Damaris Fish on genealogy

Do what we can do

2011-09-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

I feel that the work of family history for bringing families together is very important. I have made a personal commitment to push the work forward. I am glad to be able to do what I can. It is nice when it works out, too.

So much needs to be done. It won't all get done in my lifetime, either; but that's no excuse not to do what I can. Plan my work. Work the plan. Leave room for inspiration. Serendipity and the Spirit of Elijah are the lifeblood of family history work.

I am grateful to feel to do what I can and that this is where I belong. I was going to do it anyway. :-D

Name this picture

2011-07-29T05:07:00.000-07:00

We all have unmarked photos. Bring them out at a family gathering. Get them identified!!

Does anyine recognize this picture? I have seen it as a poster. I would like permission to use it, but I have no idea whom to ask.... Help?

Knowing information about a picture changes its value and worth. Sigh.
My brother's daughter just got married a week ago on the other side of the country from where I live. Thank goodness for cousins with cameras, digital cameras, being able to post to facebook, and tagging photos! You Were There!

Things Change

2011-07-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

My friend Nancy said, "Don't change...."

I just got an email from my husband. It's an invitation to a financial seminar online. For getting the word out about it they suggest we blog about it & post it on facebook. My blog is genealogy related. I'm trying to think about the genealogy-angle.... A lot of family and individual's moves from one place to another are driven by economic forces. When we lost our home in Colorado Springs we ended up staying with my grandmother in the Washington DC area until Ted took a job in Flint, Michigan. Lisa was born in West Germany (US Army). Kathy was born at Ft Carson, Colorado (Army). David, Spencer & Eddy were born in Colorado Springs (where Ted got out of the Army & we stayed). Daniel was born in Flint, Michigan. Who knew - no one, unless you write it down!

Another set of pegs for writing your life's story - all the places you've lived. Then, deconstructing that, thinking like your ancestors, what brought them to the last place you've found records of them? Answering the question, Why did they go there? may brainstorm possible places to look and find them in earlier records....

Here's the link to that seminar. Hopefully tough times don't make us change our values.

http://news.newsmax.com/?K6C6Y1mjoNr1YK00KG6egG47GRbzblUAK&http://w3.newsmax.com/a/aftershockb/index_s.cfm?s=al&promo_code=C973-1

Start Writing Your Life's Story

2011-07-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

See My cherry Earring?

(via my daughter Kathy - Thanks, Kathy)
One good way to start writing your life's story is to catalog all your scars. That will give you a framework by how old you were. WHAT were you doing? Who was with you? Where were you? & Why were you doing it?!

Another good way to start - or make these chapters - is to go through all the vehicles you've owned. That will bring back lots of memories, and maybe photographs, too. Your different kids will remember different things about the different cars, and sometimes the same road trips very differently.... Who learned to drive in which vehicles? On and on.

My first wheels? I remember riding my red tricycle up to the Standard Oil in South Daytona, "to get my windshield washed." It was a great day when I could make that air hose go :-Ding! I learned to drive in Florida, barefoot, on the hardpacked sand at Ormond Beach at low tide, where there was lots of room for other drivers to avoid me :-) America's love affair with cars. Pictures - then there's the progression of your drivers license pictures, ha, ha.

I have committed that when I write my life's story it will be a cookbook. There is a whole slew of recipes for picnics at the beach, recipes that work well for transporting (and some that don't!), recipes for eating IN the car (for trying to stay awake while driving). I have a story of what NOT to do while trying to eat and drive.... Have I written that one down yet?

Resources at FamilySearch

2011-07-05T11:27:00.001-07:00

Randy Seaver posted in his blog a list of recently added record collections accessible at regular FamilySearch.org. Then he just added 23 more to the list (600 some!). We regularly use new.FamilySearch.org now, but don't quit using (old) FamilySearch.org! That is where the results from the Family Search Indexing are made available to search. Also, please consider dedicating some more of your volunteer work time to participating in Indexing. If you know people who have limited mobility, please share with them the valuable opportunity to contribute real service by Indexing from home.

You might click on the short list first (23), to get an idea of the range of record sets that are being arranged for access by FamilySearch! http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/07/new-familysearch-historical-collections.html

This is a great era we live in -
Proclaiming Liberty to the Captives!

Isaiah 61:1
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Doctrine and Covenants 138:18
18 While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful;

Music of Your Life

2011-06-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Randy Seaver in his genealogy blog gave links to find out what songs were popular when-ever.... He recommends two sites - http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/birthdayno1 and http://www.joshhosler.biz/.

Just like in the movies there is background music in our day to day lives. Today it may come from the radio, our iPod or mp3 players, songs playing off our computer or CDs, or songs you are singing yourself. "Worse than that"? Sometimes it seems like there's someone (?) orchestrating what music will come to our minds when - when we need answers to things we're puzzling over. Is there a theme running through our lives? Cue the ____ music!

I borrow CDs from the library and am grateful for the variety and size of their collection, but they have a lot of music I will never want to listen to: to each their own tastes. I like to sing in choral groups. I like old standards, folk songs, children's songs, barbershop, patriotic songs, Christmas songs, sacred choral music and hymns. I listen to this link a lot, over and over. I am LDS: Come Unto Christ.

I know the power of music to carry a message into our minds, and our hearts. I am grateful for songs that have a message that edifies, encourages and uplifts the spirit. There is more good music yet to be written! Make it a matter of prayer - You, too, might be an instrument in the Lord's hands! :-o

My work with seniors bears out that it is the music that was popular (that you listened to) during the years you were courting, that you remember and enjoy most in your older years. My Nana was born in 1900. She was marrired in 1921. Tin Pan Alley songs were fun for her to reminisce with. We anchor or peg our experiences with songs - and on rehearing them, they trigger the resurfacing of those memories. In my late teens and 20's I listened to the classical music stations. I pretty much missed the popular music of the 70s & 80s. I am okay with that. I still listen to the classical music station.

What were the popular songs in the lives of the people in your family history? With every era, every campaign, there were songs written to promote - something: westward expansion, war songs, work songs, drinking songs, temperance songs. I remember Mitch Miller - Sing Along With Mitch. Here is a song for our era that's of that ilk. There are musical political cartoons in every age. Human nature is swayed by catchy lyrics and music. Be careful what you listen too - it may stick in your brain - like The Song That Never Ends. 'Sorry, that wasn't really very nice....

So do you have a favorite song? Do you have a strategy for getting unwanted thoughts (songs) our of your mind (like This Is the Song That Never Ends)? Challenge yourself to memorize a favorite hymn or song that lifts you up. Ask your folks about their favorite songs. And ask them why, too! You may get a whole story about where they were when & with whom, doing what and why. When you write your life story the chapter headings and the little quotes at the beginnings of the chapters could be song titles and lyrics! It could happen....

Maybe mine will be This Is the Song That Never Ends....

Fathers Day

2011-06-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

On facebook I posted: "Happy Fathers Day! You know who you are, I hope...."
This OpEd piece from the NY Times today really struck me - about people not knowing if, or of whom they are fathers. It is an important piece of our identity to know who our parents are. It is part of knowing ourselves.

I was going through family pictures with a friend. I think they were pictures from her husband's ancestry and she remarked how that one of her grandchildren looked just like this picture of an uncle as a youngster. I don't think I have the details just right, but I have experienced this, too, that the eyes looking out of an old family photograph come to life because you have seen that look in a family member in person. It is heartwarming. It is an anchor for us, to feel like we belong with a family.

Stories can do the same thing. Tell your children family history stories - of their ancestors. It will do their hearts good. Tell them his-stories and her-stories of courage, of figuring something out, of tough choices they made and how it turned out. Tell them stories that show the good that they can also accomplish. Tell the stories of hardships, of mistakes and how they recovered and came through their trials, stories of the family pulling together. They may remember those stories and tell their children.

Better yet - write them down :-D Write your life stories down to pass along. They will be a blessing for your posterity. What are you learning from Life? With whom are you sharing your life? Who do you Love? Who loves you? You will write your legacy a story at a time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/opinion/19wooten.html?_r=1

Op-Ed Contributor
A Father’s Day Plea to Sperm Donors
By COLTON WOOTEN
Published: June 18, 2011
Raleigh, N.C.

WHEN I was 5, my mother revealed to me that I had been conceived through artificial insemination. This was before I understood anything about sex or where babies came from — I think I thought they just sprang from their mothers’ stomachs at random. Because my understanding of conventional conception was so thin, my mom remained vague about the details of my conception — in all its complexity — until I got older.

When that time came, I learned how my mother, closing in on her 40s, found herself unmarried and childless. She had finished graduate school and established a career, but regretted not having a family. And so she decided to take the business of having a baby into her own capable hands. Artificial insemination seemed like a smart idea, perhaps the only idea.

She arranged a consultation at the University of North Carolina fertility clinic in early 1992. During the visits that followed she examined the profiles of the sperm bank’s donors, compared favorable traits and credentials, and picked one. In the autumn of that year, I was born.

