"Weekend Chat." All Members are invited. July 10-12

Question

This is an ongoing "Chat" post that can be added to throughout the weekend.  All members of WikiTree are encouraged to join in, especially first-timers!

 

 

Say Hello and introduce yourself... where are you from and what are your interests?

 

Leaders, Mentors, Greeters, Pilots - What tips can you share with us today?

 

What improvements can we make?

 

What do you enjoy most about WikiTree?

 

Do you have any stories to share about famous or notorius ancestors?

 

What projects are you involved in, and how are they going?

 

What's the weather been like in your neck-of-the-woods?

 

What did you do for fun when you were 18?

 

Do you have a unique pet, tallent, or hobby?

 

Got a good recipe, especially helpful if low calorie and/or quick?

 

... anything that you want to talk about!

 

 

Post answers here, comment on answers, up-vote things you like or agree with and have fun!  To receive notice when future Chats are posted, add Weekend_Chat to the list of Tags you follow.  You can edit your list by clicking on "My Feed" on G2G, then click to "add or edit".  Seperate words with and underscore.

Comments

My OCD just kicked in big time!! I've been fighting it for several days now trying to stay focused on a specific project on the Jesters. For some unknown reason, I got it into my head to check the Wikitree index for my Stephen Keys/Kees. I didn't find him, but I found who I believe to be his father from another researcher's work, that I had collected to attempt to prove or disprove. And guess what, there was no profile manager. Well, there is now. I'm not ready to go to the Keys yet so why did I do this? Now, I have a 400 page PDF of Teagues that a cousin gave me. 447 pages with about 40 of those pages being the documentation and sources that need to be keyed in to my db. Most of the info came from the Teague Family Association. Its like the ancestors are crowding me and saying WORK ON US!! ITS OUR TURN!!!

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Yes, I'm often sorry, that I don't have two brains and two sets of arms, so I could do twice as much research at once.

However, I don't think I'd find the extra set of feet and legs helpful. I have enough trouble tripping over myself with just two feet.

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We'd have to have 2 computers too.

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Yes, we would need two computers, but that's the easy part. I have three in the room with me.

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Jester,

Your right about that, one bag.  Has anyone every tried spaghetti sqash.  I did for the first time and its great, no calories.  You can bake or boil it, let it cool and then scoop it out.  It makes great Italian casseroles.  Its hard to eat like a regular spaghetti dinner but for casseroles its great.   Here I am still on FOOD, FOOD!

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At least y'all have a whole brain .... how about me, whose husband says that if I had half a brain I'd be dangerous?????

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Well, I wonder if I could split... would I get both left and right sides of my brain? I can get very creative in genealogy and the scary part is when that creativity pays out.

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I've had spaghetti squash, and you're right it is delicious, and goes ever so  lovely with tomato sauce.

Gaile, you gotta tell him, even if it does hurt his ego, that you have a whole brain, and several degrees. Break the news to him gently. Or on second thought, just let him keep thinking your all looks and less than half a brain.

Lynette, I think that scary creative part is called women's intuition.

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Riddle me this, please. Why did my lower case c & h quit working on WikiTree a while ago?  Cap C & H worked but not the lower case.  Tested on word doc, facebook, and another forum - all took c & h. Came back to WikiTree and no c  h.  Rebooted computer and now have c  h - but don't know if it was the reboot or that the odd glitch had quit.

As I read the profile I was working on, h  had stopped working quite awhile before I noticed - no h's for a whole paragraph before I noticed - will check the previous profiles, I've worked on today for missing h's

Other than the c h problem it is a wonderful, grey drizzly day here in NW Wash. We've had way too many hot sunny days for us rain lovers :D Life is good

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That's pretty bizarre, Patt. I just went and checked the profile I was working on. I've got c's and h's. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Answer 1

Hello Everyone, Hope all is well.

I've been dieting for several weeks, and I find I'm even more obsessed with food now than I was before.

I'd love to hear about everyone's favorite recipes. Low Carb, Low Calorie, Chocolate? Whatever?

