"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! January 1st-3rd, 2021 [closed]

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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

Farquharson today, Diane! 

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Hello from beautiful, warm, sunny Phoenix, Arizona! I am fairly new here and am hoping that I am responding to the Weekend Chat in the right place!

I’m wondering what the Votes are next to questions on the G2G. I’ve seen Points and Votes but I don’t know what that means. Would someone explain please. Thanks so much!

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Hi there, Susan! We seem to have a lot of Arizonans here in the Chat! Happy to have you join us. (Next time, click the 'answer' link under the initial post so more people will see yours.)

Here's the info on the point system:

All these actions generate points:

• Asking a question.
• Posting an answer.
• Voting up an answer.
• Having your question voted up.
• Having your answer voted up.
• Having your answer selected as the best.
• Selecting an answer to your question as the best.

Voting down a question or answer costs points.

The number of points in G2G earns you a title. You start as a G2G Rookie. At 300 points you're G2G Crew. From there, the sky is the limit.

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Susan, hi and welcome

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Pip, if my answer is chosen as best, then deselected (as seems to happen very often) are those points deducted or do I get to keep them?

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Thanks for your help! This site is complex and it’s taking me a bit to navigate.

Happy New Year!

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Nelda, this has happened to me, too. As I understand it, deselected answers lose their points.

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Kind of adds insult to injury, don't it? Oh, well...I'm not here for the points--I'm here for the PARTY!~

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The Laugh-Out-Loud-Award goes tooo....

Nelda!

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Thank you!

Answer 1

Happy New Year to all!

I am sure 2021 will be a (much) better year than 2020, in many ways.

Comments

Michel, That's what I'm hoping for!

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I'm looking forward traveling in 2021 and visiting family.   Maybe even a cruise in the fall?

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A cruise, just thinking about it scares me silly. But to be fair I have never liked the idea of being on a boat with a large number of people.

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@Peggy - We also hope to travel in 2021. Our RV has been parked since March, and probably will not make it to Florida next month, just too much risk. Needless to say, the plans to travel from the mid Atlantic coast to the Oregon and California coasts are on hold.

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We are hoping to get to Vancouver Island in August, to do some whale and bear watching and related nature activities plus we have relatives there, we could drive, 4630 km, 46 hours non stop at 100km/hr is optimistic, a week is doable.

We have done it before but it takes 3 days to get out of Ontario, flying would be much faster, I think the how to get there decision has to wait.

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My husband is a home body; traveled too much for work.  But he enjoys cruises and is a great travel companion on a ship.  I.E.  he doesn't have to drive, doesn't have to haul our stuff around, knows where he'll be sleeping and loves the food.   We love being on the sea and can either stay to ourselves or meet new people.    I'm really missing it! 

Even before Covid,  we were  "germ a phobes" and took great precautions to avoid getting sick on a ship.   

Answer 2

Weather here in northern Iowa has been mild this week, mostly in the mid 20's (-3 to -4 c) and the storm this week is supposed to miss us. 

On the genealogy front, I am still trying to connect my German lines to the big tree. I have entered most back to the early to mid 1700's and still no luck so far. On a brighter note, thanks to a post on G2G early this week I have another route to look for my maternal grandmothers grandparents and hopefully break that wall. So all in all a good week for me. 

Comments

Deborah, I was lucky with one of my German lines as someone had gone before me to add a family I was descended from. Others there are connected through descendants. I hope you DO break down that brickwall!

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Thanks, when I get done entering this generation (5x great) I will most likely start working on the kids to see if I can get a branch to the tree.

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That's exactly how some of my connections were made: through the children. Keep plugging away. You'll get there!

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Good luck with your brick walls and hope you don't get snowed in.

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Deborah, I am German and only connected through cousins who emigrated to the US and married there. My shortest way through the Tree is a cousin in Texas. Well, there are still other lines to the Tree, but actually all of them bar one are via relatives who emigrated to the US. And the only line that isn't through the US is through a Notable who was already connected.

Answer 3

*webswings into 2021, steal's Pip's shield and sticks a superhero landing*

Hails and horns, Wikipeeps!

Welcome to the first Weekend Chat of 2021! Let's make it a good one! 2020 effigies are to your right and ready to be burned. Marshmallows are to your left and so are the adult beverages. =)

Hope everyone is doing good. There is no genealogy blog this week because 52 Ancestors starts again next week. HOWEVER! That doesn't mean I haven't done anything genealogical. 

