DNA, Genealogy, and Political Entities

One of the most visible and recognized results of taking a genealogical DNA test is the "Ethnicity Estimate." These ethnicity results are widely promoted by the various genealogical DNA testing companies as a benefit of taking their DNA tests. For some of those who take the tests, the results are surprising. To those of us who have been doing genealogical research for years, the results can also be surprising but in a different way. 

One of the most ways of reporting the results of a genealogical DNA test is to give a list of countries such as the one shown above in these results from Ancestry.com. Interestingly, the method of reporting uses currently established political entities for the percentages rather than anything that can remotely be classified as ethnicity. In the example above from my own Ancestry.com test, I am shown to have 10% of my "ethnicity" from Norway and another 10% from Sweden. In all my years of doing genealogical research, I have never found one verified ancestor going back many generations from either country. My Scandinavian ancestors came from Denmark. The map outlines cover only a tiny portion of the map currently part of Denmark. That country is not mentioned.

68% of my ethnicity is identified as "England, Wales & Northwestern Europe." Likewise, the general outline of the space marked on the map for that grouping includes the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and a tiny part of Switzerland. Again referring to my extensive genealogical research, I do find generations of my family from England, Scotland, and Wales who ultimately immigrated to America and ended up in the United States but I have yet to find one ancestor who originated in any of the other countries covered by the map outline. 

Now let's suppose that I was a novice genealogical researcher and I believed the Ethnicity Estimate that I have Norwegian and Swedish ancestry. Is there a possibility that I would waste my time trying to find my nonexistent Swedish and Norwegian ancestors? 

What about this historical fact. Both of these currently existing political entities were part of the Kalmar Union between 1397 and 1523 or for 126 years. Here is a quote from a Wikipedia article entitled, "Kalmar Union."

The Kalmar Union (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish: Kalmarunionen; Latin: Unio Calmariensis) was a personal union in Scandinavia that from 1397 to 1523 joined under a single monarch of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden (then including most of Finland's populated areas), and Norway, together with Norway's overseas dependencies (then including Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Northern Isles). The union was not quite continuous; there were several short interruptions. Legally, the countries remained separate sovereign states, but with their domestic and foreign policies being directed by a common monarch.

Obviously, the history of this part of the world is far more complicated than the simplistic political designations we have today. Would it help our reference to Sweden as an ethnic entity to know that during the 17th Century that Sweden took control of the entire Baltic region including the northern part of Germany and the modern Baltic states? The Swedish Empire collapsed when in the 17th Century, Russia took over those parts of Sweden known as the Baltic states.

Later in the history of this region, in the early 19th Century, Sweden lost all claims to areas outside of the Scandinavian Peninsula but in 1814, Sweden gained control of Norway from Denmark and Norway was part of Sweden until 1905. Sweden is currently a member of the European Union.

The history of each of the countries listed as part of my Ethnicity Estimate is equally, if not more, complex. Whatever the definition of "ethnicity" it does not fit comfortably into any of the present or past political boundaries of these and any other country of the world. For example, as a resident of the United States of America, what is my ethnicity? Does the fact that I live in the United States imply any particular ethnic derivation?

Even more importantly, does the information in my "Ethnicity Estimate" help me understand my origin or my "roots?" Especially when I have no demonstrable ancestors from much of the area designated as the countries of my origin? What about the effect of the North Sea Empire? The North Sea Empire refers to the time between 1013 and 1042 when there was a union between the kingdoms of England, Denmark, and sometimes Norway. By the way, the reason why the Shakesperian play, Hamlet, takes place in Denmark is because that is where the original story used by Shakespeare as a basis for the play took place.

What the DNA testing companies are really saying when they give you an estimate that includes a present political entity is that in their database, you have a match with people who they identify as coming from the area included in those present politically define countries. The matches really have nothing to do with ethnicity at all. It would probably be more accurate to call the estimates "Geographical Estimate" rather than use the word "ethnicity" that implies some cultural or social connection to those areas.

For example, I am supposed to be ethnically from England (now commonly called the United Kingdom or the UK) My roots in England in some ancestral lines, go back 400 years. While in other lines, my English ancestors arrived in the United States in the mid-1800s. I have two ancestral lines that came to America by way of immigration to Australia although all of my Australian immigrant families were born in England. What is the ethnicity of my ancestors that have lived in America for 400 years? How long does my family have to live in America before they become Americans?

