Free Republic

Descendants of victims of the Mountain Meadows massacre -- a sorrowful chapter in the history of the American West -- meet next month in Tulare to learn more about the tragedy's connection to Tulare County. The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation will be in town Sept. 10-12 because Tulare County was the destination of a wagon train that left Arkansas in 1857 -- but never arrived. They were headed here to join John Fancher, brother of wagon train captain Alexander Fancher... "They were on their way to their dreams," said Harley Fancher, a descendant. The wagon train made it into Utah...

Confucius, he has many descendants By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last Updated: 1:27am GMT 19/02/2008 More than a million people around the world have responded to an appeal for people who think that they are descendants of the Chinese sage Confucius. The appeal was made by Kong Deyong, a 77th generation descendant of Confucius who founded the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee and is based in the family's home town of Qufu, eastern China. Confucious: founding father of Chinese political and ethical thought Mr Kong, a senior member of the Confucius clan, fled to Hong Kong after the Cultural Revolution, when...

Squeezed between Burma and Bangladesh, 'descendants' of the Lost Tribes of Israel convert to Judaism By David Orr in Aizawl, Mizoram, NE India (Filed: 17/04/2005) Passover is around the corner and Arbi Khiangte is helping her aunt, Dovi, clean and redecorate her home for one of the most important feasts in the Jewish calendar. The house is next door to the Shalom Zion synagogue where Arbi's uncle, Eliezer, is the cantor. Like most buildings in Aizawl, the synagogue - a large, corrugated-iron structure - is perched precariously on a hillside with nothing but wooden stilts to stop it tumbling into...

When I was a child someone gave me a beautifully illustrated book of children's stories from around the world. My younger sister's favorite was "The Celestial Maiden" and she begged me to read it to her over and over again. In the tale a poor Japanese woman prays for a child. One day she finds a tiny maiden lying on a leaf in her garden. She takes the maiden into her home and cares for her, happy that her prayers have been granted. As nightfall approaches, the maiden reveals that she is a celestial princess who must return home before...

Attila descendants want recognition By Kate Connolly in Berlin (Filed: 12/01/2005) More than 2,000 Hungarian descendants of Attila the Hun, once described as the "Scourge of God", are demanding official recognition as an ethnic minority. "As a member of the European Union, Hungary should not be suppressing a minority," said Joshua Imre Novak, the group's self-appointed leader. Mr Novak has collected more than 1,000 signatures to pursue the group's claim through Hungary's parliament. Many experts dismiss the group's initiative as bogus, arguing that Hungary has no existing descendants of the barbarians who gave the country its name. Under Hungarian law,...

The Incredible Power of Choice “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NAS).After spending the greater part of my...

'Descendants of the Dragon' confirmed at the Liaohe River ValleyIn thousands of years, the Chinese people have been deeming themselves as "the descendant of the dragon" though there is no enough solid proof to support the statement. But in this year, with continually findings of dragons in archeological work at the Liaohe River Valley, the statement that the Chinese people are "the descendant of the dragon" is further confirmed. In thousands of years, the Chinese people have been deeming themselves as "the descendant of the dragon" though there is no enough solid proof to support the statement. But in this...