My mom’s decision intrigued many people. Some saw it as a triumph of female self-sufficiency. But others, particularly her close friends and family, were shocked. “You can’t have a baby without a man!” they would gasp.

It turns out, of course, you can, and pretty easily. The harder part, at least for that baby as he grows older, is the mystery of who that man was. Or is.

I didn’t think much about that until 2006, when I was in eighth grade and my teacher assigned my class a genealogy project. We were supposed to research our family history and create a family tree to share with the class. In the past, whenever questioned about my father’s absence by friends or teachers, I wove intricate alibis: he was a doctor on call; he was away on business in Russia; he had died, prematurely, of a heart attack. In my head, I’d always dismissed him as my “biological father,” with that distant, medical phrase.

But the assignment made me think about him in a new way. I decided to call the U.N.C. fertility center, hoping at least to learn my father’s name, his age or any minutiae of his existence that the clinic would be willing to divulge. But I was told that no files were saved for anonymous donors, so there was no information they could give me.

In the early days of in vitro fertilization, single women and sterile couples often overlooked a child’s eventual desire to know where he came from. Even today, despite recent movies like “The Kids Are All Right,” there is too little substantial debate on the subject. The emotional and developmental deficits that stem from an ignorance of one’s origins are still largely ignored.

I understand why fertility centers chose to keep sperm donation anonymous. They were attempting to prevent extra chaos, like custody battles, intrusion upon happy families (on either party’s side), mothers showing up on donors’ doorsteps with homely, misbegotten children with runny noses and untied shoelaces to beg for child support. It’s entirely reasonable, and yet the void that many children and young adults born from artificial insemination experience from simply not knowing transcends reason.

I don’t resent my mom; she did the best thing she knew how to do at the time, and found a way to make a child under the circumstances. But babies born of the procedure in the future should have the right to know who their donors are, and even have some contact with them. Sperm donors need to realize that they are fathers. When I was doing college interviews, one of the interviewers told me that he didn’t have any children, but that he had donated sperm while in college because he needed the money. He didn’t realize that he probably is someone’s father, regardless of whether he knows his child.

I’m one of those children, and I want to know who my father is. There are some programs like the Donor Sibling Registry that try to connect those conceived through sperm and egg donation with lost half-siblings and sometimes even parents. But I don’t have much hope that I’ll ever find him.

For my eighth grade project, I settled on fabricating the unknown side of my family tree, and not much has changed since then. I’m 18 now, today is Father’s Day, and I still hardly know anything about my biological father, just a few vague details that my mother remembers from reading his profile so many years ago. I know that he was a medical student at U.N.C. the year I was born. I know that he had olive skin and brown hair. I know that his mother was Italian and his father Irish.

I call myself an only child, but I could very well be one of many siblings. I could even be predisposed to some potentially devastating disease. Because I do not know what my father looks like, I could never recognize him in a crowd of people. I am sometimes overwhelmed by the infinite possibilities, by the reality that my father could be anywhere: in the neighboring lane of traffic on a Friday during rush hour, behind me in line at the bank or the pharmacy, or even changing the oil in my car after many weeks of mechanical neglect.

I am sometimes at such a petrifying loss for words or emotions that make sense that I can only feel astonished by the fact that he could be anyone.

Colton Wooten graduated from Leesville Road High School this month.

Getting old, just like our ancestors

2011-06-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU'VE EVER BEEN,
YET THE YOUNGEST YOU'LL EVER BE,
SO ENJOY THIS DAY WHILE IT LASTS.

Observations on Growing Older
Your kids are becoming you, & you don't like ˜em.
But your grandchildren are perfect!
Going out is good.
Coming home is better!
When people say you look "Great", they add: "for your age!"
When you needed the discount, you paid full price.
Now you get discounts on everything ...
movies, hotels, flights; but you're too tired to use them.
You forget names, but it's OK because other people forgot they even knew you!!!
The 5 lbs you wanted to lose is now 15, & you have a better chance of losing your keys than the 15 lbs.
You realize you're never going to be really good at anything ... especially golf.
Your spouse is counting on you to remember things you don't remember.
The things you used to care to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don't care to do them anymore.
Your husband sleeps better on a lounge chair w/the TV blaring than he does in bed. It's called his "pre-sleep".
Remember when your mother said,
"Wear clean underwear in case you GET in an accident"?
Now you bring clean underwear in case you HAVE an accident!
You used to say,
"I hope my kids GET married.
Now, "I hope they STAY married!"
You miss the days when everything worked w/just an "ON" & "OFF" switch.
When GOOGLE, ipod, email & modem were unheard of. And a mouse was something that made you climb on a table.
You tend to use more 4 letter words like "what?" & "when?".
Now that you can afford expensive jewelry, it's not safe to wear it anywhere.
Your husband has a night out w/the guys,
but he's home by 9:00PM. Next week it will be 8:30PM.
You read 100 pages into a book before you realize you've read it.
Notice everything they sell in stores is "sleeveless"?
What used to be freckles are now liver spots.
Everybody whispers.
Now that your husband has retired, you'd give anything if he'd find a job!

You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet ¦ 2 of which you will never wear.
But old is good in some things:
old songs, old movies,
And best of all, OLD FRIENDS!!!

'Love you, "OLD FRIEND!"
Share this with other "Old Friends!" & let them laugh in AGREEMENT!!!
It's Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have Lived

====
I don't have my glasses on. I first read that 2nd picture as "Friends don't let friends go through tricks alone." What?! Some say that growing older is Nature playing tricks on us.... It's trials. If you've ever gone to court to support a friend, you know that you don't want to go through trials alone either.
========

I am a grandma, not as good a grandma as I would like to be - long distance - but I think about my grandparents. I knew them as a child, and also as an adult. What Mark Twain said about parents getting wiser as we grow up - same thing with grandparents - THEY change as WE age. In my genealogy I have plenty of instances where the kids were living back at home with the folks, raising their children with the help of the grandparents. Sometimes it's because of widowhood, or economic situations. But thank Goodness that the grandparents were there. Notwithstanding their getting old-er they did what they could to help raise their grandchildren. I am grateful for as much visiting with my grandmothers as I got, & as I gave :-) It goes both ways :-D Some day it will all make sense. We'll repent; we'll forgive. As my husband was fond of saying...all you can do is all you can do, but all you can do is enough.

This is my mother's mother's mother, Sarah Delphina Eubank, and her father's parents, Rosannah Rohrer and Joseph Eubank, probably in Indiana about 1890-95.

Smile posts

2011-05-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of my two grandmothers, my mother, and me at age 11.

Do you have family photos where the people are smiling, and some where they're not? I wouldn't be surprised if someday someone creates an app that can take a picture of someone not smiling, and through forensic-type regeneration algorithms morph the picture into a picture of the same person smiling and have it look natural. Probably not taking into account bad teeth, or no teeth...but surely our ancestors did smile! They were human after all. Mine were, anyway, ha, ha. (not Fish - I married into Fish)

Here is a TEDTalk on smiling. It is very interesting.

Take pictures of the people you love - smiling, and cherish those memories. We smile from our memories, and from our thoughts and our feelings. Maybe purring is for cats as smiling is for us. I smile when my cat purrs. He's here now. Do you have family photos that include family pets?

Smile posts - How many times have you said of someone in your family, "Oh my, they've got So&So's smile"? You can see smiles pass down through families and generations.

What was Mona Lisa's inside family joke?

What's important about this life?

2011-05-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

This is a link to a TED Talk by a fellow who was in a plane crash, titled Three Things I Learned.... http://www.ted.com/talks/ric_elias.html This is an important question for each one of us to ask, and for our ancestors to have asked, and for our progeny to ask themselves. (Have you had this talk with your children?) Are we writing in our journals and what we leave behind for posterity - the things that matter most? Part of how I decide for myself what is important in this life is by considering what was important to my forebears. Part of how I learned that was by "wishing" that my children would have some consideration of the things I want them to value in their lives by showing my example.

Do we have to have a big traumatic event in our lives to come to this epiphany about what matters most? Time will tell. Human nature, - MY nature is to procrastinate and avoid difficult things. I wonder about my family history - what near misses were averted because my ancestors with ADHD pulled the bacon out of the fire just in time?
I sometimes have felt that I was in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. Here is another short video about using your talents to do some good. http://wimp.com/barehand/ I believe we can be an instrument in the Lord's hand and that we are planted where we are supposed to bloom. I like a quote I heard was attributed to Abraham Lincoln:
"I will study and get ready and perhaps my chance will come." Do it.

I am struck by the amazing access we have today to research our family history. Please seize the opportunity to talk with your family members who are elderly. Don't live to regret that you did not ask questions and listen to answers, listen with your heart. Do your homework - prepare for those interviews. Also, be part of the solution. Share your research. Someone may be looking for the puzzle piece you are posting!

won't have to travel very far to do research - unless you want to

2011-04-30T11:48:00.001-07:00

Here is an article I saw in the Voice of America news service about a project to scan books from the Library of Congress to be made available through Internet Archives. The Internet Archives Genealogy heading in their "Other Collections" is here. Besides the Library of Congress there are lots of other participating libraries (Brigham Young University, e.g.), and you can see the list by clicking on American Libraries, etc. across the top. Searching was a little tricky. Maybe you know what book you are interested in from other sources, then try the Advanced search and put the title in the Title field.

