Guest Blog: Genealogical Verification

Whenever you attempt to write about your family history in narrative form, there are always potential problems. These usually come in the form of the difficulty of verifying family histories in times when community records were never kept or (at best) are incomplete. Such circumstances make it difficult to substantiate important ancestral events and their significance to the overall story you are trying to tell. The only way to address these issues is to take the following steps.

The first is to only use those tales that you can demonstrate to the reader has some form of truth or logical reasoning for its inclusion. In my novel, The Legacy of Two Gemini Knights, I would estimate that I only used around 40% of the tales in my family archive. The remaining 60% had to be disregarded because of questionable sources. Adding them, whether I liked it or not, may have lessened the power of the text in one way or another.

The second step is to try to cross-reference any type of material you are using. Books, magazines and especially the World Wide Web do provide excellent means of providing added credibility to your written arguments. For example, much of the information on the Battle of Teba, Spain in 1330 as employed in the book, did help me formulate the Logan brothers’ and the other Templar knights’ roles in this conflict and the impact it eventually had on the rest of the story.

Another way to look at family genealogy is to visit those places that your ancestors came from. Often, small details are not included in the notes of official texts. On a number of occasions I have picked up vital clues to a story line, by talking to people at the scene or looking at the physical evidence myself. Such things can often give a particular insight to events that would otherwise be lost and in doing so leave the material written rather shallow and without conviction. For example, my visit to Leith, Scotland, did help me understand how my ancestors coped with such harsh living conditions at the time. As a result one could understand how the social culture of that period shaped the characters thinking on a daily basis and so in turn helped me to enrich the content of the text.

Finally, one can verify genealogical situations by establishing a linear series of events that fit together in some fashion. This maybe over a time frame or within a cultural setting that has already been established in other recorded contexts. Again, when talking about the Gemini Knights and their association with the town of Lanark, the land estates in west Scotland and St. Andrews in Leith, they were all established as important to the next part of the story by the interlinking efforts of further research. Such facts enabled family stories and genealogy to fit into the context of the broader textual message of the existing story with some degree of reality and understanding. Thus, hopefully improving the thrust of the book in some way.

However, no matter how one tries, there will always be gaps in any story from such a long way back in time. And we as authors must always accept that someone else will come along in the future and say your analysis on certain situations today are incorrect. And unfortunately, this is the price we pay for taking the conversation one step further in the here and now. Nevertheless, all we can do is our best at the time of writing one`s book and just hope the reader appreciates the genealogical contributions and connections made to date.

Geoff Logan, a veteran university lecturer, has a master’s degree in education from Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. He now serves as an independent education consultant. “The Legacy of Two Gemini Knights” is his first book.

Prolonging The Conflict

Israeli-distributed candies in the West Bank bear the slogan
'Here are some sweets because Hamas is making life bitter in the West Bank.'

For more than a month, Hamas and Israel have been doing back and forth both on the ground and in the conference room. Papers and missiles have been exchanged on a regular basis with no realistic end in sight. Those that haven’t been keeping current on the conflict probably don’t realize that it has been that long… it seems as though this is one of those unfortunate wars when we lose sight of the beginning.

During this prolonged conflict, ceasefires have come and gone and holidays have passed by without peace prevailing. Tisha B'Av offered little respite during this time but hope remained palpable as people reflected on the loss, the strife, the anger, the fear. What are usually marked as days unlike other in the surrounding blocks of the calendar, were a continuation of the same emotions dominating the regional psyche. For Jews, this was just another event to mourn during this sorrowful day.

Tisha B'Av, the Fast of the Ninth of Av, is a day of mourning to commemorate the many tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, many of which have occurred on the ninth of Av.

Tisha B'Av primarily commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed on the ninth of Av (the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.; the second by the Romans in 70 C.E.).

Although this holiday is primarily meant to commemorate the destruction of the Temple, it is appropriate to consider on this day the many other tragedies of the Jewish people, many of which occurred on this day, most notably the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and from England in 1290.

It is during these times of what is usually holy celebration and reverence when the claws are drawn throughout the world. The back and forth between conflict and ceasefire, holiday and conflict, has the world in an uproar for all the wrong reasons. So who is to blame? Unlike many of the protests and ‘reports’ Israel is not to blame for the elusiveness of peace.

Every ceasefire that has been negotiated and strong armed have not been times for the people of Israel to break or the IDF to relax. They have served as perpetual countdowns to the next rocket to sail over the boarder at innocent civilians. This FACT seems to be lost on the world. However, as we have reflected on what has seemed like a prolonged period of mourning, we have kept in the forefront of our minds that, while the situation is tenuous, it will pass and be but a memory which we will forever remember. We are strong, we will fight, and we will not allow the world to destroy our land or expel our people. Hope will prevail and peace will once again return to our land.

But Do You Have A Flag?

Columbus Day is almost over and it really made no difference to me. The only thing that I noticed was the fact that I couldn’t get a hold of everyone I normally would on a Monday. You couldn’t even take your cue from the government because they were closed already.

When you think about it and consider all that we have learned about Columbus over the years it makes you question why we even still have such a day. I personally think that it’s a difficult argument saying that you discovered a new world when there were people there to greet you. That’s like discovering a cabin in the woods that no one knew about, that wasn’t on any maps, knocking on their door and claiming the land as your own (if you survive of course).

To give you a little background, and save your finger from having to hit another button, here is the basic rundown from Wikipedia:

Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas, which happened on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday… Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906, and became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937, though people have celebrated Columbus' voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the four hundredth anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.

Many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on October 12, 1866. Columbus Day was first enshrined as a legal holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first generation Italian, in Denver. The first statewide Columbus Day holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it was made a statutory holiday in 1907. In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made October 12 a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day.

Since 1970, the holiday has been fixed to the second Monday in October, coincidentally the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada (which was fixed to that date in 1959) (note that October 12, 1970, was a Monday). It is generally observed nowadays by banks, the bond market, the U.S. Postal Service, other federal agencies, most state government offices, many businesses, and most school districts. Some businesses and some stock exchanges remain open, also some states and municipalities abstain from observing the holiday. The traditional date of the holiday also adjoins the anniversary of the United States Navy (founded October 13, 1775), and thus both occasions are customarily observed by the Navy (and usually the Marine Corps as well) with either a 72 or 96-hour liberty period.

Today seems to epitomize the fact that, given time, people’s shortcomings are frequently overlooked and their feats accentuated by historical storytelling. Truth be told, Columbus was a man who got lost on a voyage, the Gilligan of the 15^th century if you will, who, once he was given power, proved to be a tyrannical ruler and proponent of genocide. So, happy Columbus day everyone!