clods will be tough, sprouts and weed will spring forth from the same hole and will be impossible to hoe into order, and and it will turn around to become failed fields. If in autumn with no rain [you] yet till, it will sever the soil's breath, and soil will be hard and dry. These are called 'arid fields' [latian臘田]. And when you till in severe winter, [you] will leak out the yin breath, the soil will wither and dry out. These are called 'parched fields' [futian 脯田]. Arid fields and parched fields are both wounded fields. If for two years they do not produce sheaves of grain, then rest them for a year.”

“In general wheat [mai麥] uses the 5th Month for tilling. The 6th Month is second for tilling, and in the 7th Month [you] must not till. Carefully rub and level to await the time for sowing seeds. Till in the 5th Month, one will yield three. Till in the 6th Month, one will yield two. If tilled in the 7th Month, five will not yield one.”

“In winter when the rain and snow has stopped, immediately roll it down. Trap the snow in the soil, and do not cause the following wind to fly away with it. If it snows later, roll it down again. Then at the advent of spring, it will protect the moisture, freeze the insects to death, and the coming year will be suitable for sowing.”

“Obtain the harmony of the season and fit to what is suitable for the land, then even if the fields are meagre and bad, the harvest can be 10 shi on a mu.”

[Quotations from Cui Shi]

Cui Shi's Monthly Orders for the Four Peoplesays: “1st Month, Earth's breath rises up. For the best growth cover over the stakes. When they show the base and can be pulled out. Hasten to cultivate fields with strong soil and black lumps. 2nd Month, Yin's frost is entirely moist. It is possible to cultivate excellent fields with slow soil and the small places by the river banks. 3rd Month, when apricot flowers are abundant, it is possible to cultivate fields with sandy, white, and light soils. 5th Month and 6th Month is is possible to cultivate wheat fields.”

Cui Shi's Essay on Governmentsays: “Emperor Wu used Zhao Guo as Chief Commandant of Searching for Millet, to teach the people tilling and planting. In his method there was three ploughshares [li犂] together for one ox, with one person escorting it, putting down seeds, pulling the seed-drill [lou耬], and in everything taking up preparations for it. In a day he sowed 1 qing. Arriving at present Sanfu [the region around Chang'an], they still rely on its advantages. Now in Liaodong when they till and plough, the shafts are four chi long, the rotations interfering with each other. Then they use a pair of oxen, a pair of people to lead them, one person in charge of the tilling, one person to put down seeds, and two people pull the seed-drill; in total they use a pair of oxen and six people, and in one day they only sow twenty-five mu. They are isolated [?] in the extreme like this.{W}”

{W}Note for three ploughshares together for one ox is similar to the present three-footed seed-drill, why the unknown tilling method? Now from Jizhou濟州 and westward they still use the long-shafted plough and the two-legged seed-drill. Long-shaft tilling on level ground is just about possible, but between the mountains and brooks, [the ground] does not permit its use, moreover the rotations are extremely difficult and costly in strength. It is not the equal the flexible ease of Qi people's luxuriant[?] ploughs. The two-legged seed-drill sows dense ridges, and is likewise not as good for hitting the mark as the one-legged seed-drill. [This seems to be Jia Sixie's own comment to Cui Shi's text.]

#chinese history #qmys

[awheckery]

DEATH TW and mentions of murder so if that is triggering for you don’t read, but if it’s not then i’d like to ask if you’ve heard of forensic genealogy? while i am uneasy at the prospect of using it to find suspects, it can also be used to find the identities of unidentified decedents, who die of accidental causes or are murdered, and often it’s the only hope to identify those who have been unidentified for decades. the dna doe project is a nonprofit that’s mostly volunteer run, and i think that your research skills could be useful there or somewhere like there. i know this is kind of a random ask to receive, identification of unidentified remains is my special interest but i don’t have the time or training to get better at researching beyond a few tricks here and there.

I feel like we've read the same articles recently; did you see the tumblr post (and linked articles) about Joseph Augustus Zarelli, the Boy in the Box?

Which is to say, yes, I am aware of forensic genealogy and the DNA Doe Project, because like many white American women, I'm a true crime junkie.* My big Thing is investigative procedure tho, so I'm also deeply interested in plane & train crash investigations, medical mysteries, archaeology, anthropology... basically 'what happened, and by which processes and methods do we figure out what happened?'

