Jewish Mysticism, Genealogy, and Tombstones

Expanded upon from a 2008 post

One aspect of Kabbalah, a Jewish form of mysticism, is the interplay between numbers and letters.

"Kabbalah teaches every Hebrew letter, word, number, even the accent on words of the Hebrew Bible contains a hidden sense; and it teaches the methods of interpretation for ascertaining these meanings." - source

Three of these methods are Notarikon, Gematria, and Temurah. While primarily used as a means to interpret the scriptures, they can be used elsewhere, so an overview of the methods can be helpful to the genealogist with Jewish ancestry. (An overview is pretty much all I know and can provide; I don't have deep knowledge.)

Notarikon – A method of using the initial and/or final letters in a group of words to form words/phrases.

My great-great grandfather, Moshe Leyb Cruvant, was referred to as Moshe Leyb "the king" by at least one of his daughters, probably as a Hebrew joke, based on the initials of his name. (The Hebrew letters of   Mem-מ, Lamed-ל, Kopf-ך spell the word,  Melek-מלך, meaning King.) This is a usage of Notarikon.

Similarly, Moshe Leyb was honored with several grandchildren, one named Melvin Lester, another Monroe Leslie, and a third Morris Louis. Without knowing the importance of initials in mystical thought, this might appear to be a coincidence of names instead of grandchildren being named after their deceased grandfather.

Note: Leyb is the Yiddish word for Lion. Leyb was one of several new animal names which became popular in the European Jewish community in the 18th century. Prior to that animal names were common, but were limited to those that had appeared in the bible. Philip Trauring at Blood and Frogs writes more about Jewish animal names.

Both Yiddish and Hebrew variants are used, and sometimes interchangeably. One of my ancestors on some documents was Zev Perlik and others Vulf Perlik. (Wolf. Since many English words are Germanic in root, and since Yiddish has Germanic roots, sometimes Yiddish and English words are similar.)

Many immigrant Jews Americanized their names, and often they did this by finding a common American name that began with the same initial letter(s). Until recent research, I thought Vulf Perlik's name was "William" as that is how it was recorded in our family documents. 'William,' of course, shares the first two consonants with 'Vulf.' (Like Latin, and some other languages, there is no 'W' sound in the Hebrew alphabet.) Vulf didn't immigrate, but some of his children 'changed' his name to 'William' in the oral history.

Similarly, another ancestor's Hebrew name was 'Zvi,' or 'deer.' The Yiddish variant is 'Hirsch', and a common Americanization is, "Harry.” Without knowing the animal names, and the process of Notarikon, one might be very confused how the name 'Harry' was derived from 'Zvi'.

This tradition of using the initial letter or letters to change names can be useful for parents in naming their children if an ancestor had a name that is uncommon today.

Gematria – A method of assigning numerical values to letters, calculating the numerical value of words/phrases, and associating them with other words/phrases of matching value.

Perhaps the best known example of Gematria is with the Hebrew word, 'chai,' meaning 'life.' Formed with the Hebrew letters Chet-(8)-ח and Yod-(10)-י, the numerical value is 18. Many Jews will give charitable donations in multiples of $18 to symbolize 'life'.

Leah is a very common Hebrew name for girls. The reason goes beyond her appearance in the Torah as one of Jacob’s wives. Her Hebrew name לאה (Lamed-30-ל + Aleph-1-א + Hay-5-ה) is equivalent to 36, or double 18.

Hebrew letters are commonly used as equivalents to the numbers, and of particular importance to the genealogist, they are used when writing years, such as on tombstones.  However, usually the first digit of the year is left off.  For example, the current Hebrew year of 5771 would be written as 771 (or actually, as: 400-300-70-1) - תשעא (more detailed explanation)

(Hebrew tombstones have a "Year 6000" problem, but it's 229 years away.)

Two websites I have found helpful in computing Gematria are Numberman’s Gematria Calculator
and The Bible Wheel’s Hebrew and Greek Gematria Database

The Bible Wheel has a Biblical concordance, including the New Testament, and allows you to search for words using the English translation, though it uses the King James Version of both testaments. Numberman’s Gematria Calculator is useful if you already know the Hebrew characters for the word you are looking up.

