more on me

I know it's recommended to post regularly and not allow long time gaps between entries, but I've just been so distracted by my research plus all sorts of things going on lately. Did I mention that my friend was here from Japan a week ago?  My friend who is a Buddhist nun and blind, that one.  It was good to see her, but too brief to do more than just bring each other up to speed on what's going on, and then she was gone again!  Also, I've begun taking some classes in classical Indian raga singing. Very nice!  I've been singing the ragas for years, but now I'm doing a little formal training.  It is magical music!

My research into my ancestry and heritage continues on.  I've recently gotten what I believe to be a very important lead, but I'm taking my time about following it up.  I'd love to write more, but I want to wait until I have more information.  So , please bear with me, as I go through this process.

Pica, I just want to add that I'm assuming the makeup kit held what we would call 'kohl' - I don't really know what it might be called in Morocco.  There is a small compartment for the powdered kohl, and a wooden implement for applying it to the eyes.  Is that what you mean by a kohl stick?  Dick, I don't know how far back they go - I will ask next time I go to the 'Sahara' - but I can tell you they're not making them as much anymore.  At least, Mustafa said he was unable to get more on his last trip.  They've changed to using glass now.  Here is a photo of the compact in the 'open' position.

Comments

[Pica]

When my sister and I were in Morocco in the 70s (she had a friend whose father was a tomato farmer there) we bought kohl and the sticks and boxes but the sticks were bone (or possibly ivory). I never mastered the art of putting the stick between your eyelids and pulling it outwards, simultaneously coating top and bottom "eyelines" - but we were assured that's how it was done. That stuff was gritty, though...

[kasturi]

hi pica,

yes, we had some of those bone/ivory sticks around, too, among my g-grandmother's things. I am given to understand that 'kohl' (if that's what it's called) has antimicrobial properties, and that's a large part of why it is used. They use it in India too, even on babies. In the old eyeliner and mascara I used in the '60's, it seemed like they were trying to synthesize that slightly 'gritty' texture. The new stuff doesn't seem to have it anymore - but man, is that new stuff toxic! Probably kohl is better for you!

[A. G.]

It's reminding me of Morocco in the early 40's

[kasturi]

Do you mean the cosmetic/kohl kit? I think the one we originally had - not the one in the picture which I only recently bought, and does indeed look 'refurbished' - but our original one was very very dark, almost black from oil, may only date to the 1920's. It seemed kind of unbelievable that we could have one from five hundred years ago!- even to me.

But since posting this in Oct 2007, I've become aware that the Delaware Moors now see themselves as mostly Native American mixed with European and African (my dna had 'higher than usual' levels of north african and east african matches), and it seems the emphasis on 'Moorishness' was partly based in family tradition, and partly based in affectation. It was simply part of their experience of themselves as a unique people, and they may have used African affectations to both 1) cover up their native american identity (many of the symbols were very similar, native americans couldn't own land but free african americans could) and 2) to perpetuate their own origin myth.

My grandfather belonged to the Moorish Science Temple in Philadelphia in the 1920's and I wonder now if his various African 'artifacts' dated from that period. They dressed in various Moorish costumes for their services, so he may have collected these items during that period. The Delaware Moors are recorded as having had Moorish touches around the house and in their personal attire at the turn of the twentieth century, and both my grandfather and great-grandmother would still have been alive then, and may have shared this interest.

[Anthony Oliver]

I am very much interested in locating my ancestors. Where do I look once I have come to the end of my sources?

[Kasturi]

hi anthony,

i'm not sure what you mean by 'come to the end of my sources' - ? Do you mean paper-trail, or that there are no longer any relatives you can talk to? I think that for me, it was just lucky that I had a lot of very vivid memories, and somehow I was 'on the trail' of my ancestors from an early age without knowing it. Then I was fortunate enough to be able to piece together a paper trail from the tiniest of scraps.

If you know the region your people were from, you might start by trying to learn something of the population mix at the time your ancestors lived there, and then start tracking through organizations, such as churches, clubs, benevolent societies, etcetera. Even with my own family, there are branches I have been unable to trace, so far. Sometimes we have to be content with that.

If you start with everything you know about yourself, have a sense of where in the US your ancestors lived, and familiarize yourself with the history of people like you in that area, then you can at least extrapolate something of who your ancestors were, even if you never get names and dates on a piece of paper for them. Our ancestors didn't exist in a vacuum, they were part of a group of people, even if that group was scattered. We're all part of the human race, and all the little groups just tell the tales of humanity as they've played out in particular times and places. That's all. So in a sense it doesn't really matter if we get the exact details. We're still a part of what happened.

Good luck, Anthony - I hope you find what you're looking for. ~ K