Thursday, December 11, 2025

Blueberries and Blackberries

I have made a decision - I am going to grow blueberries and blackberries next spring! And I will try to grow more huckleberries but that's pretty difficult.

Monday, December 8, 2025

“fictionalizing”

I am writing to request formal review of a collaboration post currently appearing on the Thomas Bailey Christian FamilySearch profile dated August 3, 2025, which repeatedly characterizes genealogical disagreement as “fictionalizing” and “falsifying” without presenting any primary-source documentation to substantiate those conclusions.

While FamilySearch properly allows differing interpretations, the use of loaded and accusatory language such as “fictionalizing,” “falsifying,” and “giving false and fictional parents” constitutes a reputational allegation rather than a neutral genealogical position. These statements are presented without citation to contemporary records created during the lifetime of Thomas Bailey Christian that would objectively disprove all alternate hypotheses.

The post further implies misconduct by unnamed contributors while offering only mathematical speculation about descendant numbers, which does not constitute historical proof under accepted genealogical standards.

I respectfully request that FamilySearch review whether the continued display of unsourced accusatory language in the collaboration section complies with platform policies regarding respectful collaboration, neutrality, and evidence-based genealogy. Disagreement over parentage is a normal part of genealogical research; accusations of “fictionalizing” rise beyond scholarly disagreement when no primary proof is attached.

My goal is not censorship of differing views, but restoration of a neutral, documentation-based environment consistent with FamilySearch standards.

Friday, December 5, 2025

Pattern of Harm Arising from WikiTree’s Gamified Editorial System

This summary outlines a documented pattern of harm affecting Indigenous-descendant families, oral-tradition–based genealogists, and cultural-historical record-keepers on the WikiTree platform. These harms arise not from isolated user conflicts but from structural features of WikiTree’s gamified contribution system, which incentivizes behaviors that directly undermine cultural integrity, descendant rights, and genealogical accuracy.

I. Systemic Incentive Structure

WikiTree’s platform awards users with points, badges, rank status, challenges, and achievement-based privileges. These mechanisms prioritize:

volume of edits over quality of research,
speed of intervention over cultural competency, and
platform rank over lived descendant knowledge.

This reward structure functions as a gamified hierarchy that elevates high-activity users to de facto authority positions absent any credentialing in Indigenous studies, oral-tradition methodology, or cultural-heritage ethics.

II. Resulting Harmful Behaviors

The gamified incentives predictably produce specific behaviors that have already caused measurable cultural injury:

1. Premature or Unsupported Declarations of “Fictional” Ancestors

High-rank editors, rewarded for aggressive profile “cleanup,” frequently label longstanding Indigenous ancestors as “fictitious” or “invented,” even when those ancestors are documented in colonial records, military reports, diplomatic correspondence, family oral traditions, and established local histories.

2. Defamatory Categorization Practices

Editors routinely assign individuals—including respected family historians—to categories such as “Shawnee Heritage Fraud” without evidentiary basis, genealogical review, or cultural consultation. These labels constitute reputational harm, especially when applied against descendants’ objections.

* Hokolesqua (Chief Cornstalk) is well-documented - see his Wikipedia page

In addition to Chief Cornstalk the "fraud" category lists: Bluesky, Newa, Wissecapeway (Black Beard). All of these people are documented in spite of Wikitree's accusations.

This is just four. I have decided to crowd-source documentation of each person Wikitree claims is "fraud." Because I believe this is defamation and reputational harm and I will be submitting my list to my lawyer. The project I have named Reputational Harm List

3. Disregard for Oral Traditions and Elder-Sourced Histories

Because gamification rewards rapid editing rather than contextual understanding, platform incentives systematically devalue oral tradition and elevate uninformed editorial intervention. This constitutes a pattern of erasure of Indigenous narrative forms.

4. Overriding and Silencing Descendant Communities

Editors with high badge counts routinely override descendants’ corrections, remove culturally grounded information, and issue bans or blocks against those attempting to defend their own lineage. This produces an asymmetry of power where game points—not expertise or kinship—determine editorial control.

When I comment that what they do goes against their own policies my comment is deleted and my account is banned. I have saved all my public comments to archive.org

5. Use of Policy as a Mechanism of Suppression

Policies are frequently invoked selectively or inconsistently to justify removal, alteration, or suppression of Indigenous genealogical data, while similar practices by high-rank editors remain unchallenged. This reflects a pattern of misuse of platform authority.