I don't have a printer at home, but I can save images. I downloaded a book I have interest in (EUBANK) in a PDF format. All Pretty Amazing!

Check it out. Even if you are planning a research trip, doing your homework at home will make your time in the field more productive. There are lots of resources on the Internet Archives website!

Free Online Classes Help People Climb Their Family Tree

2011-04-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

Free Online Classes Help People Climb Their Family Tree

This is good news. There is always more to learn in genealogy research. I really mean always - because they are continually coming up with new strategies to connect, network and analyze the data you have to develop new clues. 'Not to mention the "new" access to "old" records that WE may not have even known existed. As more people's hearts are turned to the work - indexing, micro"filming", agreeing to public access in exchange for the archive service that FamilySearch offers to jurisdictions worldwide - it is an amzing age we live in! It's a Great Day for Family History!

Consider - that as more people get their own records organized and come online to share, the map of the human race becomes more complete - the holes in the fishnet are getting mended. As we each do our own work we are helping each other's knowledge bank :-D

Thank you for being a point of light in the grid!

Japan earthquakes and tsunami

2011-03-19T10:53:00.001-07:00

I am grateful the Lord is mindful of us and whatever calamities we encounter. I am grateful for people who respond to the Lord's promptings to do what they can to help. We are all in this together, and we can help ease suffering and help recover. Ask not for whom the bell tolls? It tolls for thee? When there is a need, we all should respond as we can. Even prayers help.

I suppose there are some records in Japanese in the Granite Mountain records vault in Utah.

Let's not procrastinate. Live with no regrets.

Granite Mountain Records Vault, Part 1 - FamilySearch Genealogy Records

2011-03-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Mocavo.com launched today!

2011-03-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

They are billing themselves as:
About Mocavo
The world’s largest free genealogy search engine, Mocavo.com, provides genealogists access to the best free genealogy content on the web including billions of names, dates and places worldwide. Mocavo.com seeks to index and make searchable all of the world’s free genealogy information. While Mocavo.com discovers new sites every day, some of the existing sites searchable on Mocavo.com include genealogy message boards, family trees, state and local historical societies, the Library of Congress, National Archives, Ellis Island, Find A Grave, the Internet Archive, various U.S. state archives, and many tens of thousands of genealogy sites built by individuals. Similar to other search engines, Mocavo.com honors site owners by linking directly to their content.

I put in my grandfather's name & got a page of hits, and there were some I was not already aware of. I will be back to try it some more. Don't ya' love it!? More people are getting on board to share their records, their time, their talents to make new records come to light!

http://mocavo.com/

Check it out!

Never Shake A Baby!

2011-01-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

This has gone on for a long time, as long as we have had babies? When will it end?
Will we learn from our family stories? Will our posterity learn from our stories?

Shaken Baby Syndrome is something we have all probably heard about, and hopefully not had firsthand experience with. Infant brains and skulls, and neck muscles are not like those of adults. The skull is not fully ossified (hard and protective of the brain). The brain is not even as firm as set Jello (as normal adult brains are). The neck muscles are not strong enough to support the head, and especially not able to stabilize the head from sudden movements. The human brain grows most of its size by age 2; that is why babies have proportionally larger heads than adults. The brain has high water content. Imagine a glass of water sloshing its contents when shaken.

The anatomy of the brain in the skull is in a little better shape than water just in a glass. The cerebral cortex and brain stem are covered by dura mater (grey matter). It is like a membrane enveloping the brain and it is attached to the skull. There is a space under the dura mater before you get to the arachnoid, which directly covers the cerebral cortex. It is kind of like wearing an under shirt (arachnoid) that is next to your skin (cerebral cortex), and your outer shirt (dura mater), and then you put on your coat (skull) for protection from the cold. Under normal circumstances this all works great. Blood vessels and nerves go through that space (sinuses) and keep the blood flowing smoothly (oxygen, cooling, etc.), with very little stress on them. It reminds me of the spokes of a bicycle wheel, only in 3-D, and these nerves and blood vessels are not so rigid as the spokes of the wheel. Granted, those lines (the blood vessels and nerves) are not exactly having to suspend the whole brain in the skull…. But imagine your bicycle wheel - if something put extraordinary torque on the axle from the side, or even up & down, or twisting – Do you see it? The spokes break a few at first, and then catastrophe!

This is what goes on inside the skull with the brain when a baby is shaken violently back and forth. We have seen the crash dummy videos demonstrating how seatbelts can help keep a person inside the car, and how air bags can lessen the impact in a crash. In a baby’s skull the blood vessels and nerves were never meant to be seat belts – they rupture. Bleeding and fluid buildup might act like an airbag, but you cannot function with the airbag deployed; that in itself is a hazard – that pressure on the brain causes injuries. Back and forth shaking can stretch and tear the nerve tissue that runs up and down the baby’s neck – the nerves that carry the instructions from the medulla for the diaphragm to breathe and the heart to keep beating. Babies are taken to Emergency Rooms primarily because they stop breathing, or are turning blue. CPR is not a cause of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Babies who are examined because of suspected abuse have the diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome confirmed by an inspection of the retinas in the back of the eyes. Eyeballs are filled with fluid and, like the fluid-dynamic action of the brain, are highly affected by sudden changes in inertia and direction. Tearing of the membranes, supply vessels and optic nerves show in surviving babies with special equipment, or in autopsies. “Retinal hemorrhages are seen in 70-85% of abusive head injuries.” (1)

Lesions on the cerebral cortex from the trauma all over the surface of the brain, deprivation of oxygen and build up of toxins from dead brain cells deteriorating because of Shaken Baby Syndrome cause surviving babies all kinds of problems. “The signs and symptoms seen are mild to severe, on a continuum from a “low-dose” of shaking/impact to a “high-dose” of shaking/impact and severe craniocerebral injury and may run the gamut from decreased responsiveness, poor feeding, irritability, lethargy and hypotonia [low muscle tone and strength] to convulsions, vomiting, tachypnea [rapid , shallow breathing], hypothermia [abnormally low body temperature], bradycardia [slow and irregular heart beat], coma, fixed dilated pupils to death.” (2)

“In comparison with accidental traumatic brain injury in infants, shaken baby injuries have a much worse prognosis. Damage to the retina of the eye can cause blindness. The majority of infants who survive severe shaking will have some form of neurological or mental disability, such as cerebral palsy or mental retardation, which may not be fully apparent before 6 years of age. Children with shaken baby syndrome may require lifelong medical care. “ (3)

NEVER SHAKE A BABY!

(1) http://www.dontshake.org/sbs.php?topNavID=3&subNavID=25&navID=281

(2) http://www.dontshake.org/sbs.php?topNavID=3&subNavID=25&navID=283

(3) http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/shakenbaby/shakenbaby.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li5nMsXg1Lk&feature=player_embedded

It's your heart, stupid

2011-01-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

That's not a very good title for a blog post, but that's how I feel. I have just come out of our Chorus class at the community college. A fellow from the tenor section asked me about humming Mull of Kintyre last week, and we talked about other Scotish songs. I am crying now, here at the keyboard at school.... Y'know, it's something you think you have under control, but when something touches your heart - good thing I kind of know how to type, because I can't see.... Something touches your heart and you cannot deny it, nor keep it in. I feel like my ancestor William Duncan, who has been a brick wall to me - is urging me to begin again to look for him and his roots in Scotland. I am going to make some shortbread tonight. My neighbor has paid me back some butter, & I know that I have a recipe on my computer at home. I remember watching a clip from the movie, "Far and Away" (Tom Cruise) in a class on genealogy, and how that touched my heart, but I didn't know what to do with that feeling. Place does have an influence on us, on shaping our character, on being a comfort for our heart. I am grateful for the earth, for its service to the family of man in hosting us to learn and grow. I don't want to be stupid and ignore the teachings for my heart. ET, phone home.

Land records are a tremendous source for geenalogical information. Owning land was a very big deal. Not every one owned land, nor could own land. Thank goodness for the good records that do survive. Follow the money? Inheritance of land represents very important issues with kinship. We feel strongly about where we are from, and making our mark upon the land. My husband built a rock cairn, with a cement cast of a fish in it. I wonder if it is still standing. Google Earth? Leaving your mark in land records is a big accomplishment. For women to do it is a very big deal. Thanks to keepers, transcribers and posters of land records; and especially to arbiters and the law! Family Home.

From Mull of Kintyre - Paul McCartney/Laine

MULL OF KINTYRE,
OH, MIST ROLLING IN FROM THE SEA.
MY DESIRE IS ALWAYS TO BE HERE,
OH, MULL OF KINTYRE.

FAR HAVE I TRAVELLED AND MUCH HAVE I SEEN,
DARK DISTANT MOUNTAINS WITH VALLEYS OF GREEN.
PAST PAINTED DESERTS, THE SUNSET'S ON FIRE
AS HE CARRIES ME HOME TO THE MULL OF KINTYRE.

SWEEP THROUGH THE HEATHER LIKE DEER IN THE GLEN,
CARRY ME BACK TO THE DAYS I KNEW THEN.
NIGHTS WHEN WE SANG LIKE A HEAVENLY CHOIR
OF THE LIFE AND THE TIMES OF THE MULL OF KINTYRE.

SMILES IN THE SUNSHINE AND TEARS IN THE RAIN,
STILL TAKES ME BACK WHERE MY MEM'RIES REMAIN.
FLICKERING EMBERS GROW HIGHER AND HIGHER
AS THEY CARRY ME BACK TO THE MULL OF KINTYRE.

MULL OF KINTYRE,
OH, MIST ROLLING IN FROM THE SEA.
MY DESIRE IS ALWAYS TO BE HERE,
OH, MULL OF KINTYRE.

New Year's Celebrations

2011-01-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

My own New Year's Celebrations have changed over the years. This year I celebrated with a dinner with two friends. It was very nice. I feel better about this coming year because of spending time with friends on New Year's Day. I am doing home work (taking a break right now) and will be doing homework for at least another 2 years! But that's Okay.I look at new Years celebrations not so much as the end of the past year as really looking forward to the next year, seizing opportunities, and growing, not in girth!, but in mirth, and worth. It's not - any excuse for a party - for me. It's an excuse for gratitude and showing that gratitude by what I am going to do with my blessings, magnifying talents, sharing insights. My Grandmother Grace's birthday was 15 Jan 1903. I wondered how she felt about her birthday so close to New Year's Day. Our grandson Conrad's birthday is 4 January. He has the same opportunity! New beginnings. What was that hymn we sang this morning? "Come Let Us Anew" - our journey pursue, Roll round with the year, And never stand still till the Master appear. His adorable will let us gladly fulfill, And our talents improve by the patience of hope and the labors of love. [Charles Wesley] I remember New Year's celebrations of alcohol and revelry, loudness and crudeness, that make me sad now. Staying up late to welcome in the new year - yes, with loved ones and thanksgiving. That's the way to go. Ha!

Try it again - weekly, not weakly - in 2011

2011-01-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

I want to take up the 52 Weeks Challenge. See
My daughter Lisa posted this quote on Facebook - "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain
I don't want so many regrets of omission. I want to Do it!

'Tis the Season - to take pictures

2010-11-18T21:40:00.000-08:00

I hope we all take the opportunities to take pictures of people and things that mean something to us. We used to have a T-shirt that said Capture a Memory - Carry a Camera. I believe that. My cell phone doesn't take pictures, but I sure do appreciate that my daughters and daughter-in-law all take pictures of their families - and share them with Grma Fish who lives far away. Our daughter Lisa has an eye for scrapbooking. My mother made scrapbooks. I am very grateful she did what she did do. I have a friend who has taken on the project of scanning her family photographs and identifying the people and the stories. I really do admire her for making it a priority. My mother taught me to always mark your photos. There are acid free pencils you can use to do that for prints. Nowadays there is TAGGING people in photos. Ain't technology grand? I just stumbled upon a local business that helps people with scrapbooking-type things, and works with them online. I think it's a great idea. I mean to contact them to find out more about it. http://mylifeartstudio.com/default.aspx

My scanner is cleared off right now (a flat place = a good place to stack things, ha, ha) but my photos are far away. I enjoy photos I have scanned into my computer, and other digital camera photos of our family. Heartwarming <3 Photographs do speak to the heart. We look into family members' eyes, and feel into their hearts, across the miles, even after they're gone. I believe we will recognize them when we see them again. And recognizing family resemblences is uncanny. Having a photograph or a painting of an ancestor or family member is a very special gift. Share the gifts of your family history. Remember that this holiday season. Be sure to have your cameras handy - and use them! You are making memories - make them last :-D

I like to sing!

2010-10-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

Where do we get our talents and interests? Time was when families would be following a trade and their children and their children.... I like to sing. As I have gotten to know my family I have found musicians and music teachers in my family tree. I believe we all can access music - it is a gift we can enjoy in lots of ways - making music and appreciating music!

What talents and interests run in your family tree?

family influences

2010-09-10T22:42:00.001-07:00

I am listening to a program about Reid Nibley on BYUTV.org. I recommend it!

It makes me wonder about talents and interests and the influence of our genes, our family nurturing and encouragement. Reid Nibley was an amazing person by all accounts. I appreciate the program sharing about epiphany moments in his life. We really are in control of our lives, and we can rewrite history in a sense that we can choose to determine our future, and our legacy to our posterity. We can rewrite how we interpret our history, and that influences our future!

I keep a journal, committing right now to being more conscientious about it. It is a wonderful tool for reflecting on life, and my life, to make sense for the future.

I love books. I am very grateful that people write books, and programs like this one (above) to share their insights. There is hope for civilization if we can learn from each other - if we will teach each other. I saw a bumper sticker today - something like this - The end of humankind may come because they were killed by civilization...Oooh. Watch out!

Please, keep communicating. You treasure letters, journals, scrapbooks from your heritage - create some for your progeny. And work on actually writing your life's history. Don't trust that your biographer will get it right. Do it yourself! Or die trying :-D

Enough of this. Go watch that program on Reid Nibley, his music and love, and testimony.

Google your names and LostCousins website

2010-07-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

""

I think this will show a copy of a legal notice in 1918 about the probate of the will for Arnold Thomas Lewis, born 1813, father of Richard Cronin Lewis, my father's mother's father's father.
I am new at this - the capturing and publishing of historical sources now available on the internet. This notice has given me more clues on names and middle initials for family history. I did just today enter Edward, Vernon and Wellington Lewis into My Ancestors on the LostCousins.com website.
I recommend this website. The premise is pretty simple. I just have a free membership, and have made contacts with some "lost cousins."

If you can find your ancestors in the 1880 US Census or the 1881 British or Canadian Censuses (available at FamilySearch.org for free), and you can supply LostCousins.com with the line #, page #, film # for those people, then - by the numbers - their computers can notice when someone else logs their same, or related, ancestors - and send you both messages. If you are both related to someone back then, then you are cousins today, and you can collaborate on research. Pretty neat! Check it out.

I attended our Southern Oregon PAF Users Group meeting this morning. There were three presentations on scrapbooking family history - in books, sharing it with family members (duplicating the books), and doing it digitally with the computer. This legal notice is something I would like to use in a PDF or power point presentation on researching. The screens leading up to this find can be captured with the Print Screen button, then show the notice with all the names, and then what I do with the names - confirming information from other sources.

Some fun. Not forgotten :-)

New on FamilySearch.org

2010-06-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

http://fsbeta.familysearch.org/

There is a Beta FamilySearch.org where you can go to check out what is new and in the works. I just spent an hour there & got excited about this, that, and the other!

Are you ready to take a break from your own research sometimes? Try Indexing! Somebody indexed the records we search now. You, too, can contribute to that big accessibility of records! You may learn something that will help you in your own research, too. They have projects all over the place. The 1910 US Census is an active project right now (June 2010).

Check it out. There is lots to learn on the tabs at that site.

Are you a lifelong learner about genealogy? Look at this link, too! It is LDS, but that's not a bad thing. :-D https://fch.ldschurch.org/WWSupport/23things/

Memorial Day, Part 2

2010-05-31T22:28:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day, Monday, 31 May 2010 – I hope you have taken the opportunity to learn more about Memorial Day this year – when it started, why it was inaugurated, why we celebrate Memorial Day. When we commemorate Memorial Day is now the last Monday in May, so that it makes a three-day weekend. That’s a modern accommodation; I think it is to keep workers happy, and to make the most of commercial opportunities. It was originally designated to be set aside as the 30th of May, and initiated shortly after the Civil War. In the South they had this tradition, and when the US president’s wife learned of it she recommended it to her husband. Pretty soon it was a national day of rememb’rance for those who fought for their nation’s principles, as they understood them.

I attended the program at the Southern Oregon War Memorial at Don Jones Park here in Central Point, Oregon, where I live. There was a banner about it across our main street. I noticed it on the way home yesterday. I am sure it had been there for a while, but just after I had been thinking, “I wonder if they are going to do that again this year?” I came upon the banner: 9:00 a.m. I am sorry I did not get there sooner, because when I arrived our local state representative, Dennis Richardson, was thanking the middle school band for the music they had been playing. He also was pleased that they were starting, not late, but maybe a little bit early, and that that said something about our community support for this sort of function.

The Southern Oregon War Memorial is only two years old, since its dedication. It is right next door to the Central Point I.O.O.F. Cemetery. There are a couple of Spanish American War veterans buried there. At the end of the Memorial Day program, Dennis Richardson challenged us as a community, that as evidenced by how the community turned to to make the war memorial a reality, that we could rally to participate in the upkeep of the cemetery. Caretaking of the cemetery went from the IOOF to a local attorney, who asked scouts and friends from the LDS church in Central Point to help with a service project for a major cleanup and then a couple of maintenance days. It is looking pretty good now. Just lately the City of Central Point has agreed to take it on.

