From: fr@compu.com (Fred Rump from home)
Subject: Re: Spouses, children, & software
Organization: CompuData Inc.
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 20:36:29 GMT

lawson@acuson.com (Drew Lawson) writes:

>A will (if it exists, that is) determines inheritance of property.
>There are other things which may be inherited.  In general, a will has
>no bearing on inheritance of a title or (in some countries) the right
>to employ a heraldic device.

Such things are lost upon becoming a citizen in a country like the US where 
they have no meaning. There is no President for life, no son-of-President, no 
title except those given to an individual that are inherited in this country. 
Titles of peerage in other nations are simply what they are: nonsense and 
pretension of grandeur. Mostly heraldic devices can be purchased with a set of 
green pieces of paper. In essence they are the new heraldry. 

>>The very word comes from genes which are inherited - not adopted.

>I was wainting for someone to bring this up.  It is simple, precise and
>wrong.

>The same reasoning would determine that geologists should not examine
>moon rocks because they are not from the earth (=geo).

What's wrong? That genealogy has something to do with genes? That genealogists 
concern themselves with ancestry, pedigree and descent of a person? Just 
because I can hire a professional genealogist or geologist to study my genes 
(lineage) or my earth does not mean that what they study or do changes somehow.

Since geologists learn how to study the material this earth is made of, they 
have a direct connection to learning about the material the moon is made of. 
It is quite similar being that it's really the same kind of stuff.



>>My father was adopted too. And maybe some day I may investigate the Rump name
>>but in the meantime I have the real parents and their relatives to trace.
>>Culturally speaking - there wasn't much either way. If you look back a bit
>>most people simply struggled to survive.

>Yes, but how did they struggle?  There is much more to culture than
>knowing which fork to use and whether to use the china or the
>sterling.  Struggling on a farm has little in common with struggling in
>a carpentry shop in the city.

China or sterling is of a rather recent connection with most people on this 
planet. It was used mainly by the upper classes until the 19th century. Wooden 
bowls, a crock pot, some metal plates usually did the trick whether you were 
a farmer or carpenter. I know a little about history - especially the history 
of the common folks that simply came and went. Little was written about or for 
them for us to know.  The struggle of survival was prevalent among the third
tier of Western Civilization, the vast mass of our ancestors.

Generally there was the vastness of rural life. A step up was the burger in 
the cities which were generally small and still quite pitiful with worse 
sanitation than existed on the farm where living with the pigs and chickens in the same 
house was the rule. Then came the noble class and clerical class. They were 
not all that far ahead of their subjects except for the struggle for food.

The word 'culture' for most men had little meaning until recent times. For us 
it is basically the customs our ancestors believed in. The little habits they 
picked up from church or parent and which went from generation to generation 
until people mixed more readily and the customs became muddled and lost. 




>My mother is adopted.  Neither she no I have any idea who her
>biological parents are, and unless I get complete dead ends and have a
>lot of free time, I am unlikely to even research the issue.  It has
>nothing to do with the stories passed down.  No one I know ever knew
>them.  It is that kind of link which makes this different.  I never
>knew my gg-grandfather, but my grandfather, who I know, knew him.

Outside of this group very few people know much about their grandparents.  It
is sad but true.  Ggrandfathers are even more remote.

There is no law that says you can't study and trace the background of anybody
you desire.  But this thread started because genealogical software did not
meet the needs of people who are studying people who do not meet genealogical
criteria.  You can not blame genealogy for that.  Write a family history.
Include all who were dear and relevant but don't call it your own genealogy,
except in the broadest of terms.

In the same way you can not expect programs written for genetic research to 
meet the needs of friends of the family research.

Fred

-- 
W. Fred Rump 	office:	   fred@COMPU.COM     'mans feet have grown/so big 
26 Warren St.   home: fred@icdi10.compu.com  that he/forgets his littleness'
Beverly, NJ. 08010                          		Don Marquis 
609-386-6846    bang:uunet!cdin-1!icdi10!fr   
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