Genealogy Can Put Your Kids Through College

Dick Eastman writes today of a Brighton College scholarship that's gone unclaimed because a candidate with the right name can't been found. It was funded by a bequest of Brighton graduate Major Charles Wakehurst Peyton, who placed one strict requirement on potential recipients.

Major Peyton's will stipulated that only a child with the "unhyphenated name of Peyton on their birth certificate" could claim the prize. [Link]

Further, the name must be spelled "Peyton"—no "Paytons" allowed.

It's not unusual for a school to offer scholarships to applicants who descend from a certain individual or couple (Harvard offers eleven), or from a certain class of individuals (the University of California once offered one to descendants of Warner Brothers employees).

Tracking down these cash prizes may be the best way to prove to one's family that genealogy is a worthwhile pursuit. The second-best way? Saving their lives.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Not Enough Chinese-American Indians in San Bernadino

From the San Bernadino (Calif.) Sun of Sept. 10, 2005:

Money stands unused

Scholarship stiffly limited

Jacob Ogles, Staff Writer

San Bernardino Valley College wants to give away a third of a million dollars to dozens of lucky students.

They just can't find the right ones.

So $333,000 in scholarship funds sit untouched, waiting for the ambitious community college student with the right family tree. Only those born in the United States and claiming Chinese and American Indian descent, and who are pursuing an engineering degree, can lay claim to the prize.

Another wrinkle: The college doesn't have an engineering program.

"We want to give this money away," said college spokesman Paul Rubalcaba, "but we can't seem to find the right candidate."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

As it turns out, a student must be of Chinese or American Indian descent to be eligible. No word on whether candidates proving descent from both ethnic groups get twice the money.