US Representative Greg Walden spoke. US Senator Ron Wyden spoke. It was an inspiring program. Names were read of servicemen who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq from this area, and whose names will be added to the memorial. The national anthem was sung by two young people from Crater High School. The flag ceremony was conducted by Crater Lake Council Boy Scout Troop 109. It was very nice. They closed with an a capella rendition of Amazing Grace. The rain did hold off for the duration, as had been prayed for. :-)

When I got home I had a message on my answering machine inviting me to Anna Maria Creekside retirement community. This time last year I was doing my student internship for Rogue Community College at Anna Maria. The activity director invited me to come help sing Amazing Grace for their Memorial Day service. I was glad I had gotten home in time, and I went directly. For Veterans Day last year at Anna Maria we had interviewed the residents who would, who had served in the military, in war time and peace time, and who had served as civilians with the military or the merchant marine, or in the (European) resistance. We had some wonderful stories of camaraderie, sacrifice, and patriotism. To know you is to love you. Veterans generally do not toot their own horns. ‘Duty not toot-y. And support at home is usually not wont to ask for more than that their loved one return from war through God’s watchful care for all our servicemen. Service to a grateful nation is rendered from a sense of inner direction. If a minimum military service is compulsory, hopefully the little light bulb will come on in those who recognize the nobility of the call.

Today I have reflected upon the tradition of military service in my own family. The Purple Heart Society had a table at the war memorial today, with their leaflets and purple flowers. I took one. My father had a purple heart. Maybe my eldest brother has it now. Our father served as a French translator in the Korean conflict. His father went to Annapolis, and was head of the Supply Corps in the Navy when he retired from the Pentagon. My great grandfather was a Commodore in the Paymaster Corps in the Navy, After his retirement they moved to Annapolis when their second son was attending the Naval Academy, too. My great great grandfather, Ethan Crandall Ring – I have not found military service for. He was born in 1812. He had a son in the Army in the Civil War, and a son in the Navy. He served in the Massachusetts legislature. His father, Eleazer Ring, fought in the Revolutionary War, from Worthington and Chesterfield, Massachusetts. That’s my father’s direct line. My father’s brother was career Air Force, and his two sons were Air Force and Navy. Two of my father’s sister’s son’s were Air Force and Army. Two of my children were Air Force and Army. My husband was Navy and Army. They all had honorable service. I am thankful to them personally for their service to our freedom, to our country. XO

Ancestry.com and WorldVitalRecords.com both usually have special deals on access to their military records for the national holidays. Watch for them. Many LDS family history centers also have a membership sponsored for those two services, among others. Your local library also may have an Ancestry.com Library level subscription. Military records can tell you a lot.

2010-05-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day Is Coming!

My father was in the cemetery business in Florida. Memorial Day meant Memorial Day in our family. There were big doings at the cemetery every year. It was an adult thing, but I knew what was going on. The minister spoke, the graves were decorated, and the flavor of patriotism was for service to a grateful nation. Surviving Veterans were honored, and they took part in honoring their fallen comrades in arms.

Years later, when I lived with my father’s mother in the Washington DC area, Memorial Day was a day for decorating the family graves. There was a time when my grandmother would attend the programs at Arlington National Cemetery, where her husband was buried – so many paces from Pershing’s grave. But I was glad to help her prepare and take flowers from her garden to her family graves in Maryland, the District and Virginia. She did the driving and directing; I did the walking and carrying. I knew these people from her stories, which I had been trying to get written down. We worked on marking pictures, untangling the family tree roots from memory, and tracking down cousins who also had interest in these ancestors. My grandmother lived to be 100, but the life of the dead had been a part of her life for a long time.

Her father died when she was 5, and her mother never remarried. Her mother died when she was 22, when Nana had been married just about a year. One of her sisters died two years after that, while Nana was in Santo Domingo where her husband was stationed with the Navy. Nana’s address book was full of the names of friends who had passed away. When you live so long, you survive a lot of people. Nana knew that death was inevitable, so she focused remembering the lives of her family and friends.

My mother also had a respect for remembering those she knew, whom her mother knew, who were gone. There is a special look someone gets in their eyes when they remember and speak of a loved one who has passed on. I can see my own mother’s eyes that way right now, speaking of her mother’s cousins with whom she corresponded on the family genealogy, whose letters she treasured, especially because they were not able to write letters any more.

I read an article in Readers Digest, and sent away for a bunch of their reprints – “How Will You Know If I Don’t Tell You?” The gist of the article, as I remember it, was that if we appreciate some kindness someone has shown, some goodness we have observed, if we have a kind word – we should not withhold it, because it could make a difference for them. It might help someone, but it won’t if we don’t say it. We all have regrets; that’s an inevitable part of life, too. There are, however, some regrets we can avoid by doing the right thing. What better way to remember someone who has passed away than to remember the sweet communion shared in acknowledging when we were there for each other. Do what you can to ease another’s burden or suffering while you can. Give what you can that will encourage or enable another to be of service. We are all in this together. Our chorus director says Ben Franklin said, “We must all hang together or we shall surely hang separately;” and from Ernest Hemmingway, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” We are in this together, and we could help each other more than we do.

My favorite family history stories are of love in action, Christian service, doing our duty, of taking time for each other. Do you keep a journal? A very large part of our life is of how we interact with our family and friends. Put down when you catch someone doing something nice. Yes, tell them Thank You for being a point of light if you feel to do so. You will find that when you commit to noticing, that you will notice this sort of thing more often. When you read your family history letters and diaries, those endearing incidents will stand out and bless your heart. These deeds are their memorials.

I ran a list in my genealogy program for my Nana – of the people in her extended family who died between the dates that she was alive. As I reviewed this list, sorted chronologically as she aged, I recalled her stories about when her grandparents, her in-laws, parents, her sisters passed…. Then on this timeline, first my father died, then others of her children and grandchildren…until she passed away after 100 years. A death in the family ranks pretty high on the Stressors list, and I learned from Nana that one way to deal with stressful situations is to do something about it. What a comfort it is to have friends and loved ones rally ‘round when a family member dies. Nana was ready to do what she could, from a call, a card, a meal, flowers, to being a friend in a time of need, and prayers, of course. She was following her dear mother’s example. Nettie went to stay and nurse aunts and cousins back to health; they sent for her because of her care giving skills. I only have family in my genealogy database, but being active in her church, I accompanied Nana on some of her errands of love. Nana recognized the truth that “Each Life That Touches Ours For Good, reflects thine own great mercy, Lord….”

When you go to write biographies of your family members, or when you are researching where your family has gone – consider what else was going on around that time. In historical perspective, were there epidemics? Were there economic situations that set things up so that extended families lived together to support each other? After a death in the family, did children or grandchildren go home to settle an estate? The people we are researching for our family history - were people after all, like unto us. :-D

If you still have unfinished business with some family members who have gone on, Memorial Day might be a good opportunity to write a letter, which you won’t mail, but which you need to write. Take a deep breath, open your heart, open your mind, and open your letter. You will feel better, and it will help you in your resolve to live your life without regrets.

-------------------------------------------------
1
LDS Hymns: “Each Life That Touches Ours for Good”
Text: Karen Lynn Davidson, b. 1943. © 1985 IRI
Music: A. Laurence Lyon, b. 1934. © 1985 IRI
http://tinyurl.com/433gtp

Regrets

2010-05-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

23 May 2010, Sunday – Well, tho’ the challenge was post to your blog every day in May, once a week is good for me :-) and It is supposed to relate to genealogy. I am not very active in genealogy right now. I serve on a shift in our local family history center from 10-2 the first and third Saturdays of each month, but I am not teaching a family history Sunday School class. I am in the Marriage and Family Relations Sunday School class myself. And I am not currently teaching genealogy and computers at the local senior center. My genealogy records are pretty much packed up in boxes.

I have other things going on in my life. I am in school at Rogue Community College, and the other big thing was that I had flunked the annual inspection at my apartment. So, though I had been trying to do homework, to the exclusion of housework, I had to take a break and do the other. With help from friends I have passed the inspection for this month. Now I have three more monthly inspections that I have to pass in a row before I am out of the woods. I am back to trying to do homework, because I have to do that, too, as that is my only visible means of support. I am looking forward to the end of the term. Summer Term doesn’t start until the 2nd week of July and financial aid won’t be disbursed until 2 weeks after that. Stress, stress.