WikiTree once again proves to be Cousin Bait central as a cousin on the Ferraiolo side contacted me via e-mail. She wanted to know if I needed any info on this guy, Giovanni Ferraiolo. Giovanni is her great-grandfather. She also wanted to know if I had questions. I did. But, I hope I didn't overwhelm her with anything. I tend to ask a lot of questions. We'll see what happens when she replies.

 I regret not asking why the change to "Ferriola". But, whatever. Turns out we are 3rd cousins once removed and that is pretty awesome.

And speaking of Italian stuff, I asked for some help on some Tedesco stuff and a friend of mine helped me fill in some kids for Giuseppe Tedesco and Catarina Gullo. I'll be adding them in at some point. Maybe later today. I don't know. She helped me find out a lot of stuff and she's actually interested in joining us here on WikiTree. I hope she joins. I'll add her into the Italy Project. =D She also is interested in Polish roots, too. I am sure some people can help her with that!

On the non genealogy front, New Year's Eve was uneventful. Talked to fam and friends. Hopefully we get a gettogether by NYE 2021. Well, it's a new year full of new possibilities. We can only go up from here. Have a great weekend and let's kick 2020 to the curb!!

Comments

Chris, you have, apparently, tons of cousins from San Pietro a Maida! Good to make those connections. Ask away! That's the only way to get new info.

It was a very quiet New Year's for us. Netflix and a little champagne.

I'm all for kicking 2020 to the curb, but my fear is that it's going to be a slow recovery.

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Yeah. We got a bit beat up. Rather like the New York Jets.

I do have a lot of cousins who came from that area. I know of a few who still live there. I wonder if I have 2nd or 3rd cousins in the Gesualdo area. It seems most of Vincenzo and Maria's kids from that area came to America. I'd have to dig.

Either way, I renewed Disney Plus as we're getting the return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Hence why I did the Spidey landing). First up is Wandavision. Can't wait for the return of Marvel!

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Chris, my wife rolls her eyes when I want to watch Marvel stuff. I love it!

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Chris,

I was a bit surprised when my brother's DNA test said he was 15% Italian.   I haven't found any family lines leaning that direction, so will have to think about that one.  My test should be completed soon.

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@ Peggy: It's important to remember that estimates are only an estimate. Not sure where that 15% came from. But, it is worth checking out. Let me know what your test shows. That's...interesting. It's not small enough to be considered noise. Huh. I wonder what happened.

@ Pip: I can imagine! She roll her eyes at this post?

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Update! I just messaged my cousin in Italy and asked if she knew who my 2x great-grandmother’s parents were. Here’s hoping she can help.

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Keep us posted!!!!

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I will. Right now Facebook is being weird with sending messages to friends and family in Europe.

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Update: My cousin is going to help me as much as she can as records aren't digitized. But, it's still good and she wants to see what I come up with. I linked her to what I have here on WikiTree. =D

https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Tedesco-Family-Tree-82

All I need are names, dates and places of birth.

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Chris, this is excellent!!

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Yup. =D

Answer 4

The rains cometh!.....t-shirt weather, but can't walk between the drops without getting wet......a lot of noise coming from the other side of the river dike......an elderly gentleman building some kind of vessel.....and all those pairs of animals lined up on the dike road......some I haven't seen before...........

Comments

Hahaha!!!! Better get on board, John!

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Went over to talk to the fellow about the noise, last night......he said it didn't bother him a bit......this new stuff called fireworks allowed him, to see, to work through the night......also, said he had one of these things once before, but forgot where he left it on some mountain.

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Ask him to join WikiTree, John. I', sure he has a fascinating genealogy. Not too many generations back. 

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Always make me smile, thank you John

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I told him I was from Wikitree.....He said, "Son, go back to your tree and pair up before you come back".......he sure has a long, white, beard.

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Deborah,  I think we're in for a ride this year.

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John,

You're starting out the new year FEISTY.    

Hope you can find someone to join you in line,  or you might need to find a blow up doll.   Probably the one you put in your car's passenger seat when you're using the HOV line.

Until later.

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Peggy,  "No blow up doll for me, says Kathy, just get in the car and I'll drive you down the HOV lane".  As for pairing up, to get on the vessel, she said, "Why not?"  The fellow at the gangway took one look at us and exclaimed "This ain't no sea cruise!"

Answer 5

HAPPY NEW YEAR to Everyone and thanks Pip for being our amazing host!

 

Weather:    Raining but in the 60’s. Likely  to clear off for our first walk of the year.

