"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! November 20th-22nd, 2020 [closed]

Question

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"Today Is" 

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

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

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

Enjoy yourselves and spread the love!

Comments

Yes, Pip - I can well imagine it. Especially when none of us can travel at the moment - there are so many places which we hanker for...

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I think that would be au courant, Susan. 

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Frances P-R-- so that one phrase at least is still in force, by whatever spelling ...  au courant, au currant ... hmm ... okay - ah, and you cannot au the fruits only the fashion, trend 

or more accurately I can au the trend and oh the fruits

True currants are small berries that grow on shrubs and are more like gooseberries. Fresh black, red, pink, or whitecurrants, as well as dried black currants, can be enjoyed in various ways. With a sweet and bright acidic berry flavor,currants are delicious when eaten fresh.Aug 16, 2020

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Hi Pip

The Borders is a beautiful area, I love it down there.  

Yes I totally know what you mean with your health I think its when we have slowed down because of the restrictions we start to see either a worsening of existing symptoms or symptoms we didnt really realise we had.  I so hope the pandemic ends pretty soon and we can all get back to some kind of normallacy.

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I love playing with words, too!

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  Frances P-R, I NOTICED that, and think, hahaha, it's a lovely characteristic.  

Hope your holiday is satisfactory - difficult to wish 'em happy because so many of us are at least ankle deep in troubles and some of us up to our chins in troubles ... but "satisfactory" is probably attainable, all things considered, in the circumstances and under current conditions ? 

JUST to give your retreat into the week-day world some savor -- I got curious, and asked WT Index, how many Rebecca Davis profiles do you have? And nothing loath to daunt me, it told me it has 690 of them ... I should point out that if you want a Sarah Davis, there's only 2,995 of them ....   ... and -- hang onto your sox -- there's only 6,662 Mary Davis 

And here I am about to add another Rebecca to the pile unless she turns out to be already profiled; her spouse is not, William David Ewart whom I have just added

I have noted year upon year since 1997 and me with my first computer ever online that the rest of the world, the one's I'm acquainted with, go into hibernation about mid-November until sometime around mid-January ... this is understandable, too short the daylight, too long the dark, too many demands of memories and emotions, too much expected of ourselves and of others, and by others of us ... 

Bon voyage for the week

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You're a deep thinker too, as far as I can see. Also a very special characteristic. I DID have a nice weekend, thank you. Whether up to our ankles, shins or noses - my experience has been and continues to be that Providence is looking after me in more wonderful ways than I can express. Walking on water is an adventure, and all things are possible...

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  Omnivorous reader is what I am; and most if not all of what I read was tested against what I actually saw and heard (experienced) happening around me; and much of what I read stood the test.  The biggest limitation on that is whether I understood it -- did it have meaning for me -- some of it still is not meaningful to me.  

But that's a limitation, whether it has meaning to me. Have to be careful, because it might not have meaning to the person next to me. 

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I am responsible for 1 of the 6,662 Mary Davis, my 5 X grt Grandmother 1767-1808, mother of the elusive George Ross my 4 x Grt grandfather, it took almost 9 years to find his parents, never give up!

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Good for you, M! Davises are hard to track. I’ve got one of those Davis brickwalls.

Answer 1

Today is....

            

NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE DAY

Peanut butter lovers and fudge lovers come together on November 20th to celebrate National Peanut Butter Fudge Day. 

On June 16th, people across the United States celebrated National Fudge Day. Just by adding creamy or crunchy peanut butter, the celebration continues. They will have the yummy taste of peanut butter as the fudge flavor and star of the show.

Fudge originated in the United States, possibly by a happy accident. In 1886, a letter written by Emelyn Bettersby Hartridge was discovered. Ms. Hartridge attended Vassar College as a student in Poughkeepsie, New York, and the letter referred to a fudge her cousin had made.  Her cousin, in Baltimore Maryland, was selling the fudge for 40 cents per pound. Ms. Hartridge obtained the recipe, and in 1888, she made 30 pounds of fudge for the Vassar College Senior Auction.  

In the late 19th century, some shops on Mackinac Island, Michigan, began to produce products similar to that of the Vassar College fudge and sold it to summer vacationers.  Fudge is still made in some of the original shops there today.

Two other fudge holidays on the calendar are National Nutty Fudge Day on May 12th and National Penuche Fudge Day on July 22nd.

HOW TO OBSERVE Peanut Butter Fudge Day

Peanut butter fudge adds great flavor to many desserts. Add it to ice cream, pies, and other candies. Of course, enjoying peanut butter fudge on its own is perfectly fine, too. Stop by your favorite candy shop or make your own. If you need a recipe, try these out. No matter how you decided to celebrate, be sure to invite someone to join you. No celebration is complete unless you have someone to join you!

Easiest Peanut Butter Fudge
Easy Peanut Butter Fudge
Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Fudge

Comments

Jammie!

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I'm all in on this one. Will someone please send me a box?  

