New Family History Wrinkles

[Give It Time]

Will the church be able to iron these out?

1. DNA testing: hot, controversial trend and people are discovering certain parts of the family tree aren't correct. Aunt Julie was quietly adopted. Great Grandfather Bill isn't actually your great grandfather. The neighbor down the road from your gg-parents actually was. Oops!

I believe adoptive ties are just as strong, and sometimes stronger than blood, but this is a very patriarchal church with lines going from father to son being a very important aspect of it.

2. Gay marriage: I just found out FamilySearch doesn't recognize these unions. People are not using FamilySearch not only because strangers can muck up your research, but because the future trees will not reflect reality.

If you're into family history, this could get interesting.

[No Tof]

To me, Family History is one of the great "keep em busy" projects the church employs.

Geneolegy is a great hobby and I understand it is interesting to both member and non alike. It's fun to learn about our ancestors and try to imagine what their life was like and see if there are any traits we share. How ever, to turn a fun hobby into something we are required to do to get to the highest penthouse suite in gods castle is crazy IMHO.

Sorry. Obviously I am not into FH.

[Give It Time]

To me, Family History is one of the great "keep em busy" projects the church employs.

Geneolegy is a great hobby and I understand it is interesting to both member and non alike. It's fun to learn about our ancestors and try to imagine what their life was like and see if there are any traits we share. How ever, to turn a fun hobby into something we are required to do to get to the highest penthouse suite in gods castle is crazy IMHO.

Sorry. Obviously I am not into FH.

I totally get what you're saying. I've resisted FH for the reasons you state. Even when I was TBM something just felt wrong about mandating it.

However, since I've become NOM, I look at FH as a potential replacement for scripture stories. We know these people lived. We know these things happened and truth can sometimes be so much stranger than fiction. There are no burning bushes. There are no fingers of God. Just people who are our forebears doing their best. Where their behavior is admirable, we can emulate. Where their ideas are antiquated we can leave in the past. Where their behavior is scandalous (and there's something in every family tree) that's just fun to discuss at the Thanksgiving table and puts the modern-day drama in perspective.

Family history answers in a very literal sense, where did I come from? A person can take that information and formulate their own answer to, why am I here? Then, they can look at their actions and see how they'll impact the future and set the goal for where am I [in the form of my life's impact] going?

[deacon blues]

! Timothy 1:4 "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies" Of course that could be a mis-translation; and Mormons don't read the bible every year anyway.

[Rob4Hope]

Some people really love Family History work. It's their lifeblood.

Look, this is probably bad, but I would LAUGH MY A$$ OFF If I found out one of those Q15 guys, especially them there older ones, had African DNA flowing through their veins, even if its "one drop".

Oh, wow...I'm laughing now just thinking about it!

[Give It Time]

Some people really love Family History work. It's their lifeblood.

Look, this is probably bad, but I would LAUGH MY A$$ OFF If I found out one of those Q15 guys, especially them there older ones, had African DNA flowing through their veins, even if its "one drop".

Oh, wow...I'm laughing now just thinking about it!

Actually, it's my understanding we all do.

[Give It Time]

! Timothy 1:4 "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies" Of course that could be a mis-translation; and Mormons don't read the bible every year anyway.

Have you ever discussed the Bible with a mainstream Christian? It's embarrassing. This, not being tainted by "lesser doctrines", is probably the true reason why we isolate ourselves. We start talking about Christian theology to our friends and do nothing but make ourselves look bad.

[NOMinally Mormon]

Funny family history story: I have a sister who's into genealogy. At thanksgiving dinner one year, she brought up a discrepancy she had found and asked our grandfather about it. The problem was his younger sister's date of birth, which was two years after their father had died. So my sister asked him point blank what his sister's actual DOB was. Grandpa looked uncomfortable, paused, then said he'd tell her about it some time. At that moment we all realized there was no discrepancy. Awkward. Takeaway lesson: don't research genealogy at large family dinners.

[Give It Time]

Funny family history story: I have a sister who's into genealogy. At thanksgiving dinner one year, she brought up a discrepancy she had found and asked our grandfather about it. The problem was his younger sister's date of birth, which was two years after their father had died. So my sister asked him point blank what his sister's actual DOB was. Grandpa looked uncomfortable, paused, then said he'd tell her about it some time. At that moment we all realized there was no discrepancy. Awkward. Takeaway lesson: don't research genealogy at large family dinners.

Oh wow!


They say that once you start doing family history, you will find skeletons.

[Give It Time]

Some people really love Family History work. It's their lifeblood.

Look, this is probably bad, but I would LAUGH MY A$$ OFF If I found out one of those Q15 guys, especially them there older ones, had African DNA flowing through their veins, even if its "one drop".

Oh, wow...I'm laughing now just thinking about it!

Actually, it's my understanding we all do.

And that is yet another wrinkle.

[Brent]

Was listening to Dr Laura while on a recent interstate drive and a woman came on who had done "the DNA thing" and had all these first relations she was unaware of. She had realized her Dad was not her Dad. Dr. Laura told her to throw it away and be happy with the Dad she has.

True story: My mother's sister and brother were always pushing her to get her DNA processed but she always refused. My wife and I realized that there may be some questions to her parentage. We toyed with having my daughter send in the swab and claim it as her Grandmothers...

[Rob4Hope]

Some people really love Family History work. It's their lifeblood.

Look, this is probably bad, but I would LAUGH MY A$$ OFF If I found out one of those Q15 guys, especially them there older ones, had African DNA flowing through their veins, even if its "one drop".

Oh, wow...I'm laughing now just thinking about it!

Actually, it's my understanding we all do.