So far as getting into the game myself, I dunno. I assume there's probably some sort of required formal training, along with the expectation of reliability and sustained effort, and I'm a chronically ill autodidact with ADHD. I'm the research equivalent of a sprinter; investigative genealogy requires a marathoner, because there's so much exhausting, grinding work involved.

Something I've never seen brought up before in any investigation is how many extant family trees are just wrong. Genealogical sites make it too easy to crib notes from other users, and all it takes is one person deciding 'eh that's probably the right guy' for dozens of other amateur researchers to make the same mistake, and then somebody ties that erroneous information to their DNA profile. I don't know how the forensic genealogists deal with that.

You also have to take into account how many people throughout history have just gone missing, or otherwise fallen off the historical record. Just because someone's date of death is absent doesn't mean something nefarious happened to them. (Just because someone's date of death is present doesn't mean it's correct.) People emigrate. They marry. They change their names. They die alone and unknown in a ditch**, or they die somewhere that doesn't make those records public***. Paper records can burn or flood out, and family stories rarely make it down more than one or two generations. History is messy.

I've only done serious research into my family background for two years, in fits and starts interrupted by illness flare ups. Half the time it feels like I find more questions to ask than I get answers. I've found a pair of illegitimate daughters and a handful of adoptees. I've found some two dozen 'missing persons' who may as well have disappeared into thin air, for how suddenly they dropped out of the historical record. I've found a murder victim and a (maybe) would-be murderess.

And four months ago, I found the answer to another family's 150 year old missing person case, and it changed everything I thought I knew about my mother's family.

This is how.

Five months ago, I thought I knew everything there was that could be known about John Robert McDowell.

I knew he was born July 1st of either 1868 or 1869, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. According to his naturalization petition, he came to the United States in April of 1883, when the absolute oldest he could have been was fourteen, and at the time of his naturalization in 1896 he claimed his nationality was English, presumably due to anti-Irish sentiments at the time.

I knew John's handwriting was idiosyncratic: he wrote the J in his name with a rightward upper loop that scooped up again before curving back around the center staff, and his uppercase R was a mess of curlicues. I've never seen the like before or since.

I knew that despite living in America for ten years longer than he'd lived outside it, John still had an accent in 1908 when his second son was born. Spelling is incredibly inconsistent across historical records because up until very recently, it was the practice of the record keepers to write down their best guess at what they heard, and in 1908 a midwife heard and recorded John's surname as McDoul.

John's life was actually remarkably well-documented, in comparison to his contemporaries. I bought myself access to Newspapers.com along with my Ancestry subscription, and he made semi-regular appearances in the Newport News Daily Press for the better part of thirty years as a Navy veteran, successful entrepreneur, and president of a labor union that later became the United Steelworkers Local 8888. (A seemingly throwaway notice in the Daily Press was the only record I've yet been able to find for his divorce, which eventually led me to find out whatever happened to his wife, which is another saga entirely. Pauline, you dirty rotten cheater.)

I knew that John was in and out of the hospital with thyroid cancer, but he was such a tough old bastard it took the better part of fifteen years to kill him, and he died in 1954 at the age of 86.****

According to John's death certificate (and the U.S. Government records at the VA hospital where he died), his parents' names were Thomas McDowell and Isabell Rabb (or possibly Robb, the Accent strikes again.)

This is the only record linked to either of them on Ancestry.com at all.

I have most of a history degree, so I wasn't surprised. There are next to no records of the 1890 census of the United States, and that was down to a fire in the National Archives. Ireland was dragged backwards through hell by the ankles for centuries by a succession of British monarchs and governments, and Belfast was in the prime of especially conflicted territory for much of it. No census records from John's lifetime were kept, and the likelihood his parents would show up in the surviving fragments from 1841 and 1851 was slim to none.

There were transcribed indexes from birth and marriage records available, at least, and I scoured them through, looking for a John McDowell, and there wasn't a single damn one born to a Thomas or Isabelle McDowell in a decade on either side of 1868. There wasn't any record I could find at all of a Thomas McDowell marrying an Isabelle Rabb until well after John left Ireland.

Five months ago, as far as I knew, John Robert McDowell was probably a bastard, who'd either been left out of whatever records were taken at the time, or he was one of the unfortunate ones whose birth record had been lost.