I have wondered how in the world my ancestors made ends meet. I understand that the course of life is from one challenge to another, ups and downs; a life with no cha(lle)nges would be BOR-ING! I "understand" that. I long for a rest, where I can truly rest without regrets. I have a lot of regrets. Some concern not asking family history questions while family members were alive. That, hopefully, will lead us to Do It Now, while those at the most elderly ends of our family branches are still living, and to research cousins, descendants of collateral lines and find them while they are still living. I still cherish meeting my mother’s mother’s first cousin, who lived in Flint, Michigan, where we had moved to from Maryland for a job. Who’da thunk it? I scoured a Descendants of…genealogy book and found the last known addresses of…, and looked them up. This 1st cousin had met my grandmother, and they had lost touch with each other. Both my mother and my grandmother were gone by then, but it meant a lot to Hester Colvin to meet me and be remembered, and me, too. She had my great, great, great grandmother’s name, named after her grandmother.

Because my life is so full of a number of different things, other than genealogy right now, which I regret, I have just unsubscribed from a bunch of email newsletters and website change notifications. I really do recommend subscribing to some that make sense in your area of interest and research. If you regularly check in to some favorite sites to see if anyone has posted something of interest to you – look around, or even email the moderator or use the Contact Us link to see if there is an automatic service for notifying you of: responses to your posts, new additions to surname lists you are watching, regular newsletters from local historical societies, etc. There are some newsletters on genealogy research that will contain useful tips, too, that wouldn’t take long to peruse and then delete. Sometimes family history centers in the locales you have interest have an email list for a periodic newsletter; you never know – and some will publish queries for you! Take advantage of free services. They are not free if they can help you – they pay it forward, especially if you can help someone else :-)

How did our ancestors manage their time? TV was not such a big deal in generations passed, neither the internet as a time drain. There was always work and chores. I have been trying to keep a journal on a regular basis. I don’t write letters so much anymore. I do try to write thank you notes. I wish I had letters and journals from all my ancestors to get an insight as to how they ordered their priorities. Am I here because I happened to survive neglect? Or am I here on purpose from having my line of descent nurtured and encouraged? Is the human race going to survive in spite of our not understanding what’s important? Sad Commentary. What can I do to mindfully encourage my family to thrive and be happy? Is it too late? Can we still learn, even though the damage has been done? Do our ancestors have regrets? What do you do with your regrets after you die?

That’s why I journal. They say (“ “) that you do not learn while you are experiencing the experience, but later, when you reflect upon it. Journaling does that for me. Being in school and having to write essays does that for me. The plan is to have the experience, and react to it from where you’re at right then. Next (may be years later in some cases) you think about it and wonder what you might have done differently, and resolve to do it differently (better, or more how you would really like to have done it) if you are ever in a similar situation again. I think I have learned a lot about why I do what I do, have done what I have done, because of journaling. I wish I had my mother’s journals. I hope I will have them again someday.

What are regrets for? Beauty for Ashes. I hope I don’t make Christ regret he atoned for me by not appreciating his sacrifice.

Nana RING

2010-05-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

15 May 2010, Saturday – Today is my father’s mother’s birthday. She would be 110 years old; she lived to be 100  I have been thinking about her throughout the day. I took a few minutes to think about how I was remembering her, Nana RING, and I looked through my desk drawer and found several rings and put them all on, the ones that would fit, on the fingers they would fit on. I think I am like Nana in several respects. My life is in flux right now. There are a lot of things up in the air. The big thing I have especially been working over the past 2 weeks is to clean house. I have been doing more homework for school at the community college than I have been doing housework lately. Nana was ever working on her home, organizing, catching up with paperwork – it was an ongoing challenge. I was privileged to spend time living with Nana on several occasions in my adult life. She shared with me how she was trying to get things set up in her life, to run a smooth household, to keep up with things, how she managed her health (congestive heart failure), and preserving her family history (mostly in her head with stories ) We put down some of the stories, got some pictures marked, re-established contact with some cousins, and enjoyed caring about family together. Nana and Pa were married for 42 years and at that time they had 42 descendants. She said that she and Pa would pray for each of them by name every night. That touches my heart. I shared with her a poem, “I Said a Prayer for You Today,” and assured her that though she felt like there was a lot she could not go and do (go to Africa and be a missionary, like one of her grandsons), that her service in her prayer life was making a difference, and that we needed and appreciated that. I know that she still loves her family. I still love her.

In this major upheaval in getting my apartment ready for re-inspection (I flunked the first one) Nana has been in my mind and heart. It is a hard thing to go through your Stuff and get rid of things, pare down. I helped Nana do this with her household. It raised lots of stories, of course, and I was an interested listener. My cat, Blackie, listens patiently, but you’ll never get him to repeat the stories I have told him. I am taking a class at the community college this term: The Power of Your Journal. I thought I was taking it because I would be working with the elderly and their end of life issues, and it would be good for them. Ha! It has been good for me! I am handling these major changes in my life because I have a journal to be able to put down my thoughts and feelings, and to help me stay on track. I have recorded my goals, the objectives, why I want to do this makeover, and what I am looking forward to through it. I have also recorded some deep gratitude for help I have received. I am like Nana in this regard – always willing to serve and help others, but reluctant to ask for help from outside. Thank goodness when family does rally, and when friends graciously render needed service. I remember summers our family went from Florida to Washington, DC to help Nana & work on a bedroom, or the sleeping porch, or the garage, or the attic…. When you are behind the 8-ball and need help, you need help doing some things you cannot do for yourself. (‘Like our reliance upon the Savior.)

I love to sing. I had a solo in our college chorus programs this last week. Gospel songs are my favorite, and patriotic next; classical music and opera after that. I enjoy listening to our local NPR affiliate, JPR.org. Nana was a soprano, too, and she sang grand opera on the radio in the 1930’s. She was offered a 2nd principal part at the Met, but declined, and not too long after that made a personal commitment to just sing and perform sacred music. I feel like I am headed that way.
I love Nana, and I always will.

I was sharing some books with a friend yesterday and listened while she was looking them over. She said her own last name out loud - one of the contributing editors had the same last name. Whatever we are doing I think we naturally notice when we hear one of our family names. We also muse if we might be related. One of the taglines I have for my emails is the listing of the surnames in my pedigree - 31 of them - that on the level of my great-great-great-grandparents, minus one I don't know yet.

Ring Johnson Hibbard Jones Loomis Cousins Morton Wait Lewis Watkins Cushley Clark Wheeler Macatee Duncan Litzinger Ault Cross Ortman Baker Middleton Yarnell Blades Smith Schofield Wooley McVey Eubank Rohrer Ruble Ruse

I put those out there just in case someone notices one of their names and asks me about it. …Just in case! There’s always Serendipity :-)

Since taking this genealogy blogging challenge I have noticed how with most everything I do I can “work a genealogy angle” into it. I really do believe we all can feel a curiosity about our families, and that if that spark is kindled and encouraged it can be a blessing in anyone’s life. I help people learn to use computers, using family history and genealogy as the medium. Of course my ulterior motive is to enlist another researcher in the interest of genealogy – another point of light!

I Said A Prayer For You Today
by Frank J. Zamboni

I said a prayer for you today
And know God must have heard.
I felt the answer in my heart
Although He spoke no word!

I didn't ask for wealth or fame
(I knew you wouldn't mind).
I asked him to send treasures
Of a far more lasting kind!

I asked that He be near you
At the start of each new day;
To grant you health and blessings
And friends to share your way!

I asked for happiness for you
In all things great and small.
But it was for His loving care
I prayed the most of all!

http://www.ellenbailey.com/poems/ellen_113.htm

Aunt Betty's birthday - 8 May

2010-05-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

I have been working at home - Spring Cleaning, getting stuff ready for a yard sale - a project for the American Cancer Society, and getting ready for an inspection for my apartment. Stuff Stuff Stuff! As I am doing all this, the things I slow down for & take time to read or Really make sure to put where they belong - is genealogy stuff. Clippings, correspondence, notes on slips of paper about family - genealogy clues. I know my family loves me - I especially feel their support as I am working on straightening up around here. (I have been doing more homework than housework and gotten myself in trouble.) I have a short list of things I am particularly keeping an eye out for, but I have been pleasantly surprised at some things that have turned up that I had forgotten were lost. That's a real danger (and tragedy) in genealogy research. In a family where children have died young, maybe lived their whole lives between the decennial census years - if you don't have a family Bible, or a family cemetery section, those children may be missed. If no one talked about them much after they were gone, they may be lost, and then forgotten that they were lost.
Today is my Aunt Betty's birthday. I remember visit her and her family when I was about 18. That visit was very important to me. Looking for lost stuff for kids was a neverending job. I realized I was a lot like her, and that was okay :-) Our families did not live near eachother: we in Florida, they in New Jersey. So I did not know her much, just from stories my parents, and grandmother told me. She was an amazing woman. I just Googled her name, which I have not done for a little while, and learned something new. There is a bench dedicated to her memory in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. That says a lot :-) Mother of the Year, ambulance driver, Girl Scout leader, whole bunch of stuff. I wish I knew her children better, but we have fallen out of touch :-( Maybe I will try to find them on the internet.
Happy Mother's Day! I hope you have a happy mother. I think my Aunt Betty was a happy mother :-D

Feeling connected

2010-05-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

I was sharing some books with a friend yesterday and listened while she was looking them over. She said her own last name out loud - one of the contributing editors had the same last name. Whatever we are doing I think we naturally notice when we hear one of our family names. We also muse if we might be related. One of the taglines I have for my emails is the listing of the surnames in my pedigree - 31 of them - that on the level of my great-great-great-grandparents, minus one I don't know yet.

