"Weekend Chat" - All Members are Invited! (26-27 June 2015)

+28 votes
3.6k views
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!
 
Do you have any ideas to share?
 
Have you witnessed any famous events?
 

Have you broken through any brickwalls through WikiTree?

New people, say Hello and introduce yourself!

Have you learned anything new or uncovered any techniques to improve profiles more easily?

G2G Pilots, Mentors, and Leaders... any fresh Tips for us?

Any special summer plans?

Any subject you want to chat about...

* Fads/hobbies when you were 18?

* What do you do other than Wikitree?

* Heard a funny one?

* Do you do anything to help people or animals that are less fortunate?

* Say something! (You know you want to!):D

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.

in The Tree House by Vincent Piazza G2G6 Pilot (249k points)
edited by Keith Hathaway

That's for sure a nice long word, great pasting together as well , but if they will take is more serious cheeky August 2015 would be a great time for a meeting , watch some impressive ships come by, sunshine happy people , nice zomerweertje ... would be a great occasion for a "Wikitreenederlandsevergadering" of de ''StichtingdeCommiteelandelijkdeNederlandseWikitreeinternationalvegaderingtoekomstgeuitkijke2015'' It's sooo long it doesn't fit in the message box , serious bussines laugh

Hi Vincent, Rented a houseboat for a week in your wonderful city two years ago and would return in a heartbeat. Maybe I could tag along as an observer at Bea's and your "Wikitreenederlandsevergadering." smiley

OK.  This is on my list of things I want to do.
OK. Laurie I'll make a note of that and keep you posted.  Cheers!
It was truly a unique experience. Just be prepared to wave a lot at the tourists going by on the tour boats!
Whoops! Messages crossing. Kind of wondered why that would be on your list!
Hi Angelique Did you get any help with finding your grandfather? If you post his info of his full name, dob, dod, places. where he lived, wife's name etc....in other words-- as much as you know of him. Then we can do some hunting and see what we can find. I love to play Sherlock Holmes and find the missing kin.....good luck in your hunt
I have had no luck so far. I have no contact with my family so I can not ask them for more information So I am pretty much stuck with the little info that I have of him.
Ok Vincent, 77?? Really? You should have my temps.. 106. And arizona is supposed to be about 110. You really want to rub 77 in? but thats ok, in the winter my temps will be about 50. (picking on ya) This winter I"ll make sure you have a daily temp report of hi and low. Great job hosting the chat BTW. But I think the heat is the cause of my headaches and tired feelings. I almost didn't find the chat.
I like the heat actually.  106 is a bit over the top though.  I remember you can breathe easy in your climate.  Also you even have almost undetectable better vision in places where there is no humidity.  It doesn't get so cold in Amsterdam.  It's always about 1 or 2 (35 - 38F) in the night and about 3 - 5 (40 - 48) in the day in the winter.  The climate drastically changes by driving just a bit north or going a bit inland toward Germany or south into the mountains in Belgium or France.  They have real winter.  I think in 25 years the canals only froze enough for ice-skating three times.  But when it's so cold you're for sure gonna meet someone that says, '"Lekker fris!" (nice and fresh) with a smile so it's alright after that. I'm lucky in that I have a place of refuge in sunny Spain when I get bored with the weather here.

I still have a tumbleweed snowman in my thoughts.

16 Answers

+18 votes
 
Hello fellow WikiTree-ers,
 
Thanks for hosting the Chat Vincent...what a great day it is going to be!
 
This week we have young cousins visiting from Houston Texas.  It's been a blast guiding them through the sites.  Usually city-slickers, they've been enjoying hiking, swimming, four-wheeling, and cook-outs.  I've been showing them their ancestors and telling them family storries all throughout to promote their interest in genealogy.
 
The wildlife in our back-yard and field has been pretty wild lately; on any given day we see chipmunks, squirels, rabbits, fox, deer, ground-hogs, coy-dogs, weazels, moose, and assorted birds including canadian-geese the occasional bald-eagle.
 
When I was 18 I most remeber being in between trainings for the Army.  I did boot-camp one summer then screwed around getting in trouble and partying all year, then shipped off to medic training the next summer.  It was a crazzzzy time.  I was all bout girls girls girls.  I was also into shooting pool and playing fooz-ball, often with Steve Miller Band rocking in the background.
 
