In a message dated 5/28/2007 11:45:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
jdamewood(a)cox.net writes:
So
evidently there was a "non-paternity event" of some sort in there. And
now I am trying to come to grips with not actually ever having been a
Carter-genetically anyway.
Please don't let this "non-paternity event" make you feel like you are not a
"real" Carter family member. Sometimes people get too hung-up on the surname
thing. If your ancestor was a Carter then that was his name. It doesn't
matter if he got the name from his mother or from his father or from the clear
blue sky. He was just as much a "real" Carter as anybody else with the name.
Surnames were not handed down from the heavens by ancient gods nor are they
encoded into the chemistry of our genes. All it takes for a surname to be
"real"
is for it to be used.
Lots of famous people use (or have used) "pen names" or "screen names"
or
adopted names.
Former President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III. The Clinton
name came from his step-father, Roger Clinton. Mark Twain was Samuel
Langhorne Clemens. Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson.
I once worked with a man who had a very unusual surname and one day I
commented on it. He said when his ancestors passed through Ellis Island and gave
their surname, the clerk told them that was too common a surname and told them
they had to change it to something less common. The clerk picked something and
wrote it down on their immigration papers and that became their new family
surname.
Personally, I don't like the word "non-paternity". It sounds like they are
claiming that the baby didn't have a father. Unless someone is claiming a case
of spontaneous cloning (which to my knowledge has not yet been medically
verified in humans), then the baby did have a father! But like the old saying
goes, there's a world of difference between a father and a Dad.
Cheryl
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"The possibility of a thousand blooms is in one seed."
"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."
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