Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[suse]

My grandmother said that she came from aristocrats...after WWII there was no more aristocracy in Poland.

: Apparently my great-grandfather was the child of a Polish prostitute. He was picked up off the streets by a lawyer and adopted. Or so the story goes.

[rderoch]

Very cool, thanks for sharing! According to my dad, we're somewhat related to Mahatma Gandhi though my mom's side.

How cool!

My grandmother said that she came from aristocrats...after WWII there was no more aristocracy in Poland.

Maybe not officially, but we still think of you as royalty.

My Dad was always interested in genealogy. One Christmas, my brother Karl bought him a kit through National Geographic that he would use to swab for his DNA and then send in for them to do a detailed search for his ancestors. He found out a few weeks afterward that he/we had ancestors in what is now the continent of Africa and, what pleased my dad most, Celtic blood as well. Being a big fiddler himself, he was all smiles for weeks whenever he mentioned it because of his love of the music.

I know growing up, whenever I asked who we were related to that was famous, I was always told Stan Musial. Case closed. Our family was always big into sports, baseball just being one of them. Anyways, he was a cousin of my grandma's and had played MLB for the St. Louis Cardinals, including three World Series. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and even has his own Wiki page which is pretty darn cool.

I'd love to do the NatGeo test. They link you back to before there were written records.

Very cool. A hall of famer.

When I was at school my biology teacher was descended from the French royalty who got out of there before they were executed. She had some royal rings and seals and stuff that were sent to her.

My my granddad's cousins include Kevin Skinner the All Black and Eileen Duggan the poet.

As for my Granddad himself, he invented the Lead Rubber Bearing which has saved lived all over the world, and his book is still a main text used by engineers earthquake proofing and is published in heaps of languages. That's the dude who brings me orange juice in bed.

So an All Black rugby player, a poet and a scientist who has been honoured with a banquet in the Great Hall of the People in China.

Wow. Quite a pedigree.

: Apparently my great-grandfather was the child of a Polish prostitute. He was picked up off the streets by a lawyer and adopted. Or so the story goes.

That would be interesting to find out more about. The "stories" attached to people brings them to life, not just little leaves on a tree anymore.

So far the most tragic story I've come across, aside from all the women who seemed to die in childbirth, is about one set of German ancestors that came over in 1710. Father, pregnant mother, and two boys left Germany. Three boys arrived in America. The mother died giving birth on the ship and the father was murdered and thrown overboard, witnessed by the eldest son (he was 15). The hardships of travel at that time were bad enough, but then to experience something like that, I can't imagine how the two older boys dealt with it all.

That same branch of the family were the first property owners in the city that I live in now. My family has been here since 1830, so the historic park has a lot of stuff connected to the family.

Royalty, scientists, everyday folks. Through our ancestors we're all little pieces of history. I've been amazed just by the people that I've found and the few stories I've been able to locate.

My interest in this got reenergized watching the series "Who do you think you are?" They were able to really delve into the histories of the people they researched. Knowing Amanda is from the Essex area, I thought it was cool I have ancestors from there. Mayber we're related. Ya know, if we go back far enough, we might all be related. (look--back on topic)

[Tittamiire]

We've got some interesting characters in our family tree. I think my oldest recorded ancestor is someone who fled Scotland for Ireland, we suspect because of crime, and started a new life. It's a fairly typical family history from that point, but what's always the most fun is listening to my Grandma cherry pick the bits of family history she likes and ignoring other bits. She really cares that hundreds of years ago they weren't Catholics and someone converted. Equally cares about illegitimate births and stuff.

I think it's way cooler that I've now got 'cousins' all over the world (lots of migration) and I had a Great Great Grandma who had 14 children and who completely ran their household and business (can't remember what the business was now).

[NZNeep]

Haha, my grandma referred to an illegitimate relative as "related, but on the wrong side of the sheets if you know what I mean."

She *never* said things like that, so it was a bit of a shock

We have really cool book tracking the descendants of the first of our family to arrive in NZ in the 1840s. It's a giant family tree that was published just after I was born, so my sister and I are on the lowest branch (as the elder twin I'm first, naturally ).

Oh, and "Skinner" doesn't mean they skinned animals but "Skeined" silk or something. Sweet. As for my own last name from my dad's side, it was altered in the 1930s but we aren't sure if it was to sound less German or less Jewish.

