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Science And Genealogy Unite To Profile Typical Irish Person

November 29, 2012 By

Hola amigos: Dr. Gianpiero Cavalleri of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, is  a Biomedical Research Lecturer. He is  in charge of a  project (working with genealogists from the Genealogical Society of Ireland ) to find out “what it means to be truly Irish”.  ES

Dr. Gianpiero Cavalleri Image

 

By DICK AHLSTROM

Science Editor

The Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1022/1224306299468.html

GENEALOGISTS AND geneticists have teamed up to try and root out what it means to be truly Irish. The study will map individual families to their ancestral homes, but will also show up the subtle genetic differences between being from Bantry as opposed to Ballinasloe.

“We are trying to understand what is the genetic signature of Irishness,” said biomedical research lecturer Dr Gianpiero Cavalleri at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He has joined up with the Genealogical Society of Ireland to build an “Irish DNA atlas” to be constructed from a combination of conventional genealogical details matched up with DNA samples from those who ultimately take part in the project.

Details of the plan were revealed when the college and the society shared a stand at the Back to Our Past show at the RDS in Dublin.

The goal is to assemble a collection of DNA samples from people of Irish origin, which will be used to analyze genetic variation in the overall Irish population, Dr Cavalleri said.

The study should reveal a great deal about the island’s history and population movements that affected it, he said. The main focus is the historical one. Yet it will also have something to say about the Irish gene pool, how “Irish” genes affect general health of the population for good or for ill.

DNA samples contributed by individuals will be sequenced and will be used to assemble a profile of a “typical” Irish person.

At the very least the study should reveal the diversity of the Irish genome and associate this with geographical areas across the island, both North and South. It will also deliver information about the migration and settlement patterns across the island, he said.

This is assured given the way that the atlas will be constructed, said Dr Cavalleri, who devised and will lead the project. Those selected for participation must be able to trace back their family tree to include all eight great-grandparents and also link them to a tight geographical area of say 30 km radius. If this information is available, they will also be asked to contribute a DNA sample taken as a simple mouth swab.

The society will co-ordinate the genealogical aspects of the project, while Dr Cavalleri will deal with the DNA. It will be possible for participants to be involved in the historical aspect without having to join the genetic side, he said.

He made assurances that access to DNA – from the 100 to 150 or so people from all parts of Ireland needed to build the atlas – would be strictly controlled. Yet if discoveries were made related to disease diagnosis using DNA in later years or if some genetic issue arose, the person contributing their DNA would be told, he said. “We do explain everything to them.”

More details about the project are available at its family history.ie website.

 

 

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My Top Ten Genealogy Tools

November 24, 2012 By
Hola amigos: I use google a lot to do my genealogy work:  google search, google alerts, google ad
sense, google YouTube, google images, google maps, google books, google chrome, google translate… I use WordPress as my platform, BrainHost, my hp computer with all in one printer, my smart phone, AdobeReader, and MS Office. ES
Google  Image
by Randy Seaver
The definition of “Tool” is:”A tool is any physical item that can be used to achieve a goal, especially if the item is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose.”  – Wikipedia.org/wiki/toolThat is fairly broad.  When Jill did this, she included software program and websites that perform a function.  I will keep that in mind.Here are my Top Ten Genealogy Tools - in alphabetical order.*  Adobe Reader  – This FREE program permits readable documents across platforms.  I use it to transmit research reports, articles, magazines, presentations, etc. to myself or other persons.*  Apple iPhone 4 — I use my iPhone to take Photos, check calendar, read email, read blogs, check Facebook, check Twitter, check maps, access my family tree (Ancestry and MyHeritage), Evernote, Dropbox, Shoebox, Billion Graves, and more.*  Blogger- I’m in this FREE blog platform at least 3 hours a day writing, editing, or deleting.*  Dropbox – I use this FREE (up to 2.5 gb) file storage system almost every day, and can sync files, photos, etc. between my desktop, laptop and mobile devices.*  Google – I use this FREE website for Search, Mail, Calendar, Chrome, Maps, Images, News, Alerts, Translate, Books, Drive, and more.  What’s not to like here?*  Google Reader – I’m on this FREE blog reader an hour or two a day to keep track of genealogy news.*  HP 6350 Photosmart C6350 All-in-One Printer — I print, photocopy and scan using this device.  Reliable, quality, but not free — the black ink costs about $4,000 per gallon, and the color ink costs about $10,000 per gallon.

*  OpenOffice 3.3  – my FREE word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program of choice.

*  RootsMagic 5  – This is my favorite genealogy management program at this time, I’m in it 0 to 4 hours a day.

*  Thunderbird  – My mozilla email program of choice was FREE – I can direct all of my email addresses here, then read them, put them in folders, delete them, save them to files, etc.

There’s my list.  I do have four other genealogy management programs that I use every week (Family Tree Maker 16, Family Tree Maker 2012, Family Tree Builder 6, and Legacy Family Tree 7.5), but I don’t “work” in them – I just use them to do tasks that I need done.  In my Top 20, I would add the Windows 7 Snipping Tool, PhotoScape for Photo Editing, Evernote, my Samsung Tablet (I use it mainly to serve as a cell hot spot), etc.

