Jury Duty!

     It's been a while since I've been summoned for jury duty, but when I was, I was released immediately. It wasn't my goal to be released; I didn't go into the courtroom expecting to be let go. It just sort of happened. I'll tell you why.  It was in Gainesville, Texas. I had literally moved to the city less than a month before, and I had gone downtown to get my Texas license and to surrender my Oklahoma driver's license. That was on a Thursday. By next week, maybe even as early as Tuesday, I have a summons to be on next week's jury.  That surprised me, but I didn't question it; I just showed up as expected.

    I pulled into the parking lot of the courthouse, parked my car, and went inside. It was cold. I remember having to wear a jacket over my sweatshirt. I even wondered if I was allowed to wear a sweatshirt, or if the juries in Texas needed to be better dressed. I told myself that I'd be told, and if I needed to go home to change I would. That didn't happen. I walked through the doors, told the clerk upfront I was reporting to jury duty, and when I took my jacket off, she laughed.

    Not thinking much of it, I followed her directions, walked into the jury waiting area, and sat down. I think I smiled at a few people who were smiling back at me as well.  When the judge came into the room, before he gave the attorneys their instructions, he talked to us, telling us what it meant to be summoned and that he appreciated all of us for showing up. They had sent out 88 cards and expected 88 people, but only about 45 actually showed. They only needed 12 jurors and a couple of alternates, so the judge assured us that most of us would be excused. That's when he pointed at me.

    "Can you please stand up?" he asked me. I could tell he was pointing at me, so I didn't do the whole "Are you talking to me?" thing; I just stood up, smiled, and said, "Yes, your Honor."  He smiled, and he asked me if I realized I was in the Lone Star State. I answered in the affirmative, and I told him I had just moved, and in fact, I had just received my official Texas driver's license. He smiled again before asking me if, in fact, I was now a Texan, why I would wear an Oklahoma Sooner sweatshirt into the room? It was at that moment that I fully understood all the silent whispers and quiet laughter going on around me.

    "Oh, this!" I said proudly. "I live in Texas, but I'm not a Texan," I told him. He smiled, laughed, rocked back in his chair, which by the way really was a rocking chair, and he said, "Well, you are the first to be excused."  When he said it, I didn't think he was being funny; I knew he meant it. I picked up my jacket and my purse, and I left the room smiling. As I left I heard someone call out "Boomer", to which the judge let out an abrupt laugh and added quickly, "and now we have the 2nd person to be excused from duty."  

    I'm not saying it's always going to work, but I didn't have to serve on the jury. Although I will admit that if I had been questioned, I would have probably said something like, "You may not want me on the jury, as I fully intend on taking good notes and creating a novel based solely on this case."  I can do that; it's my First Amendment right. They have the right to keep me or not, but I do have the right to state the truth about my future plans. I hadn't written any of my books at that time, but I would have said it anyway.

    I wouldn't mind being on a jury, but for the most part, the cases I think I would be asked to listen to wouldn't be all that exciting. They'd be something like tax evasion or someone running a stop sign, causing an accident. It may be a dog bite case; in which case, I would side with the dog 10 times out of 10 anyway. If it were anything harder than those examples, I would absolutely take good notes and write about the case in my next novel. I may create a new novel just to accommodate the case and to give it my utmost attention.

    I went home that day and Googled reasons a judge may excuse you from jury duty, and no, wearing a particularly unwelcomed sweatshirt wasn't one of them, but I suppose the judge can do what the judge can do. I was just rather fascinated that he had a rocking chair and such an open and honest sense of humor. He seemed like a really fair man. He didn't want anyone from Texas to be judged by anyone who wasn't a true Texan. I get that.  My daughter was called the next week, but she had not yet turned 18, so they excused her before she even went down to the courthouse. Her plan to stay on the jury was thwarted. I think she would have really enjoyed herself; maybe too much.

    Again, according to Google, less than 5% of the people who are summoned to jury duty actually end up serving. Where about 12% of the population between the ages of 18-70 are summoned at least once in their lifetime, not many stick. If you ask me, they shouldn't allow anyone on the jury who isn't educated at least through high school unless they have served in the military. I don't think anyone nursing a baby, or who has a chronic illness or anxiety, should serve, and I think there are certain provisions already in place for this. It may come to the point that we start serving remotely -- Zoom juries. Gosh darn, that could be scary, but not as scary as AI juries.

    If you think about it, a defendant is to be judged by a panel of 12 of his/her peers. (Really?) What is a peer to a murderer? Does that mean the defendant needs to live in the same neighborhood as the jury? Are the jurors to have murdering habits in order to fully relate? I don't think so. I think the system may need an overhaul - with jury tampering, jury science, and jury deficiencies, we may need to rethink who is selected and how they are selected, instead of randomly summoning people and asking questions that can eliminate them.

    We need boundaries, criteria, and qualifications. I don't want a high school dropout with pedophilia tendencies to be on my jury if I ever run a red light and cause an accident. On the other hand, I want someone who doesn't think $10,000 is a lot of money if I sue someone who hit me! Those people are my peers - people close to my age, people with my political affiliations, life experiences, religious beliefs, and community understanding.  Juries are full of people who are forced to be there, hate being there, and are pissed that they can't check their social media all day. Those are not my peers! Maybe someday it will be rectified. 

