Sparkling Adventures Pt 10 - David Pleads Guilty - Merge

[Oh auntie Em]

I could be way off the mark, but don't Aboriginal people get access to a broader range of benefits and assistance? I'm hoping she isn't going down that path but I'm cynical.

There's a three part definition and she doesn't even hit one of them with her 'trivial' descent.

http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/36- ... riginality

Be fun to see her try to get recognised by her 'people'.

[Paperplate]

It's still there, just at the bottom of that section. "Processing grief and loss"

It's still there at the bottom.

No, that's a different section. See:

[Paperplate]

Does anyone have a screenshot of the old one? I'm sure it's quite different.

You can find lots of it on the Wayback Machine.

[Paperplate]

chaotic life, I'm very sorry for your loss!

[chaotic life]

After reading that, call me cynical but she could very well be trying to make that exact claim.

[August]

Good catch!

I'm not saying it's totally out of the question, but reminds me of all the US people who think they are "a little bit Cherokee" or whatever and then get surprised when they do a DNA test to find that, nope, it's all 100% Northern European or whatever.

DNA doesn't work like that. In the very simplest form I have only got two copies of each chromosome, one from each parent (46 total). I could have 6 or 7 from each grandparent, but they organise themselves randomly when my parents' gametes were being made, so it is possibly to be a purely 50/50 mix of my maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather with no DNA at all from maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother.

In reality there is some trading of information from chromosome to chromosome and because the chromosomes segregate randomly you're more likely to have a mix, but after several generations a person could have no genetic trace of an ancestor. If I went back to 1850, about five generations, for each chromosome that's 64 alternatives from my 32 1850s great great great grandparents to pass down to me. Unsurprising if you lose 62 of them that they might be the Cherokee ones. But random chance could also work the other way and you could test as 50% Cherokee five generations later even with 1/32 blood.

If she starts telling everyone she's aboriginal I'm going to punch something. She's as aboriginal as I am Scottish. I can go to Scotland and visit Glen August and buy the August Clan's tartan and be very interested in them. But I'm not fucking Scottish (or French or German or Cornish or Irish) because some woman two hundred years ago was. My mother's experience I'll claim, and my grandmother's, but from about the turn of last century it all becomes a bit abstract to middle class ol' me compared to the people who live it. And this goes doubly for a group who are still experiencing discrimination and lingering effects of bad stuff. Not only did the woman who is apparently her ancestor who experienced all of that live at least two hundred years ago, but she didn't even know of it until this year. And I'm calling bullshit on that too.

[ladyaudley]

If she starts telling everyone she's aboriginal I'm going to punch something. She's as aboriginal as I am Scottish. I can go to Scotland and visit Glen August and buy the August Clan's tartan and be very interested in them. But I'm not fucking Scottish (or French or German or Cornish or Irish).

. Thank you! *I* find it strange to claim Scottishness sometimes and my mother was born here to a Scottish mother and German father AND I have the passport to prove it. Americans (and it is pretty much exclusively Americans) who rock up and squeal in delight "Oh my gawd, I'm totally Scottish too!" do my nut in.

Ironically, with Lauren's looks you can totally see the British origins of Australians ^^

[Paperplate]

It's always been a pet peeve of mine when US Americans say "I'm French!" and by that mean that some centuries ago one or more of their ancestors happened to be living in France before they emigrated to the US. There's a difference between having some French heritage and being French.

As for Lauren, like August wrote, she doesn't need to claim she's Aboriginal to be allowed to be interested in their culture. Let's see how this develops. But I find it mighty rich to be calling the Aboriginal Tasmanians "their people".

(Did you guys know that all full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed thorough the British colonisation? I had never heard about that until a few weeks ago. Some historian call it genocide.)

Has Lauren ever talked about who "her people" in Europe are? Did she introduce her girls to the people of their ancestors when she went to Europe?

I'm curious to find whether she's of British decent. The red hair doesn't mean anything. Redheads exists in other countries too.

[chaotic life]

I do call myself Dutch descent, but I'm second generation Dutch immigrant . My father's family is like embarking to another culture entirely and even when they speak English (which they mostly do now) it often sounds like a foreign language. Even then, my uncle learned it was not the same as being Dutch the first time he went back to Holland and was completely lost and didn't know the language or culture--cause DUH ours is the immigrant experience which is not the same for distant cousins who did not leave Holland and find us the strange foreigners.