Tips for New People:  1 - Don't hesitate to ask for help in G2G or from the Mentors.  2 - Add sources to each profile to support the information posted.  3 - Have fun!
 
Helping others -  Aside from WikiTree I help others to be more physically fit, safe, and confident by teaching them martial-arts.  Some of the groups I teach include children with special needs and challenges.  It's most rewarding.  I teach people for free if they cannot afford to chip in for classes.  Our school has graduated over 140 students to blackbelt or higher.  In August one of our students tests for 5th degree... very exciting!
 
I can't wait to see what everyone else is up to :)
 
Enjoy yourself!
by Keith Hathaway G2G6 Pilot (634k points)
It's very nice that you can and do give some lessons for free.  These people will for sure remember that and are most likely to recommend you and return when they can afford to pay compensation for their lessons....also the healthy karma it nourishes!
+19 votes

Remember to Vote for your favorite Family History Photo of the Week

300px-Hamilton-9915-2.jpg

Follow the link to see this week's current nominations, nominate photos you like, and to vote for your favorites.  Up-vote generously:  http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/159506/time-nominate-family-history-photo-week-favorites-current

by Keith Hathaway G2G6 Pilot (634k points)
+17 votes

Recently Ann B did a wonderful project on one of Alberta, Canada's first teachers
Edith Coe Warren.

It got me thinking about another amazing teacher.
Aberhart-26
Alberta was in the Depression and a teacher named William Aberhart decided to
run for Alberta's seventh Premier. He campaigned by saying Alberta was the riches
place on earth, a land flowing with milk and honey.

The news could talk about know one else, they called him everything under the sun.
Alberta was nothing but a dust bowl. Weeks before the election they asked everyone on the streets if anyone was going to vote for this crazy man, not one person said they would vote for him. The day of the election he went in with a landslide and shocked just about everyone especially the news media.

They went back onto the streets to find who it was that did vote for him
 and not one person admitted voting for William.

What he gave them was hope.

William got up and spoke to the men of Alberta and he said if the fathers of Alberta would pray Alberta would become rich, which of course everyone thought was sheer nonsense of course.

He was joyful and witty, so many stories about him.

He then set up men's prayer groups all across Alberta, he started a Bible school and was on radio preaching every week.

He and another man named Ernest Manning began to build the riches place on earth, Alberta.
Oil was found, farming began to flourish from one end of Alberta to the other. They built schools, places for seniors, roads etc. etc. etc. and never wasted a dollar.

There was no crime to speak of, I grew up in Calgary and know one ever locked their doors. To this day it is a low crime city,
the only ones that commit the crimes have moved into Alberta.

It was called the Bible belt,no store of any kind were allowed to be open on Sundays.

People from all over the world move into Calgary. One man asked me where are the slums and I said there are none.
 There were no homeless until recently. Still today one of the wealthiest places
on earth. (tar sands)

William and Ernest Manning who also ran for office effected millions of lives for the better for generations.

They attracted entrepreneurs, businessman with the freedom, safe, debt free cities. 

What did all their enemies accomplish?

On yet another note the Wild Bill Hickock and Annie Oakley came to Calgary for the first
Calgary, Stampede, started by the Big Four.
 

 

The Big Four ( Calgary) - Wikipedia, the free...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Four_(Calgary)Cached
The Big Four were the wealthy Alberta cattlemen Patrick Burns, ... The Big Four Building at the Stampede Grounds in Calgary was named for the four businessmen, ..



 

 

 
 
 
 

     

by Chris Mckinnon G2G6 Pilot (610k points)
Tar Sands huh.  I have an idea.  Everybody concerned can still make some money (which is what the XL Pipeline is about).  Continue with the project, but divert the end of the pipe to Mexico, don't put tar sands in the pipe, put water in the pipe.  Canada can get money for their water, the unions and builders can get money for building and maintaining the pipeline through the US, and Mexico can have water which it needs very much, and Kock industries won't have to keep spending millions of dollars financing politicians and the media.
I am not in agreement with the Tar Sands but I knew people have heard a lot about

the subject and thought it might interest some, that it is in northern Alberta.