When you use The Bible Wheel’s concordance you have to be somewhat careful as Hebrew frequently attaches endings to words adding prepositions, and the like. For example, if you search for the number 42, twelfth in the results you will see “Leah.” If you look at the Hebrew you will notice it has an extra letter than what I have above, and if you follow the link to the Biblical passage in Genesis, you will see the word that appears in that passage really means “and Leah.”

Let's take a look at how this might appear on a tombstone. Below is the tombstone of my great grandfather's brother, Max Newmark

• Above the English surname, in the middle of the Star of David, are the letters Pay-Nun This is an abbreviation for Po Nikbar, meaning "here lies."

• The first line of Hebrew reads: "Meyer Vulf."  The second line reads: "Bar (son of) Samuel Yosef Newmark."

• It is the third line where numbers are first used.  The first word is "Niftar" meaning "Died."  The second word is: Yod (10) - Daled (4).  The third word is Sh'vat , the name of a Jewish month. The final word is: Tav (400) - Resh (200)  - Tzade (90) - Aleph (1) .  
• So the date of his death was the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat, in the year 5691.  (Remember, the first digit of the year is usually dropped.) This converts to Feb 1, 1931.  I happen to know Max died on January 31.  Why is it a day off?  Because he died after sunset, and the Hebrew day begins at sunset on the previous Gregorian date.

• The final line of Hebrew is clearly an acronym on this tombstone, but the periods are often removed, and it appears as if it were a single word. It is usually at the bottom of a stone, as it is here.  It's based on a biblical passage from the Book of Samuel (25:29) and translates to: "May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life."

Temurah – Exchanging letters in words to create new ones. There are three primary types of Temurah. (I'll use the Roman alphabet to illustrate)

1) (Atbash) A exchanged with Z, B exchanged with Y, C exchanged with X...
2) (Avgad) A becomes B, B becomes C, C becomes D...Z becomes A.
3) (Albam) A exchanged with N, B exchanged with O, C exchanged with P…M exchanged with Z.

I don't know of any examples in my family tree, where names were created using one of these methods, and I haven't heard of it happening in other families. However, there is one example from literature.

Some creative readers suggested that Arthur C Clarke came up with the name for his misbehaving computer in the novel, 2001, through a reverse-Avgad technique -- HAL being derived from IBM. Clarke has denied this, insisting it was a coincidence, and that the name is actually a Shakespearean reference to Henry V, referred to as Prince Hal in the drama, Henry IV. Clarke probably expects readers to believe that since he is British, he is more likely to make a Shakespearean reference than a reference to an American computer company. Yeah, right.

***

I've not been trained in any of these methods specifically. I knew about gematria growing up solely through the importance of Chai and the number 18. Some examples appear in the book/film The Chosen by Chaim Potok, which I remember reading in high school. I read the book, The Bible Code a few years ago which goes into some more detail.

I've been fascinated with numerology for a long time.. When a nephew was born at 6:37 pm, I 'rounded down' in 'military time' to 18:36:54. I'll now never forget the time he was born. Interestingly, I discovered in my maternal grandfather's address book that next to my birthday was written the time I was born. (12:05 pm) I have no idea why it interested him, but the time is not written next to any other birthday. Jokes have been made over the years that I was 'born just in time for lunch."

Resources

• Abbreviations and Terms on Tombstones in Poland
• How to Read a Hebrew Tombstone 
• Hebrew-Gregorian Date Converter
• Bible Wheel's Greek/Hebrew Gematria Database
• Numberman's Gematria Calculator
• Hebrew Numerals (Wikipedia)
• Kaballah (Wikipedia)
• Animal Names as First Names in Hebrew (Wikipedia)
• Animals and Name Pairs in Jewish Given Names (Blood and Frogs)
• Jewish Mysticism and Genealogy (2008 post)

How Genealogy and History Can Determine Your Age - 2011

This fun mathematical post has become sort of a tradition here.

I started it in 2008, updated it for 2009, and then updated it again in 2010.