New Year:   Good riddance to 2020.   Yesterday and today involve long phone calls with family and friends that I usually actually visit instead.  

Genealogy:  I haven’t reported details about a MAJOR brick wall for my ggg grandmother,  Nancy J. (LNU) Wiggins.    I’ve been to her gravesite in Harkey’s Valley (Arkansas) numerous times, where many other ancestors are buried.  Finally, a descendant of Nancy J.’s  husband, Adam Wiggins Jr.. contacted me.  LNU is actually Westmoreland.    So I’m off to the races, tracking down the Westmoreland family line.

Got some great FamilySearch research tips from Barry Smith on G2G.   

The Virus:   Two more of my family members have contracted Corona,  but fortunately they're young and healthy and are on the road to recovery.   The scary part,  they visited my 88 year old mother on Christmas Eve.    So far,  Mom has no symptoms.   Just shows, we still have to protect the vulnerable,  even if this seems to be lasting forever and ever.

 

I look forward to reading everyone’s posts! 

Comments

Well, that's good news on the "new" Westmoreland line. Got for it and keep us posted, Peggy!

It's almost depressing how long this pandemic has lasted. We're hoping the vaccine works and gets things back to "normal," whatever that will be.

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The biggest problem I see with the planned vaccine is that it is geared to the known virus, not the new mutant strain.  By the time they get that figured in, this thing will likely have mutated again (as it has been doing all along)..

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That's true. At least two cases have shown up here in the US.

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Good luck with your search. I believe the research tips from Barry Smith are the ones I was referring to as well.

Will keep your family in my prayers for a speedy recovery.

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Parts of Australia are, once again, in severe shutdown.  I worry about my kids and grandkids -- and they worry about me.  This beast is worse than the 1918 flu pandemic, and way, way, worse than the 2003 SARS epidemic.  (Remember, this covid beast is just another strain of SARS.)

Answer 6

The weather is nice here in Colorado. What a way to start the new year. 

On the genealogy front, we finally got a dna connection which does not prove 100% a connection between master and servant but strongly supports the thesis we have been working on a long time. The short story is that a Wigfall died without marrying and left his estate to a mulatto woman and her three children and then had them turned over to the Colonization Society for relocation. We found one child at a boarding school in New England and just got the dna evidence that supports a connection between her descendants and the Wigfall descendants. See Wigfall-98 for more details. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wigfall-98

Comments

Gurney, this is fascinating research! Keep us posted on your progress.

Answer 7

Happy New Year!  From southern Ontario; not a lot happening here right now. Waiting to see if we get freezing rain this afternoon, yesterday the weather report said we could have a significant accumulation, today seems like it will be 10-15cm of snow and Saturday should be sunny and almost 5 degrees C, maybe be we can even go for a family walk in the snow. 

We had oysters wrapped in bacon, and breaded shrimp for dinner last night, no champagne but we sipped on Glayva, a liqueur made of Scotch, plus honey, spices and tangerines. We will be having chocolate truffle cake for breakfast. 

Some good news, not actually my good news, our friends in Regina, her 88 year old mum was diagnosed with Covid about Dec 13, she is now officially recovered! 

We have our Zoom chat tomorrow with the English cousins, its always nice to catch up. 

I haven't done much WikiTree this week because I've been scanning photos for 3 days, I'm nowhere near done, some will get uploaded to WT. Many are of my siblings when we were all very young, plus some of my parents when they were dating. 

I also found a place where I can get several hundred slides scanned for 69 cents CDN each. 

And when I wasn't scanning, I was cooking. We now have many litres of soup, French onion, butternut squash, leek and potato soup plus beef with beer stew. I have two 7 cubic foot chest freezers and one is full of homemade soups, stews and sauces. If we can't get out due to weather, we won't starve. 

Also, I have a question. Who can tell me why sunrise keeps getting later after Dec 21? -the shortest day, while sunset is later, the earliest sunset was 4.41 on Dec 15, yesterday Dec 31 sunset was 4.51? 

Sunrise was 7.48 on Dec 21, 7.51 by Dec 28, and stays at 7.51 until Jan 8. These times are here in southern Ontario, they will of course be different further south. 

Comments

M, we'd (my wife and I) would be VERY interested in where we can get our slides converted. The one place we found here is more expensive. My wife's dad was a slide hog: tons of them in a box here.

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Glayva......M ! .....I'm so excited......in '78 my three year old daughter used to watch me sip a shot of Glayva on ice, after a dirt bike ride......I got her a bottle for Christmas '19 and she served me a shot, to sip on, this past Christmas.   PS  Make sure Peggy has put away her dirt bike before offering. 

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The only suggestions I have; Google search your area for bulk scanning services, that's what I did, or box them up and send them to me!

I inherited 14,000 slides from my dad, now culled to about 2000, and still need to be further culled to I don't know maybe 500 probably more.

Answer 8

Can hardly believe we are at the weekend again. There has been snow this week at lower levels but not sticking much as temperatures are above freezing during the day.

Happy New Year and hopefully all my plans from last year which got postponed will be able to go ahead and we will be able to meet up in April after Easter.

Will be joining a genealogy meeting soon so by for now.

Comments

Have a good meeting, Hilary! Wishing to the best of 2021 and a return to seeing other folks.

Answer 9

Hi there, all. My New Year Resolution is to stop being so glum so here's wishing you all a much better year to come than 2020 has been. My genealogy project for this year is to try to get all my living family to produce a few words regarding their thoughts about the pandemic and that will be even harder. Mostly they're not interested in the past and are very skittish about putting anything on the internet. Aside from that I'm looking forward to my jab and having been told I'm very high risk that should be soon. As ever, stay safe.

Comments

You stay safe, too, C. ( I actually ought to write down my experiences for the past year, too, for posterity's sake.)

Answer 10

My New Year's resolution is to become more food independent. Less trips to the grocery. More eat off of my own land. I'm starting with chickens. The eggs and meat will help me avoid the pasteurized, processed food products. Back to nature. That's the ticket.

Comments

M. Ross,

Thanks for the link. I'll cruise around there. I usually have a pretty good vegetable garden in the Summer. I then can all the crops for use during the Winter. I've been kind of lax the last few years and haven't done as much canning as I should. I'll have to fix that.

Susan,

Thanks for all the tips. I hadn't heard about the rat and mice problem. My hubby already designed the chicken coop to be possum and racoon proof. We will build it next spring. We salvaged the 12 foot rafters from the garage we had to rebuild. That, along with some plywood, should be enough to keep the chickens at bay. Of course, there's the problem of the neighbor dogs and cats. I think we have that figured out with some electric fencing a few feet from the chicken coop. No free range chickens here. By the way, what's the rule on chickens you see running in the road? Can I just grab them and take them home? They look like they would be free. I've asked my kids to do that, but they declined. Is it called chicken russlin'?

The there's the flying diners like hawks. We are going to put chicken wire on top of the coop. Hubby bought five different books on raising the chickens, housing the chickens, feeding the chickens, etc. Life is an experiment. Let's hope this one doesn't go too wrong.

Thanks all.

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You are so right.   Life is an experiment!   Be adventurous.

There are many things my husband and I  "experimented" at decades ago,  that are now entertaining fireside memories.

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HaHaHaHa .. chase down a chicken what's running down across away from the road.  RIght.  Sorry. You have any idea how fast they run? 

Chickens don't tend to have a brand, so far as I know, nor are they usually tagged or microchipped, so far as I know, but ask local vet. They're likely to be tagged or chipped if they are exotic, elite, or rare, although why anyone who owned expensive chickens would be so careless about them ... 

As to whether this free range trying to escape you and all else chicken is free of fleas and other vermin and diseases that affect fowl? Again, ask the local vet and even the animal rescue shelter ... 

NOTES ONLINE (google search "are chickens microchipped" >  The fee for backyard chicken owners to chipchickens is $75.00. ... The process only takes five minutes and will be minimally invasive for the animal. At the time of chipping, chickens will get a medical examination to reduce the spread of avian diseases.Sep 20, 2017Microchips For Chickens – Easypetfence

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@Betty, okay I've given some sober thought to backyard chickens ....

The best ones would be some that are certified disease free, of course.  

You'd need some procedure worked out to scoop the manure and what to do with it, there's a lot of pix of chickens in elevated coops where the "floor" is wire net-like and the manure falls through but you'd still need to deal with it, it's like a petri dish in a lab, ready to breed nasty bacteria etc -- and the better your management of the manure the fewer flies you will have which try to get into, and successfully so, the house

Then there's the issue of the virus that attack fowl of all kinds and antibiotics and possible mandate to destroy the flock to curb the spread of the disease

Straw for the box of nests where the hens will hopefully lay their eggs, but chickens are notoriously lacking common sense

If I recall correctly you won't get any fertile eggs which if properly cherished will hatch more chickens but to get fertile eggs you need a rooster, and roosters crow ... think if you want to eat your own chickens then you will want some eggs that are fertile and which will hatch and that means you will need to have a rooster

Okay, so fowl diseases, vermin (such as fleas and mites), manure management, secure coop, nests?, ...