But my children (the biological ones) have NO concept of how recent our ties to Holland are nor do they have any understanding or connection to the immigrant experience.

[So Many Lies]

This is low. Even for Lauren it's so so low. She's claiming aboriginality? So she's a gypsy, Gayby carrying aboriginal now.

She's a moron. Those kids must be so confused.

I notice she's put the "Gayby" movie.up too. She's just pissed off she doesn't have a lead role.

[So Many Lies]

Wow, I just spent a lot of time down this rabbit hole... this whole thing is just so, SAD! I mean wow, they all need some major psychological help! So sad.

Yes they really do.

[So Many Lies]

And I'm calling bullshit on that too.

Probably decended from the line of that sadly/timely deceased Grandma who so kindly left Lauren money for a round trip to Iceland via China and Europe.

[Eater of Worlds]

You know, I claim myself as Lithuanian because I was heavily raised as such by immigrant parents. When I visited my relatives in Lithuania, they were thrilled at how very Lithuanian I was and how seamlessly I fit in with the culture. My husband gets weirded out sometimes by things I do as they are very European compared to his very American upbringing. English isn't even my first language despite being born in the US.

Lauren can't claim any kind of experience like this, and it's not like her parents or grandparents or even greatgrandparents were Aboriginal, going by what she said. I fail to see anything in this but need for attention.

[So Many Lies]

Well also the Tasmanian aboriginal people were especially notable in that there aren't any left. So she's not just partly aboriginal, she wants a stake in the most persecuted group in the history of Australia. It's definitely a cry for attention.

[August]

I suspect it comes from not feeling like she belongs anywhere as a third culture kid raising her kids as a different culture again (hippy). But that makes it ever stupider if she starts claiming aboriginality. She's not even really culturally Australian, let alone indigenous Australian. She was raised in an African boarding school amongst Americans from the age of six.

[DaisyD]

Well, I claim Irish and Welsh ancestry very proudly. Several branches of my family have been here since colonial days. I still claim it though. I'm proud of both my American and Celtic heritage. I've been to Ireland and it felt like home to me. That being said, I'm not trying to claim anything that my DNA doesn't bear out so...

[browncoatslytherin]

Well, I claim Irish and Welsh ancestry very proudly. Several branches of my family have been here since colonial days. I still claim it though. I'm proud of both my American and Celtic heritage. I've been to Ireland and it felt like home to me. That being said, I'm not trying to claim anything that my DNA doesn't bear out so...

this. i'm still proud of my scottish/irish/norwegian/jewish ancestry despite my ancestors have been in america for a while. i don't think that's "wrong" to feel that way, to feel connected to a past that you came from. coopting something you never came from is vastly different and not something i think can be equated.

(no dna tests were run, btw. someone in the family - my brother, i think? - had been doing some ancestry.com type of research. we actually didn't even know we had ancestors from norway until then. quite interesting finds.)

[keen23]

this. i'm still proud of my scottish/irish/norwegian/jewish ancestry despite my ancestors have been in america for a while. i don't think that's "wrong" to feel that way, to feel connected to a past that you came from. coopting something you never came from is vastly different and not something i think can be equated.

(no dna tests were run, btw. someone in the family - my brother, i think? - had been doing some ancestry.com type of research. we actually didn't even know we had ancestors from norway until then. quite interesting finds.)

My aunt and her children always claimed to have a significant portion of Native American heritage (while none of her other brothers and sisters ever believed this), stemming from a belief that our great-great-great grandmother was supposedly Algonquin. Genetic testing shows this to be false. She's adamant that it's true, because she "feels" that it is.

[DaisyD]

I've traced nearly all lines back to previous countries. My dad did the DNA thing on ancestry and confirmed a relation to a relative six generations removed. I love tracing family lines and can't wait to go find the castle ruin that dh's family traces back to.

