Meet the Modders

[Steph]

Two weeks ago I was in Nairobi for my job, and I manage to spend 4 hours visiting Nairobi National Park.

A few pictures taken with my smartphone from the taxi. Not very good, since the roads in the park are actually dirt tracks, and it was a little bumpy . These are wild animals leaving in a protected reserve, there's no fence (actually there is one to the North, between the park and the city, since the park is very close, but to the south it's opened).

Spoiler :

A Girafe

Mr Lion

A Black Rhino

The same just before he charged my taxi

 

[Jerry'sGoldfish]

u mean this guy ???

Spoiler :

 

[Takhisis]

Haha, very funny.

 

[Quinzy]

Hey, that's really cool I'd love to visit Africa.

Hikaro, I never knew that that was a Germanic name...

So I'm in Dresden now, and have been for the last number of days. It's funny how Saxony has been on the 'wrong' side of history for so much of it's history!

 

[Takhisis]

They gave us the Sassanaich, and that is wrong.

 

[Quinzy]

Well, the Sasanaigh did give us the language we're speaking now, which is turning out pretty well for me now

 

[Takhisis]

Dè tha thu…? Bah.

 

[Takhisis]

Good thign is, I've more or less survived term (no job yet!) and I'll try to give the forum a hobbit-like birthday present next week.

Yayy.

Present! Includes eye candy.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Hikaro, I never knew that that was a Germanic name...

My real family name is Bonebrake, which was originally Beinbrech, prior to about 250 years of spelling decay after my ancestors moved to America. My mom's family name was originally Hohenzollern, which is about as German as you can get!

...Which makes the fact that my fiance's family is of Austrian origin even more funny.

 

[Quinzy]

Wow, Hohenzollern! Great name with a lot of history
Bonebrake has to be one of the best evil-badguy names in world history.

 

[T-mun]

Wow, Hohenzollern! Great name with a lot of history
Bonebrake has to be one of the best evil-badguy names in world history.

that's so true!

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Wow, Hohenzollern! Great name with a lot of history
Bonebrake has to be one of the best evil-badguy names in world history.

Well, if one of my friends in the navy was to be believed, he claimed that his family dated back to Ancient Rome (His last name was Clemmons, which has many branches and variants throughout Europe, and he claims that one Saint Clement is part of his family tree). To make a long story short, he said that in one of the thick tomes of his family histories that have been copied and translated through the ages, there is an entry by one of his ancestors who was a court scribe for the Western Roman Empire around the time it fell that describes a clan of Alemanni called the "Bone Breakers" (which, is what Beinbrect roughly translates as in Alemannish dialects of German) who were part of the Germanic invasions about 1500 years ago, and they got their name from they way they tortured prisoners for info... OUCH! According to said history, the clan was wiped out by a reprisal raid led by the Byzantine Empire, but apparently they weren't completely wiped out.

I'm also of Scottish and Irish descent... My Irish ancestors bore the name o'Daugherty, which was shorted to Daugherty in America, and my Great-Grandfather's family had apparently taken to using the English spelling, which is Dorty (Daugherty is pronounced the same way... I have a friend from my Navy days whose last name is Daugherty and it is pronounced the same way as my Great-Grandfather's name).

On my mom's side of the family, my Great-Grandmother was an Elliot, which is the LARGEST Scottish clan around, with some ties in to the Mac Kays as well. The Great-grandfather she was married to was a Jew whose family was from Switzerland originally, named Benson, and to round out the picture, I've got some French and Italian in there as well...

 

[Plotinus]

I'm always amazed by how Americans all seem to know their families' history back to the Middle Ages. I just about know my mother's maiden name and that's it.

However, being descended from Bone Breakers is pretty impressive.

 

[Steph]

I'am also always puzzled with the way americans can say
"I'm 1/4 Italian, 1/4 French, 1/8 German, 1/8 Dutch, 1/16 chinese, 1/16 cherockee, 1/16 Russian, 1/16 Greek and 1/16 Nigerian."

 

[Pounder]

Deleted

 

[The Guardian]

I'am also always puzzled with the way americans can say
"I'm 1/4 Italian, 1/4 French, 1/8 German, 1/8 Dutch, 1/16 chinese, 1/16 cherockee, 1/16 Russian, 1/16 Greek and 1/16 Nigerian."

I have heard that statistically, everyone on the planet, is related to Charlemagne.

 

[Takhisis]

So he made up for his shortness.

Jobalicious success!

 

[Blue Monkey]

I'm always amazed by how Americans all seem to know their families' history ...

I'am also always puzzled with the way americans can say ...