What is your list of Top Ten Genealogy Tools that you use to perform tasks that further your genealogy research?

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Native American Heritage Genealogy on Geni

November 11, 2012 By

Hola amigos: Did you know November is the month we celebrate the Native American Heritage? Well, I didn’t, but now I do and I want to share it with you. The words on the 2012 AH Poster are the following: ” The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves” by Black Elk. American Natives are very wise people and have a way with words…

If you are of Native American descent or interested in the study of Native American genealogy, check some of these Geni Projects at Geni.com dedicated to Native American Heritage. ES

2012-National-Native-American-Heritage-Month-Poster

 

by Amanda

 

November is Native  American Heritage Month in the U.S. The month is dedicated to the celebration and recognition of Native American achievements and contributions to the country’s heritage. Did you know there are quite a few Native American projects on Geni? If you are of Native American descent or interested in the study of  Native American Heritage Genealogy, check out some of these Geni projects dedicated to Native American history and collaborate with other Geni users!

Native American Diaspora – a place to trace the diaspora of Native Americans throughout the world, including Bermuda, Bahamas, the Caribbean, Europe and North West Africa.

Join the worlds largest family tree

Cherokee History Project - The goal of this project is to develop genealogical and historical knowledge of the Cherokee, indigenous peoples of North America

Join the worlds largest family tree

Shawnee History Project - The goal of this project is to develop genealogical and historical knowledge of the Shawnee, indigenous peoples of North America.

Join the worlds largest family tree

And don’t forget to check out these other great Native American projects on Geni: Notables of Native American Background, Sioux Families, Navajo Code Talkers, Native American Medal of Honor Recipients and many more!

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Myths About Hispanics

November 9, 2012 By

Hola amigos: Today I bring you “Myths About Hispanics”, an article that explains the 3 most important myths about us,  Hispanics or Latinos, and why they are not true. A myth is an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social custom, practice, relationship, or behavioral pattern. MYTH #1: Hispanic families do not value education, MYTH #2: Hispanics don’t want to learn to speak English, and MYTH #3: Hispanics don’t want to participate in civic life are the 3 myths discussed here. ES

Hispanic Latinos Image

 

By Sara Brown

Connections

Hispanic population growth will be a major factor shaping the American experience in the next quarter century, given the rate of growth and the size of this demographic group. Hispanics are now the largest minority, and by the year 2025, a quarter of the nation’s youth between the ages of 5 and 18 will be Hispanic. In some states, this is already the case.

Too often, educators, policymakers, and community leaders fail to recognize the strength of the Hispanic community and its support of public education. Hispanic parents and leaders are already far more involved in education than is perceived. Indeed, some of the biggest barriers to greater Hispanic involvement in public schools rest in common misperceptions about this rapidly growing population.

MYTH #1: Hispanic families do not value education. Many Hispanics come to this country with little formal education. They often have high rates of adult illiteracy and are unprepared to guide their children’s educational progress. But all parents want what is best for their children, and Hispanic parents are no exception. A recent poll shows nearly all Hispanic parents (95 percent) believe it is very important for their children to go to college. Over the last 30 years, the high school graduation rate for Hispanics has increased from 48 percent in 1971 to 63 percent in 2001, a gain that is especially significant given the massive increase in the Hispanic population during that time.

The vast majority of Hispanic students (90 percent) attend public schools. Typically, the school, the modes of transportation, the teacher assignments, and the courses required for graduation are “pre-selected” without any input from parents. Given their limited personal experience with the education system, many Hispanic parents lack the information they need to play a more active role in their children’s education. The language gap often precludes meaningful interaction with school officials, and parents often assume that school authorities know what is best for their children. What is often perceived, as a values gap is, in fact, an information gap.

MYTH #2: Hispanics don’t want to learn to speak English. To many Americans, mastery of English is the linchpin of achievement. In a survey conducted by Lake Snell Perry & Associates, voters cited “problems with understanding English” as the primary cause of lower achievement for Hispanic students. According to the US Department of Education, over 4.6 million limited English proficient (LEP) students attend US schools, of which 79 percent speak Spanish as their first language. That said, more than three-quarters of all Hispanic students speak English by the third grade. Nonetheless, many low-income Hispanic immigrants and first-generation parents have few opportunities to learn English.

MYTH #3: Hispanics don’t want to participate in civic life. Every year, Hispanics become increasingly more active in their communities. Today, there are nearly 6,000 Hispanic elected officials in the United States. Of these, almost 1,200 are school board members. Regardless of party affiliation, Hispanic elected officials have shown a deep commitment to public education, advocating for increased funding and for closing the achievement gap.

Despite major gains in high school graduation rates, Hispanic students still lag well behind white and African-American students in many key measures of school success, to include graduation rates and scores on national standardized assessments. The problems are apparent as early as fourth grade, when Hispanic students begin to lag behind their white peers in mathematics, geography, and history proficiency. By high school, Hispanic dropout rates are 3.5 times higher than whites and 2.5 times higher than blacks. While an emerging focus on high school education shows promise for stemming the flow of Hispanic students leaving school without graduating, the unique needs of Hispanic students must be addressed within a larger context.