A close comparison of posts will illustrate what needs to be changed each year, and the comments in 2009 included a mathematical explanation by someone on how this works, for those who are curious.

***

This takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read .

Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!
(Because, you know, that spoils the fun.)


1. How many Great-Grandparents do you have full name, date of birth, and date of death for?

Secondary spouses don't count. Only (pardon the redundancy) direct ancestors count.

2. Multiply by the number of biological parents you have, regardless of whether or not you have any information on them. (Everyone should have the same answer here. 2.)

3. Add the number next to your paternal grandmother on your ahnentafel table or list. (Once again, everyone should have the same number. 5.)

4. To honor the year the Roman Emperor, Claudius, adopted Nero -- Multiply it by 50

5. To honor the nuptials of King George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz - or, if you wish, the birth of Henry Shrapnel, inventor of the shrapnel shell - add 1761.

6. If you haven't had your birthday yet this year, subtract 1.

7. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this is the number of great grandparents you have all that information on!

The next two numbers are:

YOUR AGE

Don't deny it!

Note: This will not work if you are at least 100 years old. (But, congratulations!)

How Genealogy and History Can Determine Your Age - 2010

Since I did this back in 2008 and 2009 I made the necessary revision for 2010.

A close comparison of posts will illustrate what needs to be changed each year, and the comments last year included a mathematical explanation by someone on how this works, for those who are curious.

***
 This takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read .

Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!

1. How many Great-Grandparents do you have full name, date of birth, and date of death for?

Secondary spouses don't count. Only (pardon the redundancy) direct ancestors count.

2. Multiply by the number of biological parents you have, regardless of whether or not you have any information on them. (Everyone should have the same answer here. 2.)

3. Add the number next to your paternal grandmother on your ahnentafel chart. (Once again, everyone should have the same number. 5.)

4. To honor the year the Roman Emperor, Claudius, adopted Nero -- Multiply it by 50

5. To honor King George III, ruler of Great Britain when the US revolted, add 1760, the year he ascended the throne.

6. If you haven't had your birthday yet this year, subtract 1.

7. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this is the number of great grandparents you have all that information on!

The next two numbers are:

YOUR AGE

Don't deny it!

Note: This will not work if you are at least 100 years old. (But, congratulations!) This will also have to be tweaked, just a little, in future years. Only one step will have to be changed, though. I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one.

When Does the New Decade Begin?

You may recall the endless debates about whether the New Century began on January 1, 2000 or January 1, 2001. (I tried to argue with friends that it wouldn't occur until the year 5800, which wouldn't occur until 2040, but they didn't listen to me.)

The whole question revolved around whether or not there was a "Year Zero." And obviously, with respect to the Christian/Gregorian Calendar, there wasn't. So, the argument went, the "21st Century" began on January 1, 2001.

However, as I liked to point out -- a new century begins every second. Some centuries are just more popular than others. The same applies for decades, and years.

"The 1900s" began on Jan 1, 1900, and ended Dec 31, 1999. It seems logical to me to define "The 1900s" as any four-digit year beginning with the digits '19'. "The 2000s" would be defined similarly.

What about Decades?

No one referred to the past decade as "The 201st Decade." If we referred to decades as such, the 202nd Decade would begin on January 1, 2011. But we don't. The 2010s begin on January 1, 2010. It doesn't make any sense (to me) to look at it in any other way.

Wikipedia may be helpful if you are confused.

May I ask you for a date?

Looking over the notes a cousin had made in her research on a 19th century date of death, I saw a Hebrew date (Adar 18) and civil date (Feb 18). It is very unusual that the calendars are in sync like that.

So I went to a calendar converter and discovered that Adar 18 that year was March 1. February 18 was Adar 6. Either way, one of the two dates recorded was off by 12 days.

My cousin doesn't usually make mistakes like this, and she was quoting the Lithuanian Archives as her source. I looked at the archival database on JewishGen, and the records matched. So maybe someone else made the mistake in the transcription, and my cousin hadn't checked the dates like I had.

Further research indicated I was the one in error -- as I was using the wrong calendar converter.

The Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, was decreed in 1582 by the Catholic Church, and since then has become so widely used by Catholic and non-Catholic countries alike, many people probably think it is universal. Or at least, while one might be aware of other calendars like the Hebrew, Islamic, or Mayan calendars -- if one sees a date that looks Gregorian, we assume it is Gregorian. This can be a mistake.

The civil calendar in use in Lithuania has changed over time. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an early adopter of the Gregorian Calendar in 1586. However, in 1800, when Lithuania was annexed by Russia, there was a return to the Julian calendar. The Russian revolution of 1917 reinstated the Gregorian Calendar. [Source (linked above): Wikipedia entry on Lithuanian Calendar]

A side effect of this history is that dates on Lithuanian documents, such as vital records, between 1800 and 1917 are likely on the Julian calendar.

Once you know what calendar you're dealing with, converting from Julian to Gregorian is easy. Depending upon what century the date occurs in, you add a specific number of days.

16th and 17th centuries - 10 days
18th century - 11 days
19th century - 12 days
20th and 21st century - 13 days

For those who like mathematical formulas:
For the Nth century, add [[3*N/4]] - 2 days (where [[ X ]] truncates the integer.)

The question I don't have the answer to is how to record it in my database. I lean towards using the Gregorian date, since other dates in the database are Gregorian; Indicating in the notes that the Julian date is what appeared on the document. I am already converting Hebrew dates I find on tombstones to the Gregorian date for my records, and this is really no different.

June 2009 - A Month Like Any Other?

This may seem like a morbid idea for a post, but recent events spurred me to search for a list. A lot of people have been repeating the statistical meme that “deaths occur in threes.” This can be difficult to disprove, as our brains like to categorize and group things, and three is a number that comes naturally when we group items together. Other people seem to think something is 'weird' about the number of notable deaths that have occurred recently. (Which actually is an opposing meme, because if deaths did occur in threes, it wouldn't be weird.)

Of course it is Wikipedia that comes to the rescue – with a continually updated list of recent deaths completely free from geographical biases. I think most people will come away from the list with the decision that 'deaths come in 1s'.

This random generator picks 9 dates in a month, and occasionally the results do suggest 3 in succession. It's what you'd expect from a random generator.

The list on Wikipedia may be longer than you expect, as the individuals who are Notable in America differ from those Notable in Italy or Pakistan. Wikipedia covers a worldwide audience. My selected list below is going to be geographically biased as well, though I tried to pick a handful from other nations. There will almost certainly be individuals in the list linked to above that readers will think I should have included below. That is almost the point. Almost every day of the month is represented.

By the way, in case you were under the false impression that Jackson and Fawcett once both appeared on the same Tonight Show episode, with Carson's sidekick McMahon – Snopes has debunked this rumor.

Selected Notable deaths in June 2009

June 2

• Paul O. Williams – American Science Fiction author, and haiku poet
• FrancEYE – (Frances Elizabeth Dean) American poet, noted perhaps most for her relationship with Charles Bukowski, with whom she had a daughter.
• David Eddings – best-selling American fantasy author

June 3

• David Carradine – American Actor

June 4

• Ward Costello – American Actor

June 5

• George Edward Whalen – American Medal of Honor recipient for actions at Iwo Jima

June 6

• Ola Hudson – American costume designer for musicians such as The Pointer Sisters, and David Bowie. Mother of musician Saul Hudson (aka Slash from Guns n Roses)
• Jean Dausset – French immunologist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine

June 7

• Kenny Rankin – American singer/songwriter – song ‘peaceful’ became hit for Helen Reddy

June 8

• Johnny Palermo – American television character actor for the past 5 years, many roles, movie debut scheduled for release in Oct 2009 – age 27

[Note: The 27 Club, another mathematical death meme, usually reserved for musicians, began with the deaths of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin within 10 months of each other. At least, they're usually the ‘three’ listed. Leaving out Brian Jones, founding member of The Rolling Stones, who died one year earlier. Our minds just like the number three better.]

• Sheila Finestone – member of Canadian Parliament 1984-1999, Canadian Senate 1999-2002
• Omar Bongo Ondimba – President of Gabon 1967-2009 (Gabon is a country in West Central Africa.)

June 9

• Dave Simons – American comic book artist (best known for his work on Ghostrider)
• Dick May – American NASCAR driver

June 10

• Huey Long – American musician, Ink Spots

June 11

• Frank Low – American physicist – leader in infrared astronomy - has an asteroid named after him

June 12

• Felix Malloum – President of Chad – 1975-1979

June 13

• John Saville – British economic and social historian

June 14

• Bob Bogle – American musician, founding member of The Ventures

June 17

• Dusty Rhodes – American Major League Ballplayer for the Giants in the 1950s.

June 18

• Iz the Wiz – American graffiti artist, featured in the 1983 documentary Style Wars
• Hortensia Bussi – First lady of Chile 1970-1973, widow of President Salvador Allende

June 19

• Shelly Gross – American Broadway producer, and promoter of concerts

June 20

• Neda Agha-Soltan – Iranian student who’s shooting during election riots was captured on video

June 22

• Sam B Williams – American inventor of the fan-jet engine
• Eddie Preston – American Jazz trumpeter
  

June 23

• Ed McMahon – American actor
• Ismet Güney – Cypriot artist, designer of the Cyprus national flag.

June 24

• Roméo LeBlanc – Governor General of Canada 1995-1999
  
• Tim Krekel – American musician, songwriter

June 25

• Michael Jackson – American singer/songwriter
• Farrah Fawcett – American actress
• Sky Saxon – American musician (The Seeds)
• Don Coldsmith – Prolific American author of Westerns – Redefined Westerns by adopting Native American point of view.

June 26

• Jo Amar – Moroccan born Israeli singer; associated with Mizrahi music

June 27

• Gale Storm – American actress, star of My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show

June 28

• Billy Mays – American television ‘direct response salesperson’, and host of “Pitchmen”
• A. K. Lohithadas – Indian screenwriter, director.

June 29

• Mohammad Hoqouqi - Iranian poet

June 30

• Pina Bausch - German modern dance choreographer

June 25, 2009 will likely be a day remembered by many music fans, similar to August 9, 1995; December 8, 1980; August 16, 1977, and February 3, 1959. In that way, June 2009 is not a month like any other.

However, the overall list of notable deceased is significantly longer than the American press spend the time to mourn. June 2009 had several American Entertainers. Other months will have less entertainers, and more of something else. That's how statistics work. It doesn't make June 2009 any more or less unique. There is nothing 'weird' about it. This shouldn't detract from our memories of any of the individuals who have died. Their lives are of course equally worthy of mourning regardless of when they happen to die.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - The Death Clock

For his weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun meme, Randy at Geneamusings tried out The Death Clock.

It's an online application that computes when you are likely to die with the following variables
1)Date of Birth
2)Sex
3)Mode of life (optimism, pessimism, sadism, normal)
4)Body Mass Index (BMI)
5)Smoking Status (non-smoker/smoker)

There is also a calculator that computes BMI with height and weight.

Plugging in my stats, it returned the date of November 25, 2059. I would be 90 years old. I calculated my BMI if I got down to my goal weight, and entered that information. I was granted an extra year.

When I say 'goal weight', the BMI would still be on the low-end of overweight. The weight to which I would need to drop to reach what they call 'desirable' is unrealistic, though according to this calculator, could extend my life to age 98.

However, that is if all other variables remain the same. I'm not sure if I could maintain my optimistic outlook on life if I did what I needed to do to reach and maintain that 'desirable' weight. A thin, pessimistic me would only live until 2026 (57 years old). Outlook on life seems to have a greater impact on longevity than weight.

Of course, I'm not going to use this as an excuse not to strive towards my goal. However, I will keep in mind that I shouldn't sacrifice my enjoyment of life in the effort, because that is counter productive. It's a balance, and I know I can lose a good 20-30 pounds, and remain happy; perhaps even be happier for it.

Of course, there are other variables that aren't included in the computation. I've been a non-smoker all my life. Someone who smoked for 20 years, but quit, is in the non-smoker category as well. Our risks aren't the same. Genetic predisposition to diseases such as cancer also are ignored.