Now to choose which recipe will go in my Dorothy Barry's WikiTree Recipe Book!

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Sounds delicious!

Answer 2

While double checking an entry of a family member's death in the newspaper I read an article on the same page.  It concerned the death of twins, four months old, who had passed away at the same time in a shared crib.  They had been in poor health according to the article.  They were sharing a small bedroom with their surviving parents.  The
implied death cause, in 1911, was a kerosene lamp left burning all night in the room.  It made me glad I had recently had my fire fighter grandson change the battery in my smoke/carbon monoxcide detector.  After my hip replacement and poor balance I stay off the step stool.
How many people saw the article about the small owl who did survive being wrapped up in the Christmas tree that was sent to Rockefeller Center from Oneonta, New York.
It was discovered when the tree was opened up.  A bird
sanctuary has treated it and it will soon be released.  It
was dehydrated and hungry.  They named him Rockefeller.

Comments

Beulah, we keep ours up to date after hearing about what happens when people don’t, and also because we use a gas cooktop. Read recently about the fumes they produce.

That story about the little fella, the owlet.... Amazing how it survived the trip all the way to New York. I’m glad it’s being taken care of.

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I had not heard about that owl, but what a great story of survival.  I wonder if they will take him back to Oneonta so he doesn't have to find a new place to live in the wilds of NYC.

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The article in today's newspaper said he will be released from the sanctuary around evening, which they say is the time owls usually wake up.  Her Wildlife Center is situated quite a way upstate from New York City, around Saugerties.

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Follow up on the owl that was named 'Rockefeller'. He was transported to an animal shelter that takes owls. He underwent x-ray and was rehydrated and given as many live rodents as the little pig could eat. As of tomorrow he will be released into the wild, but not back to Oneonta due to the distance. A number of kind people donated some $9000 to the animal shelter, which will apparently keep them going through the winter.

It was a great story during these dismal times.

Answer 3

Yes, anyone with some experience and some patience should think about joining the greeters. And it is fun to learn more about WikiTree itself.

Autumn has landed here as well, so all lights on while working on the code for the app(s). Nice to get the brain working over the possibilities that our 25.1Million profiles offer. And how to improve the accuracy of them; that was (is) a very interesting discussion.

Comments

Yes, we do need more greeters, but you gotta hand to the Gang covering all those slots like we do. (Thanks for adding that link, Michel!)

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Yes, that was a very interesting discussion. It led me down the tangent at looking at some of the old GEDCOM imports. I did learn that a couple of the large GEDCOMs (more than 20,000 profiles) with a fairly common name are actually the result of imports from different profile managers.

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Kay, you mean the larger Gedcoms were not loaded at one time, or combined with other uploads?

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Pip, That is what I suspect. I looked at just a few of the 28885 profiles in family.ged and some of those had the text "created by XXX through the import of family.ged on YYY" and there were different people for XXX. It makes sense, that's a fairly common name.

BTW, the famous DeCoursey is 36908 profiles, but the total of the 7 largest GEDCOMs is about 200,000. On the other hand, it looks like there are about 6000 GEDCOM that imported between 100 and 1000 profiles. Also it appears that those imported after the GEDCOMpare process was introduced have a much lower rate of possibly unsourced.

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My GedComs are all sourced well... I hope

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Now that would be a great challenge, hitting only gedcoms.

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Kay, are there statistics on how many are sourced and unsourced?  I know I have done about 20.  They are seldom formatted  and slow down the thon" totals.  DeCoursey

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Michel V., IF THESE ARE THE QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY ("some experience and some patience") -- on a personal note, I lack the patience and I lack experience at Play Nice.  

My mind played now with scenarios, none of them especially soothing for the person who would be Greeted, a Victim per force to my Marquis de Sade role-playing. 

Fortunately, none of the Greeters I have seen in print at G2G have any such tendencies, at least not exhibited in print.  But the whole idea did give me 2 or 3 minutes of entertaining imaginations ... woohoo ... 

Edited ... slightly

 

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@Pip - yes GEDCOMs would be a great challenge. The only issue is having a suggestion or category or some way to measure contributions for the challenge.

@Beulah - funny you should ask. I don't know how many profiles are marked Unsourced overall; I am sure the number is available somewhere. I created an App to look at profiles to find those that Sourced, Unsourced and maybe Unsourced. I think that about 5% of all profiles are marked as Unsourced, and am currently looking at a random sample to get an estimate of those Unsourced but not marked (i.e., the Maybe). Doing this I have looked at some of the very old (i.e., 2010, 2011) GEDCOM and maybe 45% of the profiles are Maybe. I haven't looked specifically at the DeCoursey GEDCOM -- and would need to break it up in chunks of about 3000 to check it.

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Hi Michel, Hi Pip,

I just wanted to say that I recently joined the Greeters and have been absolutely loving it! And wanted to tell anyone out there who might be keen on joining that I would highly recommend it.