We need to know more about what kinds of supports are most effective in helping Hispanic parents make good decisions about their children’s education. We must work to make best practice everyday practice. We need greater public awareness about the complexities of standards-based reform initiatives and issues surrounding the use of high-stakes tests for students with limited facility in English. We must engage the Hispanic community and work cooperatively on issues such as closing the achievement gap, improving services for English language learners, recruiting more minority teachers, and promoting high expectations for students of all backgrounds.

Many of these issues extend far beyond the Hispanic community, but that only emphasizes the need to connect with this large and growing constituency. Hispanics have demonstrated their willingness to go to enormous lengths to find opportunities to make life better for their families. We must harness their dedication and optimism to improve our public schools.

 

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Election 2012: Obama Wins Re-Election, Clinches Latino Vote

November 7, 2012 By

Hola amigos: Election 2012 results:Keep it Forward. The article – “Obama Wins Re-Election, Clinches Latino Vote” – tells us that Latinos got  attention in this election because we had simply become too numerous to ignore, (more than 50 million, according to the 2010 U.S. Census).  ”That is larger than the entire national populations of Cuba, Venezuela, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic combined” is the article summary. ES

 

Election 2012 Image

 

By Elizabeth Llorente

Fox News Latino

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/11/06/election-2012-obama-wins-re-election-after-clinching-ohio/#ixzz2BY0CPrA9

America said yes to four more years.

It was a hard-won second victory for President Barack Obama, who was neck-and-neck in the polls as election season came down to the wire.

Obama, who made history in 2008 when he became the first U.S. president with African heritage, tried to hold onto the Oval office amid one of the most bitterly partisan, and tough economic times in the country.

It was also an election in which Latinos and their interests and concerns got more attention than ever – in the media, and by conservative and liberal politicians alike (though not always in a positive way).

The Obama campaign warned that his GOP challenger, Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, would push policies that would favor the rich at the expense of the middle-class and low-income Americans. Obama warned Latinos that a Romney presidency would be hostile to immigrants and Latinos.

In June, Obama announced that he would suspend deportation for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors and who met a strict set of criteria. More than 1 million immigrants are believed to be affected by the initiative, which Romney said he would discontinue if he became president.

Romney ran into problems with Latinos when he took a particularly hard line on immigration during the GOP primaries.

In an effort to appeal to the party’s conservative base, Romney voiced support for the Arizona anti-illegal immigration law, SB 1070, parts of which were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as “self-deportation,” in essence making life so difficult for undocumented immigrants that they would leave of their own accord.

Romney also aligned himself with some of the nation’s most hard-line proponents of tough immigration policies, including Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former California Gov. Pete Wilson and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is architect of the Arizona immigration law, as well as similar measures in other states.

Romney had tried to appeal to Latinos, and other voters, by casting Obama as someone who had failed to improve the economy, and whose administration had made things difficult for small business owners.

Latinos apparently responded to the many appeals for their support, with exit polls showing that they seem to have turned out in record numbers, accounting for 10 percent of the electorate. In 2008, when they set a record, they accounted for nine percent of voters.

In Florida, a key state, with 29 electoral votes, Latinos were said to account for about 17 percent of voters who cast ballots – eligible voters make up 19 percent in the Sunshine State.

Exit polls conducted by impreMedia/Latino Decisions nationwide and in 11 key battleground states indicate that Latino voters played a critical role in Obama getting a second term and keeping a Democratic majority in the Senate.

“In all cases, immigration reform and the dramatic distinction between the two parties on the issue was a major driver of Latino voter political choices,” said a statement put out by America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group.

The Latino Decisions polls indicate that nationwide and in battleground states Obama won Latino voter support over Romney by historic margins –  72 percent to 23 percent nationwide, including: in Colorado, Obama won Latino voters by 87 percent-10 percent margin; in New Mexico, by a 77 percent-21 percent margin; in Nevada, by an 80 percent-17 percent margin; in Ohio, by an 82 percent-17 percent margin; in Virginia, by a 66 percent-31 percent margin; and in Florida, by a 58 percent-40 percent margin.

Latinos got unparalleled attention in this election because they had simply become too numerous to ignore, numbering more than 50 million, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. That is larger than the entire national populations of Cuba, Venezuela, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic combined.

And a record number – nearly 24 million — had become eligible to vote, with some 11 million expected actually to do so.

In an election where they were viewed as being a pivotal group, Obama had the advantage with likely Latino voters, with recent polls by Fox News Latino and others showing him leading GOP challenger Mitt Romney with more than 70 percent of their support, compared to about 21 percent for the former Massachusetts governor.

For Latinos, the stakes of this election were particularly high – choose a president who has vowed to keep improving the employment rate and to keep safety nets for those who remain unemployed or underemployed, or Romney, who also vowed to improve the economy but who has made clear his misgivings about government programs that he views as wasteful and discouraging self-reliance?

Many Latinos supported Obama’s healthcare reform bill. Romney had voiced opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Hispanic Americans continue to be the most likely to be uninsured, with more than 40 percent going without health coverage in 2011, according to a Gallup poll released earlier this year. Gallup said it was the highest portion of uninsured it had recorded any key group since it began tracking in 2008.

