The Alvin Sun (Alvin, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 55, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 28, 2018 Page: 1 of 10
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As voters head to the polls at the Alvin Library, plenty of campaign signs greet them, encouraging those casting ballots to vote for a variety of candidates running for
(Photo by David Rupkalvis)
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President Donald Trump addresses a huge crowd at Toyota Center on Monday night during a rally for the re-election of Senator Ted
See TRUMP, paj ; 10 Cruz. With over 100,000 having RSVP’d, attendance was record-breaking. (Photo by Joshua Truksa)
Frank Billingsley, right, talks to the crowd at the Alvin Library League meeting, describing his long
See FAMILY, paj ? 2 journey to find his natural parents. (Photo by Joshua Truksa)
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Interest in the mid-term
elections seems to be strong after
voters turned out in big numbers
during the first few days of early
voting.
The turnout was so strong
during the opening day of voting
Monday at the Alvin Library that
police were called to assist with
crowd control.
On the opening day, 1,245
voters cast ballots at the Alvin
Library and another 360 voted at
three Alvin ISD schools that
opened for two hours to
encourage early voting.
In Manvel, 745 voters cast
ballots at the Manvel Courthouse
Annex, while in Pearland more
than 4,000 votes were cast at
three polling places.
While there is strong interest
in the state and federal elections,
especially the U.S. Senate race
between incumbent Republican
Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke,
from a local standpoint, voters
are also having a say on the
Alvin ISD bond and tax
ratification election.
In the first day of voting, close
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Meteorologist describes his journey while looking for his family
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How many of you know the
weekend you were conceived?
This question, asked jokingly
by KPRC Channel 2
meteorologist Frank Billingsley,
was only one of the many
sentences met with laughter as
he spoke to the Alvin Library
League on Oct. 23.
Billingsley visited with the
Alvin Library League at First
United Methodist Church to
give a presentation about his
personal testimony that he has
laid out in a book entitled
“Swabbed and Found.”
Billingsley decided to write a
book about his experience after
everyone who heard it suggested
the idea.
“How many of you have been
told that in your life? ‘You
should write a book.’
“You get about page three and
you’re like, ‘Meh, let’s go to
Starbucks,”’ Billingsley said.
Billingsley grew up knowing
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Donald Trump.
People of all ages from all
across Texas made the ourney
to Houston to see Trump.
Seventeen-year-olds Spencer
Reynolds and Dylan Dodds
came from North Richland Hills
and volunteered to help with the
rally. Dodds said they’re trying
to get the young vote and
encourage more people to vote
Republican.
“My reason is because my
generation isn’t just Democrat,
they’re Socialist, Communist,
too, so it’s kind of scary to see
that being in school and they’re
wealing hammer and sickle and
it’s just — it’s kind of
threatening,” Reynolds said.
Monday’s rally was so big that
a tailgate was held outside of the
stadium and Trump’s speech
was displayed on large television
screens for those who were
unable to enter the venue.
“It's true what they say:
Everything in Texas is just
bigger. Right? It's bigger,”
Trump said to a cheering crowd.
Trump said that despite
friction between himself and
Cruz during the 2016 presidential
campaign, “nobody has helped
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Turnout strong as voters begin to make their choices
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Al vi nites, Pearlanders and
others flocked to the Toyota
Center on Monday night to take
part in one of the largest Make
America Great Again rallies.
Trump traveled to Houston to
support the re-election campaign
of incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz.
The number of people at the
event was amazing.
People began lining up and
camping outside the stadium on
Sunday to ensure their spot after
100,000 people registered free
RSVPs to enter the 18,000-seat
venue.
Alvin City Councilman Joel
Castro arrived at 10 p.m. and
found fellow Alvinites Marianne
Stavinoha and Billie June Dixon,
as well as other residents of
Brazoria County. Castro said a
lot of the people from Brazoria
County had by chance ended up
together in line.
By 1:45 p.m. Monday, Castro
and Pete Olson’s Regional
Community Relations Director
Leisha Sophia D’Angelo were
right in front of the doors. They
got a front-row spot on the floor
just feet away from President
Billingsley said his main
initial inspiration was curiosity,
humorously comparing the
question of “Why care?” to
“Who shot JR?” and “Are there
really UFOs?” He said as a man
who initially studied to become
a journalist, and later became a
scientist with meteorology,
curiosity is an important
character trait. He said he loved
his adopted parents and wouldn’t
trade his upbringing with them
for the world, but that curiosity
was still an itch to scratch.
Billingsley took a DNA test
through FamilyTreeDNA in
2014, which matched him with a
Mormon woman whom the
DNA indicated was his first
cousin, once removed. Through
“good old-fashioned genealogy,”
Billingsley discovered that the
woman was actually his
mother’s double second cousin.
“So we have a case of, you
marry my sister and I’ll marry
yours!” Billingsley said to
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he was adopted, but had never
pursued finding his biological
family until 2013, when he saw
a press release from
FamilyTreeDNA about a man
who took a DNA test and
discovered his biological mother
had died only one year earlier
and had lived just 2 miles away.
Billingsley was born in
Arkansas in 1960 to parents
whose identities remained
unknown to him until 2014.
Through a combination of
genetic and traditional
genealogy, he was able to
identify his biological parents
and reunite with his still living
father.
“Just because you have DNA,
that cannot confirm a
relationship, but good old-
fashioned genealogy and where
people came from is still
important,” Billingsley said as
he displayed a chart
demonstrating all the different
biological relationships that
certain levels of shared DNA
can mean.
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The Alvin Sun (Alvin, Tex.), Vol. 128, No. 55, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 28, 2018, newspaper, October 28, 2018; Alvin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1251099/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Alvin Community College.