I have really enjoyed getting to know some of our newer guests and upgraders, and my favourite part is helping people. Also I have learned so much. I really treasure our "gang". Big hugs to you all

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@Susan, anyone can have their secrets

@Beulah, what I do is look at the numbers in the tables on the unsourced page. And then for the country and era I am comfortable with.

But... those are the ones marked with either the {{unsourced}} or the needs sticker. So hard to give real numbers. Having them marked will make them show up anyways, so that is a good thing (me thinks). And for sure, easy to get points then for adding those crucial references.

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And Pam, it is great having you on board!

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Michel, there is a conflation in my mind of {{unsourced}} and Greeters, and it's in this thread. I don't know much about the Greeters, or more accurately, I know enough to know I am not qualified, meaning, I do not have the personality qualities their messages exhibit. 

But the {{unsourced}}, I pick out a Surname on my watch list, one from the Status / ID, and click on it and this drops me into the Index and then I click on unsourced and scroll down to the section below where profiles are listed by the 200's. I ignore all the colored circles, which indicate a privacy level. 

At the moment I'm peering at BOYD James Boyd (1809-1886) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree which is now adequately sourced ... lacks something, no doubt, but I did locate some census, death of three children, the marriage record to Jane Davis and by genealogically defined criteria James Boyd is now that Genealogically Defined 

Turns out the PM on this profile got HER info from the same place I got the sources I put into the Biog of James Boyd ... 

BUT doing these unsourced ones are a hit-or-miss leisure time activity, or respite from slogging along through my 3,000+ profiles (the ones I manage) to convert them to inline ref 

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And, Pam, you are a stellar greeter!

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Thanks, but you all are just too sweet

Answer 4

Hails and horns, Wikipeeps!

This week has been full of some awesome genealogical nuggets that you've got to see to believe or believe to see. I forget which one it is. =) First up, I have a blog about good deeds: https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2020/11/52-ancestors-week-47-good-deeds.html

Basically, Giovanni Coppola paved the way for many of my relatives on my dad's paternal side to come to America. Paved isn't the word I would use. How about "paid"? That sounds better. He helped out many members of the fam who were struggling in southern Italy.

And right from the headlines, I helped to spruce up the tree for President-elect Joe Biden's Biden side of the tree. I told genealogist Megan Smolenyak about the tree and she offered sources and information which I then added to his father's tree. She literally wrote the book on Biden's family. So, I am sure she is a great source for info! Plus she's just plain awesome. Seriously. Check out her twitter. You can find the good stuff starting here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Biden-3

No political comments, please. Leave politics out of the site, capiche? Unless we're talking about dead presidents. 

On the non genealogy front, there's not much to talk about. I would be in Virginia right now for Thanksgiving. But, because of the human malware we cannot fly. The governor of NH has instituted a "wear a mask" policy. So, please wear masks, people! Thanksgiving is coming and we want to make sure you're around for Thanksgiving 2021.

Have a great weekend!

Comments

Pip, that is why vamps have a Sig O -- a mobile snack bar

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Kay, I suspect you learned a lot of other lessons more like stored in your unconscious .. never trust a old person, don't trust the relative, don't put you money out where others can grab it, don't get cozy with sharks ... long list there ...

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We played for toothpicks, matches, maybe peanuts or chips or m&ms. My brothers always won all my snacks.

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CALLING ALL CARD PLAYERS -- What I learned from my father, who eventually gave up trying to teach me, was how to make sure the other guy wins (and not get caught throwing the game to them), don't play for money, don't say those cuss words in front of Mama, always look very busy if you don't want your father to decide to entertain you, ....

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Chris: I really enjoyed your blog. Thank you. Anne

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Thanks, Anne! =D

I see we have a lot of card players in this thread.

Right then. 5 card stud. Nothing wild and the sky's the limit. (Props if you get the reference.)

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Someone finally made you explain nails and horns. That was a good explanation. It's used a lot in the world of heavy metal journalism and messaging. I'm glad you went with that instead of the pink rock greeting of middle fingers and spitting.

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Yeah, I don't think that would have gone over well here, Paul. XD Like not at all.

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You’re probably right. I never found an appropriate time to try it. Except maybe on G.G. Allen’s profile

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Yeah, that would work. =)

Answer 5

Buenos dias from the Old Pueblo. Its 8:30am and 61F (16.1C) with an expected high of 87F (306C) and it's mid-November.

First the bad news. My daughter has Covid. She lives in Wauwatosa, WI. She teaches 8th grade language arts and was required to be in the classroom. So now she's isolated at home with her retired Air Force husband and my 16 y/o grandson, Luke. Luke just started his first job at a retirement center. He worked all of two days and was sent home to quarantine because of his mum having the virus. Wisconsin is still a hot spot and this tug of war between the governer (D) who mandates masks, distancing and online learning, and the state house (R), who unmandates is killing people. I am so frustrated 2000 miles away.

