Dr. Henry Louis Gates

It was Dr. Gates that got me started on the genealogy thing. Genealogy is kind of fascinating if you're inclined to be intrigued by that sort of stuff. I watch his program, 'Finding Your Roots' on PBS. Anyway, using the 'Family Search' thingy is quite easy to explore and I had no idea how far back my familial roots may in fact turn out to have been recorded. Tracing your ancestry all the way back to Ragnar the Bad Ass was quite fascinating. I didn't know. I do know now. Some of the old familial lines stretch to Wales. The Welsh names are just about impossible to pronounce. The Welsh names are harder to pronounce than the old Viking names. Almost seems like gobbledegook and when you try pronouncing those Welsh names you'll get a cramp in your tongue that stings like crazy. So anyway, finding Jewish relatives is not only a surprise but leaves one wondering what the hell might have happened to the segment of the family that parted ways with the Jewish side of the old familial roots. Must have been some familial shit went down and down went the Jewish recognition of relative affiliations for the duration. I have no idea what might have happened and I find that troubling. Gaps in the old genealogical record are dang near impossible to fill in the blank spaces. Ain't not about a damn thing can be done about any of that now. So now for a while I'll not worry about Hanukkah or stuff like that there. I will however continue with kosher pickles and corned beef. Bagels too but I'm not certain that bagels are necessarily a strictly Jewish food item. Those soggy dumpling lumps are off the menu for certain. I don't care for soggy dumplings. Nope and I'm not about to give them any further consideration. Yuck...

time for Tuesday machine art.

a tree of ancestry -

nighttime kitty -

I suppose that doing genealogy would have to rely on someone's word for things. the ancient records are open to interpretation and I'm really lousy at interpreting stuff that's mostly incomprehensible. Linguistically speaking of course. :]