III. Cultural and Community Impact

The above behaviors result in:

Cultural erasure: Deletion, alteration, or delegitimization of Indigenous ancestors and oral-historical narratives.
Reputational harm: Publicly branding historians and family elders as fraudulent without evidentiary review.
Emotional harm to descendants: Silencing familial knowledge, undermining ancestral identity, and disregarding community memory.
Distortion of the historical record: Allowing gamified incentives to drive genealogical conclusions rather than evidence and cultural context.

This constitutes a recognizable pattern under cultural-heritage frameworks of non-consultative interference, unauthorized narrative control, and platform-enabled erasure.

IV. Conclusion

The harm is not incidental. It is a structural outcome of WikiTree’s gamified design, which grants unqualified editors disproportionate authority and incentivizes behaviors that directly conflict with standards of cultural respect, genealogical ethics, and descendant rights.

Rectifying this pattern requires:

Review of gamification mechanisms and their impact on culturally sensitive histories;
Removal or regulation of defamatory categories;
Implementation of descendant-rights and cultural-consultation protocols;
Accountability measures for misuse of editorial authority.

This was written by Catherine dee Auvil with help from ChatGTP on December 5th 2025

Friday, November 14, 2025

Wikitree sucks

OK, I think I have finally made a breakthrough in Cornstalk Genealogy. I have been fighting all summer because Wikitree and FamilySearch both post numerous errors on their profiles of people in our family and they disregard the oral tradition passed down through our family historians. I have thought and thought about this and one of the sticking points is that FamilySearch has a cool feature called "View Relationship" that everyone enjoys and is very useful for people who are investigating our DNA. But then people write horrible things in "collaborations" and flying monkeys (see below) detach our relatives from each other "breaking the chain" when we try to use "View Relationship." Well, now I have a plan. All this winter I am going to be working on a new, fresh tree at Ancestry. Ancestry does not have "View Relationship" feature but they do have a very easy method to download your GEDcom. And in the spring, in order to use the VR feature I will either upload it to my new website Cockacoeske.org (which has the VR feature) OR it is possible that the private trees at FamilySearch (CETs) will have this feature by then. Either way I will make the 1st OFFICIAL CORNSTALK FAMILY TREE GEDcom available to all our family. You can download the tree and then you can edit your own however you like.

I am going to be working on this all winter. Be patient! Catherine dee Auvil December 1 2025

1st OFFICIAL CORNSTALK FAMILY TREE by CdA

Discuss at Reddit

r/OFFICIALCORNSTALK

this is part of a larger project

THE CORNSTALK PROJECTS by CdA

...........................................................

I am being bullied by Wikitree at Thomas Bailey Christian profile and flying monkeys are taking the lies to FamilySearch. I am going to try to resolve this behind the scenes. If you are involved - if you are a descendant of Thomas Bailey Christian, then email me if you want to see my private notes. auvil.catherine@aol.com and read: Flying monkeys in the genealogy community

🌿 PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE CORNSTALK FAMILY 🌿
So apparently a few editors over on WikiTree have decided that one of our family historians “invented” our ancestor Hokolesqua (Chief Cornstalk) — and that therefore he is “fictitious” or even “fraud.” He is just one of our ancestors declared "fictitious" by Wikitree.

😂 Bold move, considering Chief Cornstalk appears in Virginia colonial records, military reports, diplomatic accounts, local histories, and, oh yes … has been part of our family’s oral tradition for generations. Pro tip: it takes about five seconds to check his Wikipedia page.

Since some folks online seem confused, we opted for the simplest solution:

👉 We created the OFFICIAL CORNSTALK FAMILY TREE on Ancestry.
If you want the link, just Google: “deeAuvil blog”

– Catherine dee Auvil – December 1 2025.”

We welcome discussion and debate, but we will never abandon a family tree preserved for centuries or tolerate anyone labeling our ancestors “fictitious” or our historians “fraudulent,” because that crosses into erasure —

And we’re refusing any erasure aimed at our elders or our lineage — we’re not sitting politely while you twist their history into your Indigenous erasure project.”

#CornstalkFamily #FamilyHistory #OralTraditionMatters #RespectOurAncestors #Genealogy #NativeHistory #CornstalkLegacy #WeKnowWhoWeAre

Update December 1 2025

I uploaded the announcement to Hokolesqua (Chief Cornstalk's) profile at Wikitree and they responded that Hokolesqua (Chief Cornstalk) is not listed as fraud but look for yourself he is listed in their Category: Shawnee Heritage Fraud. This "category" needs to be removed. And they would not let me reply. And they banned my account. They consistently block me and remove my comments but I do save everything at archive.org and I will put all that together some day.