That is the bad news. On the quasi up side, I got interview questions from a journalist in Mexico who wants to do a story as to how lack of sleep affects productivity and ideas for healthy sleep. So, I spent a day responding to his questions in writing, then two days translating into Spanish. I sent the information off on Wednesday and am looking forward to hearing if the story will be published.

Speaking of sleep, because of the pandemic, my twice a year travel to central Mexico has been cancelled. I teach two classes, one on sleep disorders and promoting healthy sleep, the other on Complementary, Alternative and Holistic practices for the University's Certified Diabetes Educator Program. I taught the Spring semester via zoom on a full Friday. It was OK, but not the same as being their and interacting with students and colleagues. Travel is still out of the questions due to the pandemic so I will be teaching online again NEXT FRIDAY...Black Friday from about 2pm until 6 or 7pm...both classes back-to-back.

I won't be going home for Thanksgiving with family in Wisconsin, so friends are purchasing a full Thanksgiving dinner from a grocers and will be bringing me a plate...probably putting it on the doorstep and ringing the bell.

I have a zoom meeting tomorrow with all of my Healing Touch nurse colleagues and we will be sending collective energy globally for healing from the pandemic, fast and positive outcomes for a vaccine, plus other personal needs in the healing circle, like healing energy for my daughter and family. These meetings are a comfort and keep me from going crazy without personal contact.

We had our monthly DNA SIG meeting last week and reviewed mtDNA, which was very useful, then got information on 'triangulation' and seeking the most recent common ancestor. I really enjoy this SIG. I've still been doing a great deal of work cleaning up and adding to the Baldwin line. There are several messes in England and I am submitting forms for the England Team to help by taking them on so that there is consistent care with these older pre-PGM ancestors. It's been the old 'too many cooks' adage that has gone beyond the true definition of collaboration.

That's it folks. Please stay safe, wear masks, distance. I know it is tough and getting old, but I would much rather have all of us distance 6 feet versus 6 feet under. And with that said, have a Happy Thanksgiving as best possible this year (as I hum along with Vera Lynn, 'We'll Meet Again...) in my mind and heart. Hugs to all!

Comments

Carol, this will be our first Thanksgiving alone. My stepdad will be in Atlanta, my brothers are tied up or too far away, and our kids are working or spending this holiday with the other sides of their family. Well just have to make it special for us.

I sent my brother a link to a place in Tucson that sells Talavera pottery like ours. He said he is going to head over there today. Beautiful stuff.

Hate that you can’t make the trip to Mexico, but glad that at least you can do some of your teaching online.

Prayers for your daughter and her family!

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Carol, I hope that your family copes well with the virus and will get through it without any late effects.

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Hi, Carol, I hope your daughter will come through.  My daughter in law's parents now have it, in Michigan.  I like your phrase 6' apart rather than 6' under.

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Carol, we are sorrowed to hear about your daughter's covid and your grandson's job cut short

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Hi Pipster,

Just finished watching Goldfinger on TCM!

Is it Loya's Pottery on Magee and Oracle? If so, it's near where I live.

I was supposed to be in Mexico next week. I will be totally solo for Thanksgiving this year. Family is in Wisconsin and friends/neighbors are taking distancing seriously.

Thank you for your prayers/thoughts for my daughter and her family. I just spoke with her and Children's Hospital is actually now sectioning off an area to admit adults with Covid because the rates are so severe. I'm adding the entire state to our healing circle tomorrow morning.

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Hi Jelena,

Good to hear from you and thank you for your kind thoughts. I hope you and your mom are doing well. Take care!

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Hi Cindy,

Backatcha' with kind thoughts and healing intention for the family in Michigan. Medical specialists predicted that this third wave would be a doozy, especially since people think rights are violated by doing something as simple as wearing a mask. As to the 6' apart; 6 feet under, my nurse and doctor colleagues have been using this to try and get the mask/distance idea across to non-health worker persons. You take care!

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Hi Susan,

Thank you for your kind words. My daughter is recovering, but still feels like heck. She said the most difficult for her is her balance! She has to be careful for something as simple as getting up from a chair because of loss of balance. I suggested she order a foldup walker to use until she's feeling 100%.

My grandson will go back to his job at the senior living center next week Wednesday when he is out of quarantine. He said the last thing he would want is for any of the older adults to get Covid from him even inadvertently. What a great and considerate 16-year-old. Must have gotten it from his mom because I'm a grinch.

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Prayers for your family Carol.

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Carol, I think it was a place called Direct From Mexico. I can’t find the original link.

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Glad to hear that your daughter is recovering. Hope that she does well.

Answer 6

Hello to all from sunny Colorado. The weather is nice with high temps varying between 50 and mid 70's depending upon when the last front came through. Still very little rain. We have a lot of dried up reservoirs on the plains east of Denver.

I’ve slowed down a lot on the genealogy while focusing on fixing Find A Grave links and replacing ancestry links with Family Source so I can see them. I am still dabbling on the cemetery study but it is basically finished with 1400 profiles categorized, referenced, and 1300 connected.