And for Latinos who considered immigration a priority issue, the presidential election presented a choice between an avowed proponent of hardline immigration policies and a president who campaigned in 2008 on the promise of reforming immigration, but did not do so. What is more, to the frustration of many Latinos, a record number of immigrants – most of them Latinos – have been deported under Obama than any other president.

“Latinos will expect to be supported in education, healthcare and immigration,” said Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “With another Obama presidency, there will be a demand to stop all deportations and to pass immigration reform. There will be a demand that he make good on his promises from the first term.”

Gabe Gonzalez, the national campaign director for the Campaign for Community Change, agrees.

“I take President Obama at his word, with one caveat – we have to make sure that he does what he says he’ll do,” Gonzalez said. “If there is one thing we Latinos have learned, it’s that we get the respect and political power that we demand.”

Craig Romney, Mitt Romney’s son, told Fox News Latino just before the election: “We’ve seen what Barack Obama’s policies will do, we know those are not working, if he is reelected we can expect more of the same over the next four years.”

“I’ve been privileged to be able to travel across the country and represent my father to the Hispanic community and one of the things I’ve heard over and over is that people have been struggling in this economy,” said Romney, a fluent Spanish-speaker who did Latino outreach for his father’s campaign. “My dad, he has a plan to get the economy back on track and that includes getting Hispanics back to work, one of the communities that have been hit hardest in this economy…I think over 2 million Hispanics have gone into poverty over the past four years.”

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates for more lenient immigration policies, said: “Today our nation witnessed the strength of democracy in action. An extraordinary number of voters, including record numbers of Latino, Asian and New American voters, went to the polls clamoring for practical solutions that honor our values and move our nation forward.”

“The message was clear: President Obama must fulfill his campaign promise and work with congressional leaders to create a common-sense immigration process that treats all people with dignity,” Noorani said. “And Republicans must choose pragmatism over extremism on immigration, putting forward practical solutions that create a roadmap to citizenship for aspiring Americans.”

 

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GENEALOGY TODAY: Dealing With Touchy Issues

November 4, 2012 By

Hola amigos: Today I have a great article about how to handle touchy issues of your genealogical findings.  Sensitive issues are in all families and you have to be very careful how you handle them.

In my case, I had to deal with some very touchy ones. Just remember who’s the owner of the secret (the victims) and respect that . ES

Google Image

 

By Betty Lou Malesky

bettymalesky@ cox.net

www.rootsweb.com/~azgvgs/

Special to the Green Valley News

If you do family research long enough, you’re bound to wind up confronting sensitive issues. As King Solomon once wrote, “Nothing is new under the sun.” We all have skeletons in our family closets, and must decide what to do with them when we compile a family history.

Do we keep them locked away, ignore and cover them up? Or do we confront and defuse them? Some issues of the past are not as shocking today, but we need to consider how revelation may affect living descendants. Usually, honesty with a touch of compassion is the best policy.

A recent issue on a genealogical email list has been illegitimacy. A question was posted asking what surname to use for a child who was living with his mother and a man not his father. The 1880 census listed the man, then the mother with her husband’s surname and her several children with her same surname. Births were not officially recorded at the time and place in question.

The mother’s relationship to the man she was currently living with was “concubine,” so it was apparent they were not married. Her husband had left and never returned before any of the children were born. The man and the mother did marry 35 years later, perhaps after the death of her husband.

In colonial days illegitimate, bastard, or “out of wedlock,” often appeared right on the birth record. Illegitimacy was considered a crime with bastardy laws in effect in several states into the 1900s. In some states, a pregnant woman was brought into court, examined under oath and asked to name the child’s father. He was then served a warrant and required to post a bastardy bond. If the woman refused to name someone, she, her father or some other interested party would be required to post the bond. The big concern was not to protect the child, but to protect the state from having to support it.

My third great-grandmother, Sarah Bly appears in her father’s home on the 1850 New York census at the age of 16 with a one-month-old baby. Chautauqua County registered births for a short time in 1850; this birth is recorded with the father’s name blank.

Sarah married in 1852. In the 1855 New York state census and ever after, Sarah’s son Edward bears her husband’s surname. He used that name all his life despite there never being a formal adoption. When she applied for a Civil War Widow’s pension, however, she correctly did not list her eldest son as one of her husband’s children. I doubt anyone but the immediate family knew the whole story.

Would Edward’s descendants today be shocked or offended to read the details of his birth? As family historians we need to be careful neither to distort records of the time nor to change their meaning. It certainly is a fine line and the readers’ feelings should be considered when appropriate, but not at the expense of intended meaning or accuracy. After over 150 years have passed, it seems time alone should have defused the issue.

To put the subject into the context of today, in 2005 a record 1.5 million births were recorded in the U.S. to unmarried mothers, and only 24 percent of them were teenagers. Nearly a third of all births were technically illegitimate. In 2008, unmarried women accounted for 1,726,566 live births, 41 percent of the total for the year.

Now to return to our original problem: The surname to use for an illegitimate child. In this case, as he grew up, the surname the child himself used should be used in the family history. Perhaps he continued to use the first husband’s name or began using the name of the man living with his mother, or perhaps another name.

