"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! July 21st - 23rd, 2023 [closed]

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"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! July 21st - 23rd, 2023 [closed]

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New Members Saying Hello (our favorite!)

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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!

WikiTree profile: Pip Sheppard

closed with the note: Until next weekend, adios!

asked Jul 21, 2023 in The Tree House by Pip Sheppard G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)
closed Jul 24, 2023 by Pip Sheppard

After a two-week hiatus, it’s THE RETURN OF THE WEEKEND CHAT! And, greetings once again from rainy Cathey’s Creek where we have had gentle rains and wild thunder storms all week. Not that it rains all day, but we must plan our errands so to avoid the Transylvania Crazies, those people who don’t even know how to drive when it’s sunny, much less in the rain.

On the Home Front: It is with great sadness that I pass on to you the closing of Rocky’s Grill and Soda Shop. This 50s-themed, throw-back restaurant has been an anchor in our downtown for 28 years. We are crushed. This was one of our favorite places to eat in town. They had great food and super-great shakes and were so popular that people would wait up to an hour on the sidewalk for a table or booth.

The Saga of the Shoulder: Finally, yesterday, after three trips to the in-town orthopedist, I was able to get them to send all the medical records to the doctor in Asheville. Therapy goes apace, and things are improving, but I still have to be careful of quick moves. The head dude at the PT place says that I’ve gained in strength which I was very pleased to hear. Still, typing can be painful, and I had one of my fellow Greeters, Sheryl Moore, covered some of my Greeter shifts last week. Thank you, Sheryl!

My dad would have turned 100 years old two days ago.

On the Genealogy Front: About a week before last weekend’s Connect-a-thon, I went to Ancestry to see if there were any new DNA matches. I found one, a descendant of my gg-uncle, Luther David Shepherd of Macon County, North Carolina. Luther’s second wife, Ethel, was also a Shepherd, so I went on the hunt. Her father was already on WikiTree, but not the next generation. He had a father in the records, a William Shepherd, but not on WikiTree.

I couldn’t find anything for a bit, but looking over the 1850 census, I found William’s family split by pages, and there he was at the top of the second page. I created a profile for him and then connected him to his parents already on WikiTree. This is the family I worked with for the thon. I added every descendant I could discover for old William. Finds:

1) Fully 15-20% of the descendants died before the age of three. One couple had three children, all who died young. Another had five children, only one who survived until adulthood.
2) Three married someone whose parents were already on WikiTree. One of those was a family that Tabor Hoff Fisher has been working. I let her know and she connected her to her DeHart family.
3) On fella lied about his age to get into the US Air Force. He was 15 at the time. Four days after arriving in Seattle for his first duty station, he was killed by a taxi in the street. The Air Force had him listed as 18, but he was only 16.
4) Several of the spouses that married into this family have ancestry in the same county which I have not connected. Rickman, Welch, Raby, etc….
5) One woman never married but had about eight children. Only one father has been identified… yet.
6) My CC7 increased from 4875 to 4919.

All in all, I added somewhere around 270 profiles to WikiTree. Sadly, my watchlist is now 5451. Now, I am working on one of Luther’s sister’s descendants.

Here’s to all of you dear people who are so precious and wonderful. Have a great weekend!

Enjoy the Chat!

commented Jul 21, 2023 by Pip Sheppard G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)

Hi Pip, lots of endings, it seems. Sorry to hear of the soda shop. When I was a kid, our local drugstore had a soda counter with those round seats and we could order sundaes, phosphates and 'Green River.' When that section closed, it was like losing a good, steady friend.

I hope your shoulder diagnosis comes soon. I don't know how you managed over 200 during the Thon with your shounder and Greeter duties. You are a marvel! And a Happy Birthday to your dad in Spirit. I think of my dad every June 12th on his birthday.

Pip, I worked on one couple's profile that had eight children and none of the children reached adulthood. This was the saddest connection I had every done. I actually felth grief for those poor parents.

My CC7 didn't change one bit! Have a great weekend. Hope Mike is doing well in this heat!

commented Jul 21, 2023 by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

35 Answers

Page:

Answer 1 · 2023-07-21T13:34:00+0000

Top of the Morning from Lone Jack Mo. I guess I’ll go see another one of my Dr’s this afternoon. We put off some cardio stuff back in Dec due to COVID and RSV. My other Dr said I’m in pretty good shape for the shape I’m in. Now if I can get him to agree with her we are good for another year or so.

From the battlefield: After a few more connections, I am related to one of the Col that fought there. J Vardaman Cockrell is a 4c5r. Wm Calvin Tate, one of the six men in the “six man cemetery” is also 4c5r. This genealogy stuff is weird. Speaking of weird, I’m coming up on my one year anniversary on Wiki this week, doesn’t seem possible. 8300 plus contributions, 3100 connections and 200k g2g points. I’m afraid my Wiki report card will read like 3^rd grade report card, “talks too much in class”.

answered Jul 21, 2023 by K Smith G2G6 Pilot (377k points)

Answer 2 · 2023-07-21T13:35:05+0000

Due to listening to Prime Country on Sirus XM this week, my brain went Country!