Avoiding alcohol consumption when driving, staying out of war zones, and taking care of dogs or cats are other things that have been (or could be) statistically proven to have a positive effect on your longevity.

The beauty of Ahnentafel

In his weekly Saturday Night Fun post, Randy at Geneamusings suggested we write about our ancestor who is #21 on our Ahnentafel charts.

Ahnentafel is a numbering system for genealogical ascents. For those who like math, it is a very intuitive numbering system. For person X, the father is 2*X, and the mother is (2*X)+1.

For example:
1. Yourself

2. Your Father
3. Your Mother

4. Your father's Father
5. Your father's mother
6. Your mother's Father
7. Your mother's mother

Those who like math will instantly note that something fun and exciting is happening here with each generation. The paternal ascent follows the powers of 2. So? It suggests that converting the numbers to binary might have some benefits.

1. Yourself
10. Your father
11. Your mother
100. Your father's father
101. Your father's mother
110. Your mother's father
111. Your mother's mother.

Every binary number is going to start with '1' - treat that as yourself (or whoever your source person is). Every 0 indicates a paternal branch and every '1' indicates a maternal branch.

So when Randy asked who my #21 was, my thought process went something like this:

* Broken down in powers of 2, 21 is 16+4+1.
* So the binary ahnentafel would be 10101.
* That's my father's mother's father's mother.
* Annie Perlik Dudelsack/Feinstein (Apr 1868-Aug 10, 1932)

[Note: The dates I had to look up.]

Her Hebrew name was Nechama meaning 'comfort.' She married Selig Dudelsack somewhere in Poland. They immigrated in 1890 and 1891, with Selig coming first, and Annie following several months later with children and mother-in-law. They changed their name to Feinstein in America.

I have been unable to find a photograph of her so far, though I am hopeful some cousin will turn up with one. I have several Feinstein family photographs pre-dating the 1930s, so I'd be surprised if no one ever got her on film.

How Genealogy Can Determine Your Age - 2009

Back in May I showed you how Genealogy Can Determine Your Age. I indicated that the procedure would have to be altered slightly each year. So, I have done so:

***

This takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read.

Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!

1. How many Great-Grandparents do you have full name, date of birth, and date of death for?

Secondary spouses don't count. Only (pardon the redundancy) direct ancestors count.

2. Multiply by the number of biological parents you have, regardless of whether or not you have any information on them. (Everyone should have the same answer here. 2.)

3. Add the decimal number next to your paternal grandmother on your ahnentafel chart. (Once again, everyone should have the same number. 5.)

4. To honor the year the Roman Emperor, Claudius, adopted Nero -- Multiply it by 50

5. To honor the marriage of George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis, add 1759. [Genealogical note: George Washington may be considered by many Americans as "Father" of the nation, but he had no children, so he has no biological descendants.]

6. If you haven't had your birthday yet this year, subtract 1.

7. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this is the number of great grandparents you have all that information on!

The next two numbers are:

YOUR AGE

Don't deny it!

Note: This will not work if you are at least 100 years old. (But, congratulations!) This will also have to be tweaked, just a little, in future years. Only one step will have to be changed, though. I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one.

Fractions and DNA

in honor of what some localities refer to as Indigenous Peoples Day or Native Americans Day:

Short Math Quiz

Your mother told you she was ½ Choctaw and ½ Cherokee. Your father told you he was ½ Choctaw.

You are in front of a bunch of judges and they start asking you questions, and they want to know what your percentage of Choctaw blood is. What do you tell them?

What if you only have a primary school education? Do you think you’ll get it right

Reading through the testimonies my great grandmother, her half-sister, six cousins, and her uncle provided to the Dawes Commission, one thing remains constant. None of them understood fractions. Fractions can be difficult.

