The Sift is a periodic omnibus of significant, but smaller, snippets of history, genealogy, and news, received behind the scenes & sifted daily at Stray Leaves.
- Adina Brown Speaks of Diversity & Belonging
- Lawsuit has Implications for Con Artists & Identity Thieves Engaging in Historical Photo Fraud
- Happy 100th Birthday, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- Stray Leaves Contributes to Pocahontas Descendants Initiative
- Do You Qualify for Chickasaw Citizenship?
- Who Says Nonsense Like This?
- More Jesse James Kinship Than Anyone
- Graves Family Reunion – 2019
- Confederate Statues Removed
- Losing a Parent Changes Us Forever
- Second-born Children Are More Likely to Make Trouble
- Old Jesse James Con Artists Never Die. They Just Propagate the Next Generation.
Adina Brown Speaks of Diversity & Belonging
Adina Brown is a James descendant. Her mother and grandfather are Elizabeth Lee “Libby” James and the late Sgt. Robert Lee James of Midland, Texas. See “Our American-Aboriginal Family – The Love Story of Robert Lee James & Susan Ann Syron.”
On the side of her father Craig Onan Brown, Adina descends from the original Aboriginal people of Australia. Both sides of this family treasure education.
At present, Adina is attending the University of Canberra. From UC, Adina talks about discovering diversity and what it means for her.
“Belonging means feeling comfortable to be yourself in the environment or group around you. It is to feel welcomed and feel as if any of your differences as a person are overlooked or accepted and appreciated. I call Western Sydney home and I was born and raised in Penrith. My siblings and parents still live there so it’s a massive change moving away, but a big reason why I feel like I belong to UC is the diversity of the students and community. Everyone appreciates you for you and is so welcoming and kind. As I got accepted, I found out that my Uncle was the first Aboriginal to graduate UC, so it made me feel as if I was meant to be at UC and be a part of the community. I feel like I can be myself a UC because of how supportive everyone is around, most first year students are in the same shoes with beginning university and living away from home. Staff are very helpful, they not only point you in the right direction for services but are happy to give advice and listen to any you may have.”
– Adina Brown
Lawsuit has Implications for Con Artists & Identity Thieves Engaging in Historical Photo Fraud
We’ll be monitoring this lawsuit most intently. Its outcome could put an end to the proliferation of fake photos of Frank and Jesse James. The lawsuit also could end the identity theft of the Jesse James family.
Tamara Lanier is suing Harvard University for wrongful expropriation of historic images she says depicts two of her ancestors. Her lawsuit petitions for Harvard to turn over the subject photos, to acknowledge her ancestry, and payment to Lanier of an unspecified amount of damages.
While Lanier’s ancestry is not stated, Stray Leaves suspects she may be related to the Jesse James family. Many of the Lanier family share kinship with the James, including music legend Quincy Jones and famed American playwright Tennessee Williams, aka Thomas Lanier Williams III. Thomas Stratton Lanier and spouse Margaret Sallee turned out to be the original owners and builders of a 1903 Victorian home in Danville, Kentucky, once owned by Stray Leaves’ publisher Eric F. James.
If Lanier wins her suit, Harvard’s images must be returned to Lanier as property due to heirs. This outcome would have an enormous impact on the number of fraudulent photos now in circulation that are claimed to be Frank or Jesse James. If Lanier is successful in her lawsuit, the James family could accept the false claims of hoaxers, con artists, and profiteers of historical images as true. The James then could lay claim and collect the images as being property due to heirs. In the end result, the James could take the fake images out of circulation.
Happy 100th Birthday, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
On today, March 24, 2019, I make an exception to my policy of not celebrating birthdays. A 100th birthday is a milestone of passage in eternity’s time frame. Few people achieve it. Even less reach the marker while still being an influence in so many lives.
When Ferlinghetti’s second centenary arrives, you and I will be gone and forgotten. But Ferlinghetti still will be here and relevant. This was perceived decades ago by Charles Michael James of our James family. C.M. was among the first to publish Ferlinghetti’s work at his Fantome Press. The archives of Fantome Press can be found at the University of Ohio. You can find Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his bookstore.
Stray Leaves Contributes to Pocahontas Descendants Initiative
Recently Stray Leaves made its own contribution to the Pocahontas Descendants Initiative sponsored by the Community Engagement Dept. of Gloucester County, Virginia. The program is described in this article.
The report which Stray Leaves provided identifies over 3,000 known descendants, some of whom are James relatives with Pocahontas ancestry.
If you have Pocahontas ancestry, we urge you to submit your own contribution.
Do You Qualify for Chickasaw Citizenship?
With the recent discovery of the James ancestry of Susannah James and her lines of Chickasaw descendants, we now learn that today’s living descendants in those lines – if there are any – may be eligible for Chickasaw citizenship.
If anyone pursues this, please inform the rest of your family at Stray Leaves.
Who Says Nonsense Like This?
We think it is solely kooks, crazies, and con artists who promote fake photos and bogus history about Jesse James. Not so.
In this article, Brian Haines falsely claims:
“Through the years, the [James] gang amassed hordes of gold and buried it for safekeeping in a number of places in Kansas and Nebraska. Survivors of the gang claimed to have not known where James hid the gold. According to a number of Old West historians, the gold is still hidden in the ‘hidey holes’ where it was buried so many years ago”
Who is Brian Haines? Brian is the Executive Director of the McLeod County Historical Society & Museum in Hutchinson, Minnesota. He holds a BA in History from St. Cloud State University. You think he would know better than to promote fake history, or even play loosey-goosey with it. Unfortunately, not so.
We particularly liked the comment to this post by Chuck Rabas:
“I’m not going to address all of Mr. Haines’ ill-informed claims, but only the two that were unforgivably ignorant:
1. ‘When the Civil War broke out in America in 1861, James and his brother, Frank, joined a group of Confederate guerillas [sic] known as Quantrill’s Raiders.’
