To DNA or Not to DNA… That is the Question

I recently had my DNA tested and it moved me forward in my knowledge of where my ancestors hailed from. Like everyone else, our earliest ancestors came from Africa and the Middle East. The science is still young, so you are likely to only receive a little information about your family genetics. And you will lose some privacy if you agree to sharing your results. The fun part of sharing is that you meet “cousins.” But they, like most everyone else participating, are wondering “now what?” Our lives are so busy, most of us don’t have the time to dig deeper into the DNA website and see what it has to offer us. I only took one test, with one company and they keep in touch, basically trying to sell me on more opportunities, but I think in the future I’ll try another company and start with them, from scratch. Just to see what they say. It seems easier that way. And it sounds like fun.

Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy VII – DNA, Jumping Into the Gene Pool. A High Tech Gathering of the Tribes, Available here:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078X5F7YP

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Genealogy… the Signs of Slavery

Good God, who in the world wants to think about slave markets when they do their genealogy? It is a most unpleasant thought. We all know though, that those “markets” existed. On a New Orleans building in 1895, the sign was still there… Slaves for Sale. You would think someone would have at least painted over it. It’s not like it was an ad for aftershave or soda pop. And it had been about thirty years since the end of the war. Ironically, a black man bought the building and ran it as a hotel.

Abraham Lincoln visited one of those slave markets and because he did not like what he saw, slavery ended with the Civil War. When he was young, Abe went down the Mississippi River on a flat boat loaded with produce. After he sold his produce, he went to a slave mart with an acquaintance named Hanks. After they left, Abe was angrier than hell. “Hanks,” he said, “if ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I’ll hit it hard, by the ever living God.”

If you’re searching for black ancestry, the signs of slavery are everywhere. I don’t know if you ever get used to it. But if you have anything pertaining to slaves or slavery to bring to the genealogical field; family letters, wills, oral history… please, please, please share it. We owe it to those who are unable to tell their own stories.

Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy – A How-to for Tracing Ancient Jewish Ancestry, Secret Genealogy II – Uncovering the Jewish Roots of Our Christian Ancestors, Secret Genealogy III – From Jewish Anglo-Saxon Tribes to New France Acadians, Secret Genealogy IV – Native Americans Hidden in Our Family Trees and Secret Genealogy V– Black, White and Hamite; Ancestors of Color in Our Family Trees.  Available here:

Secret Genealogy:  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-Volume-Suellen-Ocean/dp/0965114082

Secret Genealogy II:  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-II-Christian-Ancestors/dp/1484053222

Secret Genealogy III:  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-III-Jewish-Anglo-Saxon-Acadians/dp/148407579X

Secret Genealogy IV:  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-IV-Native-Americans/dp/1500756105

Secret Genealogy V: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-Hamite-Ancestors-Family-ebook/dp/B01HJ622DU

 

France, America, Germany… Racists Share Ideas

France wasn’t the first to persecute Jews but she certainly had laws for dealing with blacks and Jews, and those laws came to America with the Colonial era. In 1685, France created a how-to set of laws for treating slaves in French Caribbean colonies. Later, in 1724 based on those laws, the Louisiana Code Noir was created. Of the fifty-four articles in the Louisiana code, the first one was, “the expulsion of Jews from the colony.”

In medieval Europe, Jewish persecution was widespread. Switzerland, Spain, Russia, England and Germany, were just some of the countries that gave momentum to the Jewish Diaspora. In the slave code, we find that slaves were forbidden to “gather in crowds either by day or by night, under the pretext of a wedding, or for any other cause.” In medieval Holland, Jews were so severely restricted from gathering, it was an enormous undertaking to bury their dead and hold funerals. In Colonial America, unruly slaves were branded with the fleur de lis and in Nazi Germany, Jews were tattooed with numbers on their arms or forced to wear the Star of David on their clothes. The idiosyncrasies between racist governments are so similar, it’s obvious that ideas were passed around and shared.

Suellen Ocean is the author of the novel Chimney Fire. Available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Chimney-Fire-Steinberg-Conspiracy-Book-ebook/dp/B00XDCPLEW

Or as an eBook or computer download through Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ocean

Benjamin Netanyahu… We Are Like Family… He Knows His American History

I smiled today when I heard Benjamin Netanyahu address Congress and say that Americans were like “family.” As a genealogist who writes about the Crypto-Jewish ancestry of America, I heard his statement different than most Americans probably did. Americans who descend from European Colonials often have ancestors with names like Levi, Jacob, Rebecca, Sarah and… Benjamin. Old Testament Biblical names beckon us to look deeper into those family trees and coats of arms. You may be surprised to find out that long before your ancestors were Christian, they were Jewish. Netanyahu knows his American history… well.  Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy – A How-to for Tracing Ancient Jewish Ancestry, Secret Genealogy II – Uncovering the Jewish Roots of Our Christian Ancestors and Secret Genealogy III – From Jewish Anglo-Saxon Tribes to New France Acadians. Available here:

