Okay. Here's the history of my Mormon Pioneer Great Grandmother. She married a rich young man who was sent to help establish Joseph City, AZ. Her husband Edwin Lycurgus Westover and her had two babies then he died from an asthma attack, So she remarried Henry Despain as one of three wives. They ended up having 7 more children, but g-MA was always call, "the Widow Westover". Now it was decided that during the census and AZ territory was becoming part of the U.S....It was decided that the children would still be called by the Westover surname (which fits since she was sealed to Westover, not Despain) and they wanted to keep the Feds off the scent of the polygamists since 2 of the children were born after the first 1890s decree of ending polygamy. Fine, it's a sad history and some sad stories.

So here's what irks me. I go into "Family Search" to look and someone has put (*adopted) next to her last 7 children's names. Why? Who adopted them? They weren't "bastards". They were or could be considered illegitimate I suppose, but everyone considered them properly named with the Westover last name not the DeSpain last name. So it would look like G-Ma adopted her last 7 children??? DeSpain never "adopted" them; in fact he gave no claim to them, but like the old testament stories, he was raising up a seed for his "Brother" by impregnating his brother's wife.

I think much of Mormon genealogy is tied up with the idea of righteous posterity and the idea that ancestors were somehow perfect just as those today should be perfect.

I never knew my paternal grandfather. My father grew up without him also. Via computer I have discovered he was quite the rogue. One year in prison for stealing from mail boxes, serial bigamist, and two time deserter from the army after enlisting in different places; this during a time of war (WW1). Abandoned my grandmother pregnant and with four other young children, causing them to be evicted from their home with only the modern equivalent of the work house available to them.

Without the baggage of ancestry worship I can safely less him in the past with all his warts.

...leave him in the past...

I have a relative who traveled a lot in Mexico in the chiapus region during the mid 70s and to his surprise he found that their were Germans everywhere. The older generations had decent houses with Indian servants doing all the work, they kept to themselves in their own German communities of friends I guess the younger people probably intermaried with the Mexicans, and Spaniards, there were also a lot of Spaniards escaping Franco as well, what side of the political spectrum they wete on i dont know, But it's fascinating all these people on the "rat line" yet no one associated with the bad guys.

Even today I'm told in Germany, ww2 is presented as a political movement that briefly swept through by a few sour pusses but germans were mostly victims not perpetrators, no one wants to face the truth.

There are so many inaccuracies in my genealogy it's a joke. So many "facts" changed just to make people look good by today's standards. I am sure things will be fudged in the future too about all the 10 lb, 6 month babies too.

My genealogy-loving brother came across an entry that showed a beloved ancestor's first child was born only three months after their marriage. Brother insisted it must be a clerical error because, as we know, all our early Mormon ancestors were perfectly righteous and never ever would've had sex before marriage. Mmmm, yeah, right.

How's this for craziness: My genealogy shows that I'm a descendent of Sir Lancelot! :D