Small update: In addition to Hokolesqua, they claim Bluesky, Newa, Wissecapeway (Black Beard) are fraudulent - "invented" by our family historians. That's balderdash - I can present documentation for each! Why is this my job? I believe this is defamation of our family historians and reputational harm. See my Google Doc "The Cornstalk Projects" for more information.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Home

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A post shared by Catherine dée Auvil (@deeauvil)

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Genealogy collaboration by email

There are two ways I can think of to collaborate by email. Please scroll to bottom where I write about my inspiration.

Evernote provides each user with a unique email address that allows you to forward messages or attachments directly into your default notebook. You will find yours in "Account info..."

Tell your collaborators to CC ALL emails to the Evernote email address. If you don't want it to go to your default notebook designate another notebook in the subject line. If you want the email to go to the notebook "Mary" write @Mary in the subject line.

Using gmail (or any extra email address) What I would do is get an email address that you use for NOTHING else but your collaboration with one person. Then have your collaborator send emails directly to that address.

WAIT! Get Permission to share!

If you are going to share email correspondance in a folder online for anyone to see you need permission! Here is an example email asking for permission:

Subject: Permission to Share Family History Emails in Public Dropbox

Dear [Name],

Thank you again for the helpful information you've shared about our family history. I’m organizing all the correspondence I’ve received into a Dropbox folder that will be public, so that other relatives and researchers can access it — both now and in the future.

I'd like to ask your explicit permission to include your emails in that public folder. This would mean:

Anyone with the link can read your messages.
The folder will remain available long-term, and may be downloaded or cited by others.
I would include your name as the author of your emails, unless you ask me to remove or anonymize it.

If you're comfortable with this, could you please reply with a line like:

“You have my permission to include my emails in a publicly viewable Dropbox folder for family history purposes.”

If you'd prefer I limit access or only share certain messages, I’ll gladly honor that. Just let me know.

Thanks again for your generosity and for being part of preserving our family’s story.

Warmly,
[Your Name]
[Your contact info, if needed]

Here is a second email if you would like to include the emails in a book you are writing:

Subject: Request for Permission to Share Family History Emails (Dropbox, Book, or Website)

Dear [Name],

Thank you again for the valuable information you’ve shared about our family history. I’m working on organizing and preserving this material so that it can benefit others — both now and in the future.

I’d like to request your permission to do two things with the emails you’ve sent me:

1. Include your messages in a public Dropbox folder

This folder would be:

Publicly viewable (anyone with the link can read it)
Shared with family members and genealogy researchers
Archived long-term as a resource for others

2. Quote or reference your messages in future publications

This may include:

A family history website
A printed or digital book or article, including works that may be offered for sale

If you’re comfortable with this, you can simply reply with something like:

“You have my permission to include my emails in a public Dropbox folder and to quote them in any future family history projects, including publications that may be sold.”

If you’d prefer to limit how or where your words are used, or if you’d like to stay anonymous, I’ll absolutely respect that — just let me know.

Thank you again for your kindness and generosity in helping preserve our shared history.

Warmly,
[Your Full Name]
[Optional: your email, phone, or project website]

What inspired me to start an email collaboration is the work of Agnus Pearlman.

ALL of her MASSIVE amount of genealogical notes has been archived at OCCGS. I know this because she has written about my ancestor, Thomas Bailey Christian of Indian Creek, Virginia. What is beautiful is there are several collections of correspondence she had with friends about different family lines. It is so vast that is very hard to describe. I have thought about the many email conversations I have had but I didn't save them! I think they would be so interesting for people in the future to read. Well, what I am doing is starting now! And what I want to ask you is just go check out the "Agnus Pearlman Project" and see if your family is in there. I'm posting here because a lot of the work is about Virginia. But ... you just have to see for yourself! Hopefully find your family or get inspired to archive your genealogy conversations!

Compiled Research Agnus Pearlman Project

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Surnames & Mononyms

When beginning your genealogy journey, it’s wise to decide early on which version of a surname you’ll use consistently. This is especially important if you rely on tagging systems—such as Evernote—for organizing your research.

For example, in my own family I have relatives with the surname appearing as Skaggs, Scaggs, and Skegs. Early on, I chose to tag every related note simply as “Skaggs” to keep things uniform. Otherwise, I’d have to remember to search three different tags every time I wanted to find information on that family line—a needless complication.

