Author: Justin Durand

Cousin Baiting

Cousin Baiting

by Justin Durand

I love the title of this blog post.

A zillion years ago, so say maybe about 2007 or 2008, there was an article somewhere about “Cousin Bait”. I wish I could find it again. It was my first introduction to the idea of genealogy as marketing.

Jennifer, the “Occasional Genealogist”, explains “The purpose of cousin baiting is to attract research cousins. You’re looking for people that have information on your genealogy and are willing to share.“

Our chum Jennifer has some points to think about when you’re deciding what kind of bait you want to use. I don’t want to steal her thunder. Go read her blog.

Two points I want to pull out:

First, you want to get enough info “out there” so people know you are interested. Ironically, that might mean you don’t put it all out. If you put out “too much”, people just copy your info but never contact you to share their info. That’s where I am with baiting. It doesn’t bother me, not much anyway, because it helps me avoid the kind of electronic chit-chat that just wastes time. There are very few lines I’m actively researching, where want to hear from people. On most lines, I’m just as happy to sit tight with what I have until I’m ready to work on that other line.*

Second, a query will attract some people. You’ll get some responses, but often not the ones you want. My experience is that you get a lot of fishing expeditions — “I saw your query, and I’m wondering if you have any information on my line.” Not worth the time. Somehow the person they’re looking for has same last name, but is 100 years off and from a different part of the country. I am working on scanning my paper files right now. I’m find that a significant number of papers in each file are old responses to online queries in the 1990s.

My own approach for almost 20 years now is to be active in the genealogy community. Not just one site. Not just one topic. If I’m looking for certain information, I leave breadcrumbs. I want to make sure you’ll find me if you’re working anywhere near what I want. You don’t need to put out a lot of info, you just need enough that there is something with your name on it and a way to get in touch.

* Putting all your info online always means that you’ll get messages for the rest of your life that send you something you wrote yourself. Your name will have been long ago stripped away. Putting all your info online also means you’ll be hearing from every nutcase who has fallen for old fakes and is now fighting a rearguard action to preserve the fantasy. Bah.

Is Ann Coulter Really White?

Is Ann Coulter Really White?

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Race is a social construct. There’s no better way to understand what that really means than to look at history.

“So get this. Some of the eighteenth century founding fathers only thought English and Danish people were white. Even Swedes and Germans were “swarthy.” French certainly were. So Franklin would not have considered me white, since my family is French and German. We’re swarthy. We do have some Scottish, but if the Swedish are swarthy I suspect he thought the Scottish were, too. Since Coulter is in part Irish and German, Ben Franklin wouldn’t have accepted her as white, either, and was worried about the German part of her family acting like barbarians and interfering in elections. You can only imagine what he would have thought of German grifters like Donald Trump’s grandfather.“

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Not One Drop of Blood But What Is American

Not One Drop of Blood But What Is American

by Justin Durand

John Adams (1735-1826), President and Patriot, gave the following account of his ancestry: 

“One of the foreign Ambassadors said to me, You have been often in England. — Never but once in November and December 1783. You have Relations in England no doubt. — None at all. — None how can that be? You are of English Extraction? — Neither my Father or Mother, Grandfather or Grandmother, Great Grandfather or Great Grandmother nor any other Relation that I know of or care a farthing for have been in England these 150 Years. So that you see, I have not one drop of Blood in my Veins, but what is American. — Ay We have seen says he proofs enough of that. This flattered me no doubt, and I was vain enough to be pleased with it.”

John Adams, Diary, 43:13, May 3, 1785