Vincent thank you for throwing your two bits in.
Thank you for this interesting insight into Alberta's history . My aunt Laura Grisedale was taken by her grandparents to Lethbridge, Alberta in around 1908. She was a great trraveller and came to England to visit her father and other family in 1937. her trip was made mention of in the local newspaper. Have visited Alberta a number of times and met my aunt in Lethbridge in 1990 and 1992.
Thank you for adding Chris.
+17 votes

Hello to Everyone!

To use Vincent's words, I live in the pizza oven. However, we are getting a two day reprieve from the heat, which is nice. Our flowers don't mind the heat & the butterflies like the flowers in our garden.

500px-Photos_Experiments-38.jpg



Thank you for hosting the chat Vincent. If I remember you correctly, you used to be a Roadie in your youth....anything you would like to share?

Grace Potter is coming to the Williamsburg Winery this weekend. Although I don't drink, I feel compelled to watch.

Being 18 was fun....great senior year, swimming scholarship to college, first Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, joined a fraternity (KA), met new lifetime friends , the list goes on....

I love Wikitree, most especially because of the people here & the atmosphere of congeniality. I continue to work on unsourced profiles & the Magna Carta Project.

Oh, I almost forget....tomorrow marks the 2nd anniversary of my life saving liver transplant. Now I will definitely go to the concert on Sunday!

Everyone have a great weekend. Keith, you are doing an incredible job as leader of the Integrators Project.

by Doug Lockwood G2G Astronaut (2.6m points)
edited by Doug Lockwood
Thank you Doug, that really means a lot to me from you.  I have been very concerned about what you would think of my efforts.  I can't thank you enough for your support.  Have a great weekend!
When I worked at the bars we had many run-ins with various bands, some more famous than others.

One place was Nectar's Resturaunt in Burlington where Phish got their start.  Every time the band came around the "fish heads" would clutter the street and do anything to get into the place.  Many of them had dirty little pets with twine for a leash and would hold out cups asking for money to feed their dog or whatever.  Whenever we offered to go accross the road to the store and buy some dog food they always said "never mind".

At a place called Bambino's we had the band Naughty by Nature perform.  Around 1500 people paid $35 each to attend a concert but the band only did one song then skinned out.  They hung out in their tour bus out back while I and the other staff dealt with 1500 very irate people wanting their money back.  There were several fights.  When things settled down later the band members tried to come back into the club to hang out and drink, even bringing several underage members to the door.  We told them to take a hike and don't come back.

At a nightclub named Metronome Verve Pipe came to play.  They had one or two popular songs way back when.  They must have considered us a small stop in a small town in a little state that didn't matter because they showed up wasted and could barely perform at all.  At the end of the night when they left the last thing they did was to place several big black garbage bags full of trash on the sidewalk, then the doors to the bus closed and they were gone.

Of course there were many positive experiences with bands, I just thought these would be fun to share :)
A roadie?  No sir.  I worked only at one facility at a time unfortunately, although I worked at quite a few (I wish I would've been a roadie.  They seem to have all the fun!)  I worked for a company that controlled food, beverage and novelty operations at public facilities throughout the 1980s.  I did get the chance to be around many of the people that performed but believe it or not when they're not on a stage they're just normal people. One time I remember being in a tiny elevator with Leon and Michael Spinks, Don King and me at a Michael Jackson concert.  That was something I don't forget!  I was forever snooping around in the backstage area trying to get in on the party(but backstage parties are a myth really and are more about what happens when bands get back to their hotel rooms I guess).
Here's a story from those days.  At Tampa Stadium we had a professional soccer team for a few seasons.  One day I went out on the field during practice and asked one of the players to kick me a ball so I could do a header and put the ball in the net like on televeision you know.  Well when I put my head there to change the direction of the soccer ball to go into the net, the ball practically broke my neck it felt like.  The ball didn't even swerve off course due to hitting my head either.  I think my feet left the ground as it spun me around.  I've always had a bit more respect for that game since trying that myself.
The first hockey game I ever attended as a spectator was in high-school.  I got hit in the forehead with the puck then it skipped off and smacked the guy behind me in the nose.  I was embarassed so I pretended it never touched me.
The picture of that sunflower reminds me of the beautiful farms in Europe.  In the part of Spain where I spend a great deal of time there are most years many fields of sunflowers.  As far as you can see sunflowers (not as big as a cornfield in Illinois but big). And I think they're called sunflowers because as the sun passes over in the day the flower follows the sun.  So in the evening, the flower is facing west instead of east where it began the day. (Now that I think about it, No, I never went around a sunflower field in the night to see them reposition themselves for sunrise!)
Happy 2nd anniversary Doug.  Stunning photo!
Oh yeah I forgot to also say happy aniversary and I'm sure everybody wishes you many more decades of them to come!
Happy second anniversary Doug and experiences like that , makes one enjoy the small things of life even more eeh ....and again a great picture :)
+15 votes
G'day all, this is my first Friday on WikiTree so I thought I'd say hello. I've got three active threads going, and one road block. The first two active threads are the Bulbeck line, another member is also active here, and the Seychelles where my Mum is from. No one else seems to have got there yet, so I'll be accumulating profiles at a rapid rate! The other is an interesting story, Mum's g-grandfather, John Hickey, jumped ship in the Seychelles and settled there. On his marriage record his origin is New York, America and his father's name is Felix. I then found a John Hickey as crew on a whaling bark out of New Bedford for a voyage to the Indian Ocean at the right time, and his residence was given as Oswego, NY. And in Oswego in the NY census of two years prior I found a Felix with son John, and there seems to be no further sign of John. Felix moved from Ontario in the early 1850's. Tantalising but not yet conclusive! And the road block is my paternal gg-grandfather of who we know quite a bit but can't find a birth record (born in London around 1848) and so don't know his parents. So, between research and getting existing profiles documented I'll have plenty to keep me busy.

And as an old Aussie commercial used to say Avagooweegend ;)

Chris
by Living Hampson G2G6 Pilot (112k points)
Seychelles!  Ooh that's fancy.  "Where have you been Thurston Ol' Boy?" "Ah. Lovey and I 've been at the Cape on a sightseeing safari.  Took a few days layover in Seychelles to see the sunrise, check on some accounts, look-up some friends.  Can't ever get 'em to come see us.  They say they'll not leave paradise, ever!" :D
Where's the quote from? It really is a tropical paradise. We visited Mum's family one Christmas when I was a boy, long before there was an airport. We were living in Aden and flew down the east coast of Africa, stopping at places you wouldn't want to stop at today, to Nairobi and then down to Mombassa. From there it was a P&O liner to the Seychelles. Great trip; one day I will go back but there's no close family still living there.

I made up the quote with "Gilligan's Island" in the back of my mind.  But I know about the paradise called Seychelles from a friend of the ours that has a habit of always out doing everybody, with everything, always.  She was busy going to Seychelles a few years ago because the "Cote was just too much anymore you know" at least from what she had to say.  

But I do know it's a very special place from what I've heard from others.

But here's a quote if you like quotes (I do)

Gustave Flaubert, "A Sentimental Education" p.63 But it was in vain that he visited the kitchen to speak to the chef in person, that he went down to the celler, where he knew every corner, that he called for the manager, to whom he gave a ‘dressing-down’- he was satisfied neither with the food, the wine, nor the service. At every new dish, at every fresh bottle, at the first mouthful, the first sip, he would drop his fork or push away his glass; then leaning on the table cloth to the full length of his arm he would exclaim that one could no longer dine in Paris! At last, not knowing how to please his palate, he ordered beans cooked in oil, ‘nothing more,’ which although only partially successful, mollified him slightly.

 

That quote I thought of because it reminds me of our "friend" that visited the Seychelles. :D

And I just want to say a public Hi to Keith, thanks for the message this morning.
Hi right back at you Chris.  Glad you joined in!

Avagooweegend - nice word.  Hope to hear more of these local words.

+11 votes
Another weekend comes round, and not exactly a great start, spent time unblocking a drain..... hope the rest of the weekend goes better. I have found plenty to keep me busy, but its all other stuff as opposed to family history. I am just as much interested in the breadth of the topic as well as the family line. My mother family have a long connection with Brightlingsea in Essex, England and I am finding out about relatives from the past. All fascinating stuff.In the nineteenth century it seems that being a mariner and dredgerman in the oyster fishery was probably the only way to make a living locally. The records of the Ancient Order of Foresters in Brightlingsea, founded in 1864 show the majority of its members were mariners and associated trades. Plenty to do in family history. Looks like a good weekend in Brightlingsea Thanks for the opportunity to post...
by Chris Burrow G2G6 Pilot (220k points)
Thanks Chris, great post!