Seven of my eight great-grandparents were born in the United States. One was born in Denmark. Going back one more generation, seven of my great-great-grandparents were born in the United States, five in Denmark, 1 in Wales, and four in England. Why isn't the United States a place of origin listed in the Ethnicity Estimate even though the map shows my relatives coming from the United States? Doesn't the US have any ethnicity?

Importantly, what is the time period covered by the Ethnicity Estimate? How long do my ancestors have to live in American before becoming ethnically American?

As a final note in this post, couldn't Ancestry have made the same "Ethnicity Estimate" from looking at my family tree without referring at all to a DNA test?

Obsolete Technology Still Haunts Genealogical Research

In a recent class I taught at a local Family History Center, I got a question about transferring old genealogical data from a floppy disk. I have also had several conversations recently about the old Personal Ancestral File (PAF) program. These ancient relicts seem to have acquired a life of their own and continue to haunt us years after their utility and compatibility has been laid to rest.

The problem of the floppy disk is twofold. First, you have to find a floppy disk drive that will accommodate the disk; either 3.5 inch or 5.25-inch floppies. This isn't entirely impossible. There are inexpensive USB 3.5" floppy disk readers available online from Amazon.com and other suppliers. I cannot find a readily available 5.25" reader. The real problem is the operating system of the floppy disk and its format. On either a Windows or OS X device, the computer has to recognize both the format of the disk and the information on the disk. Fortunately, there are some paid services that will recover the data from these old formats. When you get to this point, the next issue is the format of the data. In other words, what program created the data on the disk? This is where Personal Ancestral File or PAF comes into the picture.

By the way, the New York Public Library has a post entitled, "Digital Archaeology: Recovering your Digital History" that explains, in detail, the challenges of recapturing the data from floppy disks. Links from this post are still active and there well may be some way to recapture the data.

Amazingly, PAF will still run on some Windows operating systems although the Mac version has long since ceased to operate. There are still two currently supported programs that will read PAF data: RootsMagic and Ancestral Quest. I am not aware of any other programs that still support PAF files.

OK, so there is a complicated and reasonably cost-effective way to recover the information (data) from these old disks assuming the disk media is not damaged. By the way, floppy disks were always prone to failure and were never that reliable.

The real question is what could possibly still be of value on the old media? Maybe a personal or family history? But what if the content is old genealogy files? I spent years of my life recording and correcting genealogical information from several of my ancestors and, over the years, I have also looked at a fairly large number of these floppy disk files brought to me by people who assumed the data was valuable. Almost without exception, all of the data from these old files is currently online in one or more of the large online genealogy programs. For example, researchers who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints usually submitted all of their discoveries to the Church so that the temple ordinances could be performed in the temples. Many of these submissions are a matter of record and still available in digital format and with a few exceptions have already been incorporated into the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. To a large extent, this old data was the root cause of massive amounts of initial duplication on the Family Tree.

Here's where we are today. There has been a vast increase in genealogical data online. It is very likely, unless the parent or other relative's research was being done in another country, the information is already duplicated online or can be duplicated by looking at the readily available online sources. The relatively small file sizes supported by floppy disks means that images and other larger files are not usually found on floppy disks. It may well be, however, that the information on the disk could be both unique and valuable. Before I discourage anyone from going through the process of trying to retrieve the data from a floppy disk, I would point out that there very well be valuable information on the disk and paying for the retrieval,

The History of the Development of Genealogical DNA: Part Thirteen: Privacy and DNA Testing

In my early years, I lived in a small town with a shared line telephone system. If you wanted to know the news of the day, all you had to do was pick up the phone receiver and listen to what was being discussed. Later on in life, I lived in Panama City, Panama. Parts of that city had an average room occupancy rate of about 50 people per room. Imagine 50 people sharing the same common room and using the same bathroom facilities. Some of the people I knew personally were slightly better off, they only had 15 or 20 people living in a one-bedroom apartment. When you think of people who live in comparable circumstances, your concept of "privacy" has to be affected. What does privacy mean to someone who is homeless or someone who lives in any kind of extreme poverty?

Privacy, as commonly expressed in the more affluent parts of the United States, is a very fluid concept. As a long time trial attorney, I often encountered situations where claims of "privacy" were merely a coverup for fraud and other illegal activities. During the last few years, I have had extensive contact with individuals suffering from dementia. I can assure you that there is little private about the life of a person in the last stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Now to the subject of DNA and privacy? What is and what is not private about genealogical DNA testing? There are estimates that over 26 million people have taken a genealogical DNA test from one of the major online genealogical DNA testing companies. See "More than 26 million people have added their DNA to four leading ancestry databases: report." I am pretty sure that is a low estimate. Ancestry.com, for example, has a Privacy statement about those who take or are going to take an Ancestry.com DNA test.  Here are a screenshot and a link to the Privacy page.

https://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/privacystatement

Here is a list of the kinds of data that Ancestry collects from its users.