If you are prepared to operate on a regulated schedule and can be sure of attending feeding, watering, manure scooping and predator control, and expect to increase your flock so you will have chickens to butcher and eviscerate (offal has to be dealt with as a hazardous waste), ...

Well, it may well work out for you ...

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Thanks for the giggle Susan. They look really slow from the car, I guess. :)

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Morning Betty, we live in the north east hills of Wales and are surrounded by hill farms, sheep everywhere, small holdings are very popular, chickens pigs ducks and geese.

The one common animal are Jack Russel terriers, no rat, mouse or other vermin with any sense will come near one of these, we have bird feeders in the yard and never seen any fuzzy critters, "Jimmy" patrols the area like a hungry lion on the hunt.

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James, have you read 'I bought a mountain' by Thomas Frank? It's about running a hill farm in north Wales, close to Snowdon. Published in the 1940s, about the couple that bought a farm with very little previous experience, it's quite the story.

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Afternoon M., most of the old boys who live up here could be who the book is about,  when we take Jimmy walking the lanes we run into them and get our ears bend wonderfully with tales of the history of the area. Most of them are 3rd or 4th generation, as per other conversations this weekend on the chat, you learn to understand Welsh quickly or end up nodding and smiling stupidly.

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The latter would be me! 

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Hi Pip, I could have taught  a course on it, that look and smile in the beginning but you would be amazed how fast you pick it up. Plus the amusement on their faces when you destroy your part of the conversation.

Answer 11

Happy New Year everyone. We all agree, hopefully 2021 will be a better year. We are hoping that we get to take the RV (i.e., caravan) out for some travel this year, although we probably won't go to Florida next month.

The weather here has been rainy, dreary and depressing, sort of like 2020. We are supposed to be warmer tomorrow, which is good since the dog needs a bath and we don't like to put tons of Golden Retriever fur in the bathtub.

After a slight 6 month deviation (did not imagine it would take that long), I have returned to working on the Reed children which has led me into the Bland family. The Bland family has not been dull, boring, or (um) bland by any scope of the imagination. There were lots of widows, divorces, remarriages, mixed families, children living with relatives or in orphanages. Catherine wins the prize for mathematically challenged however. She was born in 1899. When she married in Feb 1915 she said she was age 21. By 1920 she appeared in the census as wife of her second husband, and one of her daughters from the first marriage was living with them. She married her second husband in Sep 1922, and he died in 1927 (she got that date right). When she married for the third time in 1953 she said that her previous husbands had died in 1920 and 1927. Her first husband registered for both the World War I and II drafts, and died in 1952. So her sister who married, divorced and later remarried the same person was easy by comparison.

Comments

Kay, from now on, when I get flustered by a family, I am going to remind myself of Catherine Bland!

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Kay,

I've never used the  "doggy washes"  that seem to be popping up.... but it's been tempting.   The money might be worth it to avoid cleaning the entire bathroom.

In genealogy,  I guess we have to think of the "motive" for fibs about age..... the  "spinsters"?, the  "boys" who want to join the war? trying to have "young" children cross the Atlantic for free?    Certainly one of the fun parts of our research.   (Of course,   could just be WRONG.)  Enjoy your research!

Enjoy your weekend.

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Nothing like a shampoo and blow dry. (The dryer is a small leaf blower.)

Answer 12

Virtual Vacation! 

This week's virtual vacation takes us on a drive through the Black Hills in South Dakota. These photos were taken by me in September 2010, except the last one, the pigtail bridge photo used with attribution to South Dakota magazine. It's impossible to take a photo of these bridges while driving along the road, you have to be above the road.

There are 3 fabulous drives in this area, all are narrow twisty 2 lane roads two have single lane tunnels and pigtail bridges. Large vehicles, trailers and RV's are not allowed on the highway as they cannot negotiate the curves or fit in the tunnels. Occasionally someone decides to take one of these vehicles on these roads and they then have to backup several miles to get to a spot where they can turn around, this also means all the cars behind them have to back up as well. You can imagine how popular these drivers are with other people on the road!

The tunnels were all sited so that if you are driving towards Mount Rushmore, the presidents are framed in the view when you exit the tunnel.

Sylvan Lake

The passage between the rocks

The view from the passenger seat

A tunnel on Iron Mountain Road, this is why no large vehicles!