There were eight testimonies delivered in November of 1900. And my previous post on my Choctaw ancestry was based on reading through those eight testimonies. Another search turned up one more testimony delivered a year later. Samuel T Hartley, the brother of my second great grandmother, Sarah Hartley, brought another daughter of his before the commission. She was completely flummoxed by the questioning, and while it doesn’t say it, I suspect she was close to tears by the end. Her responses were all over the place, and it was clear she was very confused. Her father was present though, and was called to the witness stand. His testimony didn’t directly conflict his testimony of a year prior, but he was asked slightly different questions, which led to more information.

In 1901 he claimed his father said he was ½ Choctaw. And that his mother said she was ½ Choctaw and ½ Cherokee. (He had no proof. Neither had ever had their names on rolls, or applied for land. That is why the commission denied the applications, they wouldn’t give land to just anyone who said they thought they had blood from one of the 5 civilized tribes, no matter how earnest they looked. They needed some evidence, and DNA evidence wasn’t around back then. My ancestors had no proof beyond what they had been told by their parents and grandparents.)

In 1900 he had been asked whether he claimed his Choctaw heritage from his mother or father. His response was ‘father’. (It should have been ‘both’ but maybe he thought from the question he had to choose one.) The next question was how much blood his father had, so he had responded ½, and from that the Commission told him he would be ¼, and he accepted that.

If the 1901 testimony is accurate, his mother claimed to be 100% Native American, half Choctaw, half Cherokee. And since she would be my mtDNA ancestor, taking the test might actually solve this question for my family. If my second great grandmother was ¾ Native American, then I am 3/64, which is getting higher and higher as I continue doing research. A year ago I thought I was only 1/128.

Here are the people named in the nine testimonies I have downloaded from Footnote, and their percentage of Native American DNA assuming the testimony given by Samuel Hartley in 1901 is accurate.

First Generation
(1/2) George W Hartley
(1/1) Eliza Beasley

Second Generation (3/4)
Samuel T Hartley (married Margaret ___ and Nannie ____)
Sarah Ann Hartley (married Ebenezer Denyer and George W Foster)
[Research indicates there may have been a third child named William Hartley]

Third Generation (3/8)
Caroline Hartley (married Jesse M Taylor)
Georgia Amelia Hartley (married Miles J Phillips)
Robert Hilliard Hartley (married Louisa ___ )
Sophronia Hartley (married James Cagle)
Virginia Hartley (married Henry Shultz)
Amie Hartley
Samuel H Hartley
Eddie Hartley

Samuel William Denyer (married Alice Gollihar)
Margaret Jane Denyer (married Melvin Van Every)
Eliza Caroline Foster (married William T Reeves)
[George and Sarah Foster had two other children: George Foster Jr. and Sarah Ann Foster. Neither testified before the Dawes Commission as far as I can tell.]

Fourth Generation (3/16)
Taylor children: Maudie, Claudie, Mattie, Earline, Jesse
Phillips children: Hester, Ruby
Hartley children: Bessie Leanner, Youler May
Cagle children: Dessie, Edna [later children include: Flossie, Hazel, Ruby, Otis]
Shultz children: Birdie, Callie, Julia, Richard
Denyer children: Alfred, Arthur, Addie, Zenovia, Lee, Samuel, William, Melvin
Van Every children: Minnie, Samuel, Willa, Evva, Myrtle

How Genealogy Can Determine Your Age!

This takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read .

Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!

1. How many Great-Grandparents do you have full name, date of birth, and date of death for?

Secondary spouses don't count. Only (pardon the redundancy) direct ancestors count.

2. Multiply by the number of biological parents you have, regardless of whether or not you have any information on them. (Everyone should have the same answer here. 2.)

3. Add the number next to your paternal grandmother on your ahnentafel chart. (Once again, everyone should have the same number. 5.)

4. To honor the year the Roman Emperor, Claudius, adopted Nero -- Multiply it by 50

5. To honor the birth of Revolutionary War soldier, Nicholas Fish, add 1758.

6. If you haven't had your birthday yet this year, subtract 1.

7. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this is the number of great grandparents you have all that information on!

The next two numbers are:

YOUR AGE

Don't deny it!

Note: This will not work if you are at least 100 years old. (But, congratulations!) This will also have to be tweaked, just a little, in future years. Only one step will have to be changed, though. I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one.