Comments

Gurney, are you still working that same large cemetery, or do you have it pretty complete by now? You’ve put a lot of effort into that one.

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I am just doing tune up work on it. Some one added two dozen findagrave memorials for 2020 and I was missing about half of them so I added them in.

Answer 7

As Gurney said, Colorado weather is unusually warm ... or has been.  Colder today and all next week ... highs in the 50's which is 'normal' for November.  Snow in the mountains on Saturday and maybe some down here.

Genealogy ... still workin' on that Jewett book.  Almost done.  Next step will be  to go back and revisit all of those profiles and update them.  Family Search is always adding sources and I'll need to change some of the formatting I did way back when.  When someone makes an edit to one of my profiles I go check it out and then do a little more work on it.  This week I did that and the profile was one I did in 2013 ... YIKES!  It was pretty ugly.  Looked like a rookie did it ... oh, I was a rookie back then.  Should be pretty interesting going back and checking 'em out.

Oh, Thanksgiving ... we're staying home alone ... will probably have Cornish Game Hen instead of turkey. :)

Comments

Shoot, Bob, I wish someone would tackle my rookie profiles! I’m embarrassed to find them, and all I can do is hope no one else saw them.

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Bob, a game hen sounds delish 

Answer 8

Hi from southern Ontario;

Today is marvelous unseasonal weather, high of 15C, and sunny so I am spending the day in the garden. Lots more tidy up to do and rabbit proofing, the little critters are tenacious and in past years have eaten the bark off numerous trees, shrubs and even very thorny rose bushes plus my blackberry bushes. Lots of wire mesh will be deployed this afternoon. 

I have continued working on my profile completeness suggestions this week now down by 737 since last week.            

And just in case anyone is thinking of visiting Regina, Saskatchewan, the temp is minus 17C, our friends there are staying inside today!                                

Comments

17C? Now that’s cold!! I think I’ll stay home, too, M.

The things we do to protect our plants from the critters. We lost some beautiful asiatic lilies to rabbits a couple of years ago. It appears they like only certain kinds of lilies, so the others oughta be safe.

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-17C? Brrrrrrrrrr! Rest assured, I won't come and visit you ;)

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Jelena, I am in southern Ontario, our cold friends are in Regina, Saskatchewan. They are 2 time zones west of us about 750 km north of us and 2100 km driving distance away. They often send us screen shots of the morning weather in the winter, temps down to minus 35 C are quite common.

I don't want to be there either!

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I remember pictures of my 1C1R when he worked in Siberia during winter. On one pic there is a thermometer. It has a scale down to -50C. The temperature was even lower, about -53/54C. Compared to that, Saskatchewan is sauna.

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Yes a sauna compared to Snag a place in the Canadian, Yukon, lowest recorded temp minus 63 C

Answer 9

On the WikiTree news front, I have changed my role in the England Project and am now a Membership Coordinator.

Today we managed to finally get some King Oyster Mushrooms for a recipe I want to try when I get to do it I will post a photo but it may not be this weekend.

I have been trying out lots of vegan recipes from a couple known as BOSH who have lots of YouTube videos and this is one of them. Tonight we get to have the mushrooms in a dish with spaghetti and cherry tomatoes. I'll add a photo later.

Comments

As promised the photograph of King Oyster Scallop Spaghetti

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Doesn't look bad, anyway, mushroom spaghetti, vegan spaghetti ...

Reminds me of the lasagna that someone gave us that turned out to be ... um let's see ... ah, egg plant Parmesan in marinara sauce

Shades of deja vu all over again, it tasted like meatless lasagna (faux lasagna)

Answer 10

On the Homefront:

The weather has been warmer and dry for the last few days so the snow is gone. We have power again as well as water so all is good in that respect. We have been bored because here is not much to do anymore because we have a statewide curfew thanks to COVID. We are all well here. The new car has very few miles on it, no place to go, but I did order some parts for the older car we have so next weekend I hope to fix that, I might miss the chat depending on how long the brake job takes.

Oh the genealogy front:

Nothing major. I did improve some profiles as well as reduce my watchlist, down to 2677, as well as correct all of the suggestions on that list but as I said before there was no major discovery.

Comments

The world continues to turn as it has been all year, Dale, that car might last twice as long as expected ... no where to go ... does it still have that wonderful new car smell to it? 

Answer 11

Covid Musings

1. The dumbest thing I ever bought was a 2020 planner. 
2. I was so bored I called Jake from State Farm just to talk to someone. He asked me what I was wearing.
3. This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her dog.  It was obvious she thought her dog understood her.  I came into my house and told my cat.  We laughed a lot. 
4. Every few days try your jeans on just to make sure they fit.  Pajamas will have you believe all is well in the kingdom. 
5. Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands? 
6. This virus has done what no woman has been able to do.  Cancel sports, shut down all bars & keep men at home! 
7. I never thought the comment, “I wouldn't touch him/her with a 6-foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are! 
8. I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator. 
9. I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to the Backyard.  I’m getting tired of the Living Room. 
10. Never in a million years could I have imagined I would go up to a bank teller wearing a mask & asking for money.