BONUS SONG:

CONNECT-A-THON THEME SONG

Ain't Shutting Down ('til the sun comes up)

Sung to the tune of Ain't Going Down

Written by Garth Brooks, Kent Blazy and Kim Williams
Recorded by American Country Artist Garth Brooks
Released in July 1993 and peaked at number 1 for a week in the USA and 16 in the UK
- Parody by Dave Draper

Here’s the Music"' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAdOM3xfmTo

Click on the link then come back here, the music should play, and try to sing along!
Or Open the link in a new window

Ain't Going Down ('Til The Sun Comes Up)
Six o’clock on Friday morning
Hubby (Tom) doesn’t know she’s “Thonning”
‘Til he hears the bed door slamming
Music squealing, fingers jamming
Local country station just a-blaring on the radio.
Connections stand at seven and she’s headed for a thousand more!
Husband (Tom) on the front porch
screamin' out his warning:
"Girl, you better get your red head
Back in bed before the morning!
Nine o’clock and she’s not ending
But the fun is just beginning
She’s behind but calculating
But she’s still participating
Grab a bite to eat and heading back in to Connect-a-Thon
But Mighty Oaks a leadin’'; just ain’t what she really wants
Dive back into the boondocks
And Family Search a sheet
And where it's George Strait 'til real late,
And connecting gals and geeks
Ain't shutting down 'til the sun comes up.
Ain't givin' in 'til she gets enough.
And one more connected ain’t gonna be enough
Ain't shutting down 'til the sun comes up.
Ten ‘til twelve it’s graveyard searching
Midnight starts with coffee drinking
One o’clock her farts are stinking
Two is coming, still no stopping.
Break to check the clock at three.
She’s right on where she wants to be
Four o'clock get up and going.
Five o'clock that rooster's crowing.
Ain't shutting down 'til the sun comes up.
Ain't givin' in 'til she gets enough.
And one more connected ain’t gonna be enough
Ain't shutting down 'til the sun comes up.
Six o'clock on Saturday.
Her spouse don’t know she’s in a daze
The stall ain’t clean, the horse ain’t fed
They say she’s frazzled, looks half dead!
But here she comes around the bend
Not Slowing down! She jumped back in!
Sorry, Tom, (husband) its Connect-A-Thon
And here she goes again!
Ain't shutting down 'til the sun comes up.
Ain't givin' in 'til she gets enough.
And one more connected ain’t gonna be enough
Ain't shutting down 'til the sun comes up.

Down On The Forum

Sung to the tune of Down on the Farm

Written by Jerry Laseter and Kerry Kurt Phillips
Recorded by American Country Artist Tim McGraw
Released in July 1994 and peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles
- Parody by Dave Draper

Here is the Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YFCZb3rLb8

Click on the link then come back here, the music should play, and try to sing along!
Or Open the link in a new window
Down on the Forum (pronounced “form")
12 seconds (of red necks talkin’) then…
Every Friday morning we kick up lots of dust
Posting ‘bout our lives and our pick up trucks
Got some music crankin’ way up loud
Got coffee brewed here, drinking it down
They’re posting bout a fire. But don’t be alarmed
It’s just good ‘ole Wikipeeps getting down on the forum! (pronounced "form")
Ed’s been on a chatin’, ain’t seen his wife all week!
He’s posting up some pictures of a beautiful creek
Farmer Johnson’s daughter shows a pic of her Jeep
Man, she knows how to drive it if ya know what I mean
Old Dave’s (Draper) getting’ loud, but he don’t mean no harm
We’re just good ‘ole Wikipeeps getting down on the forum! (pronounced "form")
You can have a lot of fun when you click on in it.
But there’s a lot of things that’s posted, and there’s no limits!
Ain't no closing time, ain't no cover charge
Just good ‘ole Wikipeeps getting down on the forum! (pronounced "form")
Well, you can come as you are, there ain't no dress code
Just some Weekend Chat rules that you need to know
Don’t post no bull crap! Don’t post nothin’ mean!
Always say “Thank You!” Just say “”Kewl Beans!”
If the wife catches me, I might get just harmed!
We’re just good ‘ole Wikipeeps getting down on the forum!(pronounced "form")
You can have a lot of fun when you click on in it.
But there’s a lot of things that's posted, and there’s no limits!
Ain't no closing time, ain't no cover charge
Just good ‘ole Wikipeeps getting down on the forum! (pronounced "form")
Ain't no closing time, ain't no cover charge
Just good ‘ole Wikipeeps getting down on the forum! (pronounced "form")
Ah, let's get down y'all
Come in: Say “Hey”

24 of Dave's Song Parodies! Enjoy!

Thanks PIP! Enjoy the Weekend Chat y'all!

Answer 3 · 2023-07-21T13:49:32+0000

¡Buenos días a todos from the Old Pueblo! It is 7:00 am and 89F (31.7C) with an expected high of 110F (43.3C) wth a 40% chance of rain skies. We had one good downpour on Monday and that is the rain thus far.

I participated with the Mighty Oaks during last weekend’s Thon. I did not do as well as I had hoped. I managed to connect 75 members. There was some difficulty when I began on Friday morning. According to my records, I had connected some twenty people between 8 and 11 am; however, the tracker kept showing three. Sadly, I had to contact (bug) Mindy several times. The directions that she sent were exactly the directions that I was following. Nevertheless, I lost some twenty and would have had closer to 100 by late Sunday night. I am sure I would have had more, but my OCD kicks in and I must not only connect but provide a bit of biography and so on. While this reduces the work when I go back, it takes time from ‘connecting.’

In addition to losing some 20 profiles, I lost 3.5 house on the phone Friday afternoon on a conference call with my colleague, Iris, regarding our book chapter on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. I spent all day Monday revising the chapter (near done, 152 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, 318 references). I worked on minor, picky details like checking for typos and making sure it said ‘see Section 5’ that Section 5 addressed what it was supposed to. I sent the revised, nearly done chapter to Iris late Monday night and we had a conference call today. Darn, if she had the audacity to tell me she did not receive the chapter! I told her when I sent it and where she could find it.