I was going to write here on what the consensus is on which box to add a mononym, first name or surname? But it seems there is no consensus. So I will do more research and come back to this.

Wikipedia: Mononyms

Wikipedia: List of legally mononymous people

One last thing about surnames - it has been a recent trend in my family that if we only have a mononym or a firstname for someone we will add their tribe to the surname OR their father's mononym as the surname (for example "Rachel Cornstalk") at first I didn't like this, it seemed inaccurate, but now I see the use for it - just trying to keep track of fathers! So now I like it.

Navigating Shared Ancestry.com Access After the Loss of a Family Account Holder

What is Ancestry's "Family Plan"? A paid subscriber (the plan manager) shares premium access with up to four others, each with their own account enjoying full benefits like record viewing on Ancestry, Fold3, and Newspapers.com.

What happens if the Plan Manager passes away or otherwise their account is closed?

Trees created or edited by added members are not deleted. They stay accessible for viewing and building, even on a free account.

Uploaded photos, documents, or saved items aren't deleted—they remain tied to the user's account.

If added members searched for and saved a document to their account, they will no longer be able to see their document but they will see the record information. It is recommended that added members save any documents onto their own computer because of this.

To regain full access, added users can subscribe individually.

Here is a good run down of the Family Plan at Family History Daily

Evernote explicitly states that none of your data will be lost when you cancel your subscription or downgrade. You’ll retain access to all your notes, notebooks, and content.

Although they don't really explicitly state what they will do so I would recommend that you backup your Evernote periodically. see Collaborating in Genealogy back up your Evernote

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Collaborating in Genealogy back up your Evernote

Something important - you can only back up one folder at a time for the simple method #1. This is why it is good to keep as few folders as possible. I have 50 folders and so it is just too tedious for me to back them up one at a time. So I just don't back up. I just wing it.

There are several ways to back up your Evernote notes, depending on how thorough you want the backup to be and how you’d like to use it later:

1. Export Notes from the Evernote App

On desktop (Windows or Mac):
1. Open Evernote and select the notes or notebook you want to back up.
2. Go to File → Export Notes….
3. Choose one of these formats:
  - ENEX (.enex) – Evernote’s own export format; keeps text, images, tags, and attachments, and can be re-imported into Evernote.
  - HTML (.html) – readable in any browser, but won’t re-import cleanly into Evernote.
  - MHT (.mht) (Windows only) – a single web archive file.
This is the most direct way to create backups you can re-import later.

2. Back Up the Entire Evernote Database

On Windows: Evernote stores data in C:\Users\[YourName]\Evernote\Databases\. Copy this folder to another drive or cloud storage.
On Mac: The data is usually in ~/Library/Application Support/Evernote/.
This creates a full local backup, but you’ll need Evernote to read it.

3. Use Evernote Web + Cloud Backups

If you log into Evernote Web, you’ll always have a copy in the cloud.
To be extra safe, you can regularly export your notes and store them in Dropbox, Google Drive, or another cloud service.

4. Third-Party Tools

Some tools can automatically sync or export Evernote data (e.g., Backupery for Evernote on Windows).
These can automate regular backups to ENEX or HTML.

5. PDF Backup (for Archival / Sharing)

For long-term preservation, especially genealogy or historical notes, you can export or print individual notes/notebooks as PDFs.
PDF is easy to read and archive but won’t re-import well into Evernote.

👉 If your goal is safety + future portability, I’d recommend doing both:

Export important notebooks as ENEX (so you can restore them to Evernote).
Also export or print as PDF/HTML for long-term readability outside Evernote.

Perfect — here’s a step-by-step guide to set up automatic Evernote backups so you don’t have to think about it:

🔄 Automating Evernote Backups

Option 1: Scheduled Manual Export (Easy, Built-In)

This keeps control in your hands but uses your OS scheduler.

On Windows

Open Evernote desktop app.
Select the notebook(s) you want → File → Export Notes….
Save as ENEX to a folder like C:\Backups\Evernote\.

Create a batch file (.bat) with this command (replace path):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote\Evernote.exe" /export "C:\Backups\Evernote\backup.enex"

Use Task Scheduler (built into Windows) to run this .bat file weekly.

On Mac

Export notes manually once as .enex to ~/Documents/Evernote Backups/.
Create an Automator workflow that repeats this export.
Use Calendar app or launchd to run it weekly.

Option 2: Use Third-Party Backup Tool (Easiest)

If you don’t want to tinker with scripts:

Backupery for Evernote (Windows only): Runs in the background, exports ENEX or HTML automatically (daily/weekly).
Evernote2Onenote / Evernote2Markdown: If you also want to keep backups outside Evernote’s ecosystem.