[browncoatslytherin]

My aunt and her children always claimed to have a significant portion of Native American heritage (while none of her other brothers and sisters ever believed this), stemming from a belief that our great-great-great grandmother was supposedly Algonquin. Genetic testing shows this to be false. She's adamant that it's true, because she "feels" that it is.

lol maybe a former life? :P jk, of course ;)

[Firiel]

this. i'm still proud of my scottish/irish/norwegian/jewish ancestry despite my ancestors have been in america for a while. i don't think that's "wrong" to feel that way, to feel connected to a past that you came from. coopting something you never came from is vastly different and not something i think can be equated.

(no dna tests were run, btw. someone in the family - my brother, i think? - had been doing some ancestry.com type of research. we actually didn't even know we had ancestors from norway until then. quite interesting finds.)

I think there's a difference, too, if the past you are claiming is one that has been marginalized and one that you have no real connection to, even if the DNA actually does bear it out. For instance, considering one of my family lines came from the deep South and had been there for generations before my grandpa left, I wouldn't be surprised if I had an African American ancestor somewhere. But if I got a DNA test and discovered I did and then started trying to participate in race activism as a member of an oppressed group and not as an ally-- well, that would be hugely problematic because I haven't lived that experience.

[Eater of Worlds]

I can't even trace my family on ancestry.com beyond my grandparents, thanks to WW11. It kind of sucks, as does being the only family in the US with my last name. Well, except for never ever having records mixups with anyone.

[August]

eater of worlds, a couple of my ancestors can't be traced, there was a dead end at one of my great grandfathers for a while. But one has been followed all the way back to the 1700s! The great thing these days is that it doesn't have to be you that does the tracing. Some sixteenth cousin twice removed went to Europe and went around churches and town halls tracing the 1700s couple, then sold a book or it to all the thousands of descendants. Of course those records hadn't been burnt in a war (although the region changed hands quite a few times).

eta: LOL, just goes to show... I just googled them and yep, sure enough, someone has put all that info online

I think there's a difference, too, if the past you are claiming is one that has been marginalized and one that you have no real connection to, even if the DNA actually does bear it out. For instance, considering one of my family lines came from the deep South and had been there for generations before my grandpa left, I wouldn't be surprised if I had an African American ancestor somewhere. But if I got a DNA test and discovered I did and then started trying to participate in race activism as a member of an oppressed group and not as an ally-- well, that would be hugely problematic because I haven't lived that experience.

Exactly!

[DaisyD]

There are records problems in my line too. The ancestor that emigrated from Ireland in 1700 was a 10 year old boy who stowed away on a Dutch merchant ship. In 1700 it was illegal to be Catholic, and catholic births weren't recorded. I have no name for his parents, so that is a dead end. My dad and I spent a whole day digging through records in Dublin, only to find out that, if there were records, they could have burned during the blitz. Apparently some Irish towns did not observe blackouts and we're bombed by mistake. The Welsh line runs into problems because... well... the last name is Evans. I was watching something on WWII and a man from a Welsh division was talking about how many Evans there were.I got to someone named Evan Evans and gave up :lol:

[Eater of Worlds]

My grandfather doesn't know his real mother's name. HIs father wanted to divorce her and at the time divorce was illegal except for some very specific conditions. So the jerk set her up. He got her to buy a coat on the black market and turned her in for it, so she was sent to jail where she had her third kid (his, of course) and both died in childbirth. The jerk remarried and had his birth certificate changed to put his new wife's name on as mother of the kids. Never told his kids the name of their real mother, so that's lost in time.

My grandmother, married to the guy above, had 4 siblings. One was killed at 16 by the Red Army as being a weak soldier. What the army did was line up the soldiers they thought were holding them back, the ones who bitched and complained and this poor kid made the mistake of writing home how bad things were so they killed him. Her sisters, one was defenestrated, one was in a motorcycle accident and in a coma for months then died, one was strangled by her husband and the other one I think was shot by her husband or boyfriend. We don't have their names, but there still aren't matches to the names of my greatgrandparents on ancestry.

My mom was born in a deported persons camp, everyone's personal information was all jacked up from being deported by the Nazis, the Nazis raided their original records in towns, blah blah. Plus, all my family on this side of the family is not American. My mother is the only one of her extended family to be permanently in the US. That probably affects ancestry.com's entries.