Comments

AND...say 'Hoot Hoot' to Rockefeller, our little rescue owl from the Rockefeller Center tree. Actually, when my daughter was about 6-years-old, she was with her stepdad and he let her pick the tree. I was working long hours as a nurse at our local VA hospital. Her tree was much sadder looking than this one. Her reason for the selection said a lot about her little child thoughtfulness. She felt sorry for it because no one else was 'adopting' it and she would dress it up and make it 'pretty,' which she did! OK, back to our little Rockefeller...his story has gone global!

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A much nicer picture in color than the black and white in our paper.  I'd love eyes like that in human size.

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A bank M... that is that app thingy on your phone right?

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What a cutie! Thanks for the updates and photos, Carol!

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Michel, I have done almost everything bank related online for 20+ years. But there are some very specific things that can only be done in a brick and mortar bank, sometimes you just have to go in the building.

To get a certified check, when I bought my new car last year.

And I'll let you in on my closely guarded secret I don't have a smartphone!

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buahahahaha, I will tell the birds about this

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Dale,I’m wish I had a dog that would tell my wife that it’s ok to take a nap! 

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Pip is this your collected wisdom? And if so can I copy it to my Facebook page? With attribution?

M

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M, I got this from a weekly email. It gave no attribution so they copied it from somewhere else.

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That was funny, especially the cat and dog. Dogs do this thing... jump up and down and say "Pet me and I'll love you forever."  A cat is "feed me when I want to be fed, pet me when I want to  be petted, no matter what time of day or night, and I'll love you forever. ... NOT." I'd rather have a cat.

Answer 12

On this day:

1945: The Nuremberg Trials begin and lay the foundation for the International Criminal Court

1947: Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip of Denmark and Greece marry. (Happy anniversary!)

1989: The Convention on the Rights of the Child is signed.

Comments

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip share the same wedding day as my parents.  It is their 55th wedding anniversary today.  My mother's parents were also married on this day in 1941.

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The Trials were my read for the day, but golly all those internal links!!!

Answer 13

Good evening from Germany,

where the number of new infections still doesn't go down although we are in a light lockdown. I also think we will need a stricter lockdown to get the numbers really down. The government tells us not only that Christmas will be different this year, but also to avoid Public Transport whenever possible. We also try to squeeze a seemingly million shops when we go out of the house.

Well, for mum Public Transport is the only way to get to the doctor appointments she has. She had the appointment with one of her surgeons (the other one is in quarantine). The surgeon wants to do a new CT to see if there is really an ossification. This will be done next week. So then we will hopefully know more about her shoulder.

On the genealogy-front I continued working on my family tree in MyHeritage, adding relatives of my Texas cousin. But then I realized I still need some contributions to get my CK-badge also for November. I want to keep that streak going. So I returned to my project and add connected people to the Big Tree. I will return to my family once I have the 1000 contributions for this month though.

Stay at home as much as possible, try to enjoy the other kind of Thanksgiving as much as possible and don't have a meeting with the virus!

Comments

Jelena, is this checkup for your mum’w shoulder? I thought therapy would have prevented that.

We are expecting Christmas to be very different. We’ll have one of our kids here, but I’m expecting by that time we might be under further restrictions. When are these lockdowns ever going to end?

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It is. Last week mum's orthopedist said she fears there is an ossification in the shoulder. The surgeon said this week he needs a CT to see better what happens there. And that way she got the appointment for the CT in next week. I hope we will know more eventually then.

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1000 edits per month? At Wikipedia back then I would have pulled that, but here I'm happy if I manage 150. Wow!

Answer 14

Numbers are now up so the library has announced we are going back to only curbside service as of next Wednesday.  This will be hard on staff and the public, but is needed. We are closing the lobby concierge service and our computer center, which we have offered since June.  

It has been very windy at times this week.  I was at Target and trying to put the bags in my car.  It was near impossible with the constant heavy wind.  If I held the car door, then picked up a sack, and released my hold on the cart it would blow away.  If I held the cart, then the car door slammed shut. I had to wedge myself between the car door and car and kept a foot on the cart while emptying it.  I got my aerobic workout in.

Comments

I had a feeling restrictions were starting to impact businesses. Our central library seems to do a lot for the homeless as the weather starts to get bad, so it's conceivable the branches might start to shut down but the main branch might stay open a bit longer. I appreciate that many places are trying to keep services running even though they shut their doors to keep people safer, but I'll be much happier when things start to return to at least a little more "normal" than all of what's happening now.

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Michelle, I had to laugh about the cart and your door. Our problem here in the mountains is that parking lots are sloped, so even without any wind, the cart wants to take off down hill! Makes me want to use chocks to block the wheels!