Four months ago, I realized that the record indexes on Ancestry included film numbers, which meant there were pictures of those records to be found somewhere. If they were organized chronologically, I could try to find his birth registration that way. Googling "ireland civil registration records" brought me to the Civil Records search page of a genealogy site run by, of all things, the Irish government's tourism department.

Once again, there wasn't a John McDowell born to the right parents during the right time period, so I went looking for his parents' marriage. And found it.

If they married in 1872, John would probably still technically be a bastard, but I had a point to start from. Once I clicked into the actual scan of the record I nearly snapped myself in half sitting upright in attention, because Thomas McDowell's father's name was Duncan, John named his eldest son Duncan, Isabella's father's name was John, I had to have the right two people, this couldn't be a coincidence.

And then I noticed Isabella was a widow. Isabella was a widow.

Who was your husband, and when did he die, Isabella? I searched again, and found her marriage to a Thomas Logan July 30th, 1866. No men named Thomas Logan died in Belfast between 1866 and 1870, which meant he was probably still alive when John was born. It meant I had been looking in the wrong direction the entire time.

John Robb Logan came into the world on July 1st, 1868, in the Ballymacarrett district of Belfast, the second child of four born to Thomas Logan and Isabella Robb. Once I knew what I was looking for the rest came easy.

John's early life was riddled with tragedies. His younger brother Joseph was six months old when he died in March of 1870. His father died of smallpox in December of the same year, exactly one month after the birth of his sister Mary. Three months before his fifth birthday, his first half-sibling Bella died, at just five months old. And in 1879, his older brother William died after a long, miserably drawn-out illness from spinal tuberculosis.

(As an aside, god, poor Isabella. She had four children with Thomas Logan, and a further nine with Thomas McDowell, and before her early death from a long respiratory illness she buried a husband, two sons, and two daughters. How do you go on after that, how are you not forever shattered?)

If I hadn't been sure I'd found the right family, I was after William died. Thomas McDowell was the person who reported William's death to the registrar's office after sitting by his deathbed. The registrar recorded William as a "child of [the] baker" that Thomas was by profession; Thomas McDowell claimed his stepson as his own.

Duncan McDowell, John's step-grandfather, had a family burial plot in Ballygowan, and he named William Adam Logan as his grandson, with no qualifiers, when they buried him.

All the evidence suggests that the McDowells loved John Robb Logan and his siblings, and he loved them back every bit as much. You don't choose to take on the surname of people you hate, and it seems very much the case that John chose to go by McDowell when he came to America. I'm honestly not sure there was a way for Thomas McDowell to bequeath his name to his stepchildren, given John's brother William died a Logan and his sister Mary married as one.

John Robb Logan disappeared from history after his baptism, and John Robert McDowell made his first confirmed appearance in the historical record in 1883, but I was certain they were one and the same. The problem was proving it to my mother, because McDowell was her family name. She'd grown up with it, as had her sisters and her dozens of cousins and her father and his siblings and her father's father; I only had a paper trail arguing the name she knew didn't belong to any of them by blood.

So I went for blood.

I refuse to give my DNA to Ancestry.com on a principle born from paranoia and ethics concerns. It's absolutely not happening, ever, like hell do I expect a corporation to do the right thing with my genetic material. My mother doesn't share my concerns, either now or four years ago, when she bought an Ancestry DNA kit and then did absolutely nothing with her results besides marvel at the unexpected Swedish heritage in her 'Ethnicity Estimate' because doing anything else looked like too much work.

It took a few days to figure out how to hook my mother's DNA results into the tree I've built, and a few more for all the features to populate, but all told it took less than a week between learning the truth about my great-great-grandfather's parentage and proving it irrefutably with DNA, via several descendants of his full-blooded sister Mary and a grandson of his half-brother Wallace.

Ancestry doesn't tell you when new DNA matches are found, or when someone adds you to their tree (and thank god for that, my mother has somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty thousand matches). To those descendants of Mary Thomasina Logan, the handful of John's descendants who've shelled out for Ancestry DNA kits could be any random person. Frequently the relationships between matches aren't clear, because of all the folks like my mom who never add a tree to their results, or those who don't try to go any further back than their grandparents.