Secret Genealogy: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-Volume-Suellen-Ocean/dp/0965114082

Secret Genealogy II: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-II-Christian-Ancestors/dp/1484053222

Secret Genealogy III: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-III-Jewish-Anglo-Saxon-Acadians/dp/148407579X

eBooks and computer downloads available through Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ocean

eBooks at Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Secret-Genealogy-by-Suellen-Ocean

Genealogy: New York Ancestors

Ah, New York, New York… and before that it was New Amsterdam. Your New York ancestors could very well have been New Amsterdam Jews. The first Jews who immigrated to Colonial America hid that they were Jews, because they weren’t welcome… yet. Politics and oppression kept them quiet about their true origins, but soon enough, a few brave, intelligent, levelheaded leaders, both Jew and non-Jew, made great strides, and Jews from Spain, Portugal and Brazil began immigrating and were accepted as citizens. The earliest immigrants were probably the descendants of Inquisitional Jews. Later, in the early 1800’s, Jewish immigrants came from Germany and Central European countries. Still later, Jewish immigrants came from Poland and especially Russia, to escape forced army enlistment.   Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy – A How-to for Tracing Ancient Jewish Ancestry, Secret Genealogy II – Uncovering the Jewish Roots of Our Christian Ancestors and Secret Genealogy III – From Jewish Anglo-Saxon Tribes to New France Acadians. Available here: Secret Genealogy: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-Volume-Suellen-Ocean/dp/0965114082 Secret Genealogy II:   http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-II-Christian-Ancestors/dp/1484053222 Secret Genealogy III:   http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-III-Jewish-Anglo-Saxon-Acadians/dp/148407579X eBooks and computer downloads available through Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ocean eBooks at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Secret-Genealogy-by-Suellen-Ocean

        

Can’t Find Info on an Ancestor? Maybe She Was a Slave

The UGRR mentions Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina time and time again as territories of bondage for African-Americans. During the 1850’s the office of the UGRR in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom in Canada and sometimes New York and Boston. It’s difficult to piece together history if all we have is a name, a birthplace and a birth year. Some don’t even have that. Mississippi and Louisiana are well-known slave states but remember that Virginia and Maryland were as well. Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy – A How-to for Tracing Ancient Jewish Ancestry, Secret Genealogy II – Uncovering the Jewish Roots of Our Christian Ancestors and Secret Genealogy III – From Jewish Anglo-Saxon Tribes to New France Acadians. Available here:

Secret Genealogy:  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-Volume-Suellen-Ocean/dp/0965114082

Secret Genealogy II:  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-II-Christian-Ancestors/dp/1484053222

Secret Genealogy III:  http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-III-Jewish-Anglo-Saxon-Acadians/dp/148407579X

eBooks and computer downloads available through Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ocean

eBooks at Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Secret-Genealogy-by-Suellen-Ocean?store=ebook&keyword=Secret+Genealogy+by+Suellen+Ocean

       

We’re All Different But Some of Us are Minorities

You might not think of a Caucasian as a minority but I often feel like one and today I understand why. When my mother’s ancestors came to New Amsterdam they called themselves the “Low Dutch.” They came from the lowlands of Holland and wanted to distinguish themselves from those of Germanic heritage who were also referred to as “Dutch.” Nor were the “Low Dutch” English, they made that clear. History shows the “Low Dutch” as being an unusual group of immigrants who made their way from back east into Kentucky and encouraged the young ones to marry within the group. Eventually the old folks worst fears were imagined and the descendants of the “Low Dutch” intermarried with the English, the Scots, the Irish, the Scots-Irish and probably the Germans. They fell in love with immigrants from all over the world. But my views on life are sometimes a bit counter to mainstream America and I find myself feeling like a minority. There isn’t much one can do about that except to keep on keepin’ on with their culture however odd it may seem to others. As my mother used to say, “It takes all kinds.”

Suellen Ocean is the author of Secret Genealogy – A How-to for Tracing Ancient Jewish Ancestry, Secret Genealogy II – Uncovering the Jewish Roots of Our Christian Ancestors and Secret Genealogy III – From Jewish Anglo-Saxon Tribes to New France Acadians. Available here:

Secret Genealogy: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-Volume-Suellen-Ocean/dp/0965114082

Secret Genealogy II: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-II-Christian-Ancestors/dp/1484053222

Secret Genealogy III: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Genealogy-III-Jewish-Anglo-Saxon-Acadians/dp/148407579X

eBooks and computer downloads available through Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ocean

eBooks at Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Secret-Genealogy-by-Suellen-Ocean