Yesterday for lunch, I had cantelope "wrapped" in spinach leaves. Actually I didn't bother to wrap them, just put them in my mouth together. Not too bad. I'll probably ditto for lunch today.

I'm having Pizza made on a wrap instead of Pizza dough for dinner. Pretty much works like regular pizza. Put the wrap on a cookie sheet. Add your favorite sauce (I like Prego just fine). Put on vegies etc. (mushrooms, black and green olives, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, whatever I have leftover). Sprinkle liberally with Mozzarella cheese (the shredded stuff in the plastic bags works nice). Bake in a hot oven for 10-20. I watch it, and take it out when the cheese melts.

Comments

Vincent, gotta ask... whats a Bama boy like you doing in the frozen north?

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Your father was correct about the okra. The smaller ones are best. I was reading your menu earlier. You gave me great ideas for dinner. :)

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I don't think, I've ever seen okra in the store, unless it was preprocessed like in a can of soup. I did try to grow it one year in my garden. By the time all the animal and weather related hazards finished with it, I had two okra pods.

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I usually find it in the frozen vegetables. Walmart has it dehydrated, believe it or not, it is really good. I also found fresh okra at Walmart. That was the first time I found it in the 13 years we have been in New Mexico.

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It's not so cold in Amsterdam.  Well, comparatively.  I spent from February to July once in Richmond, Virginia and I can say it's not nearly as cold as that.  It's like a refrigerator here for about 8 months but never frozen hardly.  Great place to be a Tulip!  Life is tops here as well, Dutch people are very nice and it's both antique and futuristic.

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Anne if you like to try to grow some more okra, germinate the seeds.  By that put them in some sort of wet medium (like a sheet of newpaper folded up and placed on a tray, add each day some water to ensure they remain wet) and this takes about ten days or so.  When the seeds start cracking open plant them about three feet apart like corn, the plants get big.  They can be planted as soon as the danger of frost is past like Easter but don't really expect okra until the hot summer days.  They need full sun.  Each plant can give you only 3 - 5 pods a day so you'll need at least 20 plants to make it worth your while.  There won't be enough at first and then suddenly you'll have too many.  That's when you can go ahead and bread them and they freeze well when breaded.

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Dang Vincent, I figured because the herbs were legal.

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I'm quite certain that Okra, like peanuts, was never meant to be grown in Connecticut. Our last danger of frost is May 24. Everyone here sets out plants on Memorial Day weekend. There really isn't a long enough growing season. I thought it was cool that I got any at all. I don't do much in the way of gardening anymore, anyway.

Vince, do you mean the canals or rivers don't freeze solid, so Hans Brinker, can skate around and win the skating contest, saving his family from starvation?

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Yeah the herbs are legal.  I lost interest after I managed a coffe shop for 10 years! :D

I didn't know you lived in Connecticut.  You'll just have to send someone from your staff down to the south and have them pop into a farmer's market and get you some okra. :D  When they get back set them to putting in brocolli, spinach, peas and the fine vegetables that love cool weather that don't do well in the sun and heat of the south.

As for Hans Brinker, the canals freeze like that only 12 times in the last 100 years (I looked it up). I've seen it three or four times in 25 years.  Amsterdam is bordered to the north by a small body of water and in the winter across the water there is snow and it's white everwhere like you're in a different world.  The Gulf Stream current is an actual phenomenon that brings just enough warmth to keep it from freezing here.

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Even better yet, I'll just pop down for the day, and buy it myself (yeah...)

I googled Hans Brinker when I created the post and discoverd the book was written by an American lady, who'd never been anywhere near Holland. So when I come visiting, I won't bother to bring my skates. What a disappointment I really did have this picture of a wintry frozen Amsterdam, followed by the riot of colors, caused by blooming tulips.

