One of the few things I will state with certainty is that someone, somewhere in your ancestry, was a complete and utter jerk.
Mendelsohn, a journalist, author and passionate genealogist, has been using people's public family history to beat back some of the uglier claims about immigrants and how they fit into US history. She calls it #resistancegenealogy, and it only takes a few online tools and some instinctive sleuthing for her to call out public figures who oppose common forms of immigration.
Most recently, the movement has set its eyes on Stephen Miller, President Donald Drumpf's top policy adviser. Miller was an architect of the administration's poorly-received "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, as well as Drumpf's controversial 2017 "travel ban" that affected some Muslim-majority countries.
"I challenge any news organization here: Do a poll, ask these questions," Miller said, after saying he thought voters would want the immigration system changed. "Do you think we should favor applicants to our country who speak English, yes or no?... Do you think we should prioritize people based on skill?" Turns out, Miller is a descendant of immigrants who did not speak English, according to Mendelsohn's research. She unearthed that tidbit after said press briefing, when she found a 1910 Census record that she said notes the language skills of Miller's immigrant great-grandmother.
This week, another document regarding Miller's family began to recirculate: His great-grandfather's naturalization test, which the genealogist who found it last summer points out was rejected due to "ignorance."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/immigration-resistance-genealogy-jennifer-mendelsohn-trnd/index.html
... the Weeses along my father's side go back to Williamsburg Virginia into the late 1600s. A parallel set of families, the Tarpleys, have married a few of us and been ancient friends and allies, migrating up into what is now West Virginia. But this story goes back long before, to the first known case of jury tampering in the USA.
ReplyDeleteTwo Tarpley brothers were fighting over their father's estate, very much a Prodigal Son sort of affair: the one dutiful son who had helped out in his father's store, the other gone off to do other things - who now wanted a share in the general store. The returned brother took the entire jury out fishing and filled them with Cherry Bounce, brandy and preserved cherries. The jury straggled back into the courtroom on Monday, horribly hung over, whereupon the one brother was given over to the bailiff for a 30 day vacation at town expense.