Sure enough, she spent this week with her head Buddha only knows were and we ended up doing what she was supposed to do four days ago! So, while we were on the phone, I wrote an email from my university account to the editors telling them to expect our chapter on July 31^st. It’s nearly a month late, but they will still receive it in July and Iris now knows we have a deadline. I must do some work on two tables but will complete them tomorrow and send them along to Iris so she can reconcile them with the chapter references.

This is NOT my only task. I am now the lead on our nurse policy paper and was to send information around to this writing team. I was supposed to do this today but had to send a ‘shame-faced’ email to let them know I would be sending all materials to the writing team this Sunday. The upside with this team is that of the seven or eight of us on the writing team, at least four of us will get the work done in a timely fashion and I will not feel so alone.

The steroid injections that I got to both sides of the lumbar spine two weeks ago are still controlling the pain, I am very happy to report. Now we know that steroid injections rather than ablation are the way to go. I saw the pain nurse practitioner on Wednesday and have another appointment for the 2^nd of August for another set of injections if the pain returns. This is a safety measure as I am leaving for Wisconsin on the 8^th. I also got a call from my Medicare supplement, and they are sending a nurse practitioner today for a ‘home visit.’ I think I have at least two medical visits/month and it gets a little old. I am amid changing primary care providers. The last time I was him was late last year. The appointments in May, July and now August have been delayed. I cannot go much longer without a ‘captain’ for these health issues and various providers. I got recommendations from the pain provider and selected one near my home that has received glowing recommendations. I am completing forms and have an appointment at the end of August. Boom! Done!

I am working like crazy on the Baldwins both pre-and post-1500. I am flabbergasted at how poorly some of the Buckinghamshire profiles are done…many are incomplete, or unsourced, or are written with death before birth and on and on. Several of these profiles were set up with GEDCOMs and nothing has been done on them since that time (2011–2015). If the PMs do not respond soon to my queries regarding improvement, I will likely contact Jo Fitz-Henry, who is very good about addressing ‘crap tangles’ and ‘going Medieval’ if need be.

Given that M. Ross was so kind to set up a photo space for me that I used for my office photos, I have decided to add a photo a week from ‘some place’ that I went to in the world over the years with a bit of a story about it. I cannot and would not even think about competing with M.Ross for virtual vacays, but I do think one a week will help me to learn more about navigating WikiTree. I will post it later today after the ‘medical home visit’ as I want to attend the Friday Bingo sessions. I have my priorities! Plus, I learn so much during these Bingos.

Pip, as ever, thank you for being the Weekend Chat Chief. Well done, you on the Connect-A-Thon with your team! And I wish all my WikiTree friends and family a great third weekend of July 2023. I will hold intention for all of you for a happy and healthy weekend!

Answer 4 · 2023-07-21T13:51:38+0000

So happy to be greeting another wonderful weekend. Thons are fun but PHEW! Glad to be back to my routine. I hope everyone had fun connecting new profiles to the tree and bringing us all closer together! Speaking of being back to my old routine, had to roll this circus back to home base for a bit for some routine maintenance (taxes, tags, and vehicle inspections, oil change, etc). Maybe not glamorous but important work. Have been putting an awful lot of miles on my beautiful Betty, time to show her some love. Sometime this weekend I plan to clean her out and do a little detailing, get all that roadtrip detritus taken care of. Made it back from South Carolina (unfortunately had to drive there and back on thon weekend so vastly affected my adding ability but couldn’t be avoided, this was the time Granny had off to spend with the grand babies) It’s a long drive (9 hours) but I’m happy to do it to get some quality memories in. This is the summer of visits for sure.

Genealogically has been a fun and rewarding two weeks. Was able to connect my Appalachian Notable Hobart McKinley Smith to the tree and am still working on improving his cc7 to get him more connection pathways. I’m especially proud of making headway in researching him because he is a Smith, married to a Smith! LOTS to review to make sure we have the right Smith. Had to break that research up with cleaning up thon profiles, working cemetery categories, and organizing my living room (much like research, a never ending process but very satisfying to get results from). I ordered a new combo toy bin/bookshelf that should make keeping things straight a little easier and leave us some extra floor space. We were also able to team up and push some of our Appalachian team members’ cc7s over the 1K badge threshold so that was also fun and rewarding. I love helping people find their “people.”

I hope everyone has been staying cool and collected. Virginia gets a bit of a break from the heatwave the south is seeing, but the heat index is still triple digits some days. My daughter is disappointed the heat has been negatively affecting the garden harvest. I fear those with chronic health conditions also need a break from the unrelenting temperatures. May your cc7 stay higher than the numbers on your thermometer!! Have a great week all.

Answer 5 · 2023-07-21T13:53:53+0000

Hello everyone from Ottawa! Life is fairly quiet here. We are expecting a lot of rain today. While I love the WikiTree thons, they also seem to take a lot out of me. I usually have a goal of 150 profiles and I managed to get 160 this time. I was working on my SIL’s family which started in Canada but then took me to England, Ireland, Scotland, and some British records from China (missionaries). I even found one record where a direct ancestor had converted from Judaism to Christianity (noted in the baptismal record of his daughter).

Pip, happy 100th birthday to your dad. My dad would have been 88 on 24 Jul but instead 26 Jul 2023 will be the 46th anniversary of his death. (He died at age 42 from a genetic kidney disease that was passed down to 4 of his 5 children.) I will always miss him.

answered Jul 21, 2023 by Liza Gervais G2G6 Pilot (397k points)

@Liza and @Pip...we have Alzheimer's in common! Liza, my mom died last year from complications of Alzheimer's. I would not wish it on anyone. It was so difficult to be with her and she had no clue who we were. She changed our diapers, bathed us, sang to us, listened to our joys and sorrows from babies to adulthood, and for her to end this way not even knowing us or herself (or know if we were really helping her properly) was just...there are no words. Sadly, the World Health Organization has now indicated that Alzheimer's is a leading cause of death. I can only hope for a treatment that can reduce some of the devastating outcomes for persons with the disorder and for family members. Hugs to both of you!

commented Jul 21, 2023 by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

Carol, thanks. Dementia and Alzheimers are horrible diseases.

My mother’s case is likely a bit different in that, although she has dementia, she is actually taking her time dying of metastatic cancer. She went into palliative care towards the end of Mar and was not expected to be alive by Easter. That was over 3 months ago. Her doctor recently told my brother and SIL that she has exceeded everyone’s expectations so they have absolutely no idea of how long she has left. She always was very headstrong and stubborn.

Here in Canada, palliative care is only covered for 3 months so now she has to be moved to some kind of long term care facility, and the move will not help her dementia at all (it will make her worse).

commented Jul 21, 2023 by Liza Gervais G2G6 Pilot (397k points)

Hi Liza, we have the same palliative care situation here in the U.S. Persons diagnosed with a terminal illness are at 'end of life' are in palliative care for 3 months. If they live longer, they are transferred to LTC. It killed us when I worked in hospice (an in-hospice hospital unit), when someone had to be transferred out. This type of care really differs from general long-term care facilities. I am so sorry to hear what you, your family and your mom are going through. My mom was headstrong and stubborn as well. I first realized she had dementia in January 2020 at the start of the pandemic. She was living with my sister and her family. We finally had to admit her to LTC in March of 2021 and she died last January (2022). It was so difficult. Please know that you and your family are in my healing intentions.

commented Jul 21, 2023 by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

Answer 6 · 2023-07-21T14:16:08+0000

While I was in the nursing home my daughter told me about a phone call she had received because I had not answered an email in my computer at home. It was a request from a high school junior asking me if I had any more information about a local poet. [[Cramer-705|Nellie Ruth Cramer]] I gave my daughter several recollections and didn't think much more about it. When I got home I found out the email was from a local student who was doing a report on her choice from several local authors listed. By then it was too late to give more information because of the time line. I also discovered the student was from a family who lived about 5 miles from me. I had had a son and daughter in my 4-H club for a couple of years. They were out of my area enough so I did not follow their activities after that, just aware of them. The mother of the student was a much younger sister of my 4-Hers. That's how they contacted me. But the interesting
connection is the school project was to write about local
authors and she had picked one from my area, who was distantly related to me, had self published a book of poems, was buried in the local cemetery, and I had written a profile for in wikitree. She used my profile to base her report on and used the very skimpy biography but expanded her report from the SOURCES I had included. Her mother had
recognized the connection from working on the alumni list
of attendees at our alumni banquet and introduced herself to me at the time I arrived and thanked me. After the banquet closed she approached me with daughter in tow,
introduced us and I received a profuse thank you. The daughter had been working at the banquet as a waitress.
She reported she received a grade of 95 on her report and a 100 on a three minute video she had made and presented. She was very pleased with them and me. In our conversation I discovered that another local author, who had self published a history of our local small community village and area, had also been on the list. He had used my wikitree profile story of my grandfather's brother in his book. [[Maltby-1979|Warren Maltby]] So you never know how your contributions may be expanded way beyond your horizons.
Keep up all of your contributions.

Answer 7 · 2023-07-21T14:25:16+0000

Greetings from Rochester, Minnesota USA!

Current Temp: 67°F (19°C) with no air quality alerts.

Number of Summer Days Left: 30

WikiTree: I will have to take a hiatus from genealogy projects and research since I'll be getting ready for nursing school. I have to chat with all project coordinators about my schedule for the next few months. In the meantime, my tree is open for editing and adding.

Clinical Life: The shifts are calmer and easier after I practiced cognitive redirection and patience with the residents. I'll be taking some off soon after Tuesday.

Health: The only thing I need to worry about: Body Mass Index. The fat levels are starting to go down. I'm considering going back to a meatless approach to slim off the fat and gain plant based protein. I'm eating more salads and I feel so much better without the mochas! I'm wearing compression stockings which reduces the pain in my legs.

Nursing School: I got my financial aid package which includes a scholarship and other stuff. I finally organized my school email for the academic year!

To all of you who participated in the Connect a Thon: pat yourselves on the back! 95,575 is pretty amazing!

Answer 8 · 2023-07-21T14:46:58+0000

Good morning. I’m fairly new to WikiTree but fascinated with the collaborative community.

Sitting at the car repair shop (and reading this thread) this morning after all the lights lit up on my car during a trip home to Northwest FL from Birmingham yesterday.

I didn’t join the connect a thon but have spent the last month manually filling in my tree based upon documents my dad left behind and with the benefits of this collaborative tree I have a CC7 of 1798.

So … hello from Florida

Answer 9 · 2023-07-21T14:59:15+0000

Working on my MFA in Creative Writing. In two classes this semester, many more classes to go, but I feel like I'm learning so much. I've got several books in the works simultaneously and I'm not sure if I'll ever publish one of them, but they're there. They're there...

