Families

Pity the poor desk clerk at one Marina del Rey hotel. Sixty guests, all named Gerstenberger, are spending the week there after converging on Los Angeles as part of an unusual attempt to trace their ancestry back 800 years. It's the fourth time that the Gerstenbergers' "World Family Reunion" has united Gerstenbergers from Europe and North America. About 90 Gerstenbergers attended the first one, which was staged in the tiny hamlet that started it all: Gerstenberg, Germany.

The father fell to his knees, weeping. The mother quietly buried her face in her hands. The 17-year-old boy stood upright and motionless -- whether out of shock or stoicism, no one knew. Christian Norris, who had just returned to China for the first time since he was adopted by an American eight years ago, didn't know what to think. The interpreter stood quietly on the sidelines waiting for what seemed an eternity, the only sounds were the sobs and the clicking of cameras that filled the room.

Mike Campbell sat and watched the flames. The 76-year-old Zimbabwean farmer desperately wanted to help. But you can't fight a fire with a walking stick. So the fierce, proud man who had spent so many years fighting for his land was forced to stand by as his family used green branches to fight the blaze burning toward his daughter's home. "It's a terrible feeling when you stand there, helpless. I can't really move very fast," said Campbell, who never really recovered after being beaten by thugs loyal to President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's election violence in June 2008.

Woodstock, Stonewall, Chappaquiddick. Monty Python, President Nixon, Golda Meir. "Midnight Cowboy," "The Brady Bunch." The moon landing. No matter how you measure it, 1969 was an extraordinary year. The sun rose and set on the Manson murders and the exposure of My Lai, but also over "Abbey Road" and John and Yoko's famous "bed-ins." More important, perhaps even most important, it was the year of "Sesame Street." There is no medium more powerful or ubiquitous as television and there is no television show more iconic or revolutionary than "Sesame Street."

The bride wasn't the only one wearing a gown. An intensive care unit at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center was the scene Saturday morning of a wedding designed around the bride's bedridden father, hospitalized since early July with a rare neuromuscular disorder. When Janette Villalobos, 20, realized that her father, Johnny, would not be able to attend her planned backyard wedding and barbecue in San Dimas, she and fiance Michael Arroyo decided to take the nuptials to him. They felt some urgency because Arroyo, 26, a Navy corpsman stationed in Twentynine Palms, is scheduled to leave Oct. 6 for a 14-month deployment in Afghanistan.

Michael Jackson's estate is paying his mother more than $86,000 each month to cover her living expenses and those of the pop icon's three children, according to papers filed Thursday in probate court. The singer supported his mother, Katherine, 79, during his life and left her and his children the majority of his vast music empire in a 2002 will. Since it could take years to settle Jackson's affairs and fund the family trust that will support her and the children, estate administrators received court approval to pay Katherine Jackson a personal allowance and an extra amount for the support of the children.

On the eve of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the United Nations, the families of three young UC Berkeley graduates detained in that country while hiking pleaded for their release. "This is not a political situation at all, it's totally humanitarian," Patrick Sandys, cousin of detainee Sarah Shourd, said Tuesday. "We don't want it to get mired in the already difficult political situation between the U.S. and Iran. We just want our family members home." Shourd, 31; Shane Bauer, 27; and Joshua Fattal, 27, have been in Iranian custody since they allegedly crossed into the country July 31 while hiking through a mountainous area of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region.

Four relatives of Bernard L. Madoff who worked at his investment firm either knew about his epic Ponzi scheme or should have known about it, according to a lawsuit filed Friday by the government-appointed trustee liquidating the swindler's assets. The suit seeks to force Madoff's brother, two sons and niece to repay almost $200 million that they allegedly withdrew from the firm over the years to pay for luxury homes, swanky lifestyles and even a hair salon. The suit doesn't accuse the four -- Peter Madoff, the brother; sons Andrew and Mark; and niece Shana Madoff -- of direct involvement in Bernard Madoff's scheme.

After her son was shot and killed Sept. 20, Kathryn Harris was so consumed with grief she did not eat for days. "My arms and fingers are starting to take on a skeletal appearance," she said. "I can't eat and I can't sleep. And I cry." Kevin Harris, 21, had been sitting in his parked car in front of a music studio on the 3300 block of West 118th Place in Inglewood when he was fatally wounded, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about 40 minutes after the 8 p.m. shooting.

When Navy Lt. Cmdr. Bill Krissoff deployed to Iraq earlier this year, his assigned job was to serve as a physician at the military hospital in Anbar province. But he had a private mission as well: to pay homage to his oldest son, Marine Lt. Nathan Krissoff, killed by a roadside bomb outside Fallouja in December 2006. After his son's death, Krissoff closed his orthopedic practice in Truckee in Northern California and sought to enlist in the Navy medical corps and serve in a war-zone unit caring for Marines.