Suellen Ocean's Blog
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Jul.16.2012
Archeologists researching the Greek Bronze Age have studied skulls and their findings show that deaths were mostly from malaria. Today we know that mosquitoes transmit malaria but before that was known, people thought it was caused from bad air. "Mal" is French for bad and "aire" of course is the...
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Jul.10.2012
Many of the Jews that were forced to leave Spain had previously (for their safety and security) converted to Christianity. Many knew quite a bit about how to pose as a Christian and probably even more knew how to keep their mouths shut. Perhaps it was during such trying times that the old saying, “...
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Jul.10.2012
Believe it or not when someone receives a bachelor's degree you can imagine the aroma and envision the sight of bay leaves from the tree, laurus nobilis. Ancient Romans made crowns from the springs of bay laurel for the winners of their athletic events. Today, receiving a bachelor's degree...
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Jul.10.2012
The Persian word pardes means "garden" or "paradise". Pardes were designed by rulers as places of leisure and relaxation and large areas were planted with trees and used to maintain wildlife for hunting preserves. The Greeks translated pardes incorrectly so we now use the word "park". The Old...
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Jul.05.2012
Ancient Chinese legend has Cannabis Sativa as the solitary plant that God gave humans to fulfill their every need. Cannabis has been grown for thousands of years; archeological digs reveal the plant was etched upon pots. It is no wonder cannabis was revered. Hemp oil was used in lanterns and the...
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Jul.05.2012
Picture this: a walled garden with the home inside the walls. In this garden were planted pomegranate trees, succulent fig and date trees. While the bright red blossoms of the pomegranate grew into luscious full seeded scarlet fruits, the grapes twisted around the arbor creating shade from the...
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Jul.05.2012
Back in the day ... when Robin Hood and his men were roaming Sherwood Forest they were also doing a lot of dyeing - that's dyeing, not dying. The merry men dyed their clothes green using a plant called woad. But the smell was so offensive that Queen Elizabeth demanded they not come nearer to the...
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Jul.04.2012
I asked a Jewish friend if she had known any Arabs named David. "No", she said, "too much of a king of the Jews name." Good point. There are Christian Arabs but David is not a common name although it is mentioned in a list of masculine Arabic names as Da'ud or Dawud, meaning "beloved" or in the...
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Jul.03.2012
The barring of Jews from guilds (established by shopkeepers to protect against competition) made it impossible for Jews to have storefronts. This exclusion prolonged the history of the traveling Jewish trader who peddled goods door to door from a knapsack or wagon. “Protected” Jews though,...
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Jun.27.2012
We have a period in history where European Colonists along the Atlantic coast, on occasion, lived peacefully with their Native American neighbors. The European men (especially Trappers) sometimes took Native American women for their wives. A Native American woman, who spoke in her native tongue and...
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Jun.27.2012
Because Spanish and Portuguese “New Christians” or “Conversos” became involved in slave trading and massive agricultural businesses that found their way onto American shores, someone with Southern ancestry might follow history back far enough to find Jewish ancestry. Remember, not all but many of...
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Jun.26.2012
Mosque (also spelled Mosk) is an Islamic place of worship. Similar to a church or synagogue, it is used by Muslims who believe in the faith established by Mohammed. A minaret is a slim tower attached to a mosque and is surrounded by one or more balconies, from which the summons to pray is spoken....
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Jun.26.2012
As genealogists our task is to reach into the past. We find the father then we want the father's father but eventually we reach silence. Who were these people? One way to decipher who your ancestors were is by analyzing their names. The surnames (and first names) of ancestors will not unequivocally...
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Jun.25.2012
Historians and genealogists will tell you that parents gave their children Biblical names because that was the fashion during the 1700 and 1800s. I always accepted that but today I am not so sure. I think we should reopen our family albums and look deeper into the meanings in our family trees and...
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Jun.22.2012
Speaking in the "vernacular" means to use the jargon of a particular place or region, using the language of the people who reside there. Say for instance a young man travelled from a village in Africa and visited California. On his return home if he used common slang words he learned while hanging...
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About Suellen
Historical fiction writer Suellen Ocean has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sonoma State University. The former radio personality has a "knack for storytelling and for making characters come alive." Although the stories are rather sexy and string romances...
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Suellen’s Favorite Books
"Rembrandt’s Jews", by Steven Nadler, "Clan of the Cave Bear", by Jean M. Auel, "The Red Tent", by Anita Diamant