"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! April 30th - May 2nd, 2021 [closed]

Question

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Members Checking in via "All About the Weekend Chat"

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CHANGE TO BEST ANSWER PROCESS:  After much discussion we have come to the conclusion that all answers in the Weekend Chat are of equal importance and weight.  So we are going to discontinue the Best Answer portion as it adds points and then takes them away from posters and is causing some hurt feelings.  So in the interest of everyone is equal and valued we will delete any best answers given which will deduct those points because it has been pointed out that to give everyone best answer is also not a viable option. 

Weekend Chat is for everyone. It's a place to catch up on what people are up to and to share what you've been doing.  New members can say hello, introduce themselves, ask questions, and meet each other.  Our seasoned members can share progress or successes from their projects, give tips and advice, or chime in on hot topics.

Post as many answers and comments as you wish. It doesn't hurt anyone to post a lot and enjoy the multitude of topics.

Enjoy yourselves and spread the love!

Comments

Finally! Another Weekend Chat! Welcome my fellow Chatterboxes, and greetings from Cathey’s Creek where a cold snap last week, typical for late April, ground outside chores to a halt. It was in the upper 20s F during the night and daytime temps only got up into the high 30s for a several days. Our one day of rain, though, was good for the trees I planted recently. Everything’s looking “springy.” Our early bloomers are dropping their flowers. Now it is time for our irises, lilies, and such to get busy. 

On the Home Front: We are still waiting on our creekbank restoration. The fella said he would give up a week’s notice, but we haven’t heard from him yet. When this is completed, we will not have to worry about the encroachment on our driveway, and further down we will stop the serious erosion where we are losing land to our factory neighbor. The law in North Carolina is that if it is gradual, the border line moves with the creek. Uh, no thanks! We’re gonna stop it NOW!

The riding mower is broken again!!! I guess it will be another three weeks before I get it back. However, push mowing is great exercise!

On the Genealogy Front: What a couple of weeks it has been! I have been diligently working on the descendants of a couple of my wife’s ancestors in Mercer County, Kentucky: Daniel Carey and his wife, Rachel Semonis.

It seems the Careys were intent on gaining a US congressional district for Kentucky in just rural Mercer and Boyle counties alone. All of this was in preparation for my next PIP (not me) Voyage profile, Daniel’s son, James A. Carey. I picked this fella before I knew what I was getting into. Two wives, 11 children, and the first set was sent off to live with grandparents shortly after the second wife arrived!

This week, I found something unique for me, a dead person on a census record. I could not for the life of me figure out why this would be so. The above Daniel Carey died in 1930, and the census enumerator got to the home two weeks after. I went to G2G to get answer and Dennis Barton schooled me on reading the census headings carefully. According to the census instructions, everyone who was living in the home on 1 April 1930 was to be counted. We’ll, Daniel died on 4 April that year, so he got counted. How did I initially know that he was dead? It was listed as his occupation. I never knew one had to work at being dead!

Last weekend’s Clean-a-thon was a busy one. My wife, understanding as she is about these things, brought food to me in my office while I toiled away. I got about 14 hours of sleep through the weekend, but not all of my waking hours were spend clearing errors on profiles. Here’s my one big beef, and then I’ll shut up:

 FS location suggestions never have the word “County” in them! Why is this a problem? Because Gaston, North Carolina, United States, is actually two places and not even near each other! Same goes for Henderson, North Carolina, United States. I had to spend time researching to determine what was a city and what was a county in the four different states where I was working. That one little missing word can lead researchers on a fruitless chase for records that don’t exist in misnamed locations.

I really missed the Chat last weekend. It’s a fix for me, and I get the DTs whenever we have a thon!

Enjoy the Chat!

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We appreciated all you did this past weekend for the Clean-A-Thon Pip!! You helped put us in third place!!! Thank you for all your hard work despite lack of sleep!!

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Haha! Dorothy, I do get into a mode during thons. WE have a great team and it was so much fun working that group of fine folks. Congrats to you for your leadership!!

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Sufficed it to say we absolutely killed it last week during the clean a thon. I'll talk about my own experiences in a bit. But, you did good, Pip. You get a cookie. =D

As for the dead guy, you know zombies have rights. I mean where's the justice for the living impaired?!  Sigh....What a world we live in.

Friends of mine did a video for school where he was a zombie fighting for the rights of living impaired. I'll have to see if I can find it. It's on YouTube somewhere.

Great job this weekend. It was great being there live. One day Sarah should have us both on at once. NOTHING will get done. We'd have too much fun ribbing each other.

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Pip, you are completely right about Counties being important. Here in Ontario, we have Simcoe county and about 200 km southwest the town of Simcoe, the mix ups between them are significant.

We also have dead people on censuses, however in the comment section on the far right of the census page it often has the death date. Some censuses also have a mortality schedule, which usually has to be searched for as it isn't usually found with the census page.

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Howdy, Pip! Thanks for hosting chat! I missed it last week, also. I agree with you that the word county (or parish) should be included in our locations. I do include it in the narrative biography even though it doesn't come up in the suggestions for data fields. I have come across the exact situation you describe so many times, in which the town of a certain name within a state is very far from and not within the county by that same name.

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Chris, if you find that video, I wanna see it!

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I'm looking for it!

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M, I wish the US included all of that information on a census, date of death. Fortunately, I was able to find a death record for this fella (and his FindAGrave memorial).

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I think the mortality schedule only still survives on our 1871 census. It was for people who had died in the previous 12 months.  

The 2021 Canada census starts on May 1, and there are jobs available, as door to door enumerators for households that do not complete the census online.

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I think that census enumerator got the occupation wrong if he was alive on 1 April.

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Ha! I guess they didn’t get the report from the next life as to what ol’ Daniel was assigned to do. 

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Say, Pip, are you going to join up in the Hi WikiTreers, join in the fun! Join the G2G Integrators Challenge for May 2021! - WikiTree G2G and once again abandon us? 

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I’m in! I was the second answer. 

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Yep,  Pip, I kinda figgered y'all'd be in this Thon.  

I am sitting here listening to some numbnuts numbwit blowing up aerial fireworks in a state still in drought conditions ... will have to stay awake and keep my nose tuned for smoke odors 

The idiot is like next door. 

Answer 1

Today is.....

              

NATIONAL OATMEAL COOKIE DAY

National Oatmeal Cookie Day on April 30th each year recognizes a delicious and nutritious cookie. This day is also often recognized on March 18th in conjunction with National Lacy Oatmeal Cookie Day.

Oatmeal cookies have been around since the 1800s. The cookies quickly became popular, and by early the 1900s, a recipe for the delicious treats appeared on containers of Quaker Oats. Oatmeal cookies are also considered health food because they are an excellent source of iron and fiber. Just another reason to have an oatmeal cookie today! Some of the other benefits of the oatmeal in the cookies include:

• It may lower cholesterol.
• Oatmeal reduces the risk of heart disease.
• It may reduce your risk of cancer. (According to the American Cancer Society, eating a diet high in fiber may help reduce your risk for cancer.)
• The grain is low in fat.
• Oatmeal is low in calories.
• Add oatmeal to your diet as a good source of iron and fiber.

HOW TO OBSERVE National Oatmeal Cookie Day:

Bake up a batch of oatmeal cookies. Make a delivery to someone you know to share! We even have a recipe for you to try.

Soft Oatmeal Cookie recipe.

Comments

This is a great, healthy snack we usually have around the house. We prefer to make our own instead of eating the store-bought versions. Perfect for dieting! Thanks, Dorothy!

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I love oatmeal cookies, especially with walnuts. I'm not fond of oatmeal cookies with raisins. Actually I love oatmeal! I remember when I was about 5 or 6 years old (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I got up one morning to find my dad cooking breakfast. I had never in my young life seen a man doing anything in the kitchen! This was around 1950. My dad was cooking oatmeal. He passed a bowl to me and said "eat this, it's good for you and it will stick to your ribs." All I could picture was putting this into my mouth and seeing it hanging in my body on my ribs! That was my first experience with oatmeal and I eat a bowl at least once a week with a bit of brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and goat milk! Yum...might as well start today right with a bowl!

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You had me at COOKIE!

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My favorite cookie! Alas, they are no longer a staple in my "diet." But your post, Dorothy, surely makes me desire one.

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The ultimate oatmeal cookie is the ANZAC biscuit eaten in Australia and New Zealand. (ANZAC Day is similar to Remembrance Day, and was commemorated last Sunday.)

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@Fiona - NEVER a cookie"!   

By law they are ANZAC Biscuits (at least in Australia, as they had to get permission to use ANZAC).  Besides, they should be made with rolled oats, not oatmeal - which is of a totally different texture.

American oatmeal cookies aren't bad, given they aren't ANZAC biscuits.  

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Melanie, I just assumed oatmeal WAS like rolled oats, as it’s the only form of oats in NZ (I think). It must be closer to what is used to make Scottish oatcakes.

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Oatmeal is much more finely cut- hence why it is "meal", whereas rolled oats (used for true and traditional ANZAC biscuits) are whole oats that have been rolled flat (steel rollers?).  Totally different in composition and texture.  Makes totally different biscuits/cookies.  Trust me, I know.  I tried to make ANZACs my first year in the US.  A total and dismal failure.  The last lot I had, I bought online from an Australian products importer.

I actually eat oatmeal, and am rather partial to fruit flavoured ones.  (But, then, I also am extremely partial to Fruity-Bix.)

Answer 2

Greetings and Salutations, Fellow WikiTreers!

Birthday rush is over - April is always a bit of fun, as it's my birthday, my Mom's birthday, my Aunt's birthday, my niece's birthday, and probably a few more I'm forgetting. It usually means a party somewhere, food, drink, family, and things get very busy. But we're past that now, and things are calming down. So now I'm trying to catch up on the things I'd set aside, and it's nice to just make out my list and start knocking them down. I need a week or two of this and then we'll get back to normal.

My Mom got to see her first great-grandchild for the first time this past weekend, so that was a wonderful experience. My brother and sisters came by and it was a bit of a family reunion experience to do that. So glad we found a way to make that happen. I'm still looking forward to seeing my grandson and his Mom this Saturday, if they're able to make it.

On WikiTree, I've been plugging away at the Hugo Award Winners, so it's been interesting seeing who won those, and sometimes being surprised that people like Rod Serling or Oscar Wilde received them. My latest was Bob Tucker, who started his journey as a "fanboy" for sci-fi, wrote his own hand-typed "fanzine", organized conventions in his area, and ended up writing his own short stories and novels, and eventually was recognized for his work. His connection just updated last night, so its time to move on to the next one. I haven't quite decided if I should start on Harry G. Peter of Wonder Woman fame, or Leigh Brackett, one of the early female science fiction writers. Either way, I'll probably end up doing both.

Hope everyone tries to stay positive this week, enjoys the nice warmer weather we're having, and stays safe.

Comments

Happy birthday to you, Scott, and all your other relatives who celebrates this month! That kind of busyness I could go for. I hope someone got pictures. After what we've been through this past year, those are events to remember.

Nice work on Tucker's profile. This was the first I'd heard of him. A very interesting biography.

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Happy birthday Scott!
I can understand the whole birthday thing... From the start of April through to Mid May my family have something like 10 birthdays

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Hi Scott! We are fellow Arians, so happy birthday to us. I have a number of April birthday family as well, including my brother. Funny you should mention Rod Serling. I was just thinking about him the other day! I was recalling the episode with Burgess Meredith who just wanted to be left alone with his books. Recall that episode? da da da da...da da da da (entry music for Twilight Zone)

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Happy Birthday to you and all your April-born kin! I, too, was an April baby.

Answer 3

Well Pip,  

Your efforts in the Thon certainly outshone my meager total.

I hope this is good enough for your Weekend Chat.

Here is Rainy... Sunny.... Hailstone.... Thunder... Frosty Morayshire Scotland -and that is just the day so far.  My poor sweetpeas are refusing to come out of their pots until the frost has gone.  30 straight days of morning frost as of today and even the weatherman was comenting this morning about this being a record.  Last sunday lunchtime I was wilting in the sun after the frost had burned off) and today I have gloves and a overcoat back on.  

I have been working on a very interesting profile from the Moray Suggestions List - ignoring the complaints from left field (the Scotland Project) who seam to think that working for the MIght Oaks 4 times a year is going over to the dark side lol and NOW i start on the Scottish Suggestions after the Thon.

Anyhoo back to my interesting profile.  I came across a book in my rearch which had a letter in it to the person who's profile I am writing up.  The author of the letter - the Aunt- told the nephew, in no uncertain terms, her feelings on his father and his second wife.  Even going so far as to call him  'a fool in his dotage' and her a 'freak' to the nephew.  The whole second marriage was quite scanderlous in the village.  I nearly didn't finish the profile as I was enjoying the research too much.  I was laughing so hard at one stage my present husband (he is the only one but I like to keep him on his toes) warned me he was going to unplug the laptop as I appeared to be enjoying myself too much.

Glad you have all recovered from the Thon, Stay safe.

Jackie

Comments

Hi there, Jackie! We're waiting on our usual last frost of the year (usually the first week of May) before we buy our flowers that can't handle it. We didn't wait last year and paid for it!

The Dark Side, HA! I get it. Having ancestors in the South here since immigration in the 1700s means I got "that look" when I was working with Sandringham. Since the England team is so large, it is pretty much a foregone conclusion they'll win, so I permanently moved back to the Sweepers for thons.

I hope you are going to add that letter to a free-space page so I can read it. Sounds like you had a great time with that family! Good for you!!

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Jackie,

I call mine my first husband. Can't let them get too comfortable.

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Just showed him what I was laughing at.  Not best amused  oh dear.

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Hi Jackie! So nice to meet a fellow Mighty Oakian! I live in Tucson, AZ and grew up in Wisconsin, but my thon team is The Might Oaks! Dark side, light side, for me it's the best side!

Answer 4

Last week while the Thon was going on:

• I'd been able to connect all the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the United Arab Emirates into our tree
• Almost had the profile of my cousin Julius Jeffreys ready for this weeks EPOW but the required image had been elusive until the day after the connection links were made. Also discovered that he also invented the refrigerator (His brother wrote about it)
• Working on another member of the Jeffreys family, prompted a wonderful wikitreer thread

This week:

• Had a message querying Victor Carey which resulted in me being emailed a copy of a series of transcribed letters between him and the Germans
• Found that a cousin was the link to connecting Roger Scruton
• Connected Allan Cockerell
• Connected David Lowe

Friday:

• During the early morning I had received an email of an error in form of an incorrect surname on a profile I'm currently managed. The correction led to the ability to connect Thomas Cox
• This day in history was when Miles Aylmer Fulton Barnett was born and also a joint marriage anniversary. Father and son married on the same day 30 years apart

Comments

Richard, you've been busy as a bee lately! I commend you for connecting UAE presidents and prime ministers. That goes a long way toward making our Tree more international, which we are always striving for. Good for you!

Health holding up?

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It honestly helps a lot that the governments in some form are connected by marriage. I'm in the process of trying to track down where one marriage links into the Saudi house of Saud.

Health? Hard to answer honestly. While I feel fine, I don't know how everything is going in regards to treating the condition

Answer 5

I received my daily morning check in with my neighbor this
morning and she is complaining about the rainy weather we have had, are having, and is predicted for the rest of several days in a row.  I have to remind her we are down an average of 20 inches of snow this winter and it may help her son, who is always broke, avoid having to pay $50 per load of water for several months this summer.  She always ends up paying it for him.  The only complaint I have is that it bends the daffodils over and breaks their stems, but it makes lots of picked bouquets for me and neighbors.  Unfortunately it also cancels spring track practice for my granddaughters school team and it is the second sport for groups in over a year.  I am on grandma duty three afternoons a week as transportation to school for two of them and a friend, while they are on hybrid school days and study at home.  I think it is perfect weather to make a batch of oatmeal cookies.  Thank you Dorothy!
Yesterday I treated myself to lunch out at a small neighborhood diner that Herb and I used to enjoy, especially after his Alzheimer problems.  I celebrated the fact that I beat the odds of 50% of those who broke their hips didn't survive six months, and I was one year and one day past the date my hip broke and dumped me.  I will always have to use a cane and/or a walker but it is better than wheel chair or bed bound.

Comments

Beulah, I know what rain does to daffodils and other kinds of flowers like that. Knocked down! For a few of our flowers we had put some green fence-like things around them just to keep them up. The weather you are having now is like what we usually have all spring, but that has not been the case this year.

Answer 6

Thank You for hosting the Chat Pip,

This week. And the Week before.

Monday, Week 1, Nothing much done on WikiTree. With less than two weeks to go before our visit to the south we started checking out our travel kits and re stocking them. I decided to not attend the calling hours for my friend the former Sheriff after seeing police cars at the funeral home 5 hours before the calling hours were scheduled to start, I don't thing large crowds are smart at this time. Weather was spring like. Week 2, did some shopping for things we need for our trip. Weather was very nice.

Tuesday, Week 1, Eye problems so I did nothing on or off WikiTree, just rest and relax. Weather was spring like. Week 2, I cut the grass and we did laundry. The laundry went fine except for the last load when the washer decided to go on strike. after several failed attempts to fix the problem we broke down and called a repair service.

Wednesday, Week 1, A busy day. We had the great granddaughter for a couple of hours in the morning. Diane went for her second Covid shot and with winter weather returning we had to shovel about 4 inches of wet snow. In the afternoon my son's wife dropped off 4 big bags of clothing for the great granddaughter that we took to the other son's and sorted so that Grandma and great grandma could pick out a couple of outfits for when the little one visits. The rest went home with the baby when her parents picked her up. Week 2 The repair man came about the washer. The computer was fried so he ordered a new part and got the lid up so we could remove the sopping wet clothes in there and finish up by other means.

Thursday, Week 1, I don't remember. Week 2, It got cold and wet. We did not do much of anything.

We are still waiting on the part for the washer. Laundromat here we come. This weekend the house sitters are coming over for our briefing and to get used to the dog. That along with organizing things to pack will take up most of our time. I might not be on much for the next two weeks with being out of town  until later on the 10th.

Comments

Dale, I'm, STUNNED! I just cannot believe that there was something you couldn't fix. When things go bad around here, I try to think, "What would Dale do?"

Looks like you actually had a few days there where you didn't do anything and got some rest instead. I wonder if that drove you crazy or if you rather enjoyed it.

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Pip, I tried. Actually I could have fixed it but they would not sell me the parts and the whole computer board is shot. The board is getting power but not turning on.

Answer 7

Hi from southern Ontario;

Chez moi/at home: we did get the snow that was forecast for last week about 5cm, and lots of mini blizzards blue sky then 10 minutes of snow so heavy we couldn't see the back fence.  Many of my daffodils have broken necks because of the weight of the snow. The snow only lasted for a day.  

My daughters both had their first 'jabs' on Monday both had AstraZeneca and felt dreadful for 24 hours, and then were fine.

We have our monthly trans Atlantic Zoom meeting tomorrow with all my English relatives. 

Books: I finished reading Gaijin and because the bookstores and libraries are closed, I have been wandering through our own library, I am now rereading Leon Uris's Redemption set in the late 1800s in Ireland, New Zealand and then Gallipoli. 

Family history: what have I been doing? Last week, working on my bio-app issues, I adopted a large number of profiles last fall all created by Gedcom, most of them did not have references under the Sources title, so I spent two days fixing those issues. 

And as some may remember I am working on a cemetery project, specifically the deceased buried in the Alton, Ontario cemetery, because my dear Robbie is related to most of those interred there. I contacted the Heritage committee for the area, asking for their support and use of their resources primarily photos of the many old family homes. Then I will be able to include those photos in a One Place Study based on the cemetery records. I told the Heritage committee that I would share my research with them and hoped that the One Place/Cemetery could be included on the Heritage website. I got a reply yesterday. 

" Your husband's connections to so many of the early families in Alton is astounding - what an exciting undertaking, your project is likely of interest to the Alton Village Association as well". And provided contact info for that group as well. Now I have to find out what information they have. There are now 129 profiles in the cemetery category only 1271 to go. 

I discovered that there are even more connections between some of my dear Robbie's ancestors than I thought there was. His great aunt married John Erskine. I knew that. It turns out that his second cousin Homer McClellan married the Isabella the sister of John Erskine, and Jacob a son of Homer married Ella McClellan daughter of Homer's second cousin. 

A question: Does anyone know if it is possible to search for profiles by death location? 

Covid: after a massive controversy broke out about police powers, our provincial government rescinded the over the top police powers, but we are not really any further ahead. However, Joe Biden has promised to send extra Covid vaccines to Canada. And for that I am grateful. 

I want to thank James Brooks for his help in locating the graves of some of my ancestors in Church Stretton, Shropshire, England.

Comments

Good afternoon M., hope you got my e-mail about the Church Stretton cemetary. I'll be back there in two weeks.

The church secretary, Jo, is researching the names, The only readable headstone was a James Robinson died 1826.

I'll let you know when I get more info.

The library in Church Stretton also has records but short opening hours, som I'll catch them when I go back.

Sorry I wrote this before I read you answer.

James

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Hi M, I believe Joe Biden also mentioned sending extra Covid vaccines to other countries, including developing nations in his address this past Wednesday night. I expect he, on behalf of our nation, will keep his word. I have a clinical psychology professor colleague who worked with him back in the day and their output was the violence against women act.

Virtual vacay???

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Virtual vacay is just down the page a bit,

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I remember reading where the United States had ordered several million more shots than we would ever use early in the beginning.  I'm glad to hear they will be of use to others.

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I forgot other important things for this week, I pruned and vacuumed the cactus in my garden.

Also my daughter's huge hot tub is being delivered today, she hopes it will help with her arthritis.

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M, I really don't EVER need to but new books or visit the library, though I do. I have only to walk over to my bookshelves to find something I have yet to read.

I saw today that a pastor in Calgary who grew up under communism in Poland and who had refused police entrance into his church, calling them Nazis and Gestapo, on two occasions now has an arrest warrant out which includes a whatever necessary force clause.

I'm really impressed about your contacts with the heritage association re your cemetery work. That's GREAT!

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Pip, I have read everything in our 7 floor to ceiling bookcases, I have three options; borrow books from a friend who has very different reading tastes, order online which could take quite a while with several local distribution centres being closed due to Covid, or see if I can find anything appealing that is available through curbside pickup from the library.

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Re: the pastor, he held services over Easter and public health came to visit and he wouldn't co-operate, then they came with police and he became very angry.

It's the no masks and no distancing that is the major problem.

He is in Alberta where the rules are: In-person faith group meetings and other religious gatherings are permitted in places of worship as long as physical distancing, mask use and public health measures are followed.

In Ontario it's a max of 10 people indoor or outdoor at any kind of religious service with masks and distancing but no social gatherings allowed at all that are related to a religious event, so no wedding receptions etc,

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Hi M I have had the AZ vaccination and I felt dreadful after the first but no effects after the second one.  The nurse giving me the second one said that the body seems to accept the second vaccination much better and she was correct.  So tell your daughters not to worry about the next vaccination.   As to masks my husband has banned me from wearing my latest creation.  He says I have gone a bit to far with 'Mask It or Casket'  I saw it on a news bulletin from the USA and loved it.  No accounting for taste.  He also wouldn't let me wear my one that said 'will remove for whisky' either.

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Now my husband might actually wear one that said 'will remove for beer'. However he avoids wearing anything and has got a face covering that keeps the wind out in the winter for when he has to wear something. Since I do shopping, when needs must, he can avoid most situations. Neither of us is convinced that we really need them, if people knew how to socially distance I am sure we could do away with them, as we will have to hopefully sooner rather than later. There are few situations where we must get close for long periods of time.

Answer 8

Buenos dias from the Old Pueblo! It's 68F (20C) with an expected high of 90F (32.2C) with blue skies.

Well, we placed our mum in memory care this past Monday, much thanks to the hard work of my brother and his wife. They know the drill as they had to place Sue's mum and step-father years ago. Our mum is on medicare, which doesn't support a great deal of 'posh' type places, but mum won big at Bingo and she won big with placement. Apparently, my brother got a last minute call from the social worker telling him that an up-scale memory facility was allowing two beds per their locations for persons on Medicare. I expect it's because of Covid. This is why my brother didn't hesitate to look and sign immediately! I guess my kid sister was quite taken with the center as well. So...Last Monday, while my niece took mum to breakfast, my sister, her husband and my son-in-law, moved mum's bedroom furniture into her 'suite', set up her bed, hung her clothes, hooked up her telly, and brought a few items for her 'sitting room' and when they had everything done and hung, called Elyse to bring mum to her new quarters. The facility requests no visitors for a week so that they can get to know mum and she can get acclimated to her new digs. So the family will visit for the first time this week. They restrict visits to 2 hours in length for 2 persons at a time to maintain Covid restrictions. I'm anxious to find out how things went as I expect Bonny will visit with the dog on Monday.

I am still recovering from the Thon! I was thrilled to participate with The Mighty Oaks and they came in first with some 32,000 aisle clean ups. I'm sure it was my 131 that put them over the top! I'm a bit OCD and when I see a profile with no biography...well, I cannot resist. And, of course, a biography looks naked without as least one inline source. OCD, you get the picture.

Genealogy wise, I was up until 2am and reached 1006 so I will get a 1K sticker for April. My birthday gift to me. We had a great zoom on Wednesday for our second Mastering Genealogical Proof (MGP) class. I discovered that a second cousin, Sherry, from England is in the class! Our mutual cousin, Sheila from California and I did a genealogical road trip to Massachusetts and Vermont about 4 years ago. Sheila and Sherry were together in England about two years ago and some of the photos from Buckinghamshire of 16th century Baldwin locations were taken by Sheila. Both women look uncannily alike. I commented on this to Sherry. She told me that their mothers were identical twins. I told Sherry it makes sense as the two cousins are like two peas in a pod!  So now I have a 'study buddy' in the MGP class and Sherry, Sheila and I are texting each other on a daily basis.

International Nurses Week is coming up starting May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) through the 12. We recognize Florence Nightingale's birthday on May 12th. Last year was the 200th anniversary of her birth. We were cheated out of her Bicentenary Celebration because of Covid. Plus, most of the nurses were caught up in patient care around the globe. It will be limited again this year due to the pandemic, but we will all take time at noon on the 12th no matter where we are in the world to light a candle and think of the Founder of Modern Nursing.

This weekend, it's back to getting more work done for the university on the global health syllabus. I'm way behind, but family first, which means mum and family, then my Wikitree family with the thon. Have a great week and {{{HUGS}}} to all!

Comments

The Mighty Oaks are just that, mighty, but Team Roses gave y'all a run for the money. Great work!!

I am almost relieved to hear that your family got a placement for your mom. It's difficult. I remember my mom driving to the nursing home to visit dad and make sure he was being cared for properly. It was still a strain but better than trying to care for him at home.

I'm going to have to remember to send my nurse daughter some flowers to honor her work during International Nurses Week. Thanks for the reminder.

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Carol

Enjoy your course I did something along those lines a few years ago with DearMyrtle in a study group.

I managed over 1000 for the Thon but usually get over 1000 contributions each month with my project related duties.

Not so particular as you but most of them were improving locations in Dorset, England and part of the One Place Study I adopted.  I have started to clean up some of the profiles improving what source is there or marking as Unsourced those which are just sourced as 1861 census or similar.

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Hi Pip, I know you and Team Roses gave us a run for our money. The good news is that collectively, we all made a substantive improvement to so many profiles! Well done all of us!

And do try to remember your nurse daughter. Our bicentennial 2020 International Year of the Nurse was disrupted due to the pandemic.

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Hi Hilary! Always great to hear from you. I am enjoying the course and learning a lot. I also love the fact that we have people from England, New Zealand and elsewhere, which really enriches the conversation and learning!

I saw your number climb during the thon! What a woman! You really are a role model for me on the England Team and for many others. Thank you!

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Agreed! That was the best part. 

Answer 9

Hey Pip! thanks for hosting!

Rainy and snowy (yes I said it) day today so stuck inside after being in my patio office yesterday. Spring, please spring on past this bit of snow!

A busy week after the CAT! But how fun. I saw someone gave Kudos to Pip for an outstanding job! Lots of WikiTree MnM's were eaten and shared via the LiveCasts and blueberry pie was mentioned. Someone even made a WikiTree Pie, logo and all - you know who you are you blueberry pie hating man! Most important of all? We had fun while working to make our great big ole shared tree healthier! YAY US, YAY WikiTree!

I have been working on research for a presentation I am to give in the fall regarding how Anne Johnston, Admin of the The Bally Carry Group Project, has discovered the probable origins of the Templeton Families who settled in Laurens, SC, York, SC and Iredell County, NC. (some of those the Templetons from Iredell are Scottish and not related). Hopefully using WikiTrees great tools, the presentation will be clear, concise and wonderfully explosive to all my Templeton cousins who think we are Scottish (BIG hint - Irish DNA).

Lots do before I can show how we jumped the pond...

Mags

Comments

I remember the conversation Sarah and I had about me hosting a midnight stream. I'm not doing that again!!

Glad we had a good time. Great hosting with ya!

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Mags, you did a fabulous job (as usual) hosting the live chats. That, for me, is absolutely one of the best parts of ANY thon! Thanks for that!

Some of those surnames listed on the Ballycarry page are in my ancestry: Moore, Reid, Kerr, all Ulster immigrants, as far as I can tell.

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Hi Mags! Thank you so much for the great job on the Thon.

Answer 10

It's now time for a Virtual Vacation!

This week we are chasing waterfalls. Six of these pictures were taken with a film camera on our first long distance road trip in August 1999. The photos were scanned. Total distance travelled 11,352 km from southern Ontario to the pacific coast and back again. The picture of Sunwapta falls is from Wikipedia. When we hiked to the falls, I discovered that somehow I had left my camera in the car, and it would have taken far too much time to go back for it. 

This is Kakabeka falls just west of Thunder Bay in northern Ontario. 

The Icefield parkway runs north south along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains on Alberta/British Colombia provincial border. Along this road there are many canyons, lots of waterfalls and several glaciers. Mistaya canyon was carved by the Mistaya river and is very narrow in parts, this section it is only about 6 feet wide. 

Sunwapta falls is also along the Icefields parkway. 

Athabasca falls is stunning and is one of the largest falls along the parkway. 

This is the Athabasca glacier part of the Columbia Icefield, and right there along the Icefields parkway, we took a ice buggy/bus tour onto the glacier where we drank some very old very cold water. 

It was also the setting for parts of The Far Country, filmed 1953 with Jimmy Stewart and Walter Brennan leading a cattle train over the Athabasca Glacier, this was before the road existed. Compared to shots in the movie the size of the glacier was dramatically smaller when we saw it in 1999. 

The Fraser river starts in the north eastern part of Rockies and runs for 800km to the Pacific Ocean, Chinook salmon often up to 4 feet long are the only salmon strong enough to make the journey to the headwaters of the Fraser. Fishing upriver is restricted to first nations members. This picture shows the traditional fishing technique. In the small pond directly in front of the fisher there are several quite large salmon. 

These are the Elk Falls in Campbell river on the east side of Vancouver Island. There are many signs warning of unannounced water releases from the dam upstream. The area I was standing on would be under several feet of water if the dam was opened and I would be washed into the canyon below. 

Comments

M, those water falls are much larger than the ones we have around here in The Land of the Waterfalls (Transylvania County, North Carolina). I bet the roar of those falls are something!

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Kakabeka falls is 40 metres high, which means it is higher than the American Niagara Falls.

Athabasca falls are 24 metres high and almost twice that width, it has a huge amount of water falling into the canyon and is very loud.

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Thank you, M for another wonderful VV!  Gorgeous photos.

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M, I cannot tell you how much I love your virtual vacays! These photos are so wonderful/compelling that I can actually hear the sound of the falls and smell the water and fir trees. Thank you so very much! {{{HUGS}}}

Answer 11

You miss a chat for two weeks and a WHOLE lot of stuff happens. Let's get right down to it.

Hails and horns, Wikipeeps! I hope everyone is doing good. After that clean-a-thon, I learned a few things. Some people really, REALLY need to clean up some profiles. Pro tip. If you don't know where someone died, don't put "unknown" or a question mark. I cleaned a ton of those. And then I went back and added them to the correct Italian town categories. We are getting categories for more Italian towns and that's a good thing!

And speaking of categories, the Italians in Haverhill category has doubled as I added random people in the book. I have even made a freespace page for the book. Check it out here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Italians_in_Haverhill

If anyone has suggestions for it, let me know!

I want to contact the author and show her everything but she has no social media presence. No twitter. No Facebook. No e-mail. Not even a website. How can I contact her? Smoke signals?!

 Anyway, I got all that stuff done for my side project. I added a ton of people from the book and some that were at my great-grandmother's funeral.

On the blog front, I wrote two blogs in the time we've not had a chat. One post is about DNA: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2021/04/52-ancestors-week-16-dna.html

I basically talked about why it's important to have your DNA uploaded to other vendors especially if you're the grandson of a recent immigrant. Speaking of, I got in contact with another Aleardi cousin. So that is cool. =D

My next blog was about a favorite place to go. I talked about my grandmother's house: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2021/04/52-ancestors-week-17-favorite-place.html

We actually did go over the river and through the woods to get there. It wasn't the Merrimack. It was the Spicket river, a tributary of the Merrimack. It's small, too. I don't know how that qualifies as a river. Whatever.

I talked about what I liked about grandma's house. It was where the genealogical journey began. So many memories and it was too much for just ONE blog.

Not much going on on the non genealogy front. Parents are getting the boat ready and perhaps FINALLY we can use it. We shall see. =D Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Comments

Nice start on that free space page, Chris. I know you'll be expanding it as you go. Good work!

Hope you can get out on that boat soon. Nothing like some time on the water.

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Yeah, I know. =) I hope we can get out there at some point.

Thanks, Pip. Adding people in slowly and some of the names match the names of people who were at my great-grandmother's funeral.

Answer 12

Here's another first for us. Usually we have one or two white squirrels under the bird feeders, but this morning there were three!

I took these with the first thing that came handy, my phone, so  you might to be able to see them clearly, but there's three of them. 

Comments

Coming in loud and clear Pip.  I never heard of or known about white squirrels.  Is it some kind of local aberration?

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Yep, they are. I've heard a few stories about how they got here. One was a traveling fair that came through and lost some. Lots of places/businesses named White Squirrel around here.

One of those fellas above has a little black stripe running down his back, like a reverse skunk so, appropriately, we call him Skunk.

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Awwww...I want one. Bring one along for me when you come to Tucson. BTW...when will that be? Don't wait for summer because you will fry. Seriously. You can cook an egg on the pavement in July!

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Gonna have to wait at least until the stream bank restoration., Carol. That’ll takes some weeks.

Answer 13

Rain and wind this morning don't help as I feel depressed. I still mourn for Peppi.  A slow start this morning as I did not want to return so soon to this chair at the computer.  Hours of transcribing minutes or WikiTreeing leave me with a headache and backache.

The Public Utility District said they would come Tuesday to replace the pole at the end of the street.  They have still not come and they haven't answered their voice mails. The $350 that the Historical Society paid to heat the lighthouse in March is helping pay for that pole, l. o. l.

Something has gone wrong with my Bernina 1008 in that I get no response when stepping on the pedal.  My habit has been to manually adjust the needle position by turning the wheel, but maybe that has caused something, finally, to slip. It requires even more manual action now just to get it to stitch.

In the meantime, the curtain rod in my daughter's room has lost its fastening to the wall and the Beatrix Potter curtains that I made in 1987 are at an odd angle.  Too juvenile for her anyway.  I should make that a higher priority than the Bernina. But I know NOTHING about window treatments and I dread that the project would require a power drill that I would be incompetent with. Get someone to help. But who?

I am glad that I got the 300+ African-American profiles connected that I was working on.  For some reason the challenge tracker locked up yesterday, and it wasn't the 30th yet.

I want to reduce the size of the watchlist to below 5000, but it seems just to increase or stay the same.  Sort of like with my weight. I am enjoying eating out more the way we used to.

I added another row of hexagons to the English paper piecing top I started, all done by hand.  Another source of neck and shoulder stiffness from sitting too long.  

Motivation to quilt has gone way down.  At times I wish I could make myself a 1930s style dress from the reproduction fabric, but that will probably not happen.  I would prefer to rent a costume.

Good news is that Mukilteo Historical Society is going to set up a YouTube channel and I am going to appear (or at least my voice) in the brief Mukilteo Minutes.  That reminds me that I still haven't finished transcribing the minutes from last night.  So that will get done today.

Next weekend I hope to feel a bit more sunny. All of you enjoy the week, one minute at a time.

Comments

Margaret, I feel for you. I lost my two dogs years ago and I still miss them. Once they become part of the family, it’s hard to forget them, even after a long time has passed.

I can’t wait for the MHS videos to appear on YouTube. You’ve taught us so much about the area, I’d love to see the pictures to go along with.

You hang in there, Margaret. We love you and care about you.

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I went down to the lighthouse today to see about the May Day sale. The clouds were parting. A gentleman who is one of the Admiralty Head docents bought a copy of my book on the Pioneer Cemetery and asked me to autograph it.  And he said I could keep the pen!

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Oh, I really got to order me that book. Sounds like a read right up my alley!

Answer 14

Happy Weekend!!!

Weather this week has warmed up and been wonderful after our spring freeze. Our weather is always similar to that Pip describes, since we are in the same general area of the United States.

I signed up for a six-week program put on by our University of Georgia county extension office. Once a week we get together to have a short nutrition lesson, then a walk along a nice path by the Coosawattee River. The second session was yesterday and it was a perfect walking day. I was able to walk further and longer than the first week. The physical therapy for my lower back may be coming to an end next Tuesday, depending on the assessment of my therapist. My quest to lower my blood sugar through diet and exercise continues. I have dropped twenty-five pounds since mid-February.

A basic examination of my husband's vision showed that the injection he had for macular degeneration last month may have resulted in improvement. His second injection was this past Wednesday. The doctor said that after the third injection the first of June, they will do more in-depth testing.

After never hearing from the contractor my plumber initially  recommended, we have a possible "Plan B" which may get underway next week to repair my shower and possibly make some other renovations in that bathroom. 

I've been a slacker on WikiTree lately. I've even been neglecting my usual maintenance work. One day this week, though, I did some fun work. It's difficult to describe, but it basically was my own little personal "Connect-a-Thon" from an "in-law" in my personal database (but not yet on WikiTree)--Cora E. Page--to the first person recorded on the 1900 United States Census for Coffee County, Alabama, who also had the surname Page but who was not in my database (and not yet on WikiTree)--Jeptha Amos Page. They were from the same county so I started out with the possibility they were somehow related to one another. It turned out that Cora's father and Jeptha Page were brothers. I also added their father to WikiTree. I'm not "related" to any of them, except by marriage. It was just something different to do and may lead to a "personal project" I will pursue off and on.

Hope you each have a lovely weekend!

Comments

Good for you on the weight loss, Nelda. Believe me, I know how hard it is.

I often work in areas not particularly related to my family, just to take break once in a while. It is rather satisfying to somewhere along the line to help some other families out.

I hope the treatments continue to work for you husband. Thirty years ago there wasn’t really anything available for those with Mac D, as we called it. It was my mom-in-law who suffered for so long with it.

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Pip, I have been up and down the scale a few times and I think losing this time has been easiest because of a strong motivation combined with a good method. The most difficult part of the process for me has been keeping the weight off once it's gone.

Answer 15

On this day:

1777: The German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauß is born

1803: Napoleon Bonaparte sells French Louisiana to the USA

1863: The Battle of Camarón is fought

Comments

It's the Battle of Camerón, today, Professor. Thanks!!

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Hi Jelena, hope you and your mum are doing well. Thanks for the history. Good thing we bought French Louisiana from Boney because we wouldn't have Mardi Gras without it! {{{HUGS}}} Big hugs to you and your mum!

Answer 16

Greetings from Brightlingsea, Essex, England.                        Things are looking up. Had the text to book my second "jab" last week and that was for this morning. Had to go to Clacton-on-sea, which is around 10 miles away. In order to get there needed to take 2 buses and arrived well in time.  Having got the "jab" - met up with one of my former colleagues, Gina from civil service days. We had an outdoors coffee and a good chat. I found time to do some shopping and ended up with a new shirt & a pair of cord trousers. Headed home at 12.15pm - home for a later lunch than usual.

Quiet afternoon at home and then tonight remembered Weekly Chat - thanks of course to Pip for hosting.

