Birtherism for everyone: Kansas woman told birth certificate can't be used for passport renewal

By itself? No way. Do you have a picture of the horse?

Well, there was that US Passport Agency study sheet, that came with a brown crayon and the instructions “Color in those Godivas not eligible for citizenship.”

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As a person who was born in a building that is currently a sandwich shop and who’s parents were not religious and therefore would not have a “family bible” I am… concerned.

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It’s kind of a big problem because the US Constitution doesn’t have much in the way of a framework to define citizenship requirements beyond being born in the country. After that, it’s really a mess of 50 states and their bureaucracies and the current President’s sentiments on such matters. Basically, it’s which direction the wind blows.

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I’d hazard a guess that is true.

I grew up with next to no information about my family tree and never really cared much about. A few years ago I did some research on Ancestry and found a rich history leading back through, Ireland, England to Scotland. Found we had once helped William Wallace which earned the family a name and land and a castle. Years latter there was a falling out with England, some beheadings, some assassinations, followed by a family name change, loss of the family title, land and money. My dad had no knowledge of any of this but was aware of his uncles trying to claim land back in the 1950’s but they were never able to find the document proof.

What I thought would be a boring task ended up being very exciting.

Edited to fix date: 1050 → 1950

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Yeah, I know. That’s from a more optimistic timeline.

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Sadly they will get every single bit of it.
Republicans do not compromise.
They do not vote their conscience.
They have become a neo-fascist, theocratic, hyper-plutocratic, crony-capitalist Party fundamentally opposed to democracy.

They are also just a couple Legislatures shy of getting their Constitutional Convention. When they do, those low-population flyover States will be able to dictate the new Constitution. When they do they won’t even allow Blue States to offer Amendments. c.f. everything they do when they are in power.

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My mom, born in Kentucky, started a family bible. Had 5 children. Wrote down the first two births then gave up on the other three.

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LOL. Sounds like your average baby book. First kid has it mostly filled out - after that - who? What? Did they really exist?

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Where can I get that on a t-shirt? Or on a billboard maybe?

I would love to have a family ‘Satanic Bible’ or ‘Witches Grimoire’ to use for a family tree.

I’m sure the looks and reactions I would get from these clerks would be hilarious…! Assuming I would need to present the grimoire or Satanic book in person with family tree! :smile:

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Well your local specialist printer might help. :wink:
But this is where I think it came from:
http://www.keepcalmstudio.com/

I wonder how often Ancestry tells people that they come from a long line of unremarkable peasants? :sunglasses:

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What about the Mormon genealogy database?

At generation G, you’ve got 2^G ancestors - somebody in there is bound to be interesting

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You have some long-lived uncles…

Was the original family name Howard by any chance? :slight_smile:

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Most of my ancestors were unremarkable peasants, but some of them weren’t

and from there we can get to

(that one may be more mythological than historical)

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Up to 2^G ancestors. Some people made do with less.

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I love the idea.

I would expect most often. Well I mean they don’t tell you anything. They present documents like a birth certificate and you either add it to your tree or you don’t. There were some times I needed to ask my dad questions and do some sleuthing with multiple documents before I felt confident in adding some people. It took me months to do. So it wasn’t just click a button and it told me some famous person was a relative. I worked generation by generation. With children and parents and siblings all sort of cross confirming each other. I did some reading on traditionally genealogy and I don’t come close to what a professional would do but I wasn’t slap dash either.

Some day I will l learn to type better. :rofl: Thank you. I will fix that in a second.

The old name was Ruthven. Others have found the same thing as I did.

Also on amazon are the family papers:

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My late Aunt loved genealogy, and wrote four books on our family’s lineage. We treasure them now that she’s gone, even though they are known to contain mistakes (which we annotate, in the margins).

I thought 1050 sounded more interesting than 1950!! :wink:

It was surprising how much I was able to glean from basic documents. There were a few generations where the number of children per family shot up to 10-12 in stark contrast to earlier and later generations. A closer look a the birth and death rates of the children showed they were frequently dying at birth, in the first month or within 6 months. If they made it past 6 months the next most frequent death was 5 or 6 years old.

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