A genealogical journal
One of these days I need to take some time to write about calculating relationships between two people based on the amount of DNA they share. It seems like such a simple thing, but nothing is simple if no one has ever explained it to you. I run into a lot of people who just…
Did you know there was a time when you could pay to be Indian? I’m not sure about the reliability of this information but it has become a common meme about pretend Indians (“pretendians”). “It may be fashionable to play Indian now, but it was also trendy 125 years ago when people paid $5 apiece…
The Lament of the Swan Planctus Cygni Anon, French, 9th century Clangam, filii Ploratione una Alitis cygni, Qui transfretavit aequora. O quam amare Lamentabatur, aridaSe dereliquisse Florigera Et petisse alta Maria; Ajens: ‘Infelix sum Avicula, Heu mihi, quid agam Misera?Pennis soluta Inniti Lucida non potero Hic in stilla. Undis quatior, Procellis Hinc inde nunc allidor…
Genealogists tend to make a hash of women’s names because they don’t know, or don’t acknowledge, the cultural rules that would have applied at a particular time and place. The names of pre-Modern women in Scotland and Ireland is a particularly difficult area. So often people tell me they just want a rule of thumb….
The Royal Black Association of the Ancient, Exalted, Illustrious Religious and Military Order of the Knights of Malta was a Scottish chivalric association. It was closely associated in the beginning with Orange Order, although frequently at odds with it. It seems originally to have been synonymous with various “Black” organizations that evolved into the Royal Black Institution by…