GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2009-01 > 1232146571


From: Beth Long <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] More L21 results
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:56:11 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <530223.7925.qm@web86606.mail.ird.yahoo.com>


if (typeof YAHOO == "undefined") {
var YAHOO = {};
}
YAHOO.Shortcuts = YAHOO.Shortcuts || {};
YAHOO.Shortcuts.hasSensitiveText = false;
YAHOO.Shortcuts.sensitivityType = [];
YAHOO.Shortcuts.doUlt = false;
YAHOO.Shortcuts.location = "us";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_id = 0;
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_type = "";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_title = "Re: [DNA] More L21 results";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_publish_date = "";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_author = "";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_url = "";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_tags = "";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_language = "english";
YAHOO.Shortcuts.annotationSet = {
"lw_1232146431_0": {
"text": "professional genealogist",
"extended": 0,
"startchar": 440,
"endchar": 463,
"start": 440,
"end": 463,
"extendedFrom": "",
"predictedCategory": "",
"predictionProbability": "0",
"weight": 0.560711,
"relScore": 2.52858,
"type": ["shortcuts:/concept"],
"category": ["CONCEPT"],
"wikiId": "",
"relatedWikiIds": [],
"relatedEntities": [],
"showOnClick": [],
"context": "given. I have an idea why... I am also a professional genealogist (this to fund my Bukovina project), and I can tell",
"metaData": {
"visible": "false"
}
},
"lw_1232146431_1": {
"text": "Pittsburg",
"extended": 0,
"startchar": 952,
"endchar": 960,
"start": 952,
"end": 960,
"extendedFrom": "",
"predictedCategory": "OTHER",
"predictionProbability": "0.177075",
"weight": 0.277844,
"relScore": 0.499267,
"type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/place/ambiguous", "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/destination"],
"category": ["PLACE"],
"wikiId": "Pittsburg,_Kansas",
"relatedWikiIds": ["Dartmouth_College", "Dixville_Notch,_New_Hampshire", "Florida_State_University", "Illinois", "Kansas_State_University", "Manchester", "New_Hampshire", "New_York", "Pittsburgh,_Pennsylvania", "Wolfeboro,_New_Hampshire"],
"relatedEntities": ["dartmouth college", "dixville notch", "florida state university", "kansas state college", "manchester", "new hampshire", "old dominion university faculty", "the lakes region", "virginia beach, virginia", "wolfeboro"],
"showOnClick": [],
"context": "noble, it is really unlikely that he would emigrate to Pittsburg to work in a steel mill(!) My personal favorite was",
"metaData": [ {
"geoArea": "151.31",
"geoCountry": "Verenigde Staten",
"geoCounty": "Allegheny",
"geoIsoCountryCode": "US",
"geoLocation": "(-79.997437, 40.438301)",
"geoName": "Pittsburg",
"geoPlaceType": "Town",
"geoState": "Pennsylvanië",
"geoStateCode": "PA",
"geoTown": "Pittsburg",
"type": "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/us/town",
"visible": "false"},
{
"geoArea": "43.8623",
"geoCountry": "United States",
"geoCounty": "Contra Costa",
"geoIsoCountryCode": "US",
"geoLocation": "(-121.88869, 38.019058)",
"geoName": "Pittsburg",
"geoPlaceType": "Town",
"geoState": "California",
"geoStateCode": "CA",
"geoTown": "Pittsburg",
"geoZip": "94565",
"type": "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/us/town",
"visible": "false"},
{
"geoArea": "32.8058",
"geoCountry": "United States",
"geoCounty": "Crawford",
"geoIsoCountryCode": "US",
"geoLocation": "(-94.704803, 37.410591)",
"geoName": "Pittsburg",
"geoPlaceType": "Town",
"geoState": "Kansas",
"geoStateCode": "KS",
"geoTown": "Pittsburg",
"geoZip": "66762",
"type": "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/us/town",
"visible": "false"}
]
},
"lw_1232146431_2": {
"text": "Abraham Lincoln",
"extended": 0,
"startchar": 2127,
"endchar": 2141,
"start": 2127,
"end": 2141,
"extendedFrom": "",
"predictedCategory": "PERSON",
"predictionProbability": "0.818121",
"weight": 0.233553,
"relScore": 1.10405,
"type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/person/author", "shortcuts:/us/instance/person/government/world_leader", "shortcuts:/us/tag/other/wiki"],
"category": ["PERSON", "WIKI"],
"wikiId": "Abraham_Lincoln",
"relatedWikiIds": ["American_Civil_War", "Franklin_D._Roosevelt", "George_Washington", "John_Adams", "Lincoln_Memorial", "Ronald_Reagan", "Theodore_Roosevelt", "Thomas_Jefferson", "Ulysses_S._Grant", "Woodrow_Wilson"],
"relatedEntities": ["dwight eisenhower", "franklin roosevelt", "george h.w. bush", "jimmy carter", "john calhoun", "john f. kennedy", "theodore roosevelt", "thomas jefferson", "william howard taft", "woodrow wilson"],
"showOnClick": [],
"context": "that peasant guy\u0022 (and the swineherd!) is usually pretty easy. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said \u0022God must have loved the",
"metaData": [ {
"visible": "false"},
{
"visible": "false"}
]
},
"lw_1232146431_3": {
"text": "",
"extended": 0,
"startchar": 2336,
"endchar": 2357,
"start": 2336,
"end": 2357,
"extendedFrom": "",
"predictedCategory": "",
"predictionProbability": "0",
"weight": 1,
"relScore": 0,
"type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/identifier/email_address"],
"category": ["IDENTIFIER"],
"wikiId": "",
"relatedWikiIds": [],
"relatedEntities": [],
"showOnClick": [],
"context": "many of them\u0022. Beth Long --- On Fri, 1/16/09, Alan R \\u003e wrote: I personally don\u0027t think the multi-wife thing is the",
"metaData": {
"visible": "true"
}
}
};
YAHOO.Shortcuts.headerID = "b5b45f9fa3cba0973547aa7d860f49bf";







Hi Alan,
 
The main reason for what? No one has actually shown that the wealthy and influential do in fact have more surviving descendants than the poor. But many folks on the list seem to take this as a given. I have an idea why...
 
I am also a professional genealogist (this to fund my Bukovina project), and I can tell you that among Americans looking for their Central European roots, you would not believe how many people claim to be descendants of the Hapsburgs, and other nobility (either legitimate or otherwise) It seems that no one wants to believe that their grandfather was a poor Hungarian/Polish/Slovakian peasant. I sometimes tell them that if their ancestor were really a noble, it is really unlikely that he would emigrate to Pittsburg to work in a steel mill(!)
 
My personal favorite was the lady who was told that her Hungarian ancestor was "a veterinarian". As it turns out, he was the village swineherd (a very important job, actually, and I'm sure he had to know how to doctor the hogs, but it's hardly a university degree).
 
Anyway, I think much of the discussion of "dominant elites" stems more from people's desire to have an "important" ancestor than from any real studies of whether the upper classes/elites do in fact become a larger and larger proportion of the overall population over time (a pretty illogical supposition, if you think about it).
 
My closing thought on this is that I have done a samll number of genealogy jobs concerning documented noble families. Believe me,  it is very, very difficult to find living descendants of most of these. I have tried it and in most cases it is nearly impossible. Meanwhile, finding descendants of "that peasant guy" (and the swineherd!) is usually pretty easy.
 
Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said "God must have loved the common people, because he made so many of them".
 
Beth Long

--- On Fri, 1/16/09, Alan R <> wrote:

I personally don't think the multi-wife thing is the main reason.  In fact






This thread: