Gaile (Gordon) Connolly
Privacy Level: Private with Public Biography and Family Tree (Yellow)

Gaile (Gordon) Connolly

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Signed 18 Sep 2014 | 73,027 contributions | 2,848 thank-yous | 1,072 connections
Gaile Connolly formerly Gordon aka Goetsch
Born 1940s.
Ancestors ancestors Descendants descendants
Mother of and [private son (1960s - unknown)]
Problems/Questions Profile managers: Gaile Connolly private message [send private message] and Iris Sherman private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 18 Sep 2014
This page has been accessed 15,137 times.
Badge created for fun 4/3/2021 by Melanie Paul (Paul-5413); Inspired by g2g posts by Gaile Connolly (Gordon-4080) and Jillaine Smith (Smith-32867).

Biography

On April 30, 1943 Gaile was born in Brooklyn, NY as an unexpected surprise only child to overly doting parents Harry and Gladys Gordon.[1]

Gaile Connolly, Gerber Baby

Her mother imprisoned her in frilly, ruffled, lacy dresses and entered her in contests, where her claim to fame is having been the 1944 Gerber baby.

Her father pretended she was the son he had always wanted. The action packed life of a boy was much more fun. When she came in from play torn, filthy, and with skinned knees, her mother would exclaim "Oh my God!" in horror while her father would ask "Does the other one look worse than you?".

Gaile was born in the wrong place. Despite not having seen anything outside New York City, she always hated city life and wanted to live on a farm and have animals (probably like the ones in the zoo). She also grew up in the wrong era and continuously rebelled against the strongly enforced gender stereotypes of her generation. At a very early age, her career goal of becoming a pilot was established. It didn't matter that everyone told her "no, you don't want to be a pilot - you want to be a mommy". While other girls took Elizabeth Taylor as their role models, Gaile idolized Amelia Earhart.

Gaile Connolly Senior Prom

She was an athlete when athletics were considered unfeminine. In high school, the only sport open to girls was swimming. Being small, a disadvantage for a swimmer, didn't impede her since very few girls were willing to get their hair wet.

She never could understand what liking math, science, mechanical stuff, and athletics had to do with femininity (or lack thereof) but she also enjoyed a few more socially correct things, like dressing up for the high school senior prom in 1959, illustrated at right.

In defiance of her parents' ultimatum to learn something useful in college (specifically home economics), Gaile and another young lady were the first two female undergraduates admitted to a small prestigious engineering college.

In 1962, four years post-Sputnik amid the national frenzy to catch up with the Russians, armed with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, Gaile set off to slay dragons. Alas - when she could not correctly answer the interview question "how many words a minute do you type?"[2] the dragons turned into windmills. She gave up tilting at them, accepted defeat, and did what the world wanted - she became somebody's wife and somebody's mommy.

Gaile Connolly Portrait

About twenty years later, with two advanced degrees (in Mathematics and Computer Science), two grown sons, a divorce, and a new law prohibiting gender discrimination, she finally began her engineering career.

She worked for government contractors, supporting U.S. military and intelligence agencies in a variety of engineering disciplines (mostly avionics systems, reliability, information systems, and just plain systems), first in NY and later in Virginia. The 1995 photo at left was her official company portrait, used on proposals.

Gaile officially retired in 2003, then worked as a consultant, where she could pick and choose exciting projects on which to work. She had the thrill of working on flight simulators and UAV's[3]

George and Gaile Connolly

2007 was a year of three major life changes - Gaile officially retired (again), married George Connolly, and they moved to rural Alabama, where they found property that has a 100+ foot waterfall.

Retirement still doesn't work - Gaile just can't seem to learn to spell "rocking chair". She has an "accidental business" that started with people saying "now that you're retired and have time, could you ...." followed by things like "build or fix my computer" and "design a website for me". Nowadays, she mostly develops custom internet deployed turnkey information management systems (of which a website is a very small portion) for small businesses and non-profit organizations. Her business motto is: FAST - GOOD - CHEAP - choose any two!

In 2010, Gaile's grandsons (then ages 24, 22, and 17) asked for information about family history, so she built a website for their family tree and filled it with what she knew. When she discovered WikiTree, she was overjoyed with everything about it and realized her attempt had been a feeble joke as a genealogy site. The thrill of the global concept soon expanded to admiration of everything about the goals and implementation. She wanted to be part of it all to find and add information about her family, try to link to others, and also to volunteer to work on the tekky side.

Many wonderful WikiTree members, with voluminous knowledge of genealogy and great patience with Gaile's naiveté, generously educated her in how to research and properly document profiles as she "adopted" an abandoned gedcom with over 1,000 empty and unsourced profiles. As she learned, Gaile became addicted to WikiTree and gradually became more involved, joining the Profile Improvement Project, starting the Holocaust Project as its coordinator, becoming a Ranger, joining the Unknowns Project, and trying to reciprocate the genealogy training she received by responding to G2G requests for help with technical aspects of WikiTree, the internet, and computers. She developed a tool to convert a spreadsheet into a GEDcom file and a sample demo for a Ranger communication tool and also offered to organize the entire help labyrinth to make it possible to find things easily and explain them logically; but all her attempts to make technical contributions were met with lip-service encouragement, impediments during development, and rejection upon completion. One final episode proved to be the last straw, after which she withdrew from community participation, although she will still be happy to respond to any technical questions if you send her a private message.

By the way ... if you ask her, she'll tell you:

I *STILL* WANNA BE A PILOT WHEN I GROW UP

Sources

  1. Remembrance of Gaile Connolly.
  2. After having worked on the internet since before Al Gore invented it, now Gaile kam tipe 5000000000000 mill yen wurts purr min it wiff know eras.
  3. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, also known as drones.

          More sources - maybe even some real ones - might be added someday!

DNA Confirmation

  1. Paternal relationship is confirmed with a gedmatch test match between Gaile Connolly (GEDmatch ID T543839) and Dick Orkin (GEDmatch ID A182839), second cousins. Predicted relationship by gedmatch: 3.0 generations to MRCA based on 189.9 cM DNA shared across 8 segments.
  2. Paternal relationship is confirmed with a GEDmatch test match between Gaile Connolly (GEDmatch ID T543839) and Brian Bresnick (GEDmatch ID A857797), second cousins once removed. Predicted relationship by GEDmatch: 3.2 generations to MRCA based on 165.1 cM DNA shared across 8 segments.
  3. Paternal relationship is confirmed with a GEDmatch test match between Gaile Connolly (GEDmatch ID T543839) and Kenny Selcer (GEDmatch ID A636940), second cousins once removed (half). Predicted relationship by GEDmatch: 3.9 generations to MRCA based on 67.8 cM DNA shared across 4 segments.
  4. Maternal relationship is confirmed with a GEDmatch test match between Gaile Connolly (GEDmatch ID T543839) and Perri Guest-Rappel (Gedmatch ID H421742), second cousins. Predicted relationship by Gedmatch: 3.9 generations to MRCA based on 61.9 cM DNA shared across 7 segments.
  5. Although the relationship has not yet been traced, a GEDmatch test match between Gaile Connolly (GEDmatch ID T543839) and Phyllis Berger (GEDmatch ID A057545) predicts: 3.9 generations to MRCA based on 69.3 cM DNA shared across 7 segments.



Only the Trusted List can access the following:
  • Gaile's formal name
  • e-mail address
  • exact birthdate
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  • images (1)
  • private children's names (2)
  • spouse's name and marriage information
For access to Gaile Connolly's full information you must be on Gaile's Trusted List. Please login.


DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships by comparing test results with Gaile or other carriers of her ancestors' mitochondrial DNA. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Gaile:

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.

Comments: 136

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Hi - it's the first annual check-in for the Holocaust Project.... if you wish to remain a member of the Holocaust Project please reply to this post, by stating this intention. If we don’t hear from you in the next 30 days, your membership badge will be removed. But don't worry ... you're welcome to rejoin at any time. Please also note, that in order to receive help with researching your ancestors or people of interest, membership is not mandatory. Just ask your questions in the G2G forum and tag them with "holocaust" in order for knowledgeable people to see them.

-Elaine, Holocaust Project Leader PS that is just the standard message.... and hi Gaile, you are awesome!

I am just the messenger - -


wonderful wikitreer
Gaile (Gordon) Connolly is a Wonderful WikiTreer.
posted by Melanie Paul
Hope you are healthy and staying sane with the big move!
posted by Maggie N.
To follow up (and because I already did it to Jim) --

Do image codes work in profile comments Puzzled or Confused-face smilie (black and white).


Why, yes, yes they do.