Not alot to report on Wikitree this week. Though Findmypast has UK Census Records on free access  this weekend so will make use of those.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Comments

Chris, sound like you had a nice outing to go along with your second shot. Good for you. We all need such to keep our spirits up. Thanks for checking in again. I always look forward to hearing from Brightlingsea!

Answer 17

Good evening from Germany!

The covid numbers seem to decrease AT LAST. The incidence for the whole country was as low as two weeks ago. In my town, the incidence went down to 142. It was way over 200 for days. I know, many neighbor countries are envious because our incidence is so "low", but I still consider it too high. Today we have more than 20k infections. Well, at least it's less than last week.

Personally, we again had a quiet week. I called my Physician to ask if I could get an appointment for a vaccination. When I told the helper I live with my old mum, she said: "Well, then you have surely a paper to get in the priority group. Our list is full, you can call again in 2 weeks." I had a look for that paper she mentioned. Erm, no, mum does not have an official degree of need of care. I hope that mum's GP can write a letter that explains acceptably that mum needs help and I can get a vaccination asap. Otherwise I will have to wait until late summer. I don't want that.

Thon-wise: As always, I lived my normal life during the Thon. Still I managed to clean more than 300 suggestions that were counted. I also cleaned the formatting of the bio-box and also sourced many profiles. Altogether, in the DeCoursey-Gedcom there were cleaned more than 2200 suggestions.

Genealogy-wise: I continued to go through my watchlist and had many profiles with {{Estimated Date}} this week. For some of them I found a more exact date, only to add parents again with an estimated date. Oh well. I eventually want to connect those profiles, so I have to add profiles to increase the possibility...

Stay safe, keep the distance and have a great weekend

Comments

Wow, Jelena! You worked in the dreaded DeCoursey gedcom?!? (where angels fear to tread, if only because after all these years, it’s still massive)

I’m really sorry you’re having such a difficult time getting your vaccination. The hoops you have to jump through! With the numbers coming down, are the restrictions easing up at all?

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I worked in DeCoursey, yes. My main task was to work with Location-suggestions, but I also had to fill some dates, because finally profiles without dates aren't allowed anymore, not even in Gedcoms that are newly uploaded. And I sourced many of the profiles I worked with. For April, my Sourcerer-owl will be of another color than usual.

Last week the "Federal-Emergency-Break"-Law went through the administrational process and is valid now. Saying that in counties that have a incidence of >100 a curfew has to be established between 10pm and 5am. There you can go shopping with a negative antigene-test and an appointment (click and meet). If the incidence is >150, you can only order online and go to the shop to pick it up (click and collect). Schoolwise, if the incidence is between 100 and 165, the kids that are not finishing the school this year, are in school every second day. The groups are divided in halves. The group outside of school has zoom-schooling. If the incidence is >165 there is only zoom-schooling. Here is a map of the German incidence per county. I am in a darkred county.

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Wow, Jelena...great job! You are a wiki-super star.

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Through this "Federal Emergency Break" we have home school again. It's so exhausting. 2nd grade and 3rd grade. But at least I'm learning something new again. Half-written multiplication. I didn't learn anything like that back then. From September, we finally have a place in kindergarten for the smallest one (4 Years old).

On Friday I got my 2nd vaccination (Moderna). Yesterday I felt so bad. I had chills and fever and a terrible pain in my arm. But better than getting really sick. I wish you that you can get your vaccination soon. I am in prioritisation group 2.

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If I can get the doctor to accept mum's constant need of help as reason to get me vaccinated, I am in prio group 2 as well. If not, then I am only able to get my vaccination when there are no prio groups anymore.

Answer 18

I finished my science-fantasy romance novel! It's 40,000 words long.

Basically it follows the story of a mermaid who is trying to stop her mother from destroying humanity for their part in doing near-irreversible damage to the oceans, and human man who is the mayor of a failing shore town in New Jersey that finds her.

I'm hoping to get it up on Amazon sometime in May.

Comments

G, it’ll be an e-book for people to read? Do you have to pay a fee to set it up on Amazon, or do they collect from each download?

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Yep, an e-book! It's free to set it up, but they do take some money from you for each download.

Answer 19

Hi Folks,

Thanks for hosting, Pip.  Like you we are having riding lawn mower trouble.  I helped load the larger one onto the trailer, this morning.  We have two old Wheel Horses, a 12HP and 14HP.  Great tractors, but beginning to feel their age, as we are.  I borrowed our neighbor's truck and took a run up to Amsterdam and Gloversville to pick up fence posts at Tractor Supply.  Mission accomplished, but I'm knackered.

It's cold, very windy and we've had little showers all day, on and off, here in Bramans Corners.  The shad is finally in blossom, and the bloodroot is about over.  The daffodils and hyacinths are a cheery treat.  I did get the grass cut, before the last two days of rain.  At 1100 feet we may one of those "higher elevations" that gets snow tonight.

Not much on the genealogy front.  Just a few records added to older profiles I rushed into.  I was finally able to add my grandfather's cousin, Ray, as a result of one find.  I had some correspondence between them, but was unsure of the connection.  

It's great to hear from everyone, after a week's absence.  Thank you for the connections.

Comments

Mark, I understand about being knackered. My wife and I were taking the other day about how in just the last five years our stamina is less doing the same chores we’ve done all along. It should be this Wednesday that the repair guys will get with us to schedule a pick-up of our mower. I mowed a good chunk of the backyard today. Great exercise, but like you said, I too was bushed afterwards.

Answer 20

On this date 209 years ago, Louisiana joined the Union as state number 18.

Comments

Ow, I feel old. The last time I thought about this was when it was less than 200 years ago that the Pelican State joined the Union.

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Yes, and it went from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, made Texas and Alaska look like Rhode Jsland. Still the best, the only state with Napoleanic Code laws.

Long live the Pelican State, "Sportsman's Paradise".

JAMES "swamp Rat"