Answer 2

Hi, I am Dale Byers and I have a story for you.  I have been involved with finding my roots since the 1970's and since joining WikiTree I started tracing the family of my long time girlfriend.  Yesterday I got an email from a "young" girl who was doing a search for information on her grandfather, Max Marn, online and found the profile for him and one of his brothers on WikiTree.  She then sent me the email asking about my relationship to her grandfather.  I responded by telling her that I was in a relationship with her 2nd cousin and started the profiles for her as well as suggesting that she join WikiTree.  This girl did and I added her to the trusted list for her family line, so because of the profiles on here we not only have a new member who has added information that I could not find but also my girlfriend has found out that her aunt is still alive and that there are some new cousins in her family line that she did not know about.

WikiTree can be a powerful tool so lets keep striving for accurate, sourced profiles.

Comments

That is awesome Dale...congratulations.  Thank you for sharing this story.  I hope to have similar successes myself.

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It's soooo exciting when something like that happens!!!!  I LUV to read about these wonderful reunions and new connections - not just with ancestors, but with living relatives.  I can imagine your girlfriend's reaction - it must have blown her mind!!!

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I'm agog, that's really super.

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Dale, thats really great!! I have met many cousins online. A goup of us previously unknown people met up on a convo at genforum and found out we were all descended frm the same Wiley Thornton. Before we lost contact a few years later, we had representatives from all of Wiley's children who reproduced. And we connected the ties with I had William thornton and an Elijah whom I believed was his brother who married sisters. Someone answered my post with "I descend frm Elijah and Julia Amanda." And it mushroomed from there. Its a great feeling to have it come togather.

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That's so awesome !  I also got in contact with a cousin from the USA, his grandfather emigrated after his first wife, and mother of his children, died (his first wife was a half sister of my grandfather), he remarried and all contact with the family was lost , in fact for the family (my mums) and for many Dutch / American genealogists this was a major '' Brick wall'', no one could figure things out, until we , trough wikitree got in touch and finally had a breaktrough , still in touch (facebook) of course and he just like most of us here is a very enthousiastic genealogist so we really have a lot in common . So enjoy Dale and congrats with this, a really great experience  !

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Hi Bea!  I was wondering if you were at your "tuinhuisje" and away from the internet.  Nice weather today!  It was a little too hot lately but today is great!

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Hahaha yes indeed I was Vincent , had a lot of visitors and had a wonderfull day, so not much time for WT . What a great memmory you have , enjoy the weekend , or what's left of it that is and thanks 

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Dale,

Good for you and your girlfriend. There are probably a lot of stories like yours on WT.

Bob

Answer 3

Remember to Nominate and Vote for your Favorite Family History Photos!

Comments

Thank you for the reminder keith

Answer 4

Good morning all.  I’m new to genealogy and wikitree.  Last week I took the 23&me DNA test but I don’t have the results yet.  This past week I’ve filled out my own profile here and on ‘My Heritage Family Tree’ and I’ve also started searching online for some of my ancestors.

I think future generations might find my profile interesting (or confusing) because I legally changed my first, middle, and last name in 2010.  It was basically a whim.  After my son left home, I no longer wanted to carry my ex-husband’s last name.  I also didn’t love my maiden name Buchanan which I recalled having difficulty pronouncing it as a child whenever I was nervous.  My married name, Valerie Winters, sounded like a Hollywood name or maybe even a porn star name to me.  So I decided to take my mother’s maiden name, Anderson and while I was at it, I also adopted my maternal grandmother’s first name.  So, I went from Valerie Kay Winters to Letha Louise Anderson.

It’s been an interesting experience.  I expected people to find it quirky that I would just up and change my name.  Alternatively, that they might find it annoying to have to remember I had changed my name.  What I didn’t expect and found surprising is that many people assumed my motives were nefarious.  That I was trying to hide from bill collectors or to engage in some other fraudulent behavior.  I’m not.  It was just an idea I got into my head and I thought why not?

Comments

Welcome to wikitree and the G2G Letha Louise Anderson. Glad to know you're not up to no good.  I've never known anyone who changed their first name before. I suppose if your changing your surname, it's just as easy to change the other names at the same time.