Should her children all be designated illegitimate? The simple answer is, “Yes.” We can’t impute a father when none is known. A less confrontational handling might be, “Documentation was not found to identify his father.” As historians, we need to conscientiously report the facts without being judgmental.

 

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“Searching For Sugar Man”

November 2, 2012 By

Hola amigos:  Sixto Diaz Rodriguez also known as Sixto Rodriguez was born July 10, 1942. He is a Mexican-American folk musician, born in Detroit, Michigan. Rodriguez’s parents were middle-class immigrants who left Mexico in the 1920′s.  In most of his songs he takes a political stance on the cruelties facing the inner city poor of the 60′s, his world. ”Searching for Sugar Man” is a documentary about him, a musician very few people had heard about. In the last six months, film festivals  played a central role in introducing a forgotten 70-year-old protest singer from Detroit who sold a lot of records in South Africa and was a hero there but who never knew about it. He was dead for many but found living in the same house he lived in Detroit. ES

Sugar Man Image

 

By Billboard.com

http://www.billboard.com/news/cult-singer-rodriguez-risen-in-new-film-1007690952.story#/news/cult-singer-rodriguez-risen-in-new-film-1007690952.story

“Searching for Sugar Man” is a documentary about a musician very few people had heard about prior to this year. In the last six months, film festivals from January’s Sundance in Utah through the Hamptons in New York on July 21 have played a central role in introducing a forgotten 70-year-old protest singer from Detroit: Rodriguez.

 

Sixto Rodriguez cut two albums of soulful folk rock for Sussex — home to Bill  – at the start of the ’70s. Utterly unheard at home, his music took root in South Africa, where his political and personal themes resonated with the blossoming anti-apartheid movement. His legend grew there, but only arrived stateside when indie label Light in the Attic reissued “Cold Fact” in August 2008. (It has sold 17,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.) “Searching for Sugar Man” will deliver Rodriguez’s greatest exposure at home.

 

A unique string of double-bills of screenings and performances has generated a fair amount of buzz for the artist and this remarkable documentary about the curious facets of his life. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Rodriguez performed at BMI’s Snowball in Park City, Utah; a Joe’s Pub gig in New York complemented a Tribeca festival screening; less than two hours after a South by Southwest presentation he was onstage at Mohawk in Austin; and in Los Angeles, “Sugar Man” screened on a Tuesday, he played the Hotel Cafe on Wednesday and spoke about his music at the Grammy Museum  on Thursday with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard  and the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris. He tends to perform whatever strikes his fancy — a cover of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” or Midnight Oil’s “Redneck Wonderland” — plus his own “Inner City Blues,” “Street Boy” or “Forget It” on the rarely seen acoustic-electric nylon-stringed guitar.

 

“The beauty of his live performance is that you see the simple, honest, gentle soul you discover in the film,” says Sony Legacy president Adam Block, who will release the film’s soundtrack on July 24. (Light in the Attic will put out a double-LP vinyl edition in August.) “He’s not pretending. It’s imperfect and quite magnificent.”

 

It’s a unique model — expose the film and an artist who has been under the radar for four decades — that Sony Pictures Classics and the Booking Agency hope to continue when the documentary is released theatrically beginning July 27 in New York and Los Angeles. The film will roll out in major cities through the summer; Rodriguez will start a tour of at least 30 North American cities on Aug. 30 that runs through Nov. 5 before heading to Europe.

 

“We’re waiting about a month to start the tour so the full impact of the movie is felt,” says the Booking Agency’s Christian Bernhardt, who has booked Rodriguez for more than three years. “We cover the major cities this year and then go into secondary markets next year. It’s a similar approach that we took with Daniel Johnston  when his film ["The Devil and Daniel Johnston"] came out [in 2005].”
The model may well parallel the Johnston effort but the hope is more in line with “Anvil: The Story of Anvil,” the 2008 documentary that gave a new career to a long-struggling metal band from Canada. The difference here is that Rodriguez, in the United States, pretty much dropped out of sight after his two records went nowhere in the early ’70s and has done only a few dozen shows in the last four years. Internationally, he toured Australia in 1979 and 1981 and made triumphant appearances in South Africa in 1998, the payoff moment in “Sugar Man.”

 

The search for Rodriguez is made by a few fans and journalists in South Africa who cherished his music. To those fans, Rodriguez was as big as Bob Dylan, their isolation from the outside world blinding them from the, ahem, cold facts. Rumors abounded that he had killed himself onstage and they were determined to tell the truth about his death.

 

Once they discover he is alive, a six-show victory tour is arranged, and after the first night, the percussionist in Rodriguez’s backing band figures they are in the middle of an extraordinary event and gets a friend to film the shows. Without that footage, this unbelievable story might feel like a hoax.

 

Sony Pictures Classics co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker bought the North American rights to “Sugar Man” prior to the Sundance screening, without seeing it first. (The film has been sold in 20 other territories, most recently Japan and South Africa.) Bernard read the description and decided, “If it’s half as good as what I read, then it’s worth having. And it’s twice as good as what I read.”

 

Rights in hand, the film was screened for Columbia Records chairman/CEO Rob Stringer, which led to more of Sony coming onboard, and a late-July release date was set. “It’s a great end-of-the-summer movie that can carry into the fall and catch the returning college students,” Bernard says. “It’s going to be in the marketplace for a long, long time because the potential is way beyond the music audience. I call it the ‘Shawshank Redemption’ of documentaries.”