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I’m with you, Scott! A return to normalcy would be a nice Christmas present, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Our library is running their bookmobile to the rural parts of the county, but I’m not sure how long that can last.

Answer 15

Greetings and Salutations, Fellow WikiTreers!

The weather has been wonderful once again here in central Indiana. It's currently in the 60's (Fahrenheit) and we might see a little rain and temps in the highs of the 50's over the weekend. All in all, a pleasant weekend for me to gather some additional leaves for pickup.

The doctor told my daughter-in-law that Sunday is the big day - if she doesn't go into labor by then, they'll induce. Personally, we think the doctor is hoping to enjoy his Thanksgiving dinner without interruption, so he's heading things off at the pass. Either way, it certainly appears that by end of day Sunday, I'll be able to claim Grandfather status. Still seems weird to write that, but I'm starting to get used to the idea. I told my son that if I was a little nervous about the whole thing, I could only imagine how he and my daughter-in-law feel. With this being his first one, I also remember my first one and how long it took, how nervous I was (and my wife too), and how relieved at the end to see ten, two, and one of all the appropriate parts - even though he was purple due to all the squeezing.

So I have next week off work, and it's HONEY-DO time! Time to work on the bathroom tile (glue and grout), the downstairs walls (sand, paint, baseboards), and maybe get out in the yard for some leaf bagging and a final cut. Should be a busy week. Plus, I'm head chef and chief dish washer for next week, so I need to put together an hour-by-hour plan for Thanksgiving dinner. It's only going to be a few of us - not sure if my one son will be able to come with the new baby and all, and my Dad is already staying home, so that leaves my oldest son and the two of us. It will still be a nice holiday. Plus I am a Turkey Fiend! I'm so looking forward to days of turkey and stuffing.

Oh, and on that note - if you ever get a chance to look up a hilarious video - try William Shatner Deep Fried Turkey. I LOVE that song.

Genealogy - I just entered Fulkerson-2715 today, so slowly but surely plugging away at family. 3000 is out the door, but 2750 or 2800 still seems reachable. I'll keep going and see where it leads me.

I managed to get the Bowers family entered and surprise, an ancestor of the family was already on WikiTree and had entered a piece of that tree already! This was a free black family living in early 1800's Philadelphia. What a cool family, though. Dentists, land owners, entrepreneurs, undertakers, female empowerment, musicians... very impressive. I ended up with about 4 Notables out of the group and maybe more if I really dug a bit more, and a connection to the Global Tree. If you're curious or want to add to their tree, you can start with Thomas Bowers and branch out from there.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bowers-7362

Oh well, hope everyone stays safe and has a great Thanksgiving (for those of you who will have the opportunity to celebrate).

Comments

Had to look it up. Here's William Shatner singing "I Want a Deep Fried Turkey"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H5Yak9HQeo&feature=emb_logo

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Congrats on the soonto-be grandfather! You’re going to love this. All those things you wouldn’t do with your kids you’ll get to do with the new one (and listen to the parents complain!).

Really nice work on the Bowers family, Scott! You might want to check in with the African+American Project. I bet they’ll be interested.

My honey-do list is as long as my arm, but he cooler weather is givIng me somewhat of a reprieve. Inside projects are the order of the day, so our outside ones are having to wait (woohoo!).

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Well, I am glad to announce the arrival of Cameron Robert to the world! My son is officially a father and that makes me a grandfather. Still getting used to the title, but he's a beautiful baby boy, 6 lbs, 12 oz, and everyone came through healthy and happy! My Mom and Dad are also pretty excited about being great-grandparents as well, so the family is definitely celebrating this wonderful story in the midst of the pandemic.

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May I be the first wikitreer to say how glad I am for the whole family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Wonderful, Scott!! And two great Scottish names to boot! Did you know it would be a boy? I am so very happy for you.

Answer 16

Carol Baldwin already gave our weather report - beautiful warm day here in Tucson.  It seemed like a busy week for me with nothing really unusual going on.  A great hike on Wed.  A rejected merge today that lead to hours of straightening out, sourcing and cleaning a whole family.  Plus we are getting ready for Thanksgiving with my son and DIL hopefully coming from Atlanta.  Life is good!

Comments

Howdy, Cindy, while rangering, I saw some of your work. Really good work to boot!

I sent my Tucson brother to this place that sells Talavera pottery, and he had a blast. I knew he would not be able to get out of there without buying something! It’s a place we’ll visit when we get out there (January or February).

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Thanks. for the positive encouragement, Pip!

Was it the HF Coors shops?  Their pottery looks beautiful and I have yet to go myself.  Maybe we could all do a field trip?

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I lost the original link, Cindy, but I did see that here are several of these place here seeking stuff from Mexico. My wife is going to love this!