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They presume that even if you use something other then your first name. AND boyoboy I love a good argument about it. When I got my social security card at age 16, you didn't have to produce id. my sister told me to put the name I wanted to be known as for the rest of my life. Well, all my life I have been called by my middle name, Lynette. I didn't like my first name, Elizabeth. Its a beautiful name, but I'm not an Elizabeth. It was actually pronounced Lizabeth as my sister named me, but everyone outside the family said E-lizabeth. So Uncle Sam said i could be Lynette, which was what everyone called me anyway. This was late 60s. So post 9-11, I move and open an account at the local credit union here. They look at my license and SS. Why didn't they match? And I said they did. I had to produce a birth cert in Texas and CA to get a DL. My DL says Elizabeth Lynette. Its signed Lynette. I didn't have to have a bc when I applied for my SS it wasn't required. Well, we have to use the name on your Bc. And I pulled out my BC and showed him. Lynette is on my BC. There is no law that says I must use my first name. When I bought my house in 1987, I even made the loan people put my name as Lynette on the paperwork. And then to be told I have to legally change my name to Lynette to keep from having to use Elizabeth? No I dont. I am using my legal name! And I like being a Jester, I won't change it again.

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Surely ye jest!

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would I do that to you?

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HAMLET:

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy....

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I kinda liked Trinculo. Or Archie Armstrong.

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To be honest Larry, Moe and Curly Jo are more in-line with my intellect (or lack of..)!  :D

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And fine Jester's they were too!!

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Letha, what a fantastic post.  I have been thinking of changing my name too and using my mother's maiden name as well as a couple of the family middle names.  Thanks for sharing your experience, it never occurred to me at someone would think I changed my name for any other reason than it pleased me.

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Letha, you are not alone in wanting to completely change their name, especially after a divorce.  My mom did the same (before she met my Dad).  She had always been known as Judith or Judy up until the end of her first marriage.  After her divorce, she decided to go by her middle name, Renee, and dropped her 1st husband's last name and went back to her maiden name.  She's been Renee ever since (and now Grandma Ney).

As a secondary consequence, she and my Dad decided to give both my sister and I the option of choosing our own first names eventually and only gave us first initials rather than first names on our birth certificates.  So on my birth certificate, my name is C. Kyle Dane.  Of course, best laid plans, they ended up calling me by my middle name and it stuck, so I've always been Kyle and I have no plans to change it.

Answer 5

Hi everyone,

It's been a super week.

I finally started to lay out a timeline for my 4th great-grandfather on my dad's side.  Finding information on him is easy as he was involved in many things, but all of the information is scattered and fragmented.  Currently when any relative of mine looks him up they find a paragraph listing a few odds and ends; only if they look in multiple places can they begin to realize what he was all about.  I hope to write a complete biography on him that puts it all together in one spot... here on WikiTree of course.  The dream would be to get it sourced well enough that WikiPedia will recognize him as a notable.

I've been meeting lots of new people.  It's amazing how nice the general population is here.  Each time I am able to help someone i get a positive charge.

Where I live is a seasonal vacation spot so in the fall, winter, and spring there are less than a dozen families within a mile any direction... and I'm related to a few of those.  Hours go by without a car passing.  But now in the summer it is hopping.  People are walking and biking, waving and smiling.  All of the docks are in the water with boats lining every side.  The people who "camp" here bring their kids and grand-kids so there are always children for my boys to play with.  It's very active for about 3 months then it will all die down when the campers leave for the season.

A cousin who lives in Texas coming up to Vermont visit this weekend.  We have not seen eachother in years but grew up like brothers.  I'm really looking forward to it.  We'll probably act like kids... catching frogs, swimming, cloud talk, etc.

We found another "notable" in my wife's ancestry, so that's always fun.  Turns out the daughter of her Mayflower people married a man who became a Governor.  She likes knowing that stuff.

Now to go comment about food on Anne's "answer"....

Have a great day all!