 

In 1970, the only person who had an equal amount of faith in the man born Sixto Rodriguez was Clarence Avant , who made the singer/songwriter his first signing at Sussex Records. Avant jokes in the film that Rodriguez’s debut, “Cold Fact,” sold six copies — and it’s possible he’s not that far off, as the album never charted, even locally.

 

Still, Avant stuck with him and sent Rodriguez to London to record a second album, “Coming From Reality,” with producer Steve Rowland. Released in 1971, it, too, flopped just as Sussex was enjoying its first hit, Withers’ top five single “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Cut from the Sussex roster, Rodriguez walked away from music and worked in construction and demolition, concurrently earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and raising three daughters. He never left Detroit.

 

Fast-forward to 2002. Northern Irish DJ/producer David Holmes put Rodriguez’s song “Sugar Man” on a mixtape that caught the attention of Matt Sullivan, then in the early days of his reissue label Light in the Attic in Seattle. But as it was for many — and this is a key part of the “Searching for Sugar Man” story — finding information about Rodriguez was beyond difficult. It took a couple of years for Sullivan to track down a copy of “Cold Fact,” eventually buying an Australian CD on eBay.

 

After falling in love with the music, Sullivan began his own search for “Sugar Man,” a journey that connected him with a record storeowner in South Africa, Rodriguez’s daughter Regan and Avant.

 

“It took about three or four years to convince Avant to sublicense the masters,” says Sullivan, who recently set up a Los Angeles home for the label. “He was frustrated that he couldn’t find anyone in the music business as passionate about [Rodriguez]. ["Cold Fact" producer] Mike Theodore was in touch with Clarence and he ended up convincing Clarence that we were the right fit.”

 

Light in the Attic reissued “Cold Fact” in August 2008 and Coming From Reality in May 2009. Sullivan was key in getting Rodriguez back onstage as well, booking him at Joe’s Pub in New York and the Echo in Los Angeles in 2008, then in London and Chicago, where he opened for Animal Collective the following year. A few dozen dates followed — San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, Atlanta — but the reissues didn’t spark the interest the way the documentary has.

 

While Sullivan was negotiating for Rodriguez’s music rights, Malik Bendjelloul, a documentarian for Swedish TV, was traveling through Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas and Africa looking for stories that could be told in six-minute segments. His trip, undertaken in 2006, was going well.

 

“I found six stories I liked — one in Ethiopia, one more in South Africa, one in Mexico,” Bendjelloul says. “I was already happy, and then I found [Rodriguez's] story and it was 10 times better. It was the best story I had ever heard. It was a Cinderella story, but even better. It had a great soundtrack.”

 

Bendjelloul, a rail-thin young man whose passion for Rodriguez comes through in a constant state of exuberance, is telling this tale on the patio of a West Hollywood, Calif., hotel restaurant where Rodriguez, seated beside him in his customary dark pastel suit, is listening to it all for the umpteenth time. Uncharacteristically, he interrupts.

 

“Cinderella? As opposed to Sleeping Beauty? I knew where I was — and I like my family,” Rodriguez says, before letting out a hearty laugh.

 

They have become a curious duo on this journey — Bendjelloul, a music fan who can’t believe Rodriguez’s work was overlooked, and Rodriguez, who calls himself a “musical/political” artist and is just as likely to discuss Syria or political oppression as the music business or journalism.

 

At Q&As, Bendjelloul gladly defers to the subject of his film, letting him tell parts of the story that aren’t onscreen. Truth be told, Bendjelloul knows more about the story than Rodriguez: He shot three-quarters of the movie before he ever met his subject; only because he had so much footage did Rodriguez agree to appear on camera.

 

“After he showed it to me I felt he had enough in there without me,” Rodriguez says. “I’m only in the film eight minutes . . . He picked out everything and I try to have a little say in it. He was kind to me.”

 

“There will be an interest in the soundtrack as a stand-alone expression,” Sony Legacy’s Block says. “It’s part of the mystical quality of the story. Forty years later, the music holds up and in some ways it’s more relevant today than it was acknowledged at the time. We all believe he is an artist who has created a magnificent body of work, and I’m glad he’s still here to enjoy the acknowledgement.”

Filed Under: Genealogy Tagged With: , , , ,

History of Puerto Rico – First Part, Ch. 19 – RA Van Middeldyk

October 29, 2012 By

RA Van MiddeldykHola amigos: Today I bring you ‘The History of Puerto Rico” From the Spanish Discovery to the American Occupation / Middeldyk, R.A. Van, Chapter 19.

The attack of San Juan by the Hollanders under Bowdoin was on the morning of the 24th of September, 1625.The guard on San Felipe del Morro announced 8 ships to windward of the port…ES

History of Puerto Rico by Van Middeldyk  Book Image

 

CHAPTER XIX

ATTACK ON SAN JUAN BY THE HOLLANDERS UNDER BOWDOIN

1625

Holland emancipated itself from Spanish domination in 1582 and assumed
the title of “the United Provinces of Netherland.” After nearly half a
century of an unequal struggle with the most powerful kingdom in
Europe, the people’s faith in final success was unbounded, while Spain
was growing weary of the apparently interminable war. At this
juncture, proposals for a suspension of hostilities were willingly
entertained by both nations, and after protracted negotiations, a
truce of twelve years was signed in Bergen-op-Zoom, April 9, 1609. In
it the absolute independence of the United Provinces was recognized.