• Account Information
• Credit Card/Payment Information
• DNA Kit Activation Information
• Profile Information
• User Provided Content
• Genetic Information
• Social Media Information
• Additional User Information
• Note about health-related information
• Your Communications
• Contests and Promotions
• Find A Grave Photos and Photo Volunteers
• Computer and Mobile Device Information
• Information from Cookies and similar technologies
• Information shared through social media features
• Information from your use of the Service
• Information from Public and Historical Records
• Information from Third Parties

What is left to know? Once your DNA test results are known, you are also quickly embedded into a particular family and even your health and economic standing can be very specifically identified. 

Another interesting fact is that you are dropping samples of your DNA across the world everywhere you go. For example, what about the gold mine of DNA samples from the gum left on the bottoms of tables and chairs? We used to have big projects to clean the gum off the chairs in our church building. If you are losing your hair or getting a haircut, you are leaving a lot of DNA around the places you visit. You can read about any number of criminal cases that have been solved based on DNA from a tissue thrown in a garbage can. 

Again, what are we talking about when we use the term "privacy" in conjunction with genealogical research? It is fundamental law of privacy that the dead do not have any. Once you die, there are only extremely limited claims about your life that can be claimed to be private. On a recent trip to Europe, I found that it was not uncommon in public restrooms that female workers were present cleaning the male restrooms while being used by the male patrons. I don't know how that would go over in the United States but it points out that privacy is a cultural issue. 

Clearly, what you or I believe to be our private affairs depends on the circumstances and cultural background. Of course, so far I haven't even mentioned social networking. I can go on Facebook right now and find death notices, babies born, details of extensive medical operations, travel details, birthdays, details of peoples daily activities, and an endless stream of other daily details. Remember HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)? My wife can't have access to my medical information without my permission but you can read more than you want to know on Facebook. 

Clearly, as a culture, we need to redefine what we think is private and what is not. Genealogical DNA testing is just one more issue in the overall trend. 

See these previous posts:

Part One: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-history-of-development-of.html
Part Two: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of.html
Part Three: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_5.html
Part Four: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_7.html
Part Five: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_10.html
Part Six:  https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_14.html
Part Seven: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-history-of-development-of_19.html
Part Eight: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-history-of-development-of.html
Part Nine: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-history-of-development-of_11.html
Part Ten: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-history-of-development-of_16.html
Part Eleven: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-history-of-development-of.html
Part Twelve: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-history-of-development-of.html

Expanded Commentary on the Rules of Genealogy: Rule Five

Here are the Rules of Genealogy.

• Rule One: When the baby was born, the mother was there.
• Rule Two: Absence of an obituary or death record does not mean the person is still alive.
• Rule Three: Every person who ever lived has a unique birth order and a unique set of biological parents.
• Rule Four: There are always more records.
• Rule Five: You cannot get blood out of a turnip. 
• Rule Six: Records move. 
• Rule Seven: Water and genealogical information flow downhill
• Rule Eight: Everything in Genealogy is connected (butterfly)
• Rule Nine: There are patterns everywhere
• Rule Ten: Read the fine print
• Rule Eleven: Even a perfect fit can be wrong
• Rule Twelve: The end is always there.

This post is part of a from time-to-time series expanding on each of the Rules of Genealogy. I'm now at Rule Five. Quoting one of my earlier blog posts:

Granted, this Rule is an old saying usually applied to collecting debts. But I find it is very much applicable to genealogy. I would apply this Rule to all those genealogists who think that they are related to royalty or famous people simply by listing them in their pedigree. Really, I talk to to people all the time who are so proud of their royal heritage when they have done nothing at all to document or prove an actual connection. On the other hand, I talk to people all the time that are convinced they had an ancestor that was a Pilgrim, a Revolutionary War veteran, an Indian Princess or some other connection, without the slightest documentary evidence to support the belief. I think we need to remember the source for a blood connection.

What do blood and turnips (well turnips at least) have to do with genealogy? I find that many people justify their involvement in genealogical research out of the desire to be related to someone famous or at least seemingly important. In fact, much of the early history of genealogy was about providing important-looking pedigrees to people with aspirations of royal lines. You can read about in one of the only books on the subject:

Weil, François. Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674076341.