Smile smilie (black and white).
posted by Melanie Paul
Hello there! I'm rereviewing all the members who left a comment on the G2G about the Galicia Project. Please place the
Gaile (Gordon) Connolly is a member of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.
Member|Galicia (within double brackets) sticker on your profile to be grouped into a category of all Wikitree members researching in this region. Thanks!
posted by Skye Sonczalla
Hi Gaile

Hope your crisis is resolved in whatever is best for all -

Thank you for responding to my G2G post yesterday, it was good to know I wasn't the only one with the problem. I found what I think is the problem & posted the solution there. If you have time let me know if it works for you.

"I think I found the answer - apparently Edge turned on it's own enhanced editor. They don't make it easy to find! - go to the three dots in the upper right in Edge, click on Settings, type in 'enhanced' in the search space, turn off Microsoft editor. Seems to fix, thanks to everybody you were all more or less right."

Stay well Jennifer

posted by Jennifer Lapham
Thank you very much for going over my Merritt Lyon profile! Your "fixes" look great and your advise will help me make all of my profiles look so much better! You are truly a Wonderful Wikitree helper!
posted by Jori Lyon
Thank you, Gaile! You helped me understand how the entries I have made on a tree are not "lost" with a merge. I imagine I'll still be asking questions years from now.
posted by Karen Lowe
Hello Gaile,

Thanks for taking the Pre-1700 Quiz!

Because pre-1700 ancestors are usually shared by many descendants, collaborating with members of the projects which coordinate them is essential.

Use the Pre-1700 Projects list to find one which best fits your research focus, whether time period, location, or topic. Review the project pages to learn about resources and guidelines as well as how to collaborate with the project members.

Can't find what you're looking for? Let me know, and I can make some suggestions! :-)

Remember to cite reliable sources in pre-1700 profiles you manage, or edit. (See: Pre-1700 Reliable Sources).

Ginny ~ Pre-1700 Greeter

P.S. If links do not work in an email from WikiTree, try them from the comment section on your profile page.

Just read your personal bio -- awesome! Well-written -- and well-lived!
posted by Jack Day
Pls don't yell at me for posting this .. or delete it cos ya duzzen like accolades!
wonderful wikitreer
Gaile (Gordon) Connolly is a Wonderful WikiTreer.
posted by Melanie Paul
Gaile, making more than one thousand contributions in September added so much to the breadth and depth of our Shared Tree. The Appreciation Team thanks YOU!

Pippin Sheppard

WikiTree’s Appreciation Team

PS: You're a riot on G2G, even when asking a serious question, and I love it.

posted by Pip Sheppard
Gaile, thank you for each of your more than 1000 contributions to our Shared Tree for the month of August 2019. All of your work makes our Tree all that much better.

Pippin Sheppard

WikiTree’s Appreciation Team

PS: You're still a dragon slayer, and I love you for it.

posted by Pip Sheppard
Do you have a list of the almost 1000 people who were living in the Ft. Oswego, New York, holocaust refugee camp. It was the only

US government sanctioned camp. The local paper just had an article on it and I wonder if it would help you in any of your profiles. Maybe I can find it ,if you don't have it but would like it.

posted by Beulah (Maltby) Cramer
I've been meaning to send this for some time. I appreciate the perspective you bring to WikiTree, especially regarding privacy. I am not nearly as careful as you, but am very happy a staunch privacy supporter is here. I also appreciate your willingness to explain code to everyone. You do it so clearly and so patiently. I understand it, but I lack the clarity in explanations and the patience to work with others. And I also appreciate your work on holocaust project, in my mind one of the more important projects on wikitree.
posted by W Robertson
Hello,

Very well done on your making 1,000 or more contributions to WikiTree in June 2019! We commend and appreciate all of your time and effort in helping to grow and perfect our Shared Tree. Keep up the great work!

Pip Sheppard ~ WikiTree Appreciation Team

PS: Great bio and pics!

posted by Pip Sheppard
Quick update: My daughter read your bio and texted me, "Gaile sounds like a very cool woman." Based on your bio, I have to agree!
posted by Chase Ashley
Hi Gaile,

I love your bio! I'm going to share it with one of my daughters who just graduated from the Grace Hopper Fullstack Academy.

Best,

Chase

posted by Chase Ashley
I just knew your comment about not understanding numbers was a little stultified. I love, love, love your bio!

Here's hoping your chocolate needs are fixed.

Gaile Connolly is 38 Degrees from Maggie N.!
posted by Maggie N.

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