As far as Mary Logan's descendants know, the sons of Thomas Logan dead-ended his line, and when I do find John in their trees there's never more than a birth year and a blank space where there would usually be a year of death. (They all have the wrong Isabella Robb too, but I don't really blame them; apparently Isabella was one of the most popular names for girls for well over a century, and Robbs weren't exactly thin on the ground.)

Someday soon, I'm going to reach out. People who study genealogy do it because they're looking for something: long lost relatives, answers to questions asked too late, or even a better, more personal understanding of history by learning about the people who were there when it happened. Every family has its mysteries and this one, at least, could be solved.

John's story doesn't end here. Here is where it begins.

~

*I'm aware of the problematic nature of White Lady True Crime Brain Poisoning, but I'm gonna have to pull the 'I'm not like other girls' card. I'm incredibly discerning about my crime shows, I hate the fucking cops, and I'm realistic about how unbelievably low my chances are of ever being the victim of a violent crime. I'm white, I'm broke as shit, I'm built like a running back and walk like the Terminator, and most importantly, I'm single and planning to stay that way for the rest of my life. The only way I'm getting murdered is if I happen to get caught in a random mass shooting, which isn't outside the realm of possibility because America.

**In case anyone's gotten this far and is still interested, there's strong evidence that the mystery of the Somerton Man was finally solved last year. At some point I'd like to take a look at the tree the forensic genealogists built tho, because I have some Doubts. There was only one person in that family that fell off the map in the 40's? Just one? I was lightning-strike kinds of lucky enough to find John's real parentage, but I dug up more unanswered questions with it, because two of his half-brothers dropped out of the records after 1901. Completely setting aside the possibility of infidelity in the Webb family and how common inbreeding has been (both historically and in recent memory) in populations of European descent, I have a hard time buying that Carl Webb was the only person who could be the Somerton Man. It's still cool as shit that they have a strong possibility tho.

***Maryland and Kansas specifically can blow me, if somebody died in either of those states I have to find an obituary or a tombstone to get the mcfrickin' date, and I have to either pay money and prove a relationship to see a death certificate, or show up to an archive in person to search on their intranet, MARYLAND WHY DO YOU NOT WANT ME TO KNOW WHEN MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER DIED. (Being fair, I don't know if she died in Maryland, that's just a great-uncle's best guess, because she ran away from her family in 1949 and nobody ever saw her again after the early 60's. Helen, where the hell did you go?)

****One of the big reasons why I got into genealogy in the first place was to see if I could find how far back the predisposition to early deaths and autoimmune disease went in my family. What I hadn't expected to find was a predisposition for extreme longevity on all sides. Longevity as in 'skewing the life expectancy bell curve' kinds of longevity. As long as someone didn't come down with a freak illness or make a looooooooong string of poor life choices, they were apparently immune to death, which honestly explains a few things about Crazy Grandma, god damn.

#genealogy #forensic genealogy #research throwdown #storytime with stella #long post #I'm seriously not kidding it's a long goddamn post #image heavy #all images described in alt text #I don't think I did a particularly great job communicating why I shouldn't get into this professionally #this took a long goddamn time to figure out #I think most people want answers quicker than *checks back of hand* seven-ish months? #fwiw my mother took it remarkably well #our big family mystery has always been What Happened to Helen? #that was probably the central question of my grandfather's life: not knowing what happened to his mother #so that was my mom's big question too #and luckily we had other weird familial circumstances as precedent #me: 'heyyyyyyyy uh so great news yr great-grandfather wasn't a criminal on the lam OR a bastard child. he was kind of adopted?' #mom: 'adopted??? huh. like your grandpa with the mudds?' #me: '....actually. yeah. almost *exactly* like that. but like if grandpa changed his last name and then never told you he'd done it' #tho I still have no idea why john changed 'robb' to 'robert' #my theory for a long time was that he was just REALLY leaning into the scottish heritage; the guy named his sons duncan & bruce #then I learned about irish naming conventions and while that answered some questions it just wound up leaving me with MORE questions #I went through all 8 stages of grief a year ago when I figured out john's presbyterian funeral meant the fam married into catholicism LATER #and thus were probably scots colonizers to the plantation of ulster instead of former gallowglasses #I don't love the idea of my ancestors being unionist kiss-asses #which the naming scheme kinda supports #but john was a LABOR UNION ORGANIZER #he left well before the clearances in the 20's but labor activism was synonymous with catholicism & nationalism for aaaaaaaages #he had to have picked that up from a parent. two of his half brothers (who also emigrated to the states) were union members too

[reasoningdaily]

The Fugitive Slave Law was enacted by Congress in September, 1850, received the signature of Howell Cobb, of Georgia, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, of William R. King, of Alabama, as President of the Senate, and was “approved,” September 18th, of that year, by Millard Fillmore, Acting President of the United States.