Looking for freelance work as an editor or a ghostwriter is rough in NYC, let me tell you. Everyone is interested until you mention the fact it isn't for free.

Genealogically speaking, I've been working more on my spouse's tree and my own, but I'm getting to the point where I won't be able to do much more without more records being released or going on location - and I'm not going to haul my three year old on a flight for the sake of doing research on our families. So this might mean my research is stalled for several years, and that's okay.

Wishing everyone the best on their journeys, whether it be genealogical or otherwise.

Answer 10 · 2023-07-21T15:15:04+0000

Hi from southern Ontario,

Chez moi/at home: what's happening here? Weather has been cooler and less humid which is a good thing, first because we don’t have AC, and second because when it’s very humid, the fridge drain pan overflows and leaks onto the floor making us think we need to replace the fridge. And panicking about the new floor getting soaked.

We had it happen many years ago with a previous fridge but had forgotten about it. of course, having grandkids here who have the fridge open for longer than necessary as they peruse the contents adds to the humidity levels in the fridge.

We were away at our friends’ cottage on Lake Erie last weekend, came home Monday morning, so I only had part of Friday available for the Connect-a-thon, there is no internet at the cottage. And I will be away in August while the WikiTree games are happening. We went to the local library book sale while we were away and came back with several reusable grocery bags filled with books, including 2 excellent but huge and heavy books about the history of Ontario, starting back in the late 1700s.

WikiTree and family history: I’m done with the Babcocks! Hooray, I added connections for 2 branches with family buried at Alton, to their ancestors from various places in the north-eastern U.S. who settled to the east of Kingston, Ontario in the late 1700s. They are an incredibly complicated family. With 2 David Babcocks who both arrived in the same place and at the same time period, who have been conflated multiple times, the family line I was working on had of course huge families but to simplify it slightly did give several of their sons uncommon first names. The rest of it I will leave to the Babcock Name Study people.

What else: my new doctor is being very thorough, I have had an ECG, a stress test, 2 echocardiograms, wore a Holter gizmo for 3 days. which all came back normal.

They seem to think I have some sort of intermittent bradycardia, when my heart/pulse rate is way too slow at 56 beats per minute, meaning lack of oxygen causing dizziness, fatigue and memory issues. I have had problems remembering tasks on my to do list but attributed it to a lot of stress with family and other issues that have been happening since the spring. I have wondered whether my trip on the patio several weeks back was caused by dizziness. And apparently, I now have high blood pressure when for most of my adult life there was a concern that my blood pressure was too low, down to 80/55 at times. So as of yesterday, I’m on high blood pressure drugs.

I’m now waiting for multiple blood work and other test results and I’m sure there will be other things to come. And Yes everything is covered by our provincial government health care. And as I am over 65 I only pay the dispensing fee for prescriptions, so it was $11.04 for my blood pressure meds.

The fires in the British Columbia interior are not improving and as that is where we will be for half of our August vacation it is concerning, though most of the fires are north of where we will be.

Other: there has been much conversation on G2G recently about AI, a highly respected Ontario horticultural guru and researcher has been experimenting with AI and gardening questions, the results AI knows nothing about horticulture and made some incredible and significant mistakes in providing answers to plant related questions.

Answer 11 · 2023-07-21T15:22:17+0000

Expensive Summer! (all in one week)

Where do I start?

1. My Dewalt battery powered lawn mower went into some tall grass and stalled. Never restarted! Changed batteries, and it still wouldn't start. Its in the repair shop. YouTube shows the Dewalt Lawn mowers have a plastic pully that the belt can easily break or melt. A sudden stop could do that, so they say!

2. I ordered a Titan 3D massage chair from The Home Depot, 60% off, FREE shipping! Couldn't resist. It arrived by semi truck. Had to tear the railing off the front porch to get it in the door! Its Big! Got it all hooked up and it worked great for 5 minutes! Now only the foot massager works! I called Titan, they told me the nearest repair service is in Chicago, and they are not willing to send a tech to Bloomington to fix it!

They called back and told me to return it to my local Home Depot (the one I work at)! I called them back and pleaded with them to send me a module or chip or motherboard or whatever so I could fix it myself. Here is a picture of the chair, and the Dewalt lawn mower is next to the left trailer wheel! Well, after discussing it over, they email me and said they would send a new motherboard and instructions how to install it!

BUT THAT's NOT ALL! It get's worse!

3.Yesterday, the Central Air Conditioner died (Trane 2006 - 2023) Rest in Peace! They are coming today, they might be outside now as I type this, to install a new one!

4. Then, both my wife's and my smart phones have been getting dumber every day, not charging and calling people all on their own and getter super hot. The two new phones arrived yesterday..."How much did these cost?" I asked my wife. HOLY #@%&##!! I replied

I'm going to have to get a second mortgage!

Bonus picture: Here are the guys installing the new unit! Only took about an hour and a half! I lettered several of their work vans! I took a picture to see how the lettering was holding up! Still looks good all these years later!

Sung to the Tune of American Pie by Don Mclean

Bye Bye Trane Air conditionaye

Set you on the street for the old junk man guy

The Grayco boys said, "I shouldn't cry

This one will last way past the day that you die"!

UPDATE: THE HOUSE IS 85 F!!!! WE ARE MELTING. The new AC Worked great for a couple of hours! We called, they now think the coils need replacing!

Now it will be mid week to get this new problem fixed!

Answer 12 · 2023-07-21T15:25:26+0000

Hails and horns, Wikipeeps!

Had a lot going on the last two weeks so let's get started!