Comments

Keith, make sure you let us know when you finish (or almost finish) your "almost" notable ancestor. I'd like to read about him. Post in the treehouse with the tag profile_pride.

Tip: anyone is allowed to do this to show off their best work, or just if you need a pat on the back.

Answer 6

Everyone seems pretty excited about the Sourcerer's Challenge and cool new badges

 

Comments

And it's so easy to join the sourcerer's and get the badge with the magic hat. All you have to do is put a source on an old profile, that doesn't already have a source. Then post an answer on the challenge 

You can read the directions here.

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This is a great way to get some sources on unsourced profiles!

Answer 7

Yea!!!

I got home from having coffee with friends this am to discover an electric utility truck in my driveway, working on the lines. They've been replacing the pole in the corner of my lot. So I had to wait for the truck to move and then the power was out. I do have a generator (a necessity here), but it only runs one side of the house, the other end from the computer. The power just came back on. I'll unplug all the etension chords, and use the real computer.

Comments

In the future all those electric wires will be in pipes in the ground like it is in the developed world. :D

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I'll be long dead before they put them underground here.

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The REAL future will be when they are solar collectors on everyone's roof - no wiring from the house to some external location!  I suppose they'll never get the solar collectors efficient enough for up north in New England, but maybe someday you'll have your own windmill in your backyard.

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All new developments around where I live must have all services underground. No ugly poles or cables.. And all new houses have to have at least one of the following... solar panels for electricity, OR solar hot water OR rainwater tanks to supply water for flushing toilets.

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That sounds great.  As for the power lines now you won't have to worry about a little wind knocking out the power and it looks clean.  Solar panels are great as well.  Solar hot water is what everone should have.  And rainwater tanks are something I want (in Bermuda where there isn't a water source except for rain they're required).  My hat is off to your local government for making this happen.  It's just common sense really!  

A fairly new technology in Nederland is with cooling.  Since an abundance of water isn't an issue here but energy is, cold water is being pumped to the tops of buildings from deep-water ponds that are very cool in temperature.  This water travels down through the heating system from the top down thus cooling the whole building in the few hot summer months.  The only energy spent is with getting the water to the top of the building which of course (and probably is) done with wind power.  These are 25-floor buildings I'm talkng about, not just little buildings.  This is a great energy savings as well as eliminating the use of ozone-depleting gases like freon.

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Al, that sounds like a very enlightened community you live in.

Vince, Nederland's cooling "thing" sounds fascinating.

Answer 8

Thinking about "notables" in the family: One of the criteria is if they have a Wikipedia entry. How anglocentric are we going to be? I have one relative with a page on the Czech Wikipedia (and only there), so does he qualify as a notable?

Comments

I personnally think that if he's notable in Czechoslovakia, that we should consider him notable also. Oh heck there are lots of notables that I've never heard of.

This week's Collaborative Profile of the Week is Brig. General William West. He has a Wikipedia article, but let's face it, you've only heard of the man if you're from Rhode Island and interested in the American Revolution.

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Yeah, I have a partial linage for T.C. Jester... who's heard of him? Only if your from Houston TX, and know T. C. Jester blvd. He was a baptist preacher in Houston. He has a wikipedia page. Yet, John Roberts Jester another Baptist preacher in Ft. Worth when he preached there for 2 years grew the membership by over 800 members in that time frame. And he then went to the biggest church in Winston-Salem. No wiki page. I have a direct relationship to John roberts Jester, (his father and my 2nd ggf were brothers) but T. C. is back is further back a few more generations. His ancestor and I'm not sure of the exact linage, was supposedly brother to my 4th ggf.

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Sure he's notable.  Wikipedia is Wikipedia no matter which language.  (Probably the Czech Wikipedia would love for someone to translate the entry and then he could be in the English version as well!)

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Here is his profile: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Čapek-27

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Nice profile.  I don't see a link to the Czech Wikipedia on the profile.  Also it will be nice if this profile and similar profiles could have the biography in both languages so that the people that can read Czech can also enjoy the Wikitree and could create and link companion profiles in their own language.