Ring Johnson Hibbard Jones Loomis Cousins Morton Wait Lewis Watkins Cushley Clark Wheeler Macatee Duncan Litzinger Ault Cross Ortman Baker Middleton Yarnell Blades Smith Schofield Wooley McVey Eubank Rohrer Ruble Ruse

I put those out there just in case someone notices one of their names and asks me about it. …Just in case! There’s always Serendipity :-)

Since taking the month of May genealogy blogging challenge I have noticed how with most everything I do I can “work a genealogy angle” into it. I really do believe we all can feel a curiosity about our families, and that if that spark is kindled and encouraged it can be a blessing in anyone’s life. I help people learn to use computers, using family history and genealogy as the medium. Of course my ulterior motive is to enlist another researcher in the interest of genealogy – another point of light!

birthdays are part of our identity

2010-05-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 4 May 2010 - Today is my brother Glenn’s birthday. He’s 60. I don’t feel like he is 60, ha, ha. (Actually I don’t feel like it’s “right” that he’s 60 – that makes me…!) I remember when we were in college and the student demonstration at Kent State University ended up with the National Guard killing 4, on the 4th of May: KSU4! It is hard to have heavy things happen on your birthday. My heart goes out to my brother for that.

I love my brother. I admire him. He’s pretty amazing. I look up to him because he is his own person. I admire him because he surfs and plays music and sings, and he can think. I hope he still thinks. We are at opposite ends of the country & I don't get to talk with him much :-( I appreciate that he’s the eldest of the three of us, and I know that I don’t understand what he went through in our family dynamics, but I appreciate that he’s the big brother. I don’t know where I would be without him. I’m the youngest.

When researching my family history I look at birthdays, and what else is near their birthday & wonder how they related to those events. Maybe it’s projecting, but I think it may be a human condition to think about our place in the world, acknowledging that we are where we are, when we are. I keep a journal, and now this blog, and I wonder what my family members wondered about.

priorities

2010-05-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

I am posting twice today, because I forgot to do it yesterday, and I have committed to the Blog-Every-Day-in-May thing. I am trying it, notwithstanding everything else that is going on in my life right now!

Priorities
I am downsizing. I have some friends who have moved into a 5th wheel, to economize and simplify their lives. I have another friend who got rid of half her stuff when she was getting ready to move to Oregon. She told me about something in Zen-practice - something about 137 things - that's all you need to have in a life - 137 things at one time. A pencil, 1, another pencil is 2! And so it goes - tradeoffs. I have been thinking about that - priorities is the key here?

Genealogy is a big priority for me. I have lots of genealogy notebooks in boxes here and there, and the genealogy on my computer, and what I have posted to the Web, and on it goes. I have a backup of my file on my flash drive, and I send a back up away from time to time to archive outside of My basket. I think better than that though would be to get published. I would like to get to a point that I felt like the important things had been completed to a point that they could be "officially" shared & then I could put away the paper files into a safe place, and maybe not feel like I still had to sit on the nest and protect them.

Genealogy is an important priority for me, but I have other priorities, too. (Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs) If I could only have 137 things, one would be a particular notebook of my mother's with all my direct lines as far back as they went at that time, and another would be a back up of my PAF file on my flash drive. Beyond that? I am working on that list. Gotta keep your priorities straight....

Intercultural most anything

2010-05-02T18:08:00.000-07:00

The class I am taking at Rogue Community College, Intercultural Communication, has been very interesting. For the Introduction to Intercultural Communication class at Elmhurst College in Illinois, they had a Family History assignment. Most of the folks in the class I am taking in Medford, Oregon, I think are taking it because they expect to work in situations where sensitivity and intercultural understanding would help. I dare say though that most families in the United States have many cultures and nationalities that have gone into their family history. Yes, researching family history is interesting, and can be addictive. It may be fattening, too, if you approach it through a cookbook and recipe project :-)

Intercultural Communication has many facets. There are Intercultural or Multicultural Festivals scheduled throughout the year, with various ethnic and religious holidays for the occaision. Music, dance, foods, costumes, customs - these are great first exposures - any excuse for a party, or to sell something - but if you have friends, or family who have cultures that are different than yours make time to learn about their culture. A person's culture is important to them, an important key to understanding them.

Family history is a great framework for learning about the cultural makeup of a person. Quick, interview your elders and find out what they remember about how they were raised, where they were raised, by whom they were raised! There are fascinating stories out there! Don't let them just become family myths. ("Someone somewhere said something about....") Put down those clues for further research as you record those interviews, and ask them about their family heirlooms. It is the stories that are the most precious. The other things are the props for the story telling. Have you learned to retell the stories yet for your children and grandchildren? No? I guess you need to go hear those stories Again! :-) Take a child with you to visit your elders. They will remember it. Who do you remember visiting?

There is a culture of generations. This is intercultural communication.

I got called to work the Census finally.

2010-04-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day working for the Census. I helped with Group Quarters Enumeration. It was very interesting, and of course, the people I worked with were very interesting, too. Census work is a strange business. I have sympathy for the managers trying to keep a workforce going. This is billed as part time temporary hire. I think they should advertise that it is good for people who like to volunteer, too. They wouldn't be also looking for full time permanent work on the side! I would be glad for the opportunity to work on the next phase. I look at it as a civic duty, to do what you can to help out. I hope all of you have filled out and returned your Census form, or a Census worker will have to come looking for you, and get paid for it :-D

The 1930 Census information is available to public view now. In about 70 more years, the 2010 Census information will be available.

Deep culture: the hidden challenges ... - Google Books

2010-04-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is a link to a Google Scholar preview of the book by Joseph Shaules, Deep Culture: The Hidden Challenges of Global Living

Deep culture: the hidden challenges ... - Google Books

I am taking a class on Intercultural Communication. The premise of Chapter 1 of this book is that there are things about our culture, any and each culture, that define the culture and are so fundamental, pervasive, and a part of our makeup that we do not have to consider them as we go about our daily lives as part of that culture. It is when we encounter another culture - maybe through "culture shock", that we realize the nature of our own enculturation. It is partly things we take for granted, that everyone in a monoculture have to deal with, the basic rules of the game, so to speak. However this deep culture is not a trivial thing. When you travel or meet someone from another culture this deep culture is not easily recognized by a quick trip as a tourist or even in a work relationship with someone of another culture. Probably you have experienced this yourself when it becomes clear that though someone else thinks they know all about you and understand you, have got you figured out, you know they really don't. There is a lot that goes into why we do what we do, why we feel how we do, why we think about life how we do. This is not something that can be picked up by viewing a culture, having cultural experiences as an outsider.

It is important to understand your own deep culture in order to begin to understand the deep culture of another. These are things we grow up with, and aren't even conscious that they are part of our make up. One of the keys to understanding another deep culture is individual attitude. Acknowledging that another’s culture has validity for them as much as your own does for yourself is a start. Being open to learn without making judgments based on your own ethnocentrism is fundamental. This is leap into the unknown for each individual. [Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke said, “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.”] Getting to know the deep culture of another culture is a commitment to be open to new possibilities.
This commitment might begin with trying to learn about a culture, it history, geography, language, customs, but though that has value in itself, it is just the beginning, a framework, for understanding about the deep culture. People who spend significant time, with significant commitment to learn without prejudice, have a better chance of really coming to understand deep culture. The author has tried to identify some of the approaches to learning about what goes into the composition of deep culture that would fit one to begin to come to know another culture.
Analyzing the system of similarities between the deep cultures of different groups gives us a heads up as to what is important to notice – the similarities and differences with the components of our own deep culture. I agree that it seems like the keys to understanding could be taught. For culture specific understanding, you’d be on your own, but you could learn how to learn, learn some tools. Again, personal commitment to do that – and risk changing some of your own notions about others’, and your own construct system.
I was fascinated by the notion that sojourns are all very different experiences. The several interviewees all had individual experiences and reactions. Again, attitude going in (personality type?) is what made the difference, I think. What might have been done to create different, more personally satisfying outcomes? Maybe we should start with children teaching them to seek to learn about other cultures? When my husband was stationed in Germany with the US Army we lived on the economy, renting an apartment from a German family. We did not commit to the German culture as anything more than tourists. Our lives centered around the American military community. It really did not occur to me, a new bride, and a new mother, to try to do much of anything else. I do remember though that my husband had materials from an orientation he received when he first arrived in-country concerning how he should act as an American soldier in West Germany. I supposed that this was directed at preventing faux pas and incidents with the Polezei and the MPs. That is worth something, but it is on the other end of the spectrum from the experience of some soldiers who married local nationals, took a European out, and raised their family in Germany. Good for them, too!
My brother with the Wycliffe Bible Translators learns about all this. I am gaining a greater respect for him and his work, and for his wife and children, in what they experience. The commitment is through love and Christian service. I am encouraged to serve as a service missionary someday. My interest in this course was because of the Seniors Advocacy certificate program. As a lot of people in the U.S. live to old age, including people for whom the U.S. is an adopted culture, understanding more about what they might have gone through, and what they might revert to (Alzheimers, etc.) might help me serve them and their families better. End of life issues often guide a person to try to make sense of things they have been through in their lives. Validation that they’re not alone in their experiences and helping to articulate some of the lessons learned to leave that legacy for their families is important. I would like to learn more about that. I think there must be an internal intercultural dialog that can go on, that would span the changes in cultures over your lifetime.