Photo Credit: Pinterest.com

DNA Don't Lie (My Heritage DNA Kit)

        You know how you order something on Amazon, and then when it arrives later than you think it will, you often forget what you ordered? I do that all the time. It's like Christmas over and over again!  Well, that happened this week, but not as dramatically. I ordered a MyHeritage DNA kit for myself and for Laura. They were only $27, so why not? I did one in 2021, so about 5 years ago. My DNA hasn't changed, but they've gotten better at detecting all the people you may be related to, so I wanted to start fresh and see if it does, in fact, line up with the results I got in 2021.

     The one thing about My Heritage vs some of the others is that it goes back further, including my heritage from before Jesus! No, it's not that far back, but it seemed like it. I think they included the Vikings, making me primarily Scandinavian, and I had to do some study, research, and questioning to find out which of those Vikings came from the Scottish side of the Isles and which from the English side, or even the German side. It took a minute, and I paid a little extra. Still, it was finally estimated that from about 1100 A.D., our family tree(s) stemmed primarily from 48% Scots and 47% English, with literally 1-2% Italian. There was less than 1% of Iberian blood in there. (Rogue Viking) 

    Knowing what I know, I decided to do it again, to see if anything else pops up since they've been processing millions more people, and they may have more detailed information five years later.  One thing that MyHeritage sent me recently, after I put in my own name to research, was a little death notice of another Jude Stringfellow, and get this -- she was a woman!! A woman named Jude Stringfellow was born around 1643 and died in 1679 at age 36, likely from a stomach ailment. I wonder if it was her gallbladder. I had mine out in 2008, so I was 46. It just makes you wonder what people in those days went through that could have been cured today. It's a miracle any of us are living now. Those people, and those before them, went through so much more than we can ever imagine.

    My daughter Laura has never taken a DNA test. I told her I needed her to so I could prove I was her mother. After 36 years, I just want to know the truth. (😆) She looks like me, so there's that, but you just never know! Besides, I want her to see that she really does have Native blood running through her veins. It's not something she got from my side of the family, I can tell you that. I wish I could say it was me, but I don't have any. I live in the Native American capital of the world, and my grandfather was born in Oklahoma, but he was born to people who heard about the land run in 1889 and joined in on the fun of staking property. He was born in Indian Territory in November 1890, which doesn't count. He was just a white boy. 

    Laura's father's mother was, according to family rumor, more than or about 33% Native. I would love that for Laura. Depending on how much, if any, Native her paternal grandfather had, she could have 10-20% Native blood, which would be really cool. She's a paler sort of pasty white color, but it could happen! Her biological sister (my other daughter Caity) from the same parents is darker in color, showing more of her father's side when it comes to tanning and turning a pretty color of something other than burning red flesh. At least I gave her life and wiped her butt when she needed me to. I'm still living with her, but the arrangement is different. I depend on her more, to be honest - which is a great relief.

    We'll send the packages off tomorrow, and probably get our results back in about 10 days or so. They email them to you. I'll upload my results here. I'm not hiding anything. I told her I was going to dox her to the point of telling the world just how much, if any, Native blood she has. If it is true, she still wouldn't be allowed to register on the tribal rolls, but it's good to know she has more American blood than I do. She, too, like me, was born in Oklahoma City. That's funny, too, because I never really put too much thought into it, but my entire family was born somewhere other than Oklahoma City. I'm the only one who was born in the Sooner state other than my grandpa.

    My father was born in Frog Level, Arkansas. It was Sevier County, close to Horatio. His parents were born there, and so were his three brothers. My mother was born in Thrift, Texas, near Burkburnett, as was her mother and most of her siblings. My own siblings were born in Denver. My grandfather on my mom's side is the only one born in Oklahoma. He was born in Tishamingo. Since I'm now on the different family trees, I can find out where his parents were born, but I typically trace my father's side more often. I don't have to. I have two sides to my tree, just like anyone else. It's funny, though, most of my people from 2026 all the way back to about 1200 come from within 200 miles of each other, close to and crossing over the border between England and Scotland.  The Jude and John Stringfellow mentioned are not from my line.

    Our people, mom's and dad's side, didn't venture into London, or go further south than Yorkshire. Crazy. When you think about it. All those people came over this way, to the new world, and they came from virtually the same area, landed in almost the same location, migrated to virtually the same places, and then we all ended up here. If just one person in that entire string of people had chosen to marry or procreate with someone else, I wouldn't be here. It's one of those unexplained phenomena that you know was guided by God. There's no other way to see it -- not a chance.

    OK, so I'll send the package off tomorrow, and in about 7-10 days, I'll have the results. I'll let you know exactly what it says, and I will laugh my ever-loving head off if it comes back with a full 1% Iberian! I'll be like ...YEAH!!!  I doubt it, but it could happen. I have brown eyes, but they're not dark. They're more of a cinnamon color. Oh, to be exotic. 

Jude Stringfellow and her husband John are buried in Bunhill Field, on Chequer Alley. Now, it's near a very lively street in London, but at the time, it was a potentially large cemetery.  quite strange to see in the middle of a business section of the city. 

Photo Credit: MyHeritage.com (1st) and Google Maps for the gravesite photo.