First up, I have a blog about how I randomly found a Ferraiolo in Utica of all places: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2023/07/52-ancestors-week-28-random.html

I have another blog about coincidences in birthdays: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2023/07/52-ancestors-week-29-birthdays.html

Not bad, right? Well, it was a tiring two weeks and the thon was awesome as always. Team Italy did very well as we got in 8th palce. Not bad. I tried to get at least 5th in my team but I got beaten by a couple people. Ah well. I have a very good reason for that!!

I tend to have more fun streaming than anything else. Was fun hanging out with Steven Greenwood, Mags, Betsy and the rest of the crew.

For the thon itself I mostly worked on my distant cousin Steve's tree. His paternal line is exclusively from the Campanian mountain town of Frigento. So, I basically ported his tree over here with his permission of course. Any excuse to beef up the category, right?

I worked from his tree on Ancestry and here's what I found so far. But, first check it out here.

I found two paths to him and I fully intend to go through Antenati and see what I can dig up there. Fortunately, he has most of the births, marriages and death images on his tree. I could just port them over or I could just link from Antenati.

He had some slight errors in the tree and I'm not sure how to bring it up to him. No one is perfect and he has said his tree isn't perfect. So, I am sure he knows about the errors. Still, it's a good tree.

What took me so long initially was the fact there were broken links to Antenati and I had to fish out the correct ones so I could post the source. I did it a few times and I intend to go back and fill in the rest eventually.

I also talked to another distant cousin during the thon about Frigento and Steve's tree. She gave me some ideas and I told her all about Wikitree. Good things, I promise!

On the non genealogy front, I did some weeding with my dad this morning and now there's rain coming. There has been a lot of it. The garden is okay for the most part. The potatoes are having a field day and so are the cucumbers.

The rain did mess things up on the boat as we had sticks and stuff under the rudders. All that needs to be cleared out. We also somehow got fishing line under there too. How did that get there?! So weird.

But, those'll get cleaned up to be sure. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Answer 13 · 2023-07-21T15:50:52+0000

Currently, it's 23˚ C and mostly cloudy in Fort Erie. The high today is predicted to be 25˚ C, and tonight's low is predicted to be 16˚ C.

The weekend before last, I took the light of my life and the delight of my eyes up to Toronto to put in her application to get her passport renewed. Her hips, knees, and ankles have been pretty sore over the past while (I really need to take her into the shop and get her suspension greased and adjusted), so she was using a couple of canes to walk. The security guards at the consulate started to get on our taxi driver's case, telling him, "You can't park here!" until they saw her struggling to get out of the car with her canes, and then they changed their tune completely and got her a wheelchair. So I'm much happier with the State Department now.

The light of my life and delight of my eyes is big on "found gardening": just nurturing and tending what comes up naturally, as opposed to mowing it down.

Found Gardening 1

I should have taken these photos weeks ago, when various flowers were in their full glory, but hopefully those of you who actually know plants can see what's going on.

The plant in the middle of the shot is what I call "standy-uppy purple flowers". They're more brown now, and the tops have been (ahem) mown. They keep coming back every spring, which is good, but they don't take well to being mown, so the light of my life and the delight of my eyes plans to dig up at least some of them and transplant them somewhere where they'll be safe from the predations of mowers. Possibly even into the Dr. Jeffrey, Scientist Memorial Garden.

In the upper right is an example of what I call daisies, and probably aren't really daisies. But they're pretty, so we'd like to transplant them somewhere safe, too.

On the right side and in my shadow on the bottom left are a couple of examples of plantains. They're familiar to me from B.C., but I've always considered them weeds. It turns out that they're not only edible, but particularly nutritious, so the plan is to try transplanting some into railing planters around the back porch to see if they can survive a) being transplanted, and b) growing in dirt which isn't just a skiff of topsoil over impenetrable clay.

In the shadow of the garage in the background are pink (in the upper left) and purple (upper middle to right) flowers which we also want to preserve. The purple ones are particularly sneaky, because until they start to flower, the stems just look like grass. Fortunately, the light of my life and the delight of my eyes got a little behind in weeding this year, so they survived long enough for us to see them.

On the genealogy front, I managed to make it down the Unconnected profiles in Europe page as far as Scotland. I think I have all the Geman Landes and Irish counties added now, and I've added some (not all) Scottish counties. Portugal was also a lot of work, because so many unconnected Portuguese branches are in the top 100, so I had to keep the Largest Unconnected Branches page open and update both pages as I was working.

On the space for my home church, Kathryn has been adding and connecting still more profiles. I started at the top of the list with Robert Lennie, and worked up a narrative biography, adding as many sources as I could dig up. (Kathryn had already added a bunch.) Now, it almost feels like he's been sourced thoroughly enough that somebody could write a book on him, although we still need to nail down the other churches where he pastored, and what dates he was at each. In fact, it's becoming clear that, in order to do a thorough job on each pastor, we're going to have to contact a bunch of other churches, and probably create categories and free-space profiles for them.

I plan to work my way all through the list. Eventually. If I live long enough.

On the Unconnected Canadian Politicians page, as we run low on provincial politicians, I'm trying to find or create profiles for at least three unconnected mayors of Ottawa, the provincial and territorial capitals, and the 14 next largest cities in Canada. (I'm also listing former federal Ministers of Health, who I added during the pandemic in homage to all those who work to try to keep the public safe and healthy. But those don't seem to be attractive targets for connectors, so I don't have to restock that list very often.)

