What Is Meant By Descendant

[Jamie Swearengin]

Theevent welcomed over 160 descendants from across the United States and Puerto Rico representing presidential mansions, townhouses, country estates, plantations, and houses of worship, all of which were sites of historical enslavement. The convening also included descendants working to preserve and interpret burial grounds and battlefields where enslaved ancestors were buried or fought for collective freedom.

To qualify for the event the Descendants had to descend from Africans who were enslaved in the United States and organizers worked diligently to connect with descendants related to historic sites with histories of enslavement from Maine to Florida, west to Texas and across the water to Puerto Rico. All of the members of the organizing committee are descendants of slavery in what is now the United States or Puerto Rico. They deliberated extensively over whether to include descendants of indigenous people who had been enslaved or other peoples who had been forced into labor on account of their race or other identity markers like Indigenous people and Japanese and Japanese Americans in the United States.

On the first day of the convening, informal concurrent consultation sessions were held on genealogy, living history and interpretation, legal advocacy and preserving Black spaces. Attendees had the opportunity to interact and share with experts and each other, coming and going freely from one circle to another exchanging cards, stories and processes.

Other sessions that day included researching enslaved ancestors, cemetery preservation, and a leadership conversation about descendant communities and federal lands. Living historian and scholar Jerome Bias hosted a pie tasting at the welcome reception, which included classics such as sweet potato pie and new to some pies such as kushaw squash. These sessions were designed to give attendees best practices and examples that they could use within their own communities and sites.

Throughout the entire convening, descendants connected and commiserated, sharing advice, best practices and their experiences. The excitement was palpable, both from being in such a moving space, but also being among other descendants who shared the same passion and dedication to making sure their ancestors are honored and heard.

If you donated sperm to fertilize an egg of a person to whom you were not married, is that baby your child? What if you donated sperm to fertilize an egg of a person to whom you were married but you divorced before the baby was born? What if you donated sperm and that sperm was frozen. Your widow, after you died, used that frozen sperm to fertilize her egg after your death? Is that baby your child? Might it matter how long after your death the fertilization occurred? Some trust documents or state law may provide that the baby may have to be in gestation on your death, others might provide a specified time period following your death during which the baby would be considered yours.

Given the myriad of complications and nuances of all of this, perhaps trusts and other legal documents might consider holding the fiduciary, e.g., a trustee, harmless for any good faith determination of who is, or is not, a descendant.

Example: Consider all of the above, for example, in the context of a simple and realistic example. Your grandfather created a trust that benefits you and your descendants. Whether or not that person is considered your child could have profound implications on their financial well-being especially if the trust involved were quite large. It also may be that depending on the facts involved, there might be steps you can take to support or even assure that the child involved is in fact to be treated as your child or descendant under that trust.

[Note that as with so many definitions in estate planning documents what local law provides will be critical. State laws differ on many points and those differences will continue as the many states' courts grapple with new medical concepts and evolving social norms. Also, consider that it is not merely state statutes but court cases interpreting those statutes that will be relevant. That will make for a complex analysis in many cases].

A biological child shall not be treated as a child or descendant of any biological parent of the child or as a descendant of the ancestors of such biological parent if the child has been surrendered for adoption with the consent of such biological parent and the child's adoptive parent substitutes for the consenting parent under applicable state law.

A biological child born out of wedlock shall not be treated as a child of his or her biological parent who is a descendant of the Grantor, or as a descendant of such parent's ancestors unless and until the child's biological parents marry one another before the child attains eighteen (18) years of age.

Adoptions and marriages that are recognized under this Trust Agreement shall not affect prior distributions or other interests that have previously vested in possession, but they shall enable a person to receive distributions from or remainder or other interests in a trust still in existence. The descendants of a person who is treated as a child or descendant under this Article shall also be treated as descendants of such person's ancestors. The descendants of a person who is treated as not being a child or descendant under this Article shall also be treated as not being descendants of such person's ancestors.

As the above sample clause and comments illustrate, the interplay of modern medicine and determining who will be considered a descendant to inherit under your will or trusts is incredibly complex and there is a myriad of uncertainties. Further, those complexities and uncertainties will only grow as medical science advances. In how much detail will you be comfortable addressing these considerations? What might the forms a lawyer or online service you are using for your will or trusts provide? What costs will having these complex discussions with an attorney add to your estate plan? What might be done with existing trusts that have not addressed the circumstances that might arise?

"Fry lived in his ancestral home. He tripped into a cryogenic freezer for a few centuries. His previous home had gone; his grandson had established a new home which was then passed down through generations. He went to stay there, in his descendral home."

Given that the english dictionary follows english usage rather than defining it, and that in english it is often possible to deduce the meaning of a word without it being explained or looked up, if one were to write 'descendral', the reader would more than likely understand what is meant.

The incorporation of the theme of Afro-descendants in international human rights law is relatively new. Only 18 years ago, the issue was raised at the Regional Conference of the Americas held in preparation for the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in the city of Santiago, Chile in the year 2000.

This article aims to analyse the historical aspects of racism and racial discrimination against the Afro-descendant population, as well as the development of the theme of Afro-descendants in international human rights law in the Americas.

In recent years, international organisations and the majority of states in the Americas have made efforts to combat racial discrimination and promote the inclusion of the Afro-descendant population. These efforts have been significant, but not enough to end more than five centuries of discrimination and exclusion.

Within this context, this article aims to analyse the historical aspects of racism and racial discrimination against the Afro-descendant population, as well as the development of the theme of Afro-descendants in international human rights law in the Americas.

One could say that the historical evolution of the international protection of groups in situations of vulnerability can be divided into three periods: 1) the period of unsystematic protection; 2) the period of pre-systematic protection; and 3) the period of systematic protection.

It was in this context that, at the initiative of the United Nations at the international level and the Organisation of American States at the regional level, the period of systematic protection began.

The 1970s was one of the most intense decades in relation to racial discrimination. Some reprehensible incidents, such as the assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Bloody Sunday in Selma and the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, among others, made the news.

In 1978, the First World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination took place. Its declaration and plan of action confirm the essential fallacy of racism and the serious threat that it poses to friendly relations between peoples and nations. It also asserted that:

In 1983, the Second World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination took place, where racism was condemned once again. Also that year, the United Nations General Assembly established the Second Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, which lasted from 1983 to 1992. This was followed by the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, from 1993 to 2003. In its resolution on the Third Decade, the General Assembly urged all governments to fight against new forms of racism, such as xenophobia and related forms of intolerance; discrimination based on culture, nationality, religion or language; and racism resulting from official doctrines of racial superiority and/or exclusivity, such as ethnic cleansing. Also in 1993, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights named a Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

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