The Needles

A pigtail bridge

Comments

Great photos!

We visited the Black Hills in 1964 on a car trip with my mother and her sister to visit their sister in Colorado. We must have been at just the right time of day, because the thing I remember the most is that it was all "sparkly" and beautiful. Those roads are narrow -- we visited in 2010 with the RV and drove the roads in just the pickup truck and had to pull the mirrors in on some of the tunnels.

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Now I know what pigtail bridge is......If you go do you have to come back?

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Hey John; Do you mean do you have to go home again, or do you have to drive the route back to the beginning?.

The answers are; you can go home if you want, the roads do have outlets onto other roads so no you don't need to turn around and go back to the beginning.

M

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M, The Sylvan Lake photo looks so inviting I might want to stay.....I've enlarged the photo and glued it to the window......when my wife wakes up I'll see if she want's to stay.

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Forget the cruises!   M. Ross,  we want to vacation with you! Thanks once again for sharing your incredible life and photos.

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M, you are giving me the travel bug! I love your weekly photos. You've got a camera eye!

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This road looks amazing!  I will have to travel it the next time I am in the Black Hills area.  I love experiences like this.

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Hi M,

Thanks for the Black Hills vacay! My dad, mum, sister, brother and I had a Black Hills vacay back in 1953! My brother downloaded some of my dad's photos from film and they are pretty spectacular. We drove from Milwaukee to through the S. Dakota badlands, then to  Mt. Rushmore, then on to Enderlin, N. Dakota where my dad was born. I recall getting the chicken pox en route and my Great Aunt Florence happily nursed me to health. Her home made, hand made donuts were especially healing. She and my mum would sneak down to the root cellar and try Aunt Florence's dandelion wine! I now wish I had her recipe!

On our return, we visited my Great Aunt Emma, who happily nursed my brother and sister through their chicken pox. Uncle Oscar ran the local grocery store and brought home something new and unheard of! Jell-O Instant Chocolate Pudding. Aunt Emma added milk to the contents then use the hand-rotary beater until it magically turned into chocolate pudding!

All these relatives are gone, but not forgotten thanks to Wikitree. I have added them to my dad's family line for anyone to view.

At any rate, thanks for the virtual vacay and for the memories they engendered. Wishing you and yours a Happy and Healthy New Year!

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Carol, I may be able to find a dandelion wine recipe for you. My uncle made many wines from local fruits/ plants, elderberry wine, dandelion and burdock wine etc.

I will contact my cousin and ask if she has any of her dad's recipes

Also wishing you a very healthy 2021

M

Answer 13

Happy New Year 2021! I hope for peace, calm, a sense of revival for all!

Food - We will eat our traditional New Year meal of black-eye peas, greens, and pork later today.

Weather - it is heavily raining today. Daytime highs are supposed to be in the upper 50-lower 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Homefront - hubby had blood work this past Monday. The results posted online look fine to me, but he will see the doctor this coming week for check-up. One thing I definitely want to discuss with the doctor is the Covid-19 vaccine. One of my friends told me she had a medical professional tell her that he was leery of the vaccine and did not recommend it. I trust our family doctor to give us good advice. My husband and I are both in the 65+ age group and have co-morbidities. Some other of my friends are very sick with the virus right now. We have not been around them.

Reading - I use GoodReads.com to keep up with what I read. I set a goal at the beginning of 2020 to read 20 books. When I reached that goal about mid-year, I re-set my goal to 40 books. I ended up reading 45 books. I set my goal for 2021 to read 48 books. I primarily read mysteries, and prefer those set in Great Britain.

Genealogy - On WikiTree I just continue to add or improve profiles I have already added, mostly using my "Anniversary" list as a guide. In 2020, I mostly focused on my maternal Hildreth and allied lines, but I think I will try to work more on my paternal Gilchrist and allied lines in the coming year. The Gilchrists are far more difficult to "untangle" so I have been neglecting those branches.

The other day I was looking for something different to do on WikiTree and I saw the weekly challenge was to clean up GEDCOM-generated profiles. Oh, my! I did partially clean a couple, but I quickly became frustrated and depressed. So many not only still have their "GEDCOM-junk" but they also lack sources. Then there are not enough dates/locations or connections to figure out who the person was well enough to find sources for them. Most of the managers had not made contributions to WikiTree in years.

Take care, my Wiki-friends! Have a wonderful Weekend!

Comments

Certainly hope that your husband's report comes back as all is well.