Answer 14 · 2023-07-21T16:41:17+0000

Hello, from overcast Everett, Washington. I logged into the Friday Night Bingo YouTube broadcast but gave up because I couldn't find a way to hear anything. Volume on computer is on; I logged back in through YouTube but still nothing. So I bowed out and came over here to you folks.

Pip, I am glad to hear the shoulder is stronger. Carol, I am glad to hear the steroids are working. All of us need a little good news about strength and healing. I myself could use some cognitive redirection (whatever it is, it sounds like it could help with the brain fog I have) and patience.

Tomorrow is my brick walls class. I decided not to get a new laptop. I confirmed my WikiTree password (forgot some letters were upper case) and will also try to find what my FamilySearch username and password are. Then I can log into the laptop at the Sno-Isle Genealogical Society library.

I was going through the watchlist, trying to knock off some 800 profiles so that it will come down under 5000, when I found an African-American family with many children. The parents are buried in the same cemetery as my own parents. So that is a project that I will engage in with renewed enthusiasm.

Our Toastmasters club is down to 6 people. I am now Treasurer (a position I didn't want to be in, but I was the only one who could). We six are debating the club's future. We all like each other, we all like public speaking, but we really need more members.

I enjoyed the Thon very much and contributed 134, a record for me. Of all the WikiTree activities, I enjoy connecting the most. I gave up on the 15 for 15 Challenge because I got way behind on some of the monthly goals.

I am on the trail of Mukilteo's unknown soldier, who is in the Pioneer Cemetery. I gave a speech for Toastmasters on Wednesday about who I think it may be. There are no death/burial records in Snohomish County, however, before 1891. Nor do I have specific proof that William McCallister served in the military, although his son and brother did in the 1850s/1860s in southern Oregon. The next step is to write to some organizations that may have info.

Yesterday I also worked on the pile of fabric and made several scrappy blocks for future quilts. It's a long time between sessions where I can get free batting, but having a stash of blocks is a step to getting the chaos under control.

You all keep up the good work as best you can. Blessings to all.

Answer 15 · 2023-07-21T16:50:03+0000

Hello from Switzerland.

Today we have a cool day not hitting 30 (or more) °C. But we can handle also hot days staying indoors where we can keep the rooms quite cool thanks to the Swiss quality insolation.

2 Months ago our youngest son and his wife came to Switzerland to stay and live here. He was for over 23 years living in and around Sydney NSW. Now he lives only 2 hrs by train or car from us. We visited Australia 7 times, a wonderful country, but we will not miss the 24 hours flight (one way) from Zurich to Sydney and back again.

This month I will be active for 6 months with WikiTree with over 5700 contributions and a CC7 of 1920. It is a great job to transfer my data from RootsMagic (474'000 people) into Wikitree because I check all and add missing sources or have to improve them. Most of the 'old' sources in my DB are without internet-links because I collected my data since more than 50 years. One of the things I really enjoy is linking profiles in WikiTree by adding 'missing generations' which I have in my database,

Thanks to RootsMagic I found a relationship by a common ancestor with my Swiss wife (I am Dutch). She is my 27th cousin, not even removed. Our common ancestor is Heinrich (Heinrich IX) der Schwarze, Herzog von Bayern. Well that is to prove, because I don't really feel any connection to these old European aristocrats.

So I am working with the big WikiTree-tree and hope I can continue to contribute at the level of about 1000 contributions a month.

Enjoy your day, I will have dinner right now.

Answer 16 · 2023-07-21T19:48:34+0000

Happy Friday Pip and Chatterers!

I'll get the weather out of way first: Hot! We had 109F a couple of days and then we cooled off to 106F. I am not sure about today but tomorrow it should feel like Fall at 97F. We try to go out, if we have to go out, as early as possible in the day and be back home also as early as possible.

Medically, we are holding our own. Hubby has another 23 radiation treatments to go so just about half way now.

On the genealogy front, I made it through the Thon last weekend. Friday and most of Saturday were a struggle but Sunday I clicked right along and ended up with 125 new profiles. That is less than usual for me but I was really happy to accomplish that much. Most of that was on the family of one of my son-in-laws where I had discovered there were families missing children, parents, spouses. They provided a virtual goldmine to work on. Now, I will spend a few weeks trying to complete them as I am pushing the 5000 mark on my watchlist. I find it so difficult to orphan profiles!

I also have completed the USBlack Heritage PATH. That was actually rather easy since I had already done most of the requirements without knowing what they were. These days, I like "easy".

I hope everyone has a terrific weekend and upcoming week. See everyone next Friday!

Answer 17 · 2023-07-21T20:38:50+0000

@Jelena I was 'teasing' (being sardonically humorous) in my response, Jelena. I know they were restored in 1814...they had to be for them to spread across the globe. And I have no doubts that you would know Francis is a Jesuit. I specifically mentioned Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin because I got my master's degree there. The Jesuits really taught critical thinking and were social activists, not unlike Pope Francis.

@Karen Lowe...not Catholic; however, I got a bachelor's from Mount Mary University (Notre Dame) nuns and the Master's at Marquette. It didn't make any difference if students were Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists or Martians, everyone had to take religion and philosophy classes. One of my favorites (and really difficult despite the title) was Images of God, Man and Woman in Contemporary Theater. It was taught by a Jesuit and incorporated plays, films, philosophy, theology, etc. with writers like Camus, Beckett, Pinter, Santayana, Brecht etc. The midterm was some 15 pages long with questions like 'If there is no god, then I am god' Explain; or 'Our nada, who aren't in nada, hallowed by thy nada' Discuss. My other most favorite class was Shakespeare! Three of each comedies, tragedies (naturally Lear, MacBeth & Othello) and histories.

commented Jul 23, 2023 by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

@Karen First...I am SO jealous about seeing Sir Ian as Lear up close and personal. WOW. To die for.