[Celandine]

My last name, from what I was told once, went through a revision when my great-grandfather came to America. I guess he was conscious of the prejudice toward immigrants, especially with the broken English he probably only knew, so in an attempt to assimilate (and perhaps looking toward the future), he changed his last name slightly to make it sound more 'American' and less German in origin. Either way, growing up, my brothers and I were the only one's sporting our name so it was sometimes a drag in that we could never get into trouble without people knowing us, but also cool cos I LOVE being original.

Does make looking through our Family Tree a bit more tricky, but the rewards on finding an ancestor is pretty sweet.


Pulling it back on topic, Carter is a pretty common name for the most part. Do you think Sam knew this and made an extra special attempt to distinguish herself from the crowd of those around her through her honors, intelligence and the like? Or did this fact mean little to her? She was always very ambitious and I've always sort of wondered if it was more a personality trait of hers or some personal drive stemming from either Jacob or something else.

[EvenstarSRV]

Pulling it back on topic, Carter is a pretty common name for the most part. Do you think Sam knew this and made an extra special attempt to distinguish herself from the crowd of those around her through her honors, intelligence and the like? Or did this fact mean little to her? She was always very ambitious and I've always sort of wondered if it was more a personality trait of hers or some personal drive stemming from either Jacob or something else.

Hmm, I don't really see her as being too concerned about her last name in that respect. I would think she probably tried to downplay the Carter name to an extent after joining the AF because she wouldn't want to be seen as riding on the coattails of her father the general.

For her personal drive/ambition, I feel it was a combination of a few things, her natural competitiveness, wanting to make her father proud of her, channeling her grief after her mom's death, and perhaps even a bit of a 'feminist' sort of kick of 'anything these guys can do I can do too'. And I think some stuff like excelling at academics, Sam probably did not because of a desire to distinguish herself or compete against her classmates, but because she was just that good at it and being the top student was just a happy extra to that.

Oh and thanks to those sharing all the genealogy stories, they're all so interesting to read.

[llp]

As for my own last name from my dad's side, it was altered in the 1930s but we aren't sure if it was to sound less German or less Jewish.

My grandmother on my father's side changed our last name a little. Apparently we had 3 different spellings of it within the family and they settled on one - of course the one my grandmother preferred. And it was originally changed by the customs people on Ellis Island. Sadly, I have no idea what the name really is anymore. Plus it makes it very hard to find any traces of the family on that side. All I know is they were from Russia and had to get out of the country as did my mother's side of the family. However, I do know their name. Strange even through they lived in Russia, their name sounds German to me.

[hedwig]

My grandmother on my father's side changed our last name a little. Apparently we had 3 different spellings of it within the family and they settled on one - of course the one my grandmother preferred. And it was originally changed by the customs people on Ellis Island. Sadly, I have no idea what the name really is anymore. Plus it makes it very hard to find any traces of the family on that side. All I know is they were from Russia and had to get out of the country as did my mother's side of the family. However, I do know their name. Strange even through they lived in Russia, their name sounds German to me.

That's what happened when my grandfather came to America from Ireland. For whatever reason, the customs people changed it slightly.

[llp]

That's what happened when my grandfather came to America from Ireland. For whatever reason, the customs people changed it slightly.

I wish they had some record showing what the last name use to be.....it makes it almost impossible to trace them. I've only been able to mind my mother's mother (my grandmother's) name when she came across...at least on the Ellis Island records. And only my Aunt is still alive and she married into the family so she also doesn't know. Too bad. Makes it almost impossible to trace them unless I was rich enough to do it with investigators or what have you.

[hedwig]

I wish they had some record showing what the last name use to be.....it makes it almost impossible to trace them. I've only been able to mind my mother's mother (my grandmother's) name when she came across...at least on the Ellis Island records. And only my Aunt is still alive and she married into the family so she also doesn't know. Too bad. Makes it almost impossible to trace them unless I was rich enough to do it with investigators or what have you.

I found out what the name was before my grandfather came to America. I'm not having as much luck with my grandmother, who also came from Ireland. Seems there are several spellings and pronunciations of her last name, so I've kind of gotten to a dead end.

Have you tried using ancestry.com? Or maybe even the huge Mormon Church archive in Salt Lake City? They have an enormous amount of names from all over the world that can be researched. My Dad's side of the family is Mormon and one of his sisters has records of our family back to the 1500's in England (nobody historically interesting though).

[rderoch]

Haha, my grandma referred to an illegitimate relative as "related, but on the wrong side of the sheets if you know what I mean."

She *never* said things like that, so it was a bit of a shock

Hadn't heard that one before.

You know you're grown when your parents/grandparents don't worry about what they say around you anymore.

Hmm, I don't really see her as being too concerned about her last name in that respect. I would think she probably tried to downplay the Carter name to an extent after joining the AF because she wouldn't want to be seen as riding on the coattails of her father the general.

For her personal drive/ambition, I feel it was a combination of a few things, her natural competitiveness, wanting to make her father proud of her, channeling her grief after her mom's death, and perhaps even a bit of a 'feminist' sort of kick of 'anything these guys can do I can do too'. And I think some stuff like excelling at academics, Sam probably did not because of a desire to distinguish herself or compete against her classmates, but because she was just that good at it and being the top student was just a happy extra to that.

I agree on all points. Well said.

My grandmother on my father's side changed our last name a little. Apparently we had 3 different spellings of it within the family and they settled on one - of course the one my grandmother preferred. And it was originally changed by the customs people on Ellis Island. Sadly, I have no idea what the name really is anymore. Plus it makes it very hard to find any traces of the family on that side. All I know is they were from Russia and had to get out of the country as did my mother's side of the family. However, I do know their name. Strange even through they lived in Russia, their name sounds German to me.

A lot of names were changed when people arrived. Many to be more "American", which made no sense, and some due to inaccuracy in the immigration information. I've found lots of variations in names in my family, mostly variations in spelling.

Having a common name can be a real problem, too (like Carter). My mom's maiden name is Smith.

I found out what the name was before my grandfather came to America. I'm not having as much luck with my grandmother, who also came from Ireland. Seems there are several spellings and pronunciations of her last name, so I've kind of gotten to a dead end.

Have you tried using ancestry.com? Or maybe even the huge Mormon Church archive in Salt Lake City? They have an enormous amount of names from all over the world that can be researched. My Dad's side of the family is Mormon and one of his sisters has records of our family back to the 1500's in England (nobody historically interesting though).

Is the LDS information available online? I thought you had to go to Utah to use their records.

[hedwig]

A lot of names were changed when people arrived. Many to be more "American", which made no sense, and some due to inaccuracy in the immigration information. I've found lots of variations in names in my family, mostly variations in spelling.

Having a common name can be a real problem, too (like Carter). My mom's maiden name is Smith.



Is the LDS information available online? I thought you had to go to Utah to use their records.

When I googled "LDS Genealogy archive", a link came to www.archives.com, though that site doesn't specifically mention LDS or Mormon (which seems odd). You can get a free trial membership to the site for 7 days, and if you still want to use the site, it costs $39 for a year. However, with most sites that say "free" you have to give them a credit card number in case you go beyond the 7 days.

There's another site that links to www.familysearch.org that says it's a service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, and has a line in the "Register" section that says "Registration is free and simple and allows access to all Web site resources and features". And this site doesn't ask for a credit card.

[JanSam]

Is the LDS information available online? I thought you had to go to Utah to use their records.

When I googled "LDS Genealogy archive", a link came to www.archives.com, though that site doesn't specifically mention LDS or Mormon (which seems odd). You can get a free trial membership to the site for 7 days, and if you still want to use the site, it costs $39 for a year. However, with most sites that say "free" you have to give them a credit card number in case you go beyond the 7 days.

There's another site that links to www.familysearch.org that says it's a service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, and has a line in the "Register" section that says "Registration is free and simple and allows access to all Web site resources and features". And this site doesn't ask for a credit card.

Some of the LDS archive is online or it will give you a source index. You can search it for free here
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
The site has been available for years and it keeps growing with the help of volunteers. If you want other free to search sites; message me and I'll give you all I have. I have been working on my genealogy for years and have been able to even find biographical articles on some ancestors using several free sites.

[EH-T]

Originally posted by kes in the Sanctuary thread, an interview with AT (I haven't been able to see it yet but warning may contain SPOILERS for season 3)

http://scifiwire.com/2010/05/amanda-...-interview.php

[parsifal]

Does anyone recognize the source of Majorsal's new avatar? It's new to me and raised my curiosity. Amanda's in the audience of an awards show, but I don't know which one. The file name implies the 2001 Gemini Awards, but Majorsal told me she renamed the picture, and it may not be accurate. While the hair fits, I'm not sure the dress is correct.

The picture looks like it could be a still from a video. Has anyone seen the (potential) video or any other photos from the event? Or just confirm what event this was?