This gave the Spanish colonies a welcome respite from the ravages of
privateers till 1621, the first year of the reign of King Philip IV,
when hostilities immediately recommenced. France and England both came
to the assistance of the Provinces with money for the raising of
troops, and the wealthy merchants of Holland, following the example of
the French merchants in the former century, fitted out fleets of
privateers to prey upon the commerce and colonies of Spain and
Portugal. The first exploits of these privateers were the invasion of
Brazil and the sacking of San Salvador, of Lima and Callao (1624).

Puerto Rico was just beginning to recover from the prostration in
which the last invasion had left it, when on the morning of the 24th
of September, 1625, the guard on San Felipe del Morro announced 8
ships to windward of the port.

Juan de Haro, the governor, who had assumed the command only a few
months before, mounted to an outlook to observe them, and was informed
that more ships could be seen some distance down the coast. He sent
out horsemen, and they returned about 8 o’clock at night with the news
that they had counted 17 ships in all.

Alarm-bells were now rung and some cannon fired from the forts to call
the inhabitants together. They were directed to the plaza, where arms
and ammunition were distributed. During the night the whole city was
astir preparing for events, under the direction of the governor.

Next morning the whole fleet was a short distance to windward. Lest a
landing should be attempted at the Boqueron or at Goat’s Creek, the
two most likely places, the governor ordered a cannon to be planted at
each and trenches to be dug. In the meantime, the people, who had
promptly answered the call to arms, and the garrison were formed into
companies on the plaza and received orders to occupy the forts,
marching first along the shore, where the enemy could see them, so as
to make a great show of numbers.

The artillery in the fort was in bad condition. The gun-carriages were
old and rotten. Some of the pieces had been loaded four years before
and were dismounted at the first firing. One of them burst on the
sixth or seventh day, killing the gunners and severely wounding the
governor, who personally superintended the defense.

In the afternoon of the day of their arrival the Hollanders came down
under full sail “with as much confidence,” says the chronicler, “as if
they were entering a port in their own country.”

That night the fort was provisioned as well as the scanty resources of
the island permitted. The defenders numbered 330, and the food supply
collected would not enable them to stand a long siege. The supply
consisted of 120 loads of casabe bread, 46 bushels of maize, 130 jars
or jugs of olive oil, 10 barrels of biscuit, 300 island cheeses, 1
cask of flour, 30 pitchers of wine, 200 fowls, and 150 small boxes of
preserved fruit (membrillo).

Fortunately during the night 50 head of cattle and 20 horses were
driven in from the surrounding country.

From the 26th to the 29th the enemy busied himself landing troops,
digging trenches, and planting 6 pieces of cannon on a height called
“the Calvary.” Then he began firing at the fort, which replied, doing
considerable damage.

At 9 o’clock on the morning of the 30th, a drummer under a flag of
truce presented himself before the castle with a letter addressed to
the governor. It was couched in the following terms:

“Senor Governor Don Juan Faro, you must be well aware of the reasons
of our coming so near and of our intentions. Therefore, I, Bowdoin
Hendrick, general of these forces, in the name of the States General
and of his Highness the Prince of Orange, do hereby demand that you
deliver this castle and garrison into our hands, which doing we will
not fail to come to terms with you. And if not, I give you notice,
that from this day forward we will spare neither old nor young, woman
nor child; and to this we wait your answer in a few words.

“BOWDOIN HENDRICK.”

To which epistle the governor replied:

“I have seen your paper, and am surprised that you should ask such a
thing of me, seeing that I have served thirteen years in Flanders,
where I have learned to value your boastings and know what sieges are.
On the contrary, if you will deliver the ships in which you have come
to me, I will let you have one to return with. And these are the
orders of my King and Master, and none other, with which I have
answered your paper, in the Castle of San Felipe del Morro, the 30th
of September, 1625.

“JUAN DE HARO.”

The next day a heavy cannonading commenced, the Hollanders firing over
150 shots at the castle with small effect. The same day a Spanish ship
arrived with wine and provisions, but seeing the danger it ran of
being taken, did not enter the port, but steered to la Espanola, to
the great disappointment of the people in the fort.

On the 4th of October the governor ordered a sortie of 80 men in three
parties. On the 5th Captain Juan de Amezquita led another sortie, and
so between sorties, surprises, night attacks, and mutual cannonadings
things continued till the 21st of October.

On that day Bowdoin sent another letter announcing his intention of
burning the city if no understanding was arrived at. To which letter
the governor replied that there was building material enough in the
island to construct another city, and that he wished the whole army of
Holland might be here to witness Spanish bravery.

Bowdoin carried his threat into effect, and the next day over a
hundred houses were burned. Bishop Balbueno’s palace and library and
the city archives were also destroyed. To put a stop to this wanton
destruction Captains Amezquita and Botello led a sortie of 200 men.
They attacked the enemy in front and rear with such _elan_ that they
drove them from their trenches and into the water in their haste to
reach their launches.