The authorship of the Bill is generally ascribed to James M. Mason, Senator from Virginia. Before proceeding to the principal object of this tract, it is proper to give a synopsis of the Act itself, which was well called, by the New York Evening Post, “An Act for the Encouragement of Kidnapping.”

SYNOPSIS OF THE LAW

Section 1. United States Commissioners “authorized and required to exercise and discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.”

Section. 2. Commissioners for the Territories to be appointed by the Superior Court of the same.

Section. 3. United States Circuit Courts, and Superior Courts of Territories, required to enlarge the number of Commissioners, “with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor,”.

Section. 4. Commissioners put on the same footing with Judges of the United States Courts, with regard to enforcing the Law and its penalties.

Section. 5. United States Marshals and deputy marshals, who may refuse to act under the Law, to be fined One Thousand dollars, to the use of the claimant. If a fugitive escape from the custody of the Marshal, the Marshal to be liable for his full value. Commissioners authorized to appoint special officers, and to call out the posse comitatus.

Section. 6. The claimant of any fugitive slave, or his attorney, “may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person,” either by procuring a warrant from some judge or commissioner, “or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without process;” to take such fugitive before such judge or commissioner, “whose duty it shall be to hear and determine the case of such claimant in a summary manner,” and, if satisfied of the identity of the prisoner, to grant a certificate to said claimant to “remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory from whence he or she may have escaped,”—using “such reasonable force or restraint as may be necessary under the circumstances of the case.” “In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence.” All molestation of the claimant, in the removal of his slave, “by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever,” to be prevented.

Section. 7. Any person obstructing the arrest of a fugitive, or attempting his or her rescue, or aiding him or her to escape, or harboring and concealing a fugitive, knowing him to be such, shall be subject to a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars, and to be imprisoned not exceeding six months, and shall also “forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost.”

Section. 8. Marshals, deputies, clerks, and special officers to receive usual fees; Commissioners to receive ten dollars, if fugitive is given up to claimant; otherwise, five dollars; to be paid by claimant.

Section. 9. If claimant make affidavit that he fears a rescue of such fugitive from his possession, the officer making the arrest to retain him in custody, and “to remove him to the State whence he fled.” Said officer “to employ so many persons as he may deem necessary.” All, while so employed, be paid out of the Treasury of the United States.

Section. 10. [This Section provides an additional and wholly distinct method for the capture of a fugitive; and, it may be added, one of the loosest and most extraordinary that ever appeared on the pages of Statute book.] Any person, from whom one held to service or labor has escaped, upon making “satisfactory proof” of such escape before any court of record, or judge thereof in vacation—a record of matter so proved shall be made by such court, or judge, and also a description of the person escaping, “with such convenient certainty as may be;”—a copy of which record, duly attested, “being produced in any other State, Territory, or District,” and “being exhibited to any judge, commissioner, or other officer authorized,”. “shall be held and taken to be full and conclusive evidence of the fact of escape, and that the service or labor of the person escaping is due to the party in such record mentioned;” when, on satisfactory proof of identity, “he or she shall be delivered up to the claimant.” “Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as requiring the production of a transcript of such record as evidence as aforesaid; but in its absence, the claim shall be heard and determined upon other satisfactory proofs competent in law.”

#The Fugitive Slave Law #RACISM #white hate #racism in the us #slavery #An Act for the Encouragement of Kidnapping #ilegal kidnap of free people #Black Lives Matter #white lies #white history matters #slave catchers #police origins #kidnappers #watchmen

[tofuingho]

I was reading that post about the cat with Chimerism and it gave me a thought.

Liminals with two sets of DNA. Danny and Jazz definitely, but maybe also Sam, Tucker, and/or their classmates that are often affected by ghostly nonsense.

It's not something visible, so no one really knows about it until someone has a sample taken for... Idk a paternity suit or family genealogy testing.

