James Carr, the creator and owner of the Carr & Kerr website passed away last April.
This is very sad news because Jim provided so much to all of us in our search for
knowledge about our Carr & Kerr ancestors. Our ancestral search creates a bond that
makes us all family. Jim had been ill for some time, so he was no longer able to keep the
Carr & Kerr website up to his high standards. I am hopeful the site can be maintained
as a legacy to Jim and for continued use by those seeking to learn about their Carr
ancestry. Jim continued the excellent service provided by Joe Carr in the early days of
the internet.
Unfortunately I only learned about this when one of his children posted on the Carr
Genealogy Facebook page recently. To even learn about Jim's passing is unusual
because most often all contact simple ends and we never know. I want to take the
opportunity to say it is our responsibility to let our families know what we want done
about all the ancestral information we have gathered and especially the genetic results
we've obtained through DNA tests. Who, if anyone, should be contacted. What they
chose to do is up to them of course. But, we make many friends through our family history
search, they will miss us as well.
The DNA haplotypes of many of the early participants in the Carr Family DNA Genealogy
Project have been removed from the project, perhaps lost for all time, by family members
who perhaps do not understand what these tests are about or share a passion about their
family ancestry. They can only know the importance of these tests if we tell them, which
is often hard because they may not share our passion. Only we can tell get our relatives
to understand that these tests are not a threat to them, that there is no information that
shows anything bad about them nor can it be used to their disadvantage. Leaving the
information accessible by others unites our human family because others can learn about an
ancestral connection from the data. Sharing our genetic YSTR and mtDNA profiles with our
ancestral information becomes our legacy, our little part of the shared human experience.
I hope you are all in the best of health and that our relationship through these e-mails
and on the Carr Genealogy Facebook page will continue for a long time. I'd like to
think that people will have access to the information we have had long after we have left
this life and use it to establish connections with close relatives, as well as learn about
their ancestral past, through what we have all done . I hope you share my vision.
Our prayer for God to bless Jim's sole and welcome Jim to his presence, I'm sure
he will. And the same for all our members who have passed on already and whenever their
time comes.
Write anytime,
John Carr