“When the war broke out? Frank joined the Centerville Home Guards in May, 1861. He was captured shortly after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and later paroled. After the war, he stated that he first met Quantrill in May of 1863. Frank was named as one of the guerrillas led by Fernando (or Ferdinand) Scott who took part in a raid at Richfield (now Missouri City), Missouri on May 15, 1863. Jesse did not join the guerrillas until the spring of 1864, and then it was the band led by Wm. T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson.
2. ‘Through the years, the gang amassed hordes of gold and buried it for safekeeping in a number of places in Kansas and Nebraska.’
“In the 15 years from 1866 through 1881, the total amount taken in robberies in which Jesse has been implicated was approximately $250,000 — an average of between $16,000 and $17,000 per year. (Sources vary, so I’m using the highest amounts I’ve seen cited.) Most of that amount was paper — currency, bonds, etc., with only a small percentage (a VERY generous guess would be 10% to 15%) in gold. If one takes into consideration that the loot from each robbery had to be divided among the participants, and factors in Jesse’s expensive passion for horse racing, there’s scarcely ‘hordes of gold’ left to bury.”
More Jesse James Kinship Than Anyone
I invite you to spend an hour out West with Hayden Calvert “Bud” Cooper. Bud is the founder, former mayor, and now museum keeper of Myton, Utah.
At age 92, Bud has more family connections to Jesse James than anybody I have found.
Bud is a grandson of Hayden Calvert & Sallie Morgan of Harrodsburg, Kentucky. This makes Bud a 6th cousin of Frank James’ cohort John Pendleton “Black Jack” Chinn of Harrodsburg. Bud also is a 1st cousin to Nicholas Dorsey. This makes Bud a 6th cousin also of Frank & Jesse James. Bud is even related to Frank’s wife Annie Ralston. His other kinship connections are too numerous to mention. Enjoy Bud Cooper now. He is living history.
Graves Family Reunion – 2019
GRAVES FAMILY cousins are returning to Kentucky. Everyone is invited.
Lloyd J. Goodwin & Mary Jane Graves
. Elizabeth Elenora Goodwin & Pike Montgomery Thompson
.. John William Thomson & Julia Franklin Graves
… Lillian Mae Thomson & Victor Lee Crawford
…. Julia Crawford & Terence William McQueen
….. Terence Stephen “Steve” McQueen
Confederate Statues Removed
This statue of John Hunt Morgan formerly stood before the Fayette County Courthouse in Lexington, Ky. There, it was in view of the Second National Bank of Lexington, founded by David Hunt James who served with Morgan together with his brother Richard Skinner James. Following the recent brouhaha over Confederate statues, Morgan’s monument now stands in Lexington Cemetery where all of these warriors rest.
The Morgan’s Men Association has announced, there will be a memorial service at the Morgan equestrian statue in Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, KY at 3 PM on June 2, 2019. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Order of Confederate Rose, and Morgan’s Men Association will participate. All are welcome to come to honor General Morgan and the Confederate Veterans.
Losing a Parent Changes Us Forever
How many more stories are yet to reveal themselves from within the Stray Leaves‘ genealogy database?
Genealogists always consider the fact of a demise as raw data. How many of us, though, consider the physical and emotional effects of that demise upon those left behind? That life continues to live after death.
Losing a parent changes us both psychologically and physically. Scientists now say, there’s proof. To more fully comprehend what is family, hereditary health demands that we look beyond what is evident in raw genealogical data.
Have you shared your story with Stray Leaves of what happened to you when your parent(s) died?
Second-born Children Are More Likely to Make Trouble
If Jesse James had a psychiatrist, he may have heard about this in therapy. We know, he did not.
That leaves the rest of the living James family to consider the principle. So, listen up, second-borns!
Read this article. Then leave us your story, reactions, or comments.
Old Jesse James Con Artists Never Die. They Just Propagate the Next Generation.
Daniel J. Duke is the son of the notorious Betty Dorsett Duke.
You remember Betty. She’s the one who accused the Leaf Blower of trying to murder her. Then she went to the FBI with her complaint, because police authorities in Texas wouldn’t act on her complaint. She proudly touted the fact the FBI was investigating the Leaf Blower. After the FBI did, the FBI shut down Betty Dorsett Duke and her false claims.
Then surprisingly, Betty died. Exposed by her own family for the factually true identity she denied, and exposed for her true identity as a con artist, Betty Dorsett Duke had nothing to live for.
None of that has stopped young Daniel J. Duke from following in the path of his mother.
Daniel falsely claims, as his mother did, that he is a descendant of Jesse Woodson James. Like his mother, Daniel has written a book based on his own childish fantasies and wishful thinking about Jesse James. To promote the book, Daniel J. Duke pulls in all his mother’s old bogeymen, like Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr.
After all, Texas is the progenitor and safe harbor of Jesse James hoaxers. Most all come from Texas. They still do.
COMMENTS FROM FACEBOOK:
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- Chuck Rabas When Betty was working on her second book about her absurd claim, she contacted me by phone. I was a bit surprised, as I had made my opinion of her inane claims quite clear on a number of internet forums. In the course of our telephone conversation, she indicated a desire to use some of my comments made during the conversation in her upcoming book. I informed her that if she used any of them in a context that would in any way appear that I supported ANY of her claims, I would sue. I was among those she subsequently insisted were hired by Eric James to destroy her.
- Matthew Schmidt Yup and a lot of fake Jesse W James, Wyatt Earp, Billy The Kid daguerreotypes seem to show up for sale out of Texas as well?! Cons… all of them. IMHO.
RELATED: Murder & Betty Dorsett Duke