I hope the weekend is going better now with working drains.  Plumbing issues can be quite bothersome.

I agree that the history is the best part.  I have been watching "Finding Your Roots" lately and it's inspired me to start working on biographies.
+13 votes
Partly cloudy and warm here in NW Mississippi. We're enjoying a visit from our oldest grandson. We don't get so see much of him, so we're taking full advantage.

On to WT stuff. Earlier, I was adding some children to a profile. Several of them were existing profiles, so I selected, after viewing, "set as child". The problem with this selection is you don't have the opportunity to select the mother (or the father, depending on who you are working on), requiring an additional edit on the child. It would be better if "set as child" filled in available information on the add page, then the appropriate parent could be selected. This might be something to redirect to the Tech side, but the Chat might get interesting this weekend on the subject.
by Bob Keniston G2G6 Pilot (260k points)
Hi Robert,

I'm glad you are getting time with your grandson.  I'm sure every moment spent together is just as precious to him :)

On the WT stuff... I know sometimes there is a little box that you can checkmark to select and add the other parent (if the parents were married).  When adding a profile as a sibling it asks do so.  I was not aware that it did not provide this when selecting an existing profile as a child.
The situation I'm refering to occurs when the child's profile is being created. That is the page that comes up when you select add a child, or spouse, on the edit page.
+15 votes
I would do a longer answer, but I just got a call from my wife. Our oldest daughter turns 11 this weekend and the party prep is pretty much full-on already.  3 PM Friday and Mom is already frazzled.  Pool party at the grandparents' house Saturday, free concert in San Francisco to see Kelly Clarkson Sunday.  That's gonna be a full weekend, and it just got hot here finally, which my wife does not like at all.  

I continue to make progress on the Salem Witch Trials profiles.  I believe all of those who died either on Gallows Hill or in Jail now have profiles.  Last night, I created a profile for Lydia Dustin/Dastin who was found not guilty but died before her family could pay her jail fees to get her released!  Would love some help on this project, BTW.  It's a fascinating, though troubling, topic.
by Kyle Dane G2G6 Pilot (111k points)
Enjoy the Clarkson concert Kyle, it sounds like it will be a blast.

Lydia's tale is a bit sad.  That really is a strange part of our history.
It turned out to be a really fantastic concert from beginning to end.  Four hours of free music in Golden Gate Park, pretty cool.
+13 votes
This has been a quick week! It still is hot and this weekend is the 73rd Annual Watermelon Festival in Hampton, South Carolina. It is the oldest continuing festival in South Carolina. All week there have been "happenings" throughout our County, Starting with a kiddie parade Monday, Taste of the Town, Pet show, Battle of the Towns. Tonight is the Street Dance, where a couple of bands set up down Main Street Hampton and people get to see old friends! Tomorrow morning will be the Festival Parade. Usually during this time it so Hot you can't stand to be outside, or either it is raining! I haven't done a lot on Wikitree this week, I have been working on projects around our home since I am out of work at this time. Maybe tomorrow evening will slow down and work on adding more Cemetery Profiles. Have a Great Weekend!
by Liz Parker G2G6 Mach 2 (22.6k points)
Something I've learned since doing genealogy on the Wikitree is that South Carolina is apparently an entry point for many of the early European immigrants.  It seems like half my family started out or lived in South Carolina in the beginning.  Is there a customs house or something like Ellis Island in South Carolina?
Great post Liz!

In contrast, we have a maple-festival that sounds similar to your event (only smaller).  If it didn't cost so much for shipping these days I'd swap you some grade-a syrup for some of your world-class watermelons.
Vincent do you know when your ancestors came over? There might be passenger lists available. And how early is early? We didn't have anything like Ellis Island until sometime well into the 1800s. And Ellis is really late.
I'm not quite ready to work on this area yet.  I've spent all my efforts on sourcing my definite relatives of the present times and it amazingly seems endless.  I constantly keep finding new branches in the 19th and 20th century.  I've basically only used Family Search for records and only recently discovered the value of Find a Grave.  But soon I will get back to you with a better answer for this question.
Thank you Keith

A few years ago, my uncle planted watermelons, I come from a Farming family, as most in this area do.  And I could have gladly sent you some of our watermelons. Unfortunatly, he has since retired from the watermelon fields and has gone to other farming areas!  Mostly corn for the hunters that come, Sugar Cane (at least a small garden of this for the family) Soybeans, cotton, oh and he has planted peanuts this year!  Now in November, the Saturday after Thanksgiving my family has an annual Cane Boil, where we make Cane syrup.  We still do things the old way, at least the cooking of the Sugar cane.  The grinding has progressed to using a tractor to grind the juice.  It's kind of funny watching my Uncles on their lawnmowers going around and around in circles to grind that cane!  It is something amazing to watch and be a part of!  I hope that the next generations will continue with this tradition!

 Just had an idea!  Think I may do a freespace page for this Tradition in our family, so that others can see how these things use to happen!
+16 votes
What a day I've just had!!!  It was 97 degrees when we left this morning, headed for the local airport where they just built a bunch of new hangars and are about to tear down some old ones.  My husband's hangar is one of the ones on the chopping block, so we had to move his airplane to his new hangar.  This is a lot more than just the airplane - it's all his tools and assorted chairs, ladders, stools, supplies, etc - even some of the fluorescent light fixtures.  He built a new workbench in his new hangar a few days ago, but today was moving day.

it was even hotter in the old hangar - made of corrugated steel, with the sun beating down on it, plus something died in there - either an oppossum or a skunk - it was so badly decomposed that we couldn't even tell and the stench was unbelievable.  It took us 3 trips, having to cross the active runway each time, to get it all there.  We drank over a quart of water each, but I was still dehydrated ... and talk about filth - we were completely covered in dust, grease, and all sorts of other debris.

We both collapsed in recliners when we got home - too tired to eat or even to shower!  I was out for about 4 hours - he's still out - and that's after he said he'd take me out to dinner tonight after all the hard work I did today (it's nearly 8:30PM here now).

I sure hope everyone else is having a much better weekend!
by Gaile Connolly G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
Oh Poor Gaile.  Congratulations on the new bedroom for your plane.  Sounds like it was a night to telephone City Wok and have Ying bring you some "Takee Outee"!
I always think you should write books Gaile.  Maybe a composition of short stories.
It's always a tough choice between the city-chicken and the city-beef.
Don't forget the City Sushi.
There ain't no "city" nuthin' here.  What we did have was Hardee's hamburgers at about 9:30.  It's the only show in town ... except that "town" is a stretch for what's here ... it's about 12 miles to the next nearest fast food and about 30 miles to Huntsville, where real restaurants are.

This morning, however, is a whole 'nother day - we're clean, well rested, and aside from some lingering muscle aches, would never know what we went through yesterday.  HELLO WORLD!!!!

In northern Vermont if your vehicle gets low on feul after 9 pm you can end up in a lot of trouble.  You can easily find yourself dozens of miles from the next gas station that might be open.

In (I think all of) Alabama except for 4 large cities, you can't get anything after 5 PM - they roll up the carpets early here - on the other hand, Hardee's opens at 5AM for breakfast.  It seems like it would make more sense to keep this state in the Eastern time zone, considering the hours at which life happens here.  I'm only 60 miles west of the Georgia state line, which is also the time zone boundary.

About the airport and airplanes - take a look at the EAA website where the wallpaper is a photo of our airport.  The slide show on the home page is of members' airplanes.  My husband's is the very weird looking on that is bright cornflower blue - it's about the 6th or 7th slide.  He has been working on it for 25 years starting from his own design and every part of it was made by him - including bending the lucite windshield to the right shape.  (I developed the website - it is a database application that also stores all the group's records).

Glad you are back in the land of the living after the horrors of moving day Gaile and I see Keith agrees with me on your writing.

