The good and bad of Ancestry's FindAGrave
Alisande
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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4 years agoRelated Discussions
Geese of uncertain ancestry
Comments (19)Okay, Jonathan, now that I have vented my spleen, I will play nicely again. :) Regarding imprinting, here's how I see it... and others are welcome to disagree. Goslings have an instinctive tendency to attach themselves to the first creature(s) they see. In ideal circumstances, this is good old momma goose. They follow her and look to her for protection, guidance etc. She teaches them and if they get out of line, she corrects them - very firmly. One of the things the parent geese seem to teach their young is that humans should be kept at a little distance. "They may be nice creatures, little goslings, but they are NOT GEESE." :) Incubator goslings, or goslings removed from their parent just after hatching, have no mother goose to imprint on. Instead they have this human who feeds, waters, protects etc. So they attach themselves to this human. If the human responds by treating a gosling with all the handling and affection that one would accord to a puppy or kitten, the gosling grows up with no natural boundaries between it and the human. Some people feel such a goose lacks respect for humans. I'm not sure this is exactly the right word... but it's close. It certainly lacks inhibitions regarding its behaviour toward the human. When breeding season rolls around, along about the following February, the geese - and particularly the ganders - are suddenly flooded with hormonal urges. If the gander lacks the inhibitions that would normally keep him at a safe distance from human "intruders" he MAY vent his over-protectiveness and possessiveness of his lady by attacking the very humans who nurtured him -- or any others that venture too near. A goose-raised gander may normally hiss and snake his neck to warn people to keep away while he and his lady raise their young, but a hand-raised gander is more likely to go further than that, and bite and/or flog the human with his wings. It hurts plenty... and if this happened to a small child, serious damage could be done. This being said, goose behaviour even during the breeding season is influenced by the underlying disposition of the individual bird. And this inborn disposition MAY be affected by genetics. Hence one breed gets good reviews (particularly Pilgrims and American Buffs) whereas certain others (particularly the Asian breeds which are not descended from the European greylag) have a reputation for aggressiveness. Certain breeds, and the Pilgrim is one of them, have been selectively bred for good dispositions, making it less likely that they will be aggressive as they mature. In addition to this, Pilgrims are auto-sexing and even a beginner can tell the males from the females at a glance. This makes it much easier to be more reserved in one's handling of the ganders in particular. Last year, when I added a pair of Pilgrim goslings to the mixed breed family my two geese were raising, I took pains not to handfeed or pet the gander gosling. He was naturally reserved and I encouraged him to stay that way. I think the only time we picked him up or even touched him was once when we saw blood on his feathers and needed to check the extent of the injury. The female gosling was more friendly and when we had the geese out in the pasture for extra grazing she soon followed her foster mother's example and learned to take dandelion greens from my hand. I don't do this a lot with her; but Willow, (my first Pilgrim who was of necessity hand-raised) comes looking for attention from time to time. She is a sweetheart even during breeding season and Elsie follows her example. I do believe that one has more leeway with female geese than one has with ganders, but even Willow does not appreciate me handling her goslings when they are small. (And I respect this, except when necessary to return a gosling that has squeezed under the fence or otherwise needs rescuing. Even then Willow can be quite huffy about it... but not aggressive.) Get me talking about my geese and I can go on and on... but I think that is enough to add at the moment. Please understand that these are subjective observations from a person who has just over two years experience with geese and that the sample of geese I have worked with has been a mere dozen. What I am doing with my geese now is working well for me and for the geese. They are friendly, but not lap geese. They are always glad to see us and give us a loud, joyous welcome; they know their names and will come when called (if they feel like it). Willow, with her winning ways and extremely sweet nature, is ALMOST a pet. The other two are not. But all of them enrich our lives, make us smile or shake our heads at their antics, and are altogether very satisfactory creatures to have about the place....See MoreOverkill for FindAGrave
Comments (24)frogged: You have 2 questions: 1) What's the big deal about finding a 4th or Nth cousin, and 2) what do you get by finding a name on a gravestone? 1. To me, I do not concentrate on the side branches of my main tree. I do collect that data when it is readily available and add it to my tree if there is spare time. Sometimes, these side data points to new information. Lately, I have kept an eye out for genetic disorders or interesting features that I may have inheirted. My focus is on my main line. I have started with my g-g-g grandparents ( two sets, both in my father's line). My mother's line has been fairly well researched by members of her family and I have a copy. My mother's line was greatly affected by the Civil War. I am learning about early American History as I go. I have discovered that my ancestors were connected to the history of this country that was surprising. My one g-g-grandfather served under Andrew Jackson in the War of the Floridas, and then later in Illinios, he was a Captain in the Black Hawk War when Jackson was President. The family in TN lived near where Jackson raised and raced horses. Andrew Jackson introduced the Order of Masons to Tennessee and a member of my family was the first Grand Mason in TN. The original family was raised on a 420 acre plantation in Virginia when it was a colony. Five brothers were all in the Revolutionary War. If you trace you ancestors back far enough, you may find your connection to history as well. 2. Interest in headstones Sometimes, a headstone is the only written record one can find about a particular person. After searching for awhile, one begins to realize that family oral traditions are important, but subject to error. As a tale gets retold, embelishments get added and old memories can fade. My own mother had a habit of filling in gaps with assumed data and not differentiating between the factual and supposed. Finding something written in the past can be a thrill, but even with headstones, mistakes can be present. However, when a headstone is all you got, it is the best data available. In both cases above, it takes good detective work to ferret out a family history. The hunt and discovery is the name of the game!...See MoreThe rapid growth of FindAGrave?
Comments (15)I see them a lot. Sometimes diphtheria or some other disease will come through a community, and multiple children from a family will die within a few days. It never fails to move me. Some of the volunteers don't bother creating memorials for the children because they have no direct descendants. But I add memorials for each and every one, linking them to their parents. We discussed historical childhood mortality at the KT some time ago. I couldn't imagine how parents managed to both get through such tragedy and, before that, steel themselves against the knowledge of what might very well happen. Someone here shared the information that very often parents didn't name their children for the first couple of years. It was their attempt to distance themselves until there was a good chance the child would survive. But I'm sure the mothers nursed the babies, so I don't know.... I once read a piece of advice given to one of the young women who traveled across the country in a covered wagon. Her mother told her if she wanted four children, she should give birth to eight....See MoreMarch 2015 what looks good/bad/awful in your garden
Comments (47)Lots of plants flowering in the yard right now. Canna 'Ripples' Canna 'Angele Martin' Canna 'Gigundo' Canna 'Bengal Tiger' Longan tree Tecoma 'Sparky' Tahitian pummelo - Finally showing signs of new growth all over the tree. I've been worried about this big guy for over a month now. All my citrus trees have already flushed new leaves and are done flowering except this guy until now! All its been doing is dropping leaves. I'm guessing it's still stressed from being uprooted and replanted to my yard. Mango 'Lemon zest' flower spikes all over. My new Dwarf Namwah Banana corm finally pushed a new leaf out. The 90f temps probably helped out a lot on waking this guy up. Green and red sugarcanes - lots of new canes coming out....See MoreAlisande
4 years agoUser
4 years ago
Kathsgrdn
4 years agoKathsgrdn
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoUser
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoUptown Gal
4 years ago
bpath
4 years agoAlisande
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
pudgeder
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
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