I finally got called to work with the Census

2010-03-28T03:53:00.000-07:00

I finally got called to work with the 2010 Census! After a week of training we go out this next week. Some fun!
A couple of weeks ago I attended a PAF Users Group meeting in Grants Pass, Oregon. I will probably be migrating to Roots Magic genealogy software. They had a demonstration and question and answer session. We are getting a few users of Roots Magic at our Family History Center. I will probably still only go with the free version.
Sorry this blog is not very active. I have been actively going to school!

genealogy software

2009-07-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

I am using Personal Ancestral File. I started using PAF with version 2.1, on a TRS80 Mod III. When we went to the Osbornes I think PAF worked on that CPM platform, too. Getting an IBM was a big deal. I have participated in PAF users groups here and there. There is not one of those in my town, but an hour away.

I like PAF 5. It is free. It works well. I am familiar with it. It does a lot. I also like having PAF Insight to use with it. I am using newFamilySearch, too. (...and FamilyInsight, from Ohana Software.) Because I am online with newFamilySearch, and I have a googlepages website for my genealogy, I have not felt the need to get other more fancy genealogy software.

With newFamilySearch I mean to try to keep track of my genealogy online, and when the combining is under control, and we can download easily from that website, maybe update my system. I still recommend PAF 5, even though I understand the the LDS Church does not plan to update and maintain it. It is still a reliable workhorse.

Recommendation

2009-05-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ohana Software, creators of PAF Insight, is staying on the front edge of the wave in genealogical computing. Our goal is to stay in the Sweet Spot & not Wipe Out our family history. I recommend their products (Family Insight now for working with new.FamilySearch.org, and others), especially their webinars. Teaching others to fish (pun for me :-) is one of their watchwords. The webinars (online interactive classes) are changing how we keep up with the Wave~!
Ohana Software Check them out!

2010 Census is hiring

2009-01-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

This is genealogy related. The US Census Bureau is beginning to hire for the 2010 Census. Wouldn't it be nice if census workers Cared about genealogy and Accuracy?! If you have worked the Census before, it is interesting to see the changes. This is for temporary work, but it may last awhile, as this is just 2009. Call 866-861-2010 to find your local Census office, and set up an appointment for the screening test. The test is basic reading, math, maps, and following directions. Check it out.

new.FamilySearch.org

2008-09-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

I am really excited about new.FamilySearch.org! I have posted in my profile that one of my most fun thigs about family hostory research is finding other people to collaborate with - well new FamilySearch.org is going to really facilitate this! I am LDS, and so I am amazed and excited about all the wonderful improvements nFS will enable even over the tremendous things that "old" FamilySearch can do - streamlining the prcesses for temple work, cleaning up records, "correcting" errors.... But "regular" FamilySearch.org is changing and growing, too! This is a great day to be working in family history research :-)

Our temple district will be going online pretty soon. We are within our 90-days/pre-rollout period, if all goes well :-) Our family history consultants, and leadership, are actively working on their own family history "accounts" on nFS. We are all learning patience :-0 And we are learning a Lot!

There are amazing resources becoming available through the Church at Family History centers, and through other entities online. The Family History centers are not going away - they should become busier and busier. Our FHC has a schedule of regular hours, but I expect that the times they are "not open" will also become more utilized, too, with special classes and small groups. Great day!

One key to commitment is the recognition of the direct relationship of involvement in family history work and blessings in your life. It is a fundamental commitment in my life. I recommend it. Besides the transferable skills from learning to do research, keep records, analyze data, do story problems in math, write letters and improve your interviewing techniques, it is fun and keeps you off the streets at night! Networking for family history you meet all kinds of wonderful people. Knowing you are part of a family gives hope for the future - We're not alone :-)

Makes you want to reach out & touch someone! Touch someone's heart - remember them.

Facebook

2008-07-26T03:22:00.000-07:00

I'm on Facebook, too. RU?

When will we learn?

2008-07-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

We live in the Medford Oregon Temple District. Priesthood leadership and family history consultants now have access to new.FamilySearch.org Exciting times! I am encouraged that new. FamilySearch.org is an improvement to how genealogy is done. Plus all the new databases that are being made available through the means of FamilySearchIndexing, and partnerships with FamilySearch.org, are really going to open a lot of brick walls for people, worldwide. This is a great time to be alive and participating in this great work. There is a great responsibility to do more, too, as individuals. The means is there. We need to step up to the plate. President Hinckley's (and other prophets!) vision of the magnitude of the work that needs to be done, is coming into action. The capacities, the capabilities, the scope of the mission of the Church in electronic media is really taking off. There is an LDS Tecnology Blog; this month's Ensign's lead article was about sharing the Gospel online in our sphere of influence; stake and ward websites, email lists for auxillaries, on and on. Classes at our family history all have something to do with utilizing electronic resources. It is here. It is not my mother's genealogy anymore. Only it is! The basics are still the most important thing! Cite your sources. Don't just copy and pass it on.
Meanwhile life goes on. The human condition is the same throughout the ages. We each have our agency; none of us are perfect, and as we live our lives and make our choices, themes of the human condition echo through the generations. The older I get, the more sympathy I have for my own parents. When I was a teenager and they were going through a divorce I really had no idea what they were going through, except that from observing my mother, I knew that it was emotionally difficult! Oh, how I wish I could talk with them now :-( I believe that after we die that we can see more clearly on the other side of the veil. I don't mean that we automatically will see more clearly, but that if we can start to recognize our biases, that we Can start to see the real reality. But what do I know? I know that our prayers from here still have impact on the other side of the veil, and that that is the case the other way, too.
3 am - 10 Minutes past when I said I was going to go to sleep. All this is hard on diabetes management.... But I am glad I am still alive.

my favorite things

2008-04-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Working on family history really is one of my favorite things. I have been doing more on FamilySearchIndexing.org; I just worked on 3 more pages on my family history site on GooglePages. I do feel like I get something done when I do that.

My life has been full of lots of other stuff, though, the actual Stuff of Life. Taxes done, but maybe we will file an amended return. Our youngest son is working hard to graduate from high school and get into college. We are working on the plan to move to Washington State this summer. And there is the associated paring down, sorting and packing. Plus dealing with the VA, volunteering with the American Red Cross, the local Senior Center, and working two shifts at our family history center.

Another one of my new found favorites is that every night as I retire I write in a journal about at least two times in the day when I could see the hand of the Lord in my life or the lives of my loved ones. Only two?! I really feel the presence of the Spirit in my life. I KNOW I need help! I pray for help, and I appreciate the help I know I get, and that I am able to participate in. I pray to be a blessing, as well as to have our family's needs met.

Family history particularly is how I am on the lookout to be a blessing. Being involved in family history has been such a blessing to me :-) I have learned what ever I know about computers because of how it has been a tool for family history. I sing because of my testimony, and my family's heritage of faith to me. I serve because of the examples of service I have from my family :-)

2008-03-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

When I publish my family history I hope it will be a cookbook. I just started taking insulin this week. I am rethinking my recipes now.

Some people might approach their family history with humor. Which stand-up comics have stories about their families? We all have funny stories from growing up, as long as we survive them! I hope you are writing your funny stories down!

Today is St. Patrick's Day, 17 Mar 2008. This was the Meet-iversary for my father's parents. They had gone on a double date to a St. Patrick's Day dance (1/2 way through Lent, when you get a break from whatever you are giving up for Lent?), but they didn't go with eachother. After the dance, after they dropped off Pa's date, he asked Nana's date if it would be alright to ask her out. I hope my cousins will straighten me out on that story.

Anyway, I know one Irish joke. Would you like to hear it?
What is green and Irish and sits out in the back yard all night?

Paddy O'Furniture...
And it was clean!

Making Progress - Got Googlepage?

2008-01-05T23:52:00.000-08:00

I have started a family history website with google pages. It is a learning experience. Thanks to the FHCNET group on Yahoo.com I heard about getting a free website through GooglePages.com. It is a process bit by bit, but it is good exercise. I have tried another GooglePages site for the recipe collection for our local senior center, too. My favorite way to learn to do something is to have a challenge to work to solve. That is why I like genealogy I guess: learn by doing. The teacher learns the most? That's my plan. Help! :-)

fuzzy picture

2006-07-24T00:38:00.001-07:00

Learning and teaching about genealogy and family history

2006-07-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

I want to learn more about researching and sharing my family history, and teach others to do it for themselves.