This, and other remarkable exploits, related by the native
chroniclers, so discouraged the Hollanders that they abandoned the
siege on the 2d of November, leaving behind them one of their largest
ships, stranded, and over 400 dead.

The fleet repaired to la Aguada to refit. Bowdoin, who, apparently,
was a better letter writer than general, sent a third missive to the
governor, asking permission to purchase victuals, which was, of
course, flatly refused.

The king duly recompensed the brave defenders. The governor was made
Chevalier of the Order of Santiago and received a money grant of 2,000
ducats. Captain Amezquita received 1,000 ducats, and was later
appointed Governor of Cuba. Captain Botello also received 1,000
ducats, and others who had distinguished themselves received
corresponding rewards.

Puerto Rico’s successful resistance to this invasion encouraged the
belief that, provided the mother country should furnish the necessary
means of defense, the island would end by commanding the respect of
its enemies and be left unmolested. But the mother country’s wars with
England, France, and Holland absorbed all its attention in Europe and
consumed all its resources. The colonies remained dependent for their
defense on their own efforts, while privateers, freebooters, and
pirates of the three nations at war with Spain settled like swarms of
hornets in every available island in the West Indies.

 

Filed Under: Puertorican Genealogy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Irish Roots – New Twist for Old Plots

October 29, 2012 By

Hola amigos: Graveyards are one of the most accessible sources for studying a community’s history. Each one is unique but  many will, unfortunately, deteriorate through neglect, weather or vandalism; some eventually becoming completely illegible.

 

Discovereverafter.com Image

Discover Ever After, and the way the death  of loved ones are recorded. They provide Parishes and Councils with a complete set of up-to-date graveyard records and an online Graveyard Management System to record future burials,   delivering a unique, high quality service which will guarantee that an accurate record of the deceased exists everafter. ES

Everafter Logo Image

 

by JOHN GRENHAM

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/irishroots/2012/10/07/new-twist-for-old-plots/

 

As regularly as clockwork, someone in Ireland wakes up with a giant light-bulb over their head and the words “Genealogy! Irish-America! Mega-bucks!” ringing in their ears. So veterans of family history in Ireland tend to view new ideas about research and the records with wary scepticism. At times, though, this can blind us to real advances.

A new website with the slightly cheesy name discovereverafter.com appears to be just another gravestone transcription site, albeit more comprehensive than most, covering graveyards in the Magherafelt area. Looked at more closely, however, the site is something genuinely new. It is a commercial operation, but the target customer is not the hapless, ever-skint genealogist, but all bodies responsible for maintaining the graveyard. It offers a complete graveyard management system to local authorities and parishes, providing a full survey and map, with photographs of each headstone, radar detection of unmarked burials, design of any remaining free plots and the amalgamation of church burial records with headstone transcripts.

The end result is a complete online set of interlinked transcripts, maps and photographs that can be added to as new burials take place. For a researcher, it is every bit as good as visiting the cemetery in person; for the parish or local authority, all those pesky genealogists are taken care of and a simple process allows easy management of future burials.

Naturally it concentrates on Northern Ireland to start with. The home county of the developers, Derry, has a large majority of the 73 graveyards covered so far. Optimistically, perhaps, the site has space reserved for graveyards from all of Ireland. They have a decent chance of success in the North, I hope. In the South, any local authority that still has two halfpennies left to rub together is trying to hide them from Phil Hogan.

Filed Under: Genealogy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Ancestry.com Buys Mobile Photo Scanner 1000Memories

October 22, 2012 By

Hola amigos: Ancestry.com just bought Mobile Photo Scanner 1000Memories. The San Francisco start up 1000Memories will help Ancestry members add up photos to their family trees. The acquisition gives  access to 1000Memories’ ShoeBox mobile app, which scans photos so they can be shared online. Es

Ancestry & 1000Memories Image

 

by: Daily Reporter

Associated Press

http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/476e8d264d0645f080228fc0d4fd9703/US–Ancestry-Acquisition

Ancestry.com has bought San Francisco startup 1000memories to help members add photos to their family trees.

The acquisition gives the genealogy website access to 1000memories’ ShoeBox mobile app, which scans photos so they can be shared online. The company didn’t say how much it paid.

Founded in 2010, 1000memories launched its mobile app last year to let users scan paper photos into the digital age by scanning then in using smartphones.

Ancestry.com said Wednesday that the app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times, though it did not say how many monthly users it has. With the acquisition, Ancestry users will be able to post photos of their ancestors directly on their profiles on the site. Over the coming months, 1000memories will be integrated into Ancestry.com in other ways, too.

When 1000memories first launched, it was created as a place for people to share remembrances and photos of loved ones who died. Founder Rudy Adler had called it a “new way to deal with death in a digital age.” It morphed into the photo-scanning and sharing company later.

Ancestry.com Inc., based in Provo, Utah, has more than 2 million paying subscribers. Its stock slipped a penny to $29.68 in midday trading Wednesday. Its shares are down 12 percent from a 52-week high of $33.80 in early August.

Filed Under: Genealogy Tagged With: , , , , , ,