RootsWeb: Melungeon-L Evacuated Creoles vow to maintain culture

RootsWeb: Melungeon-L Evacuated Creoles vow to maintain culture: "Evacuated Creoles vow to maintain culture


GILLIAN FLACCUS

Associated Press
9/7/05

LOS ANGELES -
Wilda Little speaks Creole with her cousin two or three times a week and
listens to her favorite zydeco bands on aging vinyl records, but that's about as
close as the Louisiana transplant gets these days to the Creole culture of
her youth.

'My children never learned Creole,' said Little, 80. 'They were never
interested in that.'

Her culture has been in a long decline here, as zydeco dance halls shut down
and native Creole speakers died. And now, Hurricane Katrina has dealt these
remote outposts of shrimp gumbo and the zydeco two-step a devastating blow.

Creoles who live thousands of miles from the bayous of southern Louisiana
suddenly find themselves uncertain ambassadors for a city - and a way of life -
that is endangered.

'We're a part of that culture of New Orleans and now it's gone,' said
Norwood Clark Jr., the owner of Uncle Darrow's Creole and Cajun restaurant in
Marina del Rey."

Group looking for those with revolutionary roots

Group looking for those with revolutionary roots: "Unlike many organizations, Sons of the American Revolution are united by a unique thread heritage.

'You must be able to trace your ancestry back to someone who served or aided in the Revolutionary War,' Texas Society President James Heath of the group's membership criteria.

More than 50 registered members, including elected office holders from several local, state and national chapters, converged on Longview on Saturday for a State Board of Managers meeting to address policy. The weekend event was highlighted by a dinner with speaker Warren Hunt, whose keynote address focused on Francis Marion, a South Carolina native known as the 'Swamp Fox' for his elusive tactics from British soldiers during the war.

Heath, who also has roots in South Carolina, said the Sons are equivalent to the Daughters of the American Revolution. 'We're actually older than the DAR, but they're a lot bigger.'

Prospective members must perform genealogical work to prove their revolutionary ancestry. The group has about 2,500 members in Texas alone, making up nearly a tenth of the more than 27,500 members across the nation. "

The Daily Record - NEWS - WOULD YOU ADAM AND EVE IT

The Daily Record - NEWS - WOULD YOU ADAM AND EVE IT: "THOUSANDS of years ago, my ultimate grandmother eked out an existence at the foot of Mount Parnassus in Greece.
Scientists have named her Ursula and she belonged to a band of hunter gatherers who struggled to survive in a hostile environment bristling with leopards, bears and Neanderthals before dying in her thirties - if she was lucky.
In fact, 11 per cent of Europeans are descended from Ursula, which means that thousands of people across the Continent are my distant relatives.

But howdo I know?By consulting a new service called Oxford Ancestors, founded by Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University.

According to the prof, 97 per cent of modern Europeans are descended from just seven women or 'clan mothers'.
He claims every person in the world originates from just 36 clan mothers, all descended from a woman in Africa named Mitochondrial Eve, who lived between 150,000 to 200,000 years ago.
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Obviously, she wasn't the only women alive at the time, but she is the only one whose maternal lineage has survived unbroken until today.

Professor Sykes said: 'Basically everyone has several types of DNA, but one type called MDNA is passed on to everyone from their mother.

'It is a crucial part of our genetic make-up because it is this DNA which controls our aerobic metabolism.That means you are using your clan mother's DNA every time you breath."

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Science -- Long in the tooth

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Science -- Long in the tooth: "A tooth from On Your Knees Cave Man � wrapped in cotton and shipped via Federal Express � arrived there in 2003. Brian Kemp, a Ph.D. candidate, removed the tooth's crown and hammered out a quarter-gram portion of root. He subjected it to bleach, a decalcifying chemical and a protein-devouring enzyme. With a silica extraction, he got the tooth's DNA to jump out of the solution.
With the same process forensic scientists use to link DNA to criminals, Kemp tricked the purified DNA into copying itself millions of times. The resulting sequences � the oldest DNA ever extracted from human remains in the Americas � revealed some of the old man's secrets. "

Hawkins County Online

Hawkins County Online: "By Bill Grubb
Staff Writer | wgrubb@xtn.net

ROGERSVILLE - Although volunteers are providing the labor, a $1,000 donation from Wellmont Hawkins County Memorial Hospital will help the Friends of the Hawkins County Archival Project preserve Hawkins County’s past.


Since the first of this year, volunteers have been working at their McKinney Avenue location sorting through, cleaning and filing boxes of county records that were originally stored in the basement of the Hawkins County Courthouse.


According to Jack Goins, Hawkins County Archivist, the group has filed more than 13,720 individual documents from the Circuit Court Clerk’s office covering a period up to 1950.


“These records are ready to be microfilmed by the state and they are over in Greene County right now so they will be here next,” Goins said.


Goins said the group is now beginning the process of working on Chancery Court records.


“We figure there are probably about three times as many Chancery Court documents to go through so we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Goins explained."

Hurricane Katrina Disaster Recovery Resources by the American Bar Association

Hurricane Katrina Disaster Recovery Resources by the American Bar Association: "Our condolences, thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families of the tragic events caused by Hurricane Katrina. The American Bar Association stands ready to assist those injured and requiring guidance by Hurricane Katrina. "