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That's an interesting life story.

Answer 9

Hi Everyone I am a newbie, I have been researching my ancestors now for about 8 years. My Mother told me 20 years ago that she and her 6 siblings were Illigitimate , that her father who had died in 1936 when she was 6 years old, had an older  legal family.

When everything came on line about 4 years ago because Northern Ireland has been much slower due to The Troubles. I started to discover that my Mum is actually the youngest of 13, that was a shock.

After much research a few months ago I found that I have 3 half cousins in their 80"s.I am off to Belfast in 10 days time to meet two of them. Isn;t all this amazing!!..

Wikitree is excellent, I really like the fact that sources are so important it is easy to think you are right, then discover you are on the wrong track .

I have lots of stories to tell, but thats all for now,

Anne

Comments

Welcome Anne,

    Can't wait to hear about your meeting with your newfound cousins!

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Ditto what Vincent said.

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Hi Anne and welcome!

How exciting to find your cousins. I agree with Wikitree and sourcing. Following only other family trees without accurate sources has led me down the wrong path on several occasions.

Answer 10

Hi Everyone!

 

I'm getting hungry just reading the menu here. I don't know how to cook very well, but I'm an expert at eating. Unfortunately for me, the food police at my house keep me under surveillance.

On a different note, I did meet a very nice newbie this week on Wikitree, Jeannie Tillery. She was able to find her family here this week (she was adopted as a child). She is now 28 steps from AJ. Also, her mother was a Dalton, possibly related to the Dalton Gang. She probably would love to get involved in a relevant project.

Also, Dorothy Athey Hill informed me that I share DNA segments with her father. This is one area of genealogy I need to spend more time learning - embarassing for someone who took genetics in college (way before they had mapped the human genome).

Sourcing unsourced profiles continues to be my mission, although I am not involved in the sourceror project.

Aside from that, of course I have pets that are exceptionally talented...doesn't everybody!!!

Have a great weekend.

Comments

Hi Doug, Jeanie introduced herself, up above. She sounds lovely. Thanks for your continued efforts to source the unsourced, and I wish you also a great weekend.

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Hi Doug,

    Do you know the red wine vinegar Balsamico di Modena?  It's a type of very special red wine vinegar made with great care and ageing.  There are really good ones that cost a fortune like a good single malt whisky.  But for the most part even the cheaper ones are OK.  It you can put this in a spray bottle you can spray it on things like bread and soups and it's really tasty.  We don't use alcohol in our household and this is like a substitute.  An iceberg lettuce salad with olives, tomatos with basil, Feta cheese, pine nuts (or sunflower seeds), oregano, olive oil and some balsamico di Modena and a piece of bread, yum, yum!

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Vincent,

This salad sounds divine. The bread soaked in the juice would definately be the best part!

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It is the best part.  If you're out of bread and there is still some liquid you tip the salad bowl to your mouth and finish off the vinegar like that!  That vinegar is also great as a substitute when red wine is called for in a recipe.  Since recipes notoriously call for a half a cup of red wine and this always leaves an open bottle of wine to attract those pesky little fruit flies, if you have this vinegar handy it is really even better than the wine in recipes.  It is also great for loosening the tasty burned stuff from the bottom of the pan when you're browning meat for pasta sauce and it leaves the pan completely clean for easy cleaning when you're finished cooking.  Normal vinegar lost it's place in our food storage area and got relegated to under the sink for when we need to boil it for removing calcium build-up in the coffee machine and to help shine up the fixtures in the bathroom.