Answer 17

COVID Talk -- there's a wide range of responses by city, county, state, and federal govt across the nation ... seems to be split along political party lines but I'm not sure about that 

BACK TO GENEALOGY ... still walking my way through Revison et al 2020, and came across Myrtle Eugene (Holley) Wright - WikiTree Profile who at that time (much earlier tonight) had not much there ... so NOW she has her spouse named, children listed, census 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, state death index record, burial site, and lacks only a marriage record ...  since she married into the my lines, I profiled only her parents (now sourced and orphaned) but not her 3 siblings 

AND back to work I go. 

Comments

It’s never ending, right, Susan? One family leads to another... and on it goes. Good work!

Answer 18

On the Genealogy front, I took a hiatus from Wikitree so I could prepare for a family reunion that was supposed to happen in May, providing the Virus cooperated. It didn't so we didn't.  I struggled with a lot of emotions. The fires and the pollution didn't help a lot either. 

So... to keep my genealogy brain active, I worked on the family at familysearch and downloaded my family again from my 3rd ggf. His 7 kids, their spouses and parents, and kids ended up being 3572 people. And I am clearing out over 200 duplicates. I've  been collecting the WT-ID, FAG ID, and adding WT-ID to FST profiles. Then, adding those who aren't already in WT.

 I thought about uploading a gedcom, but I'm glad I didn't, Too much junk to clear up later. And also by doing it by hand, I've made a connection or two and put in some merges also.  

Comments

Lynette, I’m with you on not uploading gedcoms. I’d much rather do it by hand than clean up all the mess.

Really sorry to hear the reunion was cancelled. So much that enjoy and appreciate has been lost this year. I hope next year will allow y’all to get back together.

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Hi Lynette, how do you download from FamilySearch? And how/where do you put together all those IDs?

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Hi Florian, What db do you use?  I use Legacy Premium so I'm not sure if all the features I use is available on the free version. FTM is similar.

legacy has a built in app that you log into your FST with, chose an ID of the person you want, choose the number of ascendants and/or descendants.   And WAIT.  

Then you work on merging the FS info into the your db. Since my target ancestor was Thomas jester   https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Jester-129 At FST he is https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LQRS-RW5  The LQRS-RW5 will appear in the index of Legacy once I've completed that. Legacy will have two red arrows, and as I sync up the data between the two the arrows turn green, when I'm finished syncing and click the "done sharing" button. If I change my db info or FST, the buttons will turn one green and 1 red.

On Legacy premium version, I can go into edit and add WT-ID to a user id box at the bottom, and there is a FAG id box also.  Then in the index, I can make those boxes appear in the index. I have them next to the RIN (legacy id number).  I can't sort by the custom numbers, but at least I can see what I've done and what i'm missing.  I've  used premium for so long I'm not sure what is on the  free and what is on the  premium.

I also have FTM tht I save for my cousins' ancestry trees.

 3 cousins from different branches have given me their log ins at ancestry so I can 1. fix their trees, and 2. do additional research not available on FS.  

FTM will also allow you  to download from FST, but  I haven't used that feature there yet.

But I did find something interesting with FTM. DO NOT download from ancestry as a gedcom. You can do a tree transfer.  when you download as a gedcom, it strips out the REAL source link and puts in this code that is a broken link. something like amdredir.  I've got about 15 files from one cousin's tree where I was working on his duplicates and other tree errors.

I know anyone who has cleaned up an ancestry import has seen the broken source links. Thats what causes it. I found out when I decided to do a gedcom import into instead of a direct transfer.

I haven't tried FTM on FST yet so I don't know how it handles the data.  

WT also has a FST sync, but it adds the bulleted source without a link or other pertinate data. And its only viable on profilles you manage, and does not import persons.  

Then once I have my db and WT synced by hand, mind you, I go to the FST profile, Other info, Custom Fact and add the WT ID and link.  

I'm really not much for "leaf chasing" but I like FS hints better then ancestry's. So I can copy the source links directly into WT. AND, since FST is also a collaborative tree, I can fix the errors there too.

I've been using Legacy since 1990s.  My brother does not do genealogy, but works with it to study family patterns in social networking. Ph.D in anthropology.  He uses the free version. It does everything he needs it to do.  A friend of his got a grant and bought a high dollar program, we're talking several $100s, And Legacy does everything that high dollar program does. Even the paid version is significantly cheaper.

Legacy will also sync with MyHeritage if you use that. I don't, because like ancestry, its full of junk trees.

Yep, I turned this into an ad for legacy. sorry.

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Pip, I'm saddened about it too. but I still have a lot of work to do.

Answer 19

Though this was the first nice day we had in southern Washington State, I didn't feel well this morning.  I think I had a recovery in the afternoon.

Comments

David, y’all have some wild swings in the weather here (not to mention smoke from all the fire). Stay well, or as well as you can!

Answer 20

On this day:

1620: The Mayflower Compact was signed

1894: The Port Arthur massacre takes place during the first Sino-Japanese War

1970: C.V. Raman, Nobel Laureate in Physics, dies

Comments

Today’s read: the Port Arthur Massacre. This one will be unique for me.