Our professor didn't forget about poor Hamlet. We didn't read it, but at the time I was taking the class (ca. 1981) a VERY YOUNG Derek Jacobi performed Hamlet that was recorded by the BBC and shown on our Public Television. It was 'required watching.' I was gobsmacked by Jacobi's performance...wonderful.

We didn't have Women in Sprituality per se, but one of the required texts was Merlin Stone's When God Was a Woman. Notre Dame nuns & Jesuits were fearless! I still have that book in my home library.

Anne Hutchinson is a 10th cousin/10xr, MRCA Elizabeth (Bathonia) Weylond. You can check your relationship here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Marbury-2

I thought we had Hildegard (What A Woman!!!) on WikiTree, but I cannot find her. I think we were very lucky to have these readings and classes. But I am still jealous about Sir Ian (snark, snark)...

commented Jul 23, 2023 by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

Answer 18 · 2023-07-21T20:58:14+0000

Pip, I'm glad your shoulder is getting better , but so sad about the loss of the Soda Shop. I'm sure every generation says it, (when did we become our parents | grandparents?) but it's a shame that History has to be lost in the name of progress.

I have no idea what the weather looks like out there. I lost 2 weeks along the way somewhere which is why everyone thought I was going to be a 1 & done in the chat after the first week. That was either the 23 or 30 of June. the 23 was my 1st day on the sate, if I found you that early.

But I chatted the weekend of 30JUN - 3JUL the weekend I did my 1st SSS (47). Things were much more hectic & less talking on the fly for the Weekend Chat 8-10JUL before the SSS (117). Then last weekend I did the Thon (167) & spoke not at all (Have you seen the Thon selfie of my set-up?).

I was so frazzled about what day it was that I was frantically looking for the Weekend Chat for this weekend. I hadn't put the tag on my followed list yet because: a) Newbe b) time c) frazzled, so I was about to get really frustrated with my lac of results; until I noticed that it was Thursday & not Friday.

During the Thon, I worked on my line as well because they are quite prolific & I knew I had a list of plenty to be able to use without running out. I just ran the parents of each of my married couples & made profiles. While I was sifting through this data, I noticed several patterns emerging; some still are. The most prevalent pattern I encountered was the sheer number of the male members of my family that had an association to the CSA.

So that became a Project; to go through all my male relatives of that generation & make a list of what their association was & find the documentation. So far I have only gone through the 2 paternal lines of my g-gg-gggrandparents & ended up with over 2 full Platoons before I ran into Joseph L. F. Chandler; he died 12 Sep 1864 at PLPOW [Space:Point_Lookout_Civil_War_Prison].

What specifically set me off on the line I have been following is that there is an image on his Memorial site at FAG as well as this:

Enlistment:
- Enlisted on Sep 23 1861 as Private

Mustering information:
- Enlisted into I Company, 3rd Infantry (Georgia) on Sep 23 1861
- Died while serving in 3rd Infantry (Georgia) on Sep 12 1864 at Point Lookout, MD

Listed as:
- POW on Jul 21 1863 at Chester Gap, VA

Then I noticed the image listing his name & the name of the other it listed 35 other names on the image of the plaque and it obviously had more names that were out of frame.

Silly me, my first thought is "Names I have NAMES!!! Let me go spread the joyus news!" I probably should have looked to see why there was a discrepancy between his POW status location & the location of his death. When I just randomly asked the WT if anyone had ever heard of PLPOW. I had by then corrected my error in assuming that the cemetery in MD was the battlefield of Chester Gap. While Chester Gap was important in the CSA's advance/retreat & was where Joseph L. F. Chandler was captured, that's another story.

When I first asked about the possibility of someone close by if it would be possible for someone to go over there to get pictures. I hadn't learned of PLPOW yet, but Harris-47557 was gracious enough to take me up on the request. Then Kreutzer-114 tells me about the Point Lookout Civil War Prison.

I am now Manager of the former orphan Point Lookout Civil War Prison [[[Space:Point_Lookout_Civil_War_Prison|Point Lookout Civil War Prison]]] & in researching it ran into a group called Descendants of PLPOW [https://plpow.org/].

At this point, I am trying to figure out how to ethically upload son's VERY appreciated images to WikiTree. I have been to Cemetaries & commented on their "Do You Want to Join" page, so Pip might have already heard about this. This Project is on hold waiting for clarification on uploading.

On to another topic; "Have you met any Cousins?". Yes, I have because of another military cousin that was MIA in WWll & presumed. She is my Second Cousin & she's a Texas Girl. I contacted her to find the source of "The Last Goodbye" for William Francis Brunson to make another Memorial for a Fallen Soldier. Since that was the only picture I knew of him, I thought I'd track down the source & see if I could get approval for the use of the image.

That was Monday, by Wednesday, she was contacting me through FAG letting me know about what the Bryan County Genealogy Library and Archives on FB [https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Bryan%20County%20Genealogy%20Library%20and%20Archives] in honor of the release of the 1923 records due to the Copyright running out.

Other than that, another SSS tonight so I better run & take a nap.

Bye

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"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! July 21st - 23rd, 2023 [closed]

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Due to listening to Prime Country on Sirus XM this week, my brain went Country!

Ain't Shutting Down ('til the sun comes up)

Down On The Forum

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Wednesdays, August 2, 9, 16, 23, & 30 6:00–7:30 p.m. (ET)

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