Answer 11

Thanks for the invitation to share a bit of my story. My connection with family history has its seeds in the fact that exactly 100 years before my birth one of my ancestors was doing some pioneering stuff for the church in "New South Wales" on an island called "Van Diemen's Land". His first visit to Port Philip (later to be known as Melbourne) in 1836,  saw the first service of worship led by an ordained minister. My baptism during the centenary celebrations of that event, was the time when I was also given his name. Over the years, my interest that ancestor and his family aroused further curiosity. In the 1950's, while I was supposed to be studying politics and philosophy in Melbourne's largest library, I was spending time looking up my family name. That did not help me pass my exams, so I had to put family history aside for some years. In retirement, and with a computer, I was back into it. IT BECAME A DISEASE.  My first wife had some convict ancestors, and while studying their stories I gained a new interest in the story of the arrival of the first Europeans in Australia in the late 1700's. One my own ancestors was a gold miner... so that took me back into the gold rush days in Victoria in the 1850's. I discovered that he had come from gold-hunting in America... but before that he had been among the Irish emigration that followed the 'potato famine'.  His eldest son was born on the gold fields in Victoria, and went on to become a school teacher... where, in a small rural school he engaged a farmer's daughter to come to the school to teaching sewing to the younger girls. That engagement soon led to marriage! And so another family began.

But enough of my rambling. In the 2 years since I found wikitree, I have learnd that some people are very suspicious of it. I tried to share it with my cousins, but there was little interest. One branch of the family has warned me not to put anything about them on wikitree. So I won't mention their name here.  And I am judicious about sharing any stories about murder, infidelity... etc.., even if they were true.  But surely anything that can be read in newspaper archives [a very useful source, even if not always accurate] ... is aleady in the public arena.

One area I am more reticent about is that of adoption. There has been recent discussions in Australia about what information should be available to any of the parties involved. Within my own family  this has sometime been a very sensitive issue, so I am not sure how to deal with it in wikitree... perhaps say nothing.

Finally, I want to thank the many helpers on WikiTree who have been very patient in trying to help me find my way around.

Comments

That's fascinating Al. Thanks for joining the chat this weekend. My "ears" especially perked up when you mentioned irish immigrants gold mining in California. My ancestry has two brothers, from Ireland, who went to the California gold fields together, (the story doesn't say how successful they were, so probably not very so). Anyway they ended up farming on nearby farms in Tennessee, USA, had an argument over ones' choice of wife, and never spoke to each other again.

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I also see people that are reluctant to add information.  I understand that.  But on the other hand.  The people that one would rather not know anything about us know everything about us; ie, the banks, the authorities.  I find sharing information to be honest and a form of truth. And I find when people hide the truth, it is akin to the place of employment that tells the workers not to tell each other what they earn.  So not really the fault of the workers but a method of the boss the keep the wages low.  And it is this that I think is a trait that has been engrained into us by society.

Answer 12

Hey, y'all. Sunny and hot here in NW Mississippi, but what else is new. This week I've been working on a name study for descendants of a 9th great-grandfather. Found one who invented a sewing machine, and another who has a large number of LDS descendants. Her descendants alone represent a vast number. Along the LDS line, as a religion, my g-gf's descendants start out as Puritans and spread out to include most Christian religions found in the U.S. It still amazes me the vast diversity of the peoples of our country.

Bob

Comments

And the diversity is not just religion, but national origin and many other things. Isn't it nice that the founding fathers had the sense to create a place where we can all live together. A place where my southern belle, irish descended, mother and my Mayflower descended, New York state raised father could meet and have me. And I could marry a man whose father is also Mayflower descended, but his mother's parents were immigrants from the Ukraine. My siblings and nieces and nephews have added Koreans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans, into the mix.

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It is really nice, isn't it?

Answer 13

Hello everyone!

Here in New Mexico we have had an unusual amount of rain that we desparately need.

I found a hint in G2G about using anniversary dates to update profiles. I have been using that system this week to update those ugly GEDCOM profiles.

I can't remember who posted it, and of course I can't find it again. But, thanks to the person that suggested it.

Comments

Hi Amy, That is a good idea.

I realize New Mexico on a scale with Connecticut is huge, but how far are you Aztec?

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I am about 200 miles Southeast of Aztec. Aztec is in the Northeast corner and I am more in central New Mexico.  There is lots of history in Aztec. I have not been there, but I would like to go. It's on my bucket list.