Maybe Jack dies suddenly from a heart attack (because by god does that man eat a lot of fudge), so Jazz decides to search for long lost relatives because of the typical post death existential crisis. She gets a notice that her sample is contaminated, so she tries again/uses a different method of collecting a sample. And then when she receives the results they don't show her being related to Danny or Maddie. Instead, there's a whole family tree of people she's never heard of.

I'm mostly thinking it would be cool if liminals had secondary DNA from a past life.

#fanfiction #danny phantom #dp prompt #chimerism

[catenaaurea]

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. (Matthew 1:17)

Let us not think this is to be overlooked, that though there were seventeen Kings of Judæa between David and Jeconiah, Matthew only recounts fourteen. We must observe that there might be many more successions to the throne than generations of men; for some may live longer and beget children later; or might be altogether without seed; thence the number of Kings and of generations would not coincide. Again, from Jeconiah to Joseph are computed twelve generations; yet he afterwards calls these also fourteen. But if you look attentively, you will be able to discover the method by which fourteen are reckoned here. Twelve are reckoned including Joseph, and Christ is the thirteenth; and history declares that there were two Joakims, that is two Jeconiahs, father and son. The Evangelist has not passed over either of these, but has named them both. Thus, adding the younger Jeconiah, fourteen generations are computed.

Ambrose

He made fourteen generations, because the ten denotes the decalogue, and the four the four books of the Gospel; whence this shews the agreement of the Law and the Gospel. And he put the fourteen three times over, that he might shew that the perfection of law, prophecy, and grace, consists in the faith of the Holy Trinity.

Remigius

Or in this number is signified the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit. The number is made up of seven, doubled, to shew that the grace of the Holy Spirit is needed both for soul and body to salvation. Also the genealogy is divided into three portions of fourteen thus. The first from Abraham to David, so as that David is included in it; the second from David to the carrying away, in which David is not included, but the carrying away is included; the third is from the carrying away to Christ, in which if we say that Jeconiah is included, then the carrying away is included. In the first are denoted the men before the Law, in which you will find some of the men of the Law of nature, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all as far as Solomon. In the second are denoted the men under the Law; for all who are included in it were under the Law. In the third are found the men of grace; for it is finished in Christ, who was the giver of grace; and because in it was the deliverance from Babylon, signifying the deliverance from captivity that was made by Christ.

Thomas Aquinas

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

Where do Christians get this idea that pagan priests need to be a part of some bloodline?

the israelites.

the ancient israelite priests were supposedly required to be  patrilineally descended from aaron. and just in general, ancient israelites were very preoccupied with hereditary descent. that's why you have these long lists of genealogies throughout the bible.

then christians also inherited this tradition from their jewish predecessors. that's why they claim that jesus is a descendent of david (despite joseph not being involved in his conception). and then this also translated to christian monarchies where they began created king-lists and genealogies for their kings and making monarchies hereditary.

pre-christian indo-european societies didn't have these sorts of preoccupations with hereditary descent. there were some hereditary monarchies but they are generally rare and short-lived. and there /were/ priesthoods passed down hereditarily, but this was just one of several methods for priests to be chosen. and it seems like it was unusual for more public/civic priesthoods. and from what i can tell, the druids tended to play a vital civic role. so i have a hard time believing they were this hereditary priesthood, which typically seems to be reserved for priesthoods of temples establish by powerful aristocratic families.

just imagine you're some ancient greek aristocrat in some small farming village. you are called by some god/goddess to establish a temple. you use your fantastic wealth to build such a temple. so you'd probably have some ownership of it, even if you allow it to be used by the public. and so it makes sense you can dictate how the priesthood is chosen and it seems natural to want your children to inherit it. just like a person who starts a business might want his children to inherit it.

but there wasn't some automatic rule that all priests in all circumstances must be chosen by hereditary descent, like there was in ancient israelite society. in addition to inheritance we find priests chosen by election, allotment, and appointment.

and again, even if we assume the bloodline thing is true there's no reason why priests couldn't exist today. the jewish kohanim exist today still despite being hereditary. who is to say the priestly druidic bloodline isn't still around? and again, even if it's not, there was obviously some condition that was met that made those bloodlines priestly in the first place. why can't those conditions be met today?

