High Cheekbones and Straight Black Hair

For many years a colleague of mine thought I was half Hungarian, half Japanese. Why? Because I resemble another friend of hers who is half Hungarian, half Japanese. You can see from my family's DNA results that there is no way I am half Hungarian or half Japanese.
Some of you seem to think certain physical traits can be assigned to a specific ethnicity. Like everyone with high cheekbones and/or straight black hair has Native American ancestry. That photo of your ancestor is not definitive proof that he/she was Native American.
Does this person "look Indian" to you?

Behind the scenes on Cecil B. DeMille's Unconquered, 1947. [Tumblr]

That is William Henry Pratt, a.k.a. Boris Karloff. He was born in London, England and is of Anglo-Indian descent, not Native American.
What about the iconic "Crying Indian"?

That is Espera Oscar de Corti, a.k.a. Iron Eyes Cody. He was born in Louisiana to Sicilian immigrants. He has no Native American ancestry whatsoever.
Your family photo is proof of nothing. Stop making assumptions based on looks. You just look foolish and sound racist.

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De-lightful and De-lovely

By now you are probably aware that changes are coming to the Ancestry.com website. From Ancestry's perspective these are their priorities:

Isn't it great that they finally listened to their users? I mean, haven't we all been asking for a more "beautiful" and "delightful" site? I can't wait! [eyeroll] And "usable"? Shouldn't that be a given? Apparently Ancestry programmers need to be told specifically that the site needs to be usable.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks the design team's goals are a joke. Here a few comments from a Facebook thread on Ancestry's fan page:

• Too bad "functional" isn't one of the goals.
• I´d really rather see that they fixed the problems, first, before creating, possibly, more.
• how about not seizing up every few minutes, or being down entirely a lot; that would be an awesome change....

The comments on Ancestry's blog post are worth reading too. Here are a couple of examples:

• Don’t forget that Function is the first and foremost need of the customers. All the pretty bells and whistles in the world won’t make up for the issues that customers have been encountering for several years now (system instability, phantom hints, poor messaging system, duplicate databases, etc.) Make sure those things are fixed before ever rolling this out
• FUNCTION is the most important issue. Let’s not put lipstick on a pig.

Right now the media gallery is not functional in beta but there are plans, big plans, for a complete makeover.

"The Media Gallery makes it easier for you to manage all your media – records, videos, photos, stories – in one place to enhance the story of your family."

Um, that is different from the current media gallery how?
For years the most requested feature has been the ability to change the order of photos on a profile. If that isn't part of the coming changes the entire update will be a giant fail. All the emphasis has been on storytelling and the easiest way to tell a story is by putting photos in chronological order. As it is now the only way to do that is to upload and attach photos in reverse chronological order.
Yesterday a new site glitch made an appearance.

That's a sign that Ancestry's programmers are doing something. They've never been able to add anything without breaking things in the process.
Are you a beta tester? What's your opinion so far?


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Wilder Than Your Tree

Posting *head/desk* without *head/desk* comment. *head/desk*head/desk*head/desk*

 Laura E. Ingalls  male
  Birth 7 February 1867 in Pepin County, WI,
  Death 10 February 1957 in Mansfield, Wright County, MO,

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Doung Blunt (1891 - ) male
 ✿ 3 Living Male Children
 ✿ 3 Living Female Children

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Mary (1889- ) female
 ✿ Gearld W Ackerman, b. 1895
 ✿ Amanda Aseneth Ackerson, b. 1907
 ✿ Amonda Ackerson, b. 1908
 ✿ Maud Ackerson, b. 1908
 ✿ Clonnie J Ackerson, b. 1910
 ✿ Clarence Ackerson, b. 1911
 ✿ Iola Rose Ackerson, b. 1913

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Claire Gillette Lane (1887-1968) male
 ✿ Wilder CaClaire Lane, b. 1910

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Almanzo James Wilder (1857-1949) male
 ✿ Rose Wilder Lane, b. 1886
 ✿ Wilder, b. 1889

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Almanzo James Wilder (1857-1949) male
 ✿ Rose Wilder Lane, b. 1886
 ✿ Wilder, b. 1889

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Bertha aka Birdie Byrd Ingalls (1878-1953) female
 ✿ 1 Living Female
 ✿ George W Ackerson, b. 1895
 ✿ Lela Pearl Ackerson, b. 1897
 ✿ Eva Maude Ackerson, b. 1899
 ✿ Clonnie J Ackerman, b. 1910

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Bird V (1878-1953) female
 ✿ George W Ackerson, b. 1895
 ✿ Lela Pearl Ackerson, b. 1897
 ✿ Eva Maude Ackerson, b. 1899

 SPOUSE & CHILDREN
 Mary Caroline Buchholz (1889-1958) female
 ✿ 1 Living Female
 ✿ Gearld W Ackerman, b. 1895
 ✿ Amanda Aseneth Ackerson, b. 1907
 ✿ Maud Ackerson, b. 1908
 ✿ Clonnie J Ackersman, b. 1910
 ✿ Clarence Ackerson, b. 1911
 ✿ Iola Rose Ackerson, b. 1913

 RECORDS ATTACHED TO PROFILE

 ✿ 1880 U.S. Federal Census
     Ira Ackerson, male, b. abt 1873 in Iowa; living in Fairfield, Grundy, Iowa
 ✿ 1880 U.S. Federal Census
     Laura E. Ingalls, female, b. abt 1867 in Wisconsin; living in De Smet, Kingsbury, Dakota Territory
 ✿ 1892 New York State Census
     Ira Ackerson, male, b. abt 1872 in USA
 ✿ 1900 U.S. Federal Census
     Ira R Ackerson, male, b. Jun 1872 in Iowa; living in Beaver, Butler, Iowa
 ✿ 1910 U.S. Federal Census
     Ira Ackerson, male, b. abt 1874 in Iowa; living Iowa, Marshall, Iowa
 ✿ 1915 Iowa State Census
     Iva Ackerson, male, b. abt 1874 in Iowa
 ✿ 1920 U.S. Federal Census
     Ira Ackerson, male, b. abt 1873 in Iowa; living Albion, Butler, Iowa
 ✿ 1925 Iowa State Census
     Lela Blunt, female, b. abt 1898 in Iowa; father Ira Ackerson
 ✿ 1925 Iowa State Census
     Ira Ackerson, male, b. abt 1874 in Iowa
 ✿ 1930 U.S. Federal Census
     Ira Ackerson, male, b. abt 1874 in Iowa; living in Beaver, Butler, Iowa
 ✿ Family Data Collection
     Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, b. 7 Feb 1867, d. 10 Feb 1957
 ✿ U.S. WWI Draft Registration
     Ira Ackerson, b. 7 Jun 1873 in USA
 ✿ 10 Ancestry Member Trees
     8 for Ira Ackerson, 1 for Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, 1 for Rose Wilder

Thanks to Kristin for the link to this profile. ;-)
If you have a tree or profile to suggest please send the link to buwtree(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks! 


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