See in between
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathaniel Taylor" <nathanieltaylor@earthlink.net>
To: <GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: Gateway Ancestors Exposed
<snip>
Leo, it depends on how your database is set up. Do you have the ability
to create an unlimited number of Boolean flag fields in your
database--both your own native version and in the DB placed online via
'The Next Generation'?
-----In my own program written in DOS I have the possibility to create
separate areas for specific entries, but except for some, they are not
searchable in my own program.
I created one, called Occupation, which in my program is not searchable, but
Ian Fettes has made that one searchable on the Internet site. What I am
doing now is using it, not just for occupations (which are used, just try
actor, general and so on) but also for other aspects I want to be
searchable, like Knights of the Garter, Knights of the Golden Fleece, and
Gateway Ancestors and Pioneer Ancestors.
I have to "exploit" this entry for as many things as I can, as with this I
remain within the guidelines/possibilities of the program.
In my own program I have one searachable aspect (but only for individual
persons, not as a whole) and that is : does A have interesting ancestors or
descendants, and that makes life for me so much easier. That is where I find
the Gateway descendants of people.
Once I have such a list, I can search that list for keywords like Gateway,
or Genealogy which is how I find members of Gen-Med if they are on that
list.
You could use the flag 'immigrant' to flag
anyone in your database who is an immigrant to a colony (US or
Australia), and another flag for someone who presents a 'gateway' to
royal ancestry
--------I agree, BUT to make one flag for "different animals" gives another
technical problem......the website gives a maximum of 1000 responses. And by
dividing the kinds of responses I can be more complete in a response by
removing those obviously not wanted, like Australians in a list of American
migrants. I think the answer wanted is the names of migrants to America or
Australia, if I then can indicate those with royal ancestry that is then a
bonus.
(or numerically or historically signficant non-royal
ancestry), and perhaps a small closed-choice field to distinguish
Australian immigrants from American, etc. (if place of death will not
suffice to distinguish them).
------------The "answer list" does not give place names of death or birth
and so that does not stand out.
As for terminology, the issue of whether one should use the word
'immigrant' or 'emigrant' simply depends on the reader's (or compiler's)
point of view!
--------Again there are "kinds" of migrants. Someone like myself going to
another country is not significant and should (perhaps) not be searchable as
a group. But people in the early days were (I think) important as they were
the founders of a new society in a new world. I think those pioneering
people have to be admired. Life must have been dreadful. In England (say) a
father writes to tell a son in America that his mother has died, the news
can take six months to get there and by the time the son's reply reaches
England, the father could be dead as well or remarried and with another
child. Homesickness, missing relatives behind must have been dreadfull.
My simple table of my (and my wife's) 17th-century American immigrant
ancestors, bookmarked below,
------------------------I am going to study that!
is an example of a list of immigrant
ancestors compiled by the placement of flags in a basic genealogical
database (though the list has many hand-made additions & modifications).
Only a handful of these immigrants are 'gateways' in the sense that they
bring traceable ancestry beyond a generation or two above them.
-------------To me it is irrelevant whether a "gateway Ancestor" has parents
known, he/she is the gateway person, he/she is the one who came from country
A and went to country B. I think we should like to find first the
Gaterway/Pioneer ancestor and only then see if they have parents.
As America is a few generations "older" than Australia and New Zealand, I
think that because of that the interest in ancestors developed earlier in
America. Up until recently most Australians were too bussy establishing
themselves as Australian to worry about overseas ancestors. In the last
twenty years or so that has changed, but America has a head start of at
least a hundred years if not more.
America has been fortunate to have produced genealogy so much longer than
Australia and I wonder/doubt anyone, including myself, could produce a book
like Plantagenet Ancestry applying to Australia. One collection (small) I
would love to make is of Australian women married to or involved with
"interesting" people. For instance:
Dale Harper, Lady Tryon and friend of Prince Charles
Pat Richards, one wife of the 9th Earl of Jersey, and mistress of Joe
Kennedy Jr.
Mollee Little, likely mother of a child of the Duke of Windsor
Sheila Chisholm, Princess Romanowsky, wife of (1) Lord Loughborough (2) Sir
John Milbanke Baronet (3) Prince Dmitri Alexandrovitch of Russia
Dame Nellie Melba, mistress of a Duke of Orleans
Philippa MacDonald a wife of Don Marco Torlonia grandson of Alfonso XIII of
Spain
and there are more

With best wishes
Leo