Illustrious or famous ancestors are just that; ancestors. Of course, it is possible to have an illustrious heritage and be motivated by your predecessors' accomplishments and it is also true that we literally inherit certain traits and characteristics from our ancestors. It is also true that much of Western European history as it spilled over into America was about the conflict between classes that were based on birth. I do not think that genealogy should be the basis of establishing a privileged class. I happen to take seriously that part of the second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence which states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

Many people may not be aware of the dark side of genealogy called eugenics. Here is a definition from Google:

The science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis. 

If you think eugenics was something confined to Germany, you need to read the following short article:

“America’s Hidden History: The Eugenics Movement | Learn Science at Scitable.” Accessed September 15, 2019. https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444/.

Ultimately, the ideas that came from the eugenics movement were used to justify mass killing based solely on a person's ancestors.

My rule about blood and turnips is aimed at debunking the concept that individual worth can be based on the identity of a person's ancestors. Hence my reaction when people start telling me about their royal ancestors.

Genealogy and Genealogical Records in India

From time to time I get inquiries about genealogical research in India. Yes, there are some records available online, but no they are not particularly easy to access and compared to the approximately 1.37 billion people who live in India, there are relatively few genealogical records that are easily accessible online. FamilySearch.org has some records but compared to the total population of the country, the coverage is not extensive. You can see a list of the available records from FamilySearch for the entire country on the FamilySearch.org India page.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/location/1927063?region=India

Most of the records available on FamilySearch for India are in the Catalog but do not show up in the indexed historical records and are available only as images. There are hundreds of records listed in the FamilySearch Catalog and they are summarized on the India page shown in the image above. Some of these materials that are available are only accessible while in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. You will also find that most of the records are images only and that there are no translations so unless you can read the script and know the language, they will be of little assistance. Here is an example.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQX-Z98F-N?i=32&cat=2574543

There are a few records on Ancestry.com, but these are mainly records of the English occupation of India. The Ancestry.com catalog presently shows 21 collections but many of these collections are general and not specific to India. There are also relatively few records on MyHeritage.com but a search for India in the MyHeritage family trees shows over 700,000 entries.  It is entirely possible that you could connect to a relative in India using MyHeritage.com.

Here is a screenshot of the Ancestry.com page for India:

If you look at the population of India and then look at the number of records in the collections, you can see that the coverage is very small. Probably, the best place to start is with the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki for India Genealogy.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/India_Genealogy

You will find that many of the records listed for India are actually from the British occupation but it is profitable to start looking at all the resources available as listed in the Research Wiki. You can also start doing a general online search for India genealogical records or India genealogy and find a number of entries. While searching for genealogical records, you will soon discover that many of the references will lead you to the British occupation of India.

One place to start looking for records from India is the National Archives of India.

http://nationalarchives.nic.in/

There are also some online records from the National Archives of India.

http://nationalarchives.nic.in/content/online-records-national-archives-india

India has a web-portal for access to the records online called the "Abhilekh patal"

https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/

This website includes a link to a "5 Step User Guide." Here is a screenshot from the guide.

The Guide can be downloaded.

The BBC ran part of a series on "Tracing your Asian roots on the Indian subcontinent." Quoting from that website:

Before The National Archives were set up in India, there was a system of keeping manuscript records which were created by Hindu rulers, sultans, Mughal and other Muslim rulers. 

Records may be available in the form of palm leaf, bark, parchment, silk, leather and cloth manuscripts. Records created by the Indian local rulers, Hindu temples, Islamic shrines, gurdwaras, and waqf authorities (the Charitable Islamic Trust) may be kept at the local state libraries, museums and relevant State Archives. 

These documents can give a certain degree of family history information on elite families and higher-ranking officials who served the local rulers. 

In 1891 (during the British period), the National Archives of India was established as the Imperial Record Department in Calcutta. Since 1947, the National Archives of India has established four regional offices at Bhopal, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Pandicherry.

The BBC article cited above is helpful in outlining where other records may be available.

There is an IndiaGenWeb page that can also link you to some resources.

https://www.worldgenweb.net/india/

You can explore more from this page but the links become rather circular.

There are additional possible resources on Wikipedia.org although the references will link you to other websites. There are quite a few records from British India, see "Online Databases & Records for Research in British India." Many of these British records are also available on FindMyPast.com.

The Ultimate Digital Preservation Guide, Part Thirteen: Damage

Damaged book from the Maryland State Archives

Document damage is inevitable. Even if the documents are not subject to war, floods, earthquakes, or other types of disasters, time itself is the cause of damage. The archival term for the tendency of physical objects to deteriorate is "inherent vice." This is due to the fundamental instability of the components of which they are made, as opposed to deterioration caused by external forces. See Wikipedia: Inherent vice. You can find a relatively complete list of archival and record terms in the following from the website of the Society of American Archivists.

