Distortions in family history

If you are working on your family history, be careful of what you are told.  What you are told could be made up or it could be misinterpreted.  Document everything and then crosscheck it with other documents.

The most blatant tale that I can think of is what my mother told me around a St. Patrick's Day.  She said, "We are Orange Irish."  One, her ancestors were from England and Germany, not Ireland.  Two, she didn't know any of her in-laws besides her U.S. born father-in-law and German-born mother-in-law.

So far, I have found only one Magree ancestor going back four generations that was not born in the United States.  My great grandfather, John James Richard Magree, was born in Liverpool, England of an American father and an English mother.  Given that her maiden name was Pope, she may or may not have had Irish ancestors.  Many Irish immigrated to Liverpool.  However, all of the other records that I have for him say he was born in the U.S. and more specifically in Brooklyn.

I do know that the name Magree is centered in Kilkenny, Ireland and some of those Magrees are buried in a Catholic Church cemetery.  If my Magree ancestors were from there, they most likely would have been Catholic.

I was told that my grandfather was born in Poughkeepsie, New York.  But his death certificate gives Brooklyn, his parents were in a Brooklyn city directory at the time of his birth, and one of his sister's birth certificates gives that same address.  But somebody else on ancestry.com has that sister born in Poughkeepsie!

I read the death certificate of my paternal grandmother's father as his birthplace being "Schlossing"; the information was provided by one of his sons.  Knowing my grandmother was born in Germany I kept looking for a town with that name.  Then it dawned on me that it should be "Schlesien", German for Silesia.  Silesia is now mostly in Poland.  Somebody else on ancestry.com had his birth as "Schlassing".  As part of checking if my grandmother may have been Catholic, I looked up Silesia.  I learned that there is a Silesian German and the speakers call themselves Schlässinger.  I have since found out that my grandmother's town of leaving was called Osseg; it is now Osiek in Polish.

I have learned so much family history in the last thirty years, but I will need another thirty years to even fill in details about the people whose names I know.

But, regardless of where my ancestors came from, I do not consider myself Orange Irish or Green Irish or German or Polish or even Brooklynite:)  My nationality is American!
See also What nationality are you?  An irrelevant question!

Quote of the day: Education - shooting ourselves in both feet

"When we shrink investments in higher education and research, 'we shoot ourselves in both feet,' remarked K.R. Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy, the Silicon Valley fuel-cell company. 'Our people become less skilled, so you are shooting yourself in one foot. And the smartest people from around the world have less reason to come here for the quality education, so you are shooting yourself in the other foot.'”

"As I've said, nations that don’t invest in the future tend not to do well there."

Both from "Do You Want the Good News First?", Thomas Friedman, New York Times, 2012-05-19.

Friedman didn't write it explicitly, but I find it ironic that some businesses complain they can't find enough qualified employees and complain about taxes.  Duh, do they think that hundreds of thousands are going to be able to afford to pay for all their training, especially when so many companies want narrowly defined "skills"?

Economics made too simple

As I scanned through Yahoo Finance's main page I came across an interesting title:
"4 Misconceptions About Free Markets", Andrew Beattie, Investopedia, 2011-11-18

Because I have been writing a lot about free markets, I thought I should read this.

His list of misconceptions is
Inflation is Inevitable
Governments Can Save Us
Free Market Means No Regulation
Taxes Don't Affect Output

He writes that inflation is a result of printing presses and is a tax on income. He writes that because inflation lessens the real value of debt, then only government benefits. Oh, others that borrow money don't benefit from inflation? And inflation is not caused by companies raising prices to increase profits? Or workers wanting higher wages? Or…

I won't go into his government section. Suffice it to say that he treats government as some foreign king that rules over us. He forgets that government is us, and we get only as good a government as we choose to elect. He does perpetuate the myth of "the expensive toilet seat". The toilet in question was a specialized toilet for a reconnaissance plane that would be aloft for 24 hours or more.

He thinks that customer feedback is sufficient regulation. Oh, and what customers were giving feedback to factories polluting air and water? And what customer regulation is going to prevent somebody putting a junkyard next to Beattie's house?

He looks as taxes as only something shifted from one group to another. Taxes are really a mixed bag. Without government investment in roads, schools, science, and many other things, much economic development would not have happened. Ironically, his article is available to the whole world at the click of a mouse because the military financed and promoted research into interconnected communications.

Finally, he writes, "The economics of Adam Smith, Fredrik Hayek and Milton Friedman are simple and straightforward…" Well, I haven't read much Hayek but I've read a couple of Friedman's books. These had much too praise, but also a lot of wishful thinking. If you've read any of my excerpts from the "Wealth of Nations" you know that Adam Smith is anything but simple and straightforward.

Art imitating life or life imitating art?

Last week, Zoe of the comic strip Baby Blues asked for and got a pair of pink cowboy boots. She was so delighted with them that she even tried wearing them in the bathtub.

I had never even heard of pink cowboy boots until today. At UMD I saw a student wearing them.

Did Zoe get them because they had become popular, or did the student get them because Zoe got them?

My wife informed me that pink clothing had become popular in support of the fight against breast cancer. When I typed "breast cancer" and "pink ribbon" into Safari's Google panel, it suggested "breast cancer pink ribbon merchandise". Following through on that search, Google found over 512,000 items!

My wife said that some of these merchants contribute some of their proceeds to breast cancer causes.

What's that saying about Venus and Mars?