Option 3: Cloud Sync Safety Net

Even if you forget exports, you can:

Store your Evernote database folder (Windows or Mac) inside Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive.
Cloud service automatically keeps old versions in case you delete something.

Option 4: PDF / HTML Archival Copies

For genealogy & historical notes you want permanent readability:

Export as HTML or Print to PDF.
Save to a “Permanent Archive” folder in your cloud storage.
Run a weekly/monthly sync tool (e.g., FreeFileSync, GoodSync, or built-in OS sync).

✅ Suggested Setup for You

Since you care about long-term preservation & genealogy, I’d recommend:

Weekly automatic ENEX backup (to restore in Evernote if needed).
Monthly HTML/PDF archive (so it’s readable 50 years from now).
Store both in Dropbox/Google Drive/Archive.org folder for offsite safety.

Collaborating in Geneaology - Ancestry.com

Sharing your tree: I don't think people really understand this, but you can share your ancestry.com tree without people being allowed to edit.

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Collaborating in Genealogy

I have a folder of public domain books. I share the folder with one other person. They have a personal (paid) Evernote account. (I can only share with paid accounts because their free trial only allows you to have 50 notes and my book folder has 450 notes)

Yes, it would be possible for people to request they see 50 specific books I have saved but I don’t have time for that.

For my example here I am going to say that Catherine shares a folder of books in pdf form with Mary. Both Catherine and Mary have paid Evernote accounts.

Some tips to make sharing Evernote easier:

Saturday, August 9, 2025

Get in Touch

Just a quick post here as cousins are asking me what are our resources for Shawnee & Powhatan DNA studies.

First, you need to get your DNA tested, I recommend Ancestry.com because 23 and me has been hacked and sold and... it is all too confusing. I don't like ancestry.com but where ya gonna go?

When you get the test back, then you download your results and you upload to Gedmatch.

How to upload to GEDmatch from AncestryDNA

Now, GEDmatch will give you a code - your "GEDmatch" you will use this to compare your "kit" to others. You want to see where you overlap. You do this in one to one comparison (in the GEDmatch drop down menu)

Then there is a way to see your "paint." Explanation by Sharon Willis Robinson

Do not share anyone else's GEDmatch numbers with anyone else. You can in private Facebook groups but not in any other way. So if you are approved to join a private Facebook group and that other person you overlap to is also in that group you can talk about it. But never anywhere else even in private email with your friends or family. This is just etiquette. It is very hard to keep track of everything so what I do is I have a private folder on Evernote where I keep all my matches, I contact people by Facebook messenger to ask if I can compare matches privately. Then I just don't share anyone's GEDmatch even on private Facebook groups because it is too complicated.

Now, you can join studies and I will get a list of those here or how you find them.

1. Go to GEDmatch "free tools"

2. Click on "Ancestor projects"

3. Search projects you are interested in

4. Request to join

This is just my rough draft and I will be working on this in the next few days...

Catherine dee Auvil 8/9/25

Another list of simple instructions at HughMcKenna.org

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Photo for sale: Man & Cactus

I'm doing it - I am getting organized enough to start selling my photographs. This one I have chosen to sell and the proceeds will go to a young family that needs repairs on a home they own. They are hard workers and have often taken second jobs to pay bills. BUT they have a young family and they need to be able to spend more time with them. So I thought of this. Please email me if you have questions: auvil.catherine@aol.com

I don't know who the photographer is but maybe we can crowdsource? It is in its protective sleeve, so not a great photo of the photo but I am pressed for time.

I LOVE the elements of this photo: the shadow of his hat brim, the chiaroscuro of his face, the stance, THE CACTUS!

I found this out about the printer:Yes, there was a photo studio called Fox Co. (also referred to as Fox Photo or Foxco) in San Antonio, Texas. It was originally founded by Arthur C. Fox in 1906 as a small photo studio. In 1909, Carl Newton purchased the studio for $700 and expanded it into a major photofinishing business. By the 1920s, it was the largest mail-order photofinishing operation in the world. The company, later known as Fox Photo, grew to include retail stores and large commercial photofinishing plants, serving major retailers like Wal-Mart and Walgreens. It also operated under names like Fox-Stanley Photo Products Inc. after a 1961 merger and was sold to Kodak in 1986. The Fox Photo name eventually faded after further sales and rebranding, notably to Wolf Camera in 2001.