“A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology | Society of American Archivists.” Accessed September 13, 2019. https://www2.archivists.org/glossary.

Here is a quote from the above-cited Wikipedia article describing the issues:

The term is broadly used in archival practice to recognize the material constraints of preservation activities. For example, many kinds of paper have acid in them that makes them chemically unstable. Over time, the acid will eat away the text on the page and cause paper to turn yellow or brown and become brittle. As the acid continues to break down the cellulose fibers, the paper disintegrates. In the world of philately, the adhesive on the back of stamps is both an inherent vice—any exposure to moisture will compromise their ability to be preserved—as well as the purpose for which the stamps were made. In the case of film, an example of inherent vice is the innate chemical instability of cellulose acetate film, which can result in the degradation known as "vinegar syndrome" due to the distinctive vinegar odor it produces.

Slowing this tendency of objects to self-destruct requires an understanding of how materials interact. This includes not just an understanding of the intrinsic qualities of the materials themselves, but also the way that they affect and are affected by the other materials that they come into contact with. For example, leather and metal are two materials which are frequently used in combination with each other, but react to each other over time to cause corrosion on the metal. 

The presence of deteriorating agents is a problem which can be tempered by selecting archival quality materials, such as acid free paper. However, frequently the objective of manufacturers is to make a process (i.e. papermaking, book binding, etc.) faster and easier; the longevity of the items they produce is not their primary concern.

In short, physical preservation is a never-ending challenge. What this means for anyone wishing to preserve physical object (including paper-based records) is that preservation needs to be proactive. The longer you wait before taking action, the more serious the problems become.

The loss of information due to both external causes and document deterioration is substantial and ongoing. Once the documents are damaged, the cost of restoration can run into the hundreds of dollars per page. The process involved includes cleaning, deacidifying, pressing. frame removal, debacking or dematting, mounting to archival material, mold treatment, retouching, and significant tape removal. See ACA Paper Restoration for an example.

The Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress lists the following format types that are a concern:

• Books
• Paper
• Photographs
• Scrapbooks and Albums
• Newspapers
• Comic Books
• Audio-Visual: Grooved Media, Magnetic Tape, and Optical Discs
• Audio-Visual: Motion Picture Film
• Asian Bindings

Here are some additional categories of objects:

• Dishes/Glassware/Silverware
• Firearms
• Furniture
• Jewelry
• Native American Items
• Natural History Specimens
• Textiles/Clothing/Uniforms
• Tools/Mechanical/Instruments
• Toys
• Works of Art

However, the list can go on with other types of physical objects and each type of object has its own peculiarities that mandate different methods of preservation. For more information see the following websites:

“Connecting to Collections Care Online Community.” Accessed September 13, 2019. https://www.connectingtocollections.org/.

“Saving Your Treasures | Netnebraska.Org.” Accessed September 13, 2019. http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/television/saving-your-treasures.

For a more extensive list see the Saving Your Treasures Resources list. 

The amount of information online about preservation reflects the seriousness of the issues involved. That is why this is an almost endless topic for a blog post series.

Part One: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide.html
Part Two: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_10.html
Part Three: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_14.html
Part Four: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide.html
Part Five: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_10.html
Part Six: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_25.html
Part Seven: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_29.html
Part Eight: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide.html
Part Nine: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_13.html
Part Ten: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_16.html
Part Eleven:https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide_25.html
Part Twelve: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-ultimate-digital-preservation-guide.html

Spam Comments: Don't tell me how great my blog is

I do not get a lot of valid comments to my blog posts. I have to say something fairly controversial to get any comments at all. But I do get several spam comments a week. All my received comments are moderated and all the spam comments are deleted. It is really easy to spot the spam comments because they invariably start out by telling me some old blog post is well written or informative or whatever. For example, here is the initial wording from a spam comment: "Informative. It’s not easy to get such quality information online nowadays. Great going."

Real comments rarely say anything about the writing, they comment on the topic. Many of the spam comments are simply a sales pitch for some product or service. I invariably delete all these comments before they are published.

So, if you want to comment, make your comment specific to the blog post. If you want to tell me I am doing a good job or not, just post to my Facebook posts and say anything you want to say. Remember, if you use abusive language on Facebook, you might get banned from the website. I have had a very few comments on Facebook in that category.