More real, less illusion

Have you read Rachel Dolezal's book? I did. I found myself having some empathy for her and a deeper understanding of what led up to her controversial choices. I also got to hear her perceptions about race and identity. It was a page turner and I think her experience has brought these topics to the public which invites deeper thinking and dialog. I was unaware that she produced and sold her art. Some of that is in her book.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j...

GENI says that Rachel Dolezal Rachel Dolezal is my 11th cousin once removed. It looks as if we all are related somehow. Heather Olson you will be interested to see the Paines in the tree.

Me (William Arthur Allen)
→ William Worden Allen
your father → Irene Agnes Allen
his mother → Charles Otis Ward
her father → Louisa M Ward
his mother → Lewis Paine
her father → Thomas Storrs Paine
his father → Thomas Storrs Paine
his father → Noah Paine
his father → Samuel Paine
his father → Stephen Paine, II
his father → Cornelia "Neely" Rose Payne (Adcocke)
his mother → Julian Sutton
her sister → Mary Fitch
her daughter → Rebecca Fitch
her daughter → Rebeckah Mason (Read)
her daughter → Sarah Ann Combs
her daughter → Mason 'Mace' Combs, II
her son → Nancy Jane Fleming
his daughter → Jane Rhoades
her daughter → Samuel ‘Sam’ Rhoades
her son → Eyra Seivers
his daughter → Peggy Doležal (Boomer)
her daughter → <private> Doležal
her son → Rachel Dolezal
his daughter

I see them. :) Can you please describe the process of attaching the relationship path to the discussion thread. Please forgive my techno-tard status in advance. I see users doing this with some regularity and I would like to learn how to do it. William Arthur Allen

Go to a person's GENI profile. eg. Rachel Dolezal at Rachel Dolezal . At the top of the screen is a relationship bar. To find your relationship to Rachel click the :Find Relationship" button.

It's easy to sympathize with her, even without reading her book. It's the same question we've been talking about here, who defines identity?

She imagined herself as free to create any identity she chose. The general public, along with activists of all races, reacted negatively and that surprised her.

The whole thing raises some interesting questions about defining identity by choice.

I know how to do that William. What I mean is how do you share the path on say discussion threads and/or profiles that you are visiting. I am assuming by the printed format of the path of descendancy (after seeing it done many times) that there is a function that I am overlooking. You aren't hand copying this out. Sometimes I miss the forest for the trees. Lol. I'm sure that I am using terminology about the functions incorrectly.
Justin I think it's more than that. Her identity was shaped considerably by her childhood environment. It wasn't like she just woke up one day and decided to present as a Black woman. She was exposed to the culture from a very young age. She connected with individuals in her immediate family and later in her community who were Black or African American. I am trying to be careful not to say anything that detracts from the topic. Everyone has a different way of feeling about how they would like for their cultural to be identified. This terminology changes over time. Most of the native people I grew up with or around did not mind being identified as Indian. Others seem to think that is incorrect and would like to be addressed as Native American. Now the term that I often hear used is first people's. There are more than likely other choices that I am unaware of. I'm flexible. My goal is to respect others and their perceptions of self and culture. What I do not understand is how the general public and activists of all ethnic backgrounds choose to strip her of all of her titles and demolish her reputation, call her out as a dishonest human, basically tar and feather her and run her out of town. What about the good she accomplished? There must be a balance in this somewhere. Why do we say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? From my perspective she was trying to be the most authentic form of herself that she could figure out. It was not her intent to mislead. Is it possible that the court of public opinion and said activists went overboard? Have you done any reading along the lines of genetic memory? Not past lives but genetic memory.
race=human or human race

Me (William Arthur Allen)
→ William Worden Allen
your father → Irene Agnes Allen
his mother → Charles Otis Ward
her father → Louisa M Ward
his mother → Lewis Paine
her father → Thomas Storrs Paine
his father → Thomas Storrs Paine
his father → Noah Paine
his father → Samuel Paine
his father → Stephen Paine, II
his father → Cornelia "Neely" Rose Payne (Adcocke)
his mother → Julian Sutton
her sister → Mary Fitch
her daughter → Rebecca Fitch
her daughter → Rebeckah Mason (Read)
her daughter → Sarah Ann Combs
her daughter → Mason 'Mace' Combs, II
her son → Nancy Jane Fleming
his daughter → Jane Rhoades
her daughter → Samuel ‘Sam’ Rhoades
her son → Eyra Seivers
his daughter → Peggy Doležal (Boomer)
her daughter → <private> Doležal
her son → Rachel Dolezal
his daughter

That. How do you do that without copy/paste function. Where is the do higgy located that enables users to do this?

@Heather Olson, there is not a way to do that without copy/paste - Unless I'm also missing something. FYI Ms. Dolezal is my 12th cousin. However, you can copy/paste the web address into discussions as: Rachel Dolezal (which shows my path)

OK I was reading more into it than necessary. Thank-you, Debbie.

https://www.geni.com/path/Rachel-Dolezal+is+related+to+Debbie-Bell?...

Head against proverbial brick wall.
Still not producing correct results. I will work on it. Sorry computer literate people. :(

Heather, it's (a) generate the path, (b) copy / paste the path. .

Some people think it's an easy and convenient way of presenting their relationships in a discussion. Other people think it's annoying because the details are rarely relevant.

typo.....culture to be identified

Genetic memory.

I own a New Age bookstore so of course I've heard of genetic memory, as well as a couple of other theories to account for people having what seem to be memories of other lives.

The "mainstream" idea for genetic memories is usually that there is a high concentration of inheritance from a particular person or group, say through cousin marriages, that the memory is essentially a race memory or trauma.