[ghelgheli]

curious about the mesoudi? surely its not just social darwinism right

(re: Towards a Unified Science of Cultural Evolution [doi] and Is Human Cultural Evolution Darwinian? [doi], both by Alex Mesoudi, Andrew Whiten, Kevin N. Laland and listed on my september reading list)

nope, not at all! the thrust of both articles is similar: that those academic disciplines dedicated to studying the state and change of human culture (broadly construed—this captures linguistics, archaeology, sociology...) can benefit epistemically and methodologically from the wisdom of a century of work in evolutionary biology and its related umbrella as gained through a darwinian understanding of evolution

an example i'd give of where this has happened in a convergent sort of way (but still, imo, needs to happen more) is in the case of linguistic typology. the development of comparative and therefore historical linguistics in the 19th century, thru a wittgensteinian turn in the early 20th century, thru to today, destabilizes epistemologies that hold languages as fixed natural kinds, and sociolinguistic work (as well as an honest metaphysics of language) ought to destabilize the notion that languages are any sort of essential kind at all. the understanding of language as a relational phenomenon that only exists insofar as it is instantiated helps us understand why speaking of "a language" as an abstraction can only ever be the work of inventing taxonomies to describe vague and varying uses of language between people who are never really speaking the same platonic object of a language (i am definitely stepping on some realist toes here but i do not care. i've had professors who think that languages have some kind of independent metaphysical existence and this is honestly silly). this problematizes dialect/language distinctions and indeed ought to direct the sort of work any descriptive linguist does. if you think about it this is exactly the kind of destabilization that darwin offered to the use of natural kinds in biology. a species is not really a thing with an essence; it is a convenient generalization that is often vague, can be misleading, flattens variation, etc. (consider ring species, or paleontological work of building taxonomies of evolutionary history)

the first article gives an example (among many others) analogizing paleobiology with archaeology in the following way: inheritance is axiomatic to understanding fossil records, and those records are analyzed with evolutionary relationships via inheritance in mind. morphological similarities are no accident, but evidence of a genealogical relationship. in a similar way (they say—i'm now leaving my own wheelhouse) archaeology seems to have only recently adopted the methods of trying to analyze relationships between artifacts in the record thru inheritance. this is to be distinguished with firm lines drawn between different material "cultures" where one is supposed to have supplanted the other in a sort of punctuated equilibrium or displacement. instead, records of e.g. arrowtip morphology can be sorted according to similarity, and interpreted as a sequence of inherited cultural practice that changes over time according to "mutations". this also allows for taxonomies of ancestry, where families of material cultures can be hypothesized to descend from common material ancestors on the basis of inherited similarities

obviously the big one in this discussion, tho, is replicator dynamics. and the articles do mention memetics as the abortive attempt at applying replicator dynamics to human culture. what i think is done well is a complication of the conception of biological replicators as straightforward: biological inheritance can be rather more complicated than the gene coding for a trait (they give examples of overlapping, movable, and nested genes), and it isn't a priori a wrench in the machine that hypothetical cultural replicators would not be simply describable. they argue that it can be useful in a discipline like cogsci to try and develop an epistemology of discretized meme-like objects that could, perhaps, be tracked with more fine-grained observational methods than what we have now (there's a rather goofy paragraph about mirror neurons, which are far more contested than popular wisdom would have us think, but the article is from 2006)

now, this is where i think the analogy can sometimes be taken too far—but, to their credit, they don't do this in either article. because there is a tradition i've complained about On Here a number of times of using computational evolutionary biology to try and model cultural phenomena, and i just don't think that can achieve the complexity nor robustness that would be required, nor do i think it holds a candle to alternative methods we have available to us (like, you know, the science of historical materialism—which is in its own way, in the destabilization of kinds, stasis, and "progress" that dialectics offers and the uncompromising analysis of historical facts as proceeding from earlier facts, darwinian). these methods find purchase in evolutionary biology because, for all the genetic complexities involved, the notion of biological fitness is well-defined, as is biological inheritance, and the games that can be played in this sense have robust analogies to real-world competition (e.g. cautious ritual signalling between, say, stags). i'm very skeptical that this is something anyone is going to be able to do with the multiply more complex phenomena of intragenerational behaviour and culture. my immediate impression of anyone who claims to have done so, numerically, is that they fancy themselves the first hari seldon. but anyway, that's just to temper the optimism here. i think the essential thesis is strong.

#ask answer