It's a combination of several factors. There's a lot of oral history passed on within families. In my own case playing Cowboys & Indians became repeated requests for grandparents & great grandparents to talk about their lives - which leads to stories about their parents, & further back. There's a strong desire to know where we came from prior to emigration to America. "why does grandma speak X but doesn't understand English?" Many people make sure their children are aware of important family history such as having fought in the revolution.

Then there's the racist element. Unfortunately we've a history of discriminatory immigration laws, proof of ancestry as a voting requirement or availability of public education, places where being an octoroon gave social advantages unavailable to ex-slaves with a less mixed heritage, not to mention things like the legendary "no Irish need apply". All of which can lead to a countervailing pride in ancestry. Another factor is mixed marriages - that often lead to forced moving out of immigrant neighborhoods. Many of those new families have a persistent desire for children to remember both of their religious/cultural heritages. Family reunions are a big deal for many people & new marriages, new babies, etc. are a topic of gossip in such situations. Which would include extensive discussion of "sports" - children with physical features that lay dormant for several generations. This often betrays an ancestry no one has talked about. Which leads to inquiries of surviving members of previous generations and research of marriage & baptismal records.

There are centralized sources for accurate records. The Mormons are very particular about genealogical records and have extensive archives that include and are available to people outside the church. Military service records can sometimes be tracked down. Immigration records are also available for the more recent history.

But most families have their legends as well. Most of us are proud of our country's history. We want to be able to claim our family had a place in it. With the country being so young & so varied ... Seems like everyone has a frontier outlaw, a smuggler, a privateer, a gangster somewhere in their family tree. People claim there's a "Shawnee Princess" so often it's a joke. It's been said that the Queen Mary couldn't hold enough ancestors for all the people who claim they came over on the Mayflower.

Spoiler :

 

[Mithadan]

Good find. Since this is a re-enactment of the actual battle, we allowed our French friends to win.

Awesome stuff, Ares! I think I just wet my pants.

In my city, the only living history options are Viking or 14th Century, so I picked the latter, but I wish I could choose your time period! Hot damn. Anyway, here's some pics of my group's annual tournament: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.343710059039274.77643.178299022247046&type=3 I was the grand herald (we're small enough that we only had one herald at the tourney, which is too bad) wearing the arms of the Counts of Bentheim (red with all those yellow dots). Our group is pretty crappy compared to yours!

I was going to ask, Ares, where you guys buy your rebated spear heads from? I'm not really happy with the one I got from GDFB, because it bends. Do any of your members have any better ideas?

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I'am also always puzzled with the way americans can say
"I'm 1/4 Italian, 1/4 French, 1/8 German, 1/8 Dutch, 1/16 chinese, 1/16 cherockee, 1/16 Russian, 1/16 Greek and 1/16 Nigerian."

Well, what Blue Monkey said pretty much hits the nail on the head.... In my case it has a few additional factors thrown in: Some of my ancestors (like the Hohenzollern cadet branch that became the Herndons) are fairly recent arrivals... According to my Great-Grandmother, her maternal grandparents were a German man named Jaust or Jöst and a French woman named Fischer who got married against their families' wishes (this being sometime around the Franco-Prussian War) and stowed away on a boat from France to New York City...

One particular legend about my father's family and why they had to leave Switzerland in a big hurry seems to fit my family's general outlook on life, not to mention that I wouldn't be surprised to discover at some point that some of my ancestors fought alongside Wilhelm Tell....

According to the story, my ancestor was some kind of low-ranked Knight who worked as a town Militia Guard somewhere near Bern or Basel (I'm guessing this, based on details that come further, but I'd have to find the detailed family tree that was published by some relatives in Phoenix, AZ to confirm this for sure) who, during a hard winter, poached one of the local Baron's deer to provide a starving peasant family with some needed food. Unfortunately, the peasant was caught with the deer by the local Baron, and he ratted my ancestor out. Fortunately, said ancestor happened to be on the other side of a tall hedge and overheard the whole thing, so he gathered his family up, along with what they could quickly carry, and escaped accross the Rhine into Swabia under the cover of darkness. From there, they got mixed up in the Anabaptist movement, which was pretty much a quick trip to the stake, regardless of whether a given German principality was Catholic or Protestant, so they came to Pennsylvamia, one of the first places in the world to grant full religious freedom, sometime prior to 1750 (one of my first ancestors in America's wedding was recorded in a church in York, PA in 1750), and we've been in the same general area ever since.

I have heard that statistically, everyone on the planet, is related to Charlemagne.

I'll see your Charlemagne and raise you: