Free Republic

Exploring his family's past for the first time, Richard Roxburgh uncovered a darker history than he anticipated- finding out his forefathers were enthusiastic supporters of the slave trade. The 52 year-old actor says he'd originally hoped the search would find his relatives 'lived good and rich lives, and contributed something.' But participating in the SBS series Who Do You Think You Are turned up a very different history. ..................................................... 'Thomas was the ultimate capitalist,' the actor says. 'To my mind, it’s about the choices that you make in this life, and he made his choice. And they wouldn’t be my...

Remarkably well preserved for a two-million-year-old fossil, this child's skull belongs to Australopithecus sediba, a previously unknown species of ape-like creature that may have been a direct ancestor of modern humans, according to a new study in Science. Scientists think this particular Australopithecus sediba fossil is from a male between 8 and 13 years old. The child's fossils were found in the remnants of a subterranean South African cave system alongside the fossil remains of an adult female in her 30s. "It's the opinion of my colleagues and I that [A. sediba] may very well be the Rosetta stone that...

Family link is found between Obama and Scott Brown /snip By Mark Silva 5:15 PM PST, January 30, 2010 Reporting from Washington President Obama has found another long-lost cousin: Scott Brown, the Republican state senator from Massachusetts who won the Senate seat long held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The president and the senator-elect are 10th cousins, according to the New England Historic Genealogical Society. /snip The New England genealogy experts report that Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Brown's mother, Judith Ann Rugg, both descended from Richard Singletary of Haverhill, Mass. He died in 1687 at 102.

It's a spine-chilling discovery - hundreds of expertly-butchered human bones that suggest cannibalism was rife among early man.What's even more shocking is that the victims may have been HAPPY to be eaten ...The birds are singing and the forest floor is dappled with sunlight. You can hear the sound of a babbling stream, running into the great river not far off to the east. Sharp ears might hear the drumming of a woodpecker or, high above, the cry of a sparrowhawk.

Is jawbone the ancient souvenir ancestor of the humble snow globe? Mar 19 2008 by Sally Williams, Western Mail IT is the 14,000-year-old version of a snow dome. Travellers during the late Ice Age would pick up an etched horse jawbone as a souvenir of their time in Europe. Arriving in Wales they would then display the trinket in their cave as a memento of their time abroad. And now experts believe this 11,500BC example is the “oldest ever piece of Welsh artwork”. With an intricate zig-zag pattern the keepsake could also signal an important evolutionary step in communication, they...

Roots of Care: Investigation of family tree, finds that ancestor lived in 'alms house'By Sherry Youngquist JOURNAL REPORTER Saturday, October 20, 2007 Kim Quintal stands inside a building in Yadkin County that was once known as "the crazy house." It was part of the poorhouse system in North Carolina. (Journal Photo by David Rolfe) YADKINVILLE - Off a dirt road, not far from the county seat, there is a small frame building in a field. Walk closer and you see the bars over the windows. Inside, handmade, crudely cut lattice separates stalls where people were once shut away. People in...

If the proposed Amenesty Bill passes, our country will change in ways we can't forsee. In thinking about this, I thought it might be inspiring to find out how many Freepers have Patriot ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. Naming those who gave so much for the establishment of this Republic will make their sacrifices (their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor) more real to us. It will remind us of their determination in the face of all odds and give us encouragement to "keep the Republic."

Tel Aviv University anthropologists say they have disproven the theory that "Lucy" - the world-famous 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found in Ethiopia 33 years ago - is the last ancestor common to humans and another branch of the great apes family known as the "Robust hominids." The jaw bone of Lucy and the jaw bone of Australopithecus afarensis.

Descendancy stems from the 19th Century Dawes Commission lists Members of the Cherokee Nation of native Americans have voted to revoke tribal citizenship for descendants of black slaves the Cherokees once owned.A total of 76.6% voted to amend the tribal constitution to limit citizenship to "blood" tribe members. Supporters said only the Cherokees had the right to determine tribal members. Opponents said the amendment was racist and aimed at preventing those with African-American heritage from gaining tribal revenue and government funding. The Cherokee Nation has 250,000 to 270,000 members, second only to the Navajo. 'Right to vote' The list...

Source: Brookhaven National Laboratory Date: October 31, 2006 Scientists Convert Modern Enzyme Into Its Hypothesized Ancestor By making a single substitution in the amino acid sequence of a modern enzyme, scientists have changed its function into that of a theoretical distant ancestor, providing the first experimental evidence for the common origin of the two distinct enzyme types. The research, conducted by a team that includes scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, will be published online the week of October 30, 2006, by the Proceedings of the National Academy of...

Evolutionary Back Story: Thoroughly modern spine supported human ancestor Bruce Bower Bones from a spinal column discovered at a nearly 1.8-million-year-old site in central Asia support the controversial possibility that ancient human ancestors spoke to one another. WIDE OPEN. A recently discovered Homo erectus vertebra from central Asia (left) displays a larger spinal cord canal than does a corresponding bone (right) from a skeleton that had been found in Kenya. Meyer Excavations in 2005 at Dmanisi, Georgia, yielded five vertebrae from a Homo erectus individual, says anthropologist Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The finds occurred...

Kiln's 'ancestor' found in Greece The structures bridge the gap between kilns and stone hearths Archaeologists have discovered the oldest clay "fireplaces" made by humans at a dig in southern Greece. The hearths are between 34,000 and 23,000 years old and were almost certainly used for cooking by prehistoric inhabitants of the area. Researchers found remnants of wood ash and phytoliths - a type of plant cell - in these hearths and lab tests show the clay was burnt. The study appears in the latest edition of the scholarly journal Antiquity. The discovery helps to bridge the gap between the...

Papers have been flapping with new headlines about the latest in a long line of alleged dinosaur ancestors of birds. This one is claimed to be a sensational dinosaur with feathers on its hind legs, thus four ‘wings’.1 This was named Microraptor gui—the name is derived from words meaning ‘little plunderer of Gu’ after the paleontologist Gu Zhiwei. Like so many of the alleged feathered dinosaurs, it comes from Liaoning province of northeastern China. It was about 3 feet (1 meter) long from its head to the tip of its long tail, but its body was only about the size...

BOSTON, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- At long last, Confederate Navy Lt. Edward J. Johnston will be making his final voyage, home to a hero's welcome. Johnston is believed to be the last Confederate prisoner of war buried in New England. But thanks to the efforts of veterans groups and Civil War re-enactors in the North and South, his remains are to be moved from Massachusetts to Florida for reburial this month with full Confederate military honors, 139 years after his death. This will be Johnston's fifth -- and final -- grave. This one, however, is special. It will be with...

Challenge for clan chief title A clan chief and a London banker are preparing to do battle over the title of a historic Scottish family. City banker Richard Oliphant is challenging the current head of the clan of Oliphant in the hope that he will be able to use the title "the Oliphant of that Ilk and of Condie". He has lodged a petition to claim the title with the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh, who decides on such hereditary matters. The current, honorary clan chief is Laurence Blair Oliphant of Ardblair and Gask, who lives in Ardblair...