A case example I read not too long involved a Scottish man who had recurring nightmares about what turned out to be (apparently) the battle of Culloden. He had so many ancestors in that battle the writer thought it must be an example of genetic memory.

Then too, there are variations even among the folks who believe in reincarnation. The Hindu idea has taken hold of the popular imagination but the Western esoteric tradition contains other ideas about it.

For example, there is a difference of opinion between those who think the soul with its personality and memories is what is reincarnated and those who think its the spirit, stripped of personality and memories.

Then there are opinions about the purpose of reincarnation, which often don't have anything to do with spiritual evolution. Some people believe we are generally reincarnated in the same family line, while others believe we are generally reincarnated in the same geographic area.

A more "modern" variation on these themes is the universe is constructed in a way that we are all connected to many thousands and millions lives -- past, present, and future. Nothing to do with reincarnation or genetic memory. The idea here is some people are drawn to another particular life because of their own psychological or spiritual pressures.

If you want to rationalize an experience, there are quite a lot of theories to draw on.

@Deby Bell we are 12th cousins 2x removed and I am 13th cousins with Rachel Dolezal Just thought it was interesting as I started to read this thread to find out what the discussion was about.

Thank you for the Smoke Signals link Heather @Olson. Love it.

@ Jamey Balester - Very cool, hello cousin!

"Ethnicity as a matter of choice" comes up a lot in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). The deal there is that you pick an identity that *could* have existed between c. 600 and c. 1600 ad (the C. 600 boundary isn't firm and the c. 1600 has loopholes), but wasn't a real historical person. As long as there is some evidence of contact with Europe, you can claim to be *anything*. We've had black Vikings (the Norse took their women from anywhere and everywhere, and some went as far as Africa), blue-eyed Samurai (which annoys the ethnically Japanese, but known European contact dates back to 1543, and contact with China dates back much, much farther - and China has had trade routes to/from Europe for ages), and even the occasional "Native American" (because European contact, duh!).

A very common phenomenon is "Scots" who have no real-world Scottish ancestry that they know of - it's just that Kilts Are Cool. :-)

Of course, we all know that we're just play-acting (I think). :-)

Geni path says I'm related to Rachel Dolezal through the dubious Wilkins link (Geni has "parents" for John Wilkins, I who may not be valid - no one on the west side of the Atlantic has ever found a shred of evidence as to his parentage).

I'm pretty sure I'm *not* related to Espera di Corti, alias "Iron Eyes Cody", despite being "south Italian" - I don't *think* there were any Sicilians in my family tree, and he was *all* Sicilian. His family is probably glad that the media have found a new whipping-post for "fake identity". . .

Hi Maven, 25th cousin, isn't the Caposellas Italian or Sicilian.

South (mainland) Italian, up in the hills east of Naples and west of Bari. Little place called Calitri, you probably never heard of it. :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calitri

As a direct descendant of this line, allow me to give my input :
Disclaimer : I do not know anything about genealogy. I am not a history buff. I am not a big fan of irish mythology and have never studied it. I have always been a christian and i have always been up in the air about if the bible is literal or figurative.

I am also a very driven and observant person who uses logic and reason to come to correct conclusions.
Also, I had never heard of Niall, and don't personally care if people say he's fake. There is no biased.

That being said, Niall shows as my 45th Great Grandfather. Just not correctly. I have found the direct paternal link throughout my family to the first man.

The direct paternal link doesn't show on geni, because they won't acknowledge that Marcus Robertson, my Great great great Grandfather, was born to Chief Justice George Robertson or one of his sons, if you fix that chain in the link then it shows from Niall to me descendant by descendant, through the line of Duncan I.

But the indirect way, going through my great great great grandmother's side still shows, and ends up at the same result. I have no personal biased in wanting it right, it already shows the heritage, I just want it to be correct.

All that being said, I traced my lineage, father by father to Niall, therefore, Niall exist. He's my Grandpa.

Now, on to the rest of the story.
Even though I didn't know anything at all about Irish history or "mythology", when I kept tracing the line of my ancestors, using ancestry.com and logic, it just keeps going all the way back, and gives a recorded timeline, generation by generation of the history of Ireland and then back into the days of the bible!

Now, because I have connected to geni, a lot of major kings throughout history show up as my grandfathers.

I believe that the High Kings of Ireland where real people. My strongest evidence is this :

To create a timeline of any type of Royal Family going backwards would be impossible.
However, that's what the Royal pedigree is, a timeline of exactly who was born, even keeping track of the cousins through the Earl system.

They couldn't have made it up, because it includes too many relatives, and the relatives it includes are the people who are recognized throughout the history of this area.

You can't just read the lineage they provided through history , and accept what you want out of it.

Either you throw out the whole book and say "We don't believe any of these people, anything over 200 years is a no go" , or you believe everything they say.

That's logical.

That being said, I highly highly highly believe this page should be merged with the "fiction" page, so that the lineage continues to show.

Christopher Robertson - can you post the Geni profiles to the Marcus and Jonathan Robertsons you mean please? I have a Robertson 1st wife in my Cunningham Tennessee tree (the one with 19 acknowledged children in his will, and also, with an illegitimate child of his 2nd wife). Is your Robertson also known as Robinson? A lot of them were, for no reason I understand yet. Also, we have a Geni project somewhere, trying to sort them out. So let’s see what you got!

Christopher Robertson your logic has one giant hole in it.

You state that on Ancestry you can follow your lineage generation by generation from yourself to Adam but that this is not possible on Geni.

Simple basic logic dictates that one of these two alternatives is incorrect.
There are numerous discussions and project pages on Geni explaining the flaws in the path which you claim Ancestry shows. If you have even the mildest interest in Niall start educating yourself by reading his Geni profile.