Ah GEDCOM and other rabbit holes. Some are pretty discouraging, others quite rewarding when you can find dates/locations/sources for them. I was dragged down a rabbit hole this week when someone married a Charles Davis. I did manage to find dates/locations for a couple of the existing Charles Davis profiles. One of my major distractions is when I am testing the Bio Check app I keep finding profiles that need work and it's difficult to not just get lost in fixing them.

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Nelda, this numbers nut like to keep track of how many books and pages he's read each year. This past year was 52 books, most of that coming in the last half year when I started reading the Vince Flynn books and one of Bernard Cornwell's series. 17,800+ pages for the year. I only count books I have finished.

I finished a Waddell collateral line today and went back to Davises in South Carolina and Cains in County Durham, England. I though about joining the gedcom challenge, remembering one I worked on for the last Connect-a-thon, but I already have too many irons in the fire. The next time you need a break from your usual WikiTreeing, let me know! I have lots you can do. 

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I have been rereading many of Tom Clancy's books, I started with the Sum of all Fears and am now onto The Bear and the Dragon, his earlier books have all been read several times.

Some of the Jack Ryan quotes are particularly relevant to 'these times'

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I am amazed.

Answer 14

Chiming in from Bellingham, Wa. It's overcast in the mid forties here today. Looking forward to 2021!

I connected with my closest Italian match's daughter this week (1C1R) and was delighted to share my research of our Italian line and links to profiles on WikiTree.

I'm working with some DNA and their matches from the modern Day Czech Republic to unravel a complicated line for an adoptee. Found a lot of census records that list the actual town where people were born instead of just the country. What a delightful, unexpected find.

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Shanna,  I don't know what has disrupted our rain.....any brighter and I can see all the way to Bellingham.  You have a wonderful list of achievements......Great ! 

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Nice work, Shanna! When I was working on some German-Russian immigrants to South Dakota a while back, some of then led back to what is now the Czech Republic. I got some excellent help[ with gravestone translations on G2G.

Answer 15

On this day:

1801: Great Britain and Ireland form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

1921: The former Chancellor of the German Empire Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg dies. Out of his family is a famous delicious Frankfurt pastry, the Bethmännchen.

2021 is the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables

Happy New Year!

Comments

1st January 1901 was the day when the six separate self-governing colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, and Western Australia, (I think I have them in order) formed the Commonwealth of Australia.  Known as Federation Day, it is represented on the Australian flag by the Federation Star below the Union Jack.

Our forefathers knew how to count centuries, because it was the 1st day of the 20th century.

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Jelena,  You caught me by surprise.  It was Saturday, 01 Sept 1951, as I awaited the start of grade one, that my father told me who we descended from.  With a computer, in 2002, my wife and I, identified the person as my 4th great grand father, Charles Loftus(Tottenham-40), the person responsible for bringing Ireland into Confederation in 1801.  So started the journey to bring us, here, to WikiTree.

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John, I may have caught you by surprise, but I always try to find something that is either historically interesting or maybe (and may be) also interesting for genealogical reasons. I think it's not important to remember the correct date, but to have a rough overview about relevant historical events (in relation to geography as well). You can take today's entry about the UK and Ireland as example. As there are loads of people of Irish descent and WikiTree wants us to put locations historically correct, I think it's important to know when Ireland was one country with the UK and when Northern Ireland became British instead of being Irish. If more people knew that there perhaps would be less location errors concerning Northern Ireland, UK and Ireland as a whole. And if only one person learns a bit out of the Wikipedia-articles I post, these postings have fulfilled their purpose.

And yes, Jan 1st gives the opportunity to also post something about an "International Year of...".

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Jelena, I read about Bethman-Hollweg, as I remember him from my German history class in college. Thanks for this!

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Thankyou for responding, Jelena.  Upon studying Bethmann-Hollweg, it gave me more insight into why my father, at age 14, was returned to England for naval officer training and, also, reminded me of the grandson of Charles, Augustus Loftus, Ambassador to Germany.  I am looking forward to when I can post the tin type photo of my great grandmother, with German officers circa 1859, when she was visiting her cousin, Augustus, in Potsdam. 

Answer 16

Happy New Year everyone.

Don't forget your genealogy goals for 2021 ... review them here.

Congratulations Pip on your 100,000+ contributions to WikiTree.

Comments

I got one of them done, Tommy. Finished one family and now working on two others that also need finishing. (I have them on two different computers or otherwise....)

