Genealogy Blog Family History

Ancestry.com proves Obama and Buffett CousinsPosted by Administrator on December 15th, 2009

When Warren Buffett was promoting Obama for the presidency, neither of them could have imagined that they were actually related.

That’s right. Reuters released a report today saying that Ancestry.com has found that President Obama and super-investor Warren Buffett are cousins… er, seventh cousins three times removed. Apparently, waaaaay back, their family trees meet at a 17th-century Frenchman named Mareen Duvall. The discovery was made by accident on Ancestry.com by researchers doing work on Obama’s roots. It is just another cool example of how Ancestry.com’s tools can help us learn unexpected things about our family histories.

Ironically, these same researchers found that Obama is also related to Dick Cheney. But something tells me they won’t be having a family reunion anytime soon.

Places in our Family HistoryPosted by Administrator on September 28th, 2009

My family owned and operated a large board and care facility for the mentally disabled in Azusa, California. We called it Azusa Hacienda because of its white plaster walls, red-brick roof, stunning woodwork, and a huge mural in the common area of a Mexican fiesta. It was surrounded by a huge yard filled with fruit trees of all sorts and large hibiscus bushes- a real Southern California house. We found out after several years that it used to be a brothel and bar. Nevertheless, our family turned it into our gathering place, a place where uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, and second cousins congregated to bask in the glow of family. No other place could have substituted for it. A major character in the lives of four generations of our family, it was truly a member of our family.

Well, as seems inevitable nowadays, the business was closed down. We tried to keep the house in the family, but it gradually became too expensive to keep up. So last year, we sold the house and closed a major chapter in our lives.

This leads me to a thought: what part do places hold in our family histories? It would seem places (like houses) take on a character of their own, a spirit, if you will. They facilitate gathering and celebrating and memories. When they are taken away, it seems there is a disruption in our gatherings until we can find another substitute. In our transient society where we uproot every two years, are we constantly severing these vital ties with the past and memory.

Just a thought…

Koreans Find Glimmer of Hope in Family ReunionsPosted by Administrator on September 3rd, 2009

When the iron curtain fell between North and South Korea at the start of the Korean War in 1950, an estimated 100,000 families were separated. My wife’s grandmother was among those who made it to the South but would never see their family who stayed behind again. By chance or by choice, she was separated from her loved ones, probably not realizing she would probably never see them again. Chances are she won’t see them before she passes and they might not even still be alive.

Granted, family reunions have been held between the two countries since the war. But the number of families that have been granted the privilege is a fraction of the total- approximately 16,000 families. During that time, for the other less fortunate families, there have been no phone calls, no letters, and no emails. My wife’s grandmother doesn’t even know if her siblings are still alive.

Recent strife between the countries suspended the family reunion program for a year and nine months. With talks resuming this week, Koreans are optimistic that family reunions will start again as soon as October. Still, only 100 families are likely to be involved.

I wonder about this woman who has been separated from her kin for so long. I wonder what it must be like to know that your siblings are a few hundred miles away or to not know if they are even alive. For all she knows, they may have all died decades ago. She has moved on with her life. She lives in the countryside of South Korea. She raises her own food and climbs a mountain everyday. She has raised five children who have gone on to their own lives in South Korea and in the U.S. I wonder if, with all the intervening years, her memory of her family has faded.

Similar stories came out of the USSR during the Cold War, especially for Germans and Prussians who suddenly found their homelands divided and their families scattered in the aftermath of the World War II. Fortunately, those who lived to see the fall of the iron curtain did have a chance to reunite with loved ones and reconnect their scattered families.

So, is there hope for Koreans of a permanent reunion with their loved ones separated from them by an oppressive regime? The iron curtain fell faster in Europe than anyone could have imagined. Maybe someday in the near-future, Kim Jong Il will suddenly release his grip on his people and open his borders. Maybe they will cease threatening the world with a nuclear war they can’t possibly win. Maybe their people will be able to receive the truth about their global neighbors, not fear-mongering propaganda but uncensored truth.

Until then, brief family reunions are the only hope separated Korean families have of reforming broken bonds.