The hypocrisy knows no bounds. If I recollect, Mark E. Peterson said something about "one drop" causing someone to inherit the curse. And, if we now have science that shows we all have some "negro" blood in us -- meaning a vestige of DNA markers -- then talk about a type of historical smoking gun and a whole generation of people who not only had it wrong...THEY REALLY HAD IT WRONG!

Its this type of stuff, these twists and turns in the road, that keep coming year after year and just entertain and baffle me over and over. Looking at historical, theological, political, archeological, prophetic, etc, etc, etc aspects and deconstructing them continues to be an amazing quest.

[Rob4Hope]

Funny family history story: I have a sister who's into genealogy. At thanksgiving dinner one year, she brought up a discrepancy she had found and asked our grandfather about it. The problem was his younger sister's date of birth, which was two years after their father had died. So my sister asked him point blank what his sister's actual DOB was. Grandpa looked uncomfortable, paused, then said he'd tell her about it some time. At that moment we all realized there was no discrepancy. Awkward. Takeaway lesson: don't research genealogy at large family dinners.

Oh wow!


They say that once you start doing family history, you will find skeletons.

LOL. I'm so messed up now, I don't think finding out any more skeletons matters. Once heard someone say: "We are so far down, mise well just walk on the bottom." HOW TRUE!!!!

I've concluded something for myself: this world is a good place BECAUSE I choose to hold love and kindness inside as important. And more importantly, I choose to share that love and concern.

Doesn't matter what skeletons there are. What matters is where I'm going, not where I've been.

BUT...I get what you are saying. Can you imagine finding out your father or mother isn't really your own, and you were lied to about it? Talk about a trust bust!

[Give It Time]

Was listening to Dr Laura while on a recent interstate drive and a woman came on who had done "the DNA thing" and had all these first relations she was unaware of. She had realized her Dad was not her Dad. Dr. Laura told her to throw it away and be happy with the Dad she has.

True story: My mother's sister and brother were always pushing her to get her DNA processed but she always refused. My wife and I realized that there may be some questions to her parentage. We toyed with having my daughter send in the swap and claim it as her Grandmothers...

I agree with Dr. Laura on this. It's the person who shows up who is the parent. I think the church would agree, but then again...maybe not.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

What I discovered is that like the church narrative, geneology has a certain sacred narrative in some families that is completely fabricated. Also most trees on familysearch earlier than the 1800's have serious mistakes or are fantasy.

[Give It Time]

What I discovered is that like the church narrative, geneology has a certain sacred narrative in some families that is completely fabricated. Also most trees on familysearch earlier than the 1800's have serious mistakes or are fantasy.

Actually, it doesn't have to go that far back. My great-uncles were male twins. As is common with twins, they were given alliterative names. One of those names is now more commonly a girl's name. So, these perfect strangers who don't know diddly and don't bother to look at birth records or census records, tried to combine these my two uncles into one person or say that they were brother and sister. I knew these two uncles, sat in the same room with both and spoke to both. Doesn't matter. Perfect strangers, without a shred of evidence can get something entirely wrong.

I read last night about someone's mother getting "killed off" in FamilySearch. The mother had the same name and was the same age as someone else who had died in her town. The stranger who "killed off" this person's mother didn't bother to check when and where both women were born. They were born the same year, but on different days in different states. Anyway, it took the actual blood relative quite a bit of work to correct the error.

Lots of people don't use FamilySearch, anymore, because of this stuff. And now they don't use it because of the whole not recognizing gay marriages.

[Hagoth]

Look, this is probably bad, but I would LAUGH MY A$$ OFF If I found out one of those Q15 guys, especially them there older ones, had African DNA flowing through their veins, even if its "one drop".

DNA testing is really causing havoc with white supremacists who are trying to validate their pure-bred marshmallowness and finding that they're really mongrels. Their solution is to call it a conspiracy.

[Hagoth]

...science that shows we all have some "negro" blood in us...

Better yet, if you want to talk about racial purity, Africans are the only people who don't have neanderthal DNA, so for those who like to organize people by race, maybe it's time for them to consider that black skin might be a mark of racial superiority!

[Rob4Hope]

...science that shows we all have some "negro" blood in us...

Better yet, if you want to talk about racial purity, Africans are the only people who don't have neanderthal DNA, so for those who like to organize people by race, maybe it's time for them to consider that black skin might be a mark of racial superiority!

I'm loving this.

Might sound bad, but when I was little and was taught about this "curse of Cain" bullsh!t, I found myself immediately thinking about the Nazi movement and racial purity. I mean, that is what my mind, though young, linked! It was alarming to me. I reconciled it somehow, pushing it on the shelf by thinking "yeh, but we aren't like THOSE people (meaning the Nazi group)."

Anyway, I always felt the irony when thinking about this and wondering why and how people could be filled with so much hate because that is how I saw it: just plain hate. The biggest irony I saw at that time was this: the only way the Nazi's get out of hell is to bow the knee and confess Jesus--a JEW--as GOD. What pure pure pure irony.

Even after my TBM death, I am still seeing the irony that just keeps coming back. Now we have old white rich men (Q15) who may just find they have African blood in them. Even despite the "disavowing" of the priesthood ban, racism is alive and well in the LDS church, including but not limited to gender discrimination. The rut cuts deep, which make this irony that much more disgusting.

I hope NOT to offend anyone with posting this--It's just another wrinkle that came up for me as I read the posts.

[Give It Time]

...science that shows we all have some "negro" blood in us...

Better yet, if you want to talk about racial purity, Africans are the only people who don't have neanderthal DNA, so for those who like to organize people by race, maybe it's time for them to consider that black skin might be a mark of racial superiority!

This put a smile on my face.