Answer 17

Happy 2021 everyone, here on our little island, I have been forced to admit that it is cold, my "added insulation" means I don't feel the cold, our blue car became a white one due to the frost. We have also given up smoking, and our daughters midwife has said she is 90% certain she is having a girl, which is what I have always told her that her first child would be a girl, so a biological grandchild to add to our 6 non-biological ones, you can never have too many grandchildren  xxx

Comments

I agree with you, Karen, grandchildren are great! 

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I keep getting told off for spoiling them, but that is part of the fun of grandchildren, their happy faces make it all worthwhile  xxx

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I definitely agree, also the best thing about grandchildren is you can send them home.

My two are 10 and 20 and are the perfect example of the wish (curse) my mother put on me that I past in to my sons, "you should have 2 like you".

My younger son, he should have 4 like him.

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Karen, you are so right! One just cannot have too many grandchildren.

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And think carefully  before naming a child Nicholas, we have 3 in our family and I'm always surprised they are still alive.

Nick #1 liked collecting firecrackers the day after the event, and yes they blew up in his face, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, he also thought it would be fun to ride his bicycle on the wrong side of the road 'like they do in America'  that did not work out well.

Nick # 2 made his own bungee jump from the second floor to the basement stairwell at age 4, Daddy, Daddy I did it before crashing into the wall.

Nick # 3 Maybe his escapades should remain confidential, they concerned cat whiskers, vacuum cleaners, old sandwiches and dresser drawers. And when asked why Nick did you do xxx, he said But no one told me not to!

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M Ross,   Rule #3......When I'm rebuilding equipment.........don't ask and they won't say no.

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Answer 18

Blwyddyn newydd hapus ac iach i bawb, (a Happy and Healthy New Year to all, in Welsh) Pip and all.

Have a beautiful picture of the snow covered hills above the house, but can't figure out how to add it here. So much for computer literacy.

Comments

Images need to be somewhere accessible online in order to be added to g2g posts.  If you have a space page, upload it to that.  If you don't, a free web host is https://postimages.org/

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Upload it to either a free space, or to a dead person on your watchlist, then copy paste it into your comment.

There are other ways but they are far more complicated.

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James,  Once, years ago, I found, how to speak Welsh in minutes.......since then my computer doesn't know how to find it.

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I think you can use google translator , or just type in the phrase and add in english

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Thank you both, Melanie and  M., I hate to sound stupid, but you suggestions might as well been in Klingon, but, I'll try and get my daughter to help.

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You cannot upload images directly from your computer/device to g2g in the way you can to a profile.  A space page is just a profile for things not people, so you can upload images to space pages. 

To add an image to a g2g post, it needs to be either on Wikitree, or somewhere online that is publicly accessible (not some hidden google doc, for example) so the url is usable.

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Thanks Melanie, I've seen this one, now I know what it's  for.

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I gave an extremely comprehensive answer in this thread.  It's in two parts, because I was responding to something before I posted the full explanation.  (With images!) 

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I just read your answer on the thread, and I can see why it was picked best, I would have too.

Thanx again

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James, as soon as you figure out how to post the photo, put it in a new answer so we'll be sure not to miss it.

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Bore Da, James! A blwyddyn newydd hapus i chi hefyd! I hope I got this correct as I spent about 1/2 hour putting this together from an old Welsh dictionary!

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Bore da, a diolch yn ei fod 10:40 yma, (Good morning and thank you, it's 10:40 here). Welsh seems to be taking hold here, I think Pip is learning Welsh to.

If you type in your saying on Google or MSN put a comma and add in Welsh it will give you a translation. Also I think there is a Google translator.

I'am still learning myself, but living in the hills where if you don't learn fast, you end up talking to yourself. It's like being up the bayou and not speaking or at least understanding "Cajun French".

There are also websites that teach it on an easy scale.

James

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Bore da, James!

I actually studied Welsh (with records) from the mid 1970's to the mid 1980's. I had thought to do graduate work at the U of Caernarvon until I discovered the cost! So I moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Tucson and did my doctoral work at the U of Arizona. I spent 3 years teaching in Korea and Japan and learned a fair amount of Japanese. I really like that language, but it doesn't have the musical quality of Welsh. I have been back in Tucson since 1993 and now focus on Spanish because I have colleagues in Mexico.

I don't really know how well Google translate actually translates. Plus, I like to try and use my old Welsh dictionaries and phrase books. My first learnings were pronunciations for ll, dd w, etc. My first full learning was the Welsh National Anthem, which is beautiful. I'm also madly in love with John Owen Jones, who is the best Phantom of the Opera and Jean Valjean in Les Miz ever