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My daughter lives in Durango, Colorado. And Aztec is on my list of possible retirement places, if I can convince my husband to retire. It's certainly not New England, but I think it would fit us nicely and I love the ruins.

Answer 14

Just to let you know why I am mostly absent from here this weekend.

Had a water leak at the camper and the first attempt to fix it Friday was a bust. After the grand-kids got to our house we went back to the store and got better tools and more parts and then fixed the water leak but found out the Sat TV was not working. after a quick round of troubleshooting discovered that sometime after 2 PM Wednesday and before 1 PM Thursday someone removed the splitter for the TV system.  We went home and packed to go back to the camper and I then used my backup splitter to re install the TV lines but this time I mounted it with two different head screws, tightened every connection with a wrench and then covered the whole assembly with Duct Tape, that should slow them down.  Could not sleep last night with extreme pain in my neck, shoulder, and arm, and they still hurt, but I am going to tough it out so that the kids can have a nice weekend of camping.  It's gonna be a long weekend!

Comments

Sounds like Murphy and his law were working overtime at your camper. Was it all that fixing up that irritated the already existing "ouchies"?

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Yes Anne, The bending and streching into places not designed for humans to be in did aggravate the disc problems in my neck and caused all sorts of other problems, including losing the ability to use one of my arms for several hours today. I think that I have all of the major stuff done and I am going to try to avoid doing much tomorrow, and that includes using the computer, so I will not be very visable for a couple of days, at least.

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We'll miss you, but it's important to give your body a break, when it's yelling at you. And... we'll all still be here when you get back. And... I know you, you'll sneak in to answer a few G2G questions.

Answer 15

The weather is warm and sunny here at the eastern end of Lake Ontario in northern New York State.  We hope it continues for the next week because this is the week of our local county fair.  We are told that it is the oldest running, consecutively, (every year for 189 years )fair in the United States.  It was started by a Frenchman who came to the area with the idea of building a home for Napolean to live in.  The house was built but he never lived here.  However, a niece did marry and live in this area for a very long time.

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Hello Beulah, The weather here in Connecticut is lovely also, hottish, but not humid. It's tough to do county fair in the rain. Not impossible, but much harder. A few years I remember, watching tractors hauling cars out of muddy parking lots (fields). That was an unscheduled event. And the Grange booth sold watermelon, - not a lot of call for watermelon when it's rainy and cold.

Do all the local groups have booths at your fair, that become their major source of income for the year?

Do you have a favorite?

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Yes, Anne, local groups do have booths, such as the Grange, 4-H, FFA's, etc. but the LARGE majority are service groups or semi-commercial groups trying to inform the public of their services or get you to sign up for whatever they can.  Many seem to just want your mailing info or contacts and I avoid them like the plague.  Over the past 25 years it has become much more commercialized since Fort Drum became the home of the 10th Mountain Division and our population tripled.  For years my 4-H club put in a booth and entrance premiums were a major source of revenue.  As a former dairy farmer wife I still have to peek into the cattle tent and see what the 4-hers are doing.  It was fun to watch them parade their animals.

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Sounds much like ours. We also have a large contingent of just plain commercial enterprises, pool sellers, tractor sellers, tooled leather belts, and a lot of other "stuff." It's congregated in one area though so totally avoidable.

I keep trying to be a former dairy farmer wife, but I can't get my husband to retire.

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Anne, I'm with your husband on this ... I have retired twice now, and still can't learn how to spell "rocking chair".  I've always said that it's not possible to be retired when you've never been tired the first time.

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Chuckling, but I think he ought to be tired. Let's see, 15 hour days, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (every single one of them) for 48 years. Makes me tired just doing the math with a calculator (or I could use my sliderule or even my abacus or my brain.)

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And the almost impossible task of explaining to a child why we "have to go home and do chores" at 3:30 p.m. when the parties are just getting going for their ages.  Also, how do you delay the Christmas gift opening until Dad can join the fun when the milking has to be done first?  Been there, done that!!!