Nice website and not a wierd looking plane but an original, clever man your husband!
+12 votes
I am going to very limited on WikiTree this weekend because I am also an Amateur Radio Operator and this weekend is our annual 24 hour emergency operation drill called Field Day. During this time we set up our stations as if it were an actual emergency, normally out in a remote location, and try to operate from noon on Saturday till noon on Sunday making as many contacts as possible.  This event helps us prepare both ourselves and our gear so that if we get called for a real emergency we are prepared.  So have fun and I will probably check back in on Sunday evening.
by Dale Byers G2G Astronaut (1.7m points)
I forgot to add that radio has been a hobby of mine since High School and I have been involved in Public Service and Emergency Communications for about 42 years.
Thank you for your public service Dale.

I once had the pleasure of watching a ham radio operator do his thing.  It was a long time ago but I remember it involved maps, mountains, clouds, lots of calculations, and some know how.  I was amazed at the distances he was able to communicate over.

While I was growing up, my father always had a citizen's band radio in the house and one in his car.  They were physically large it seems. He even put one in my mother's car.  We all had handles... mine was "young-son".  I remember staying up at nights tuning the dial and trying to strike up conversations with truckers.  Some of them were very entertaining, almost all of them conversational and nice.  One I remember went by the name "empty-pockets".  The cb radio was fun for me.  I used to have the entire 10 code memerized.

I hope you enjoy your weekend Dale... great to hear from you.

Thank you!
That's good to keep that system working.  In Amsterdam, at 12 noon on the first Monday of every month, all the air raid sirens are tested.  It sounds like an old movie in my neighborhood for a few moments once a month.  It's always startling for a second and then you remember it's just a test (but it always causes you to look for a clock just to make sure).
Taking a short break from EmComm work.  My field Day plans went down the drain when we had a real emergency situation here.  Big flooding at my home and camper with water level about 4 feet above the access roads making them impassable.  The water has gone down about 3 feet so far but the National Weather service has issued another advisory due to another line of storms heading this way.  My home and camper are both on higher ground so they are safe but there are a lot of detours and road closures in my area. So I hope the rest of you can stay dry.
+12 votes

Well, I just had a great "find" on Wiki Tree.

I did a search on the Wikitree Free-Space Profiles and came across a veritable trove of information on William Collett's family and what happened to his father Peter.

"Another Brick In The Wall" wink

Absolutely stoked!

 

by Simon Canning G2G6 Mach 2 (24.0k points)
Congratulations Simon!  I'm completely stoked for you!
Congratulations! I am so happy for you. It's like finding a treasure chest.
Well done - there is often an answer out there - somewhere...........
Congratulation Simon, that's wonderful.
+11 votes
I have been working fervently  on ancestor profiles. I want to get a book together for my grandchildren for Christmas.  I am also trying to get to my ancestors to be included in the US Southern Colonies Project.
by Amy McAndrews G2G6 Mach 3 (31.7k points)
+11 votes
Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a good weekend.

Like Vincent I don't normally live in a pizza oven, the temps today of 22C/77F was nice.  Having looked at the weather forecast for the rest of the week it's looking set to go way too high for me at  33C/92F on Wednesday.

Having asked a question this week I was as always amazed at the response, it's one of the things I love about Wikitree, the help that is there, if one plucks up the courage to ask the questions.  I was getting really bogged down with my profiles and on the verge of giving up because of lack of confidence I suppose. The replies have turned that completely around, not only the compliments but also the suggestions of how I could make that profile better and picking up some errors that I'd missed. I also learnt a lot through the replies and have re-thought how I'm going to work with images and I started work today on a free space page for source documents that I have.

Off to visit an Aunt up north, tomorrow. I've been bombarding her with questionaire letters since I joined Wikitree, hopefully tomorrow I will be able to retrieve some of them with her answers.
by Anna Hayward G2G6 (9.9k points)
+10 votes

Project for the weekend is adding our brand new template to the profiles that fit under

The Great War 1914-1918 Project i

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:The_Great_War_1914-1918

the template is here

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:The_Great_War

by Jacqueline Clark G2G6 Pilot (170k points)
+6 votes
A tip to consider.

 

When looking at Family grave sites make sure everyone buried there is the same family.  My mother in law buried her father in her father's in law family plot. There will be a small marker but the larger monument will have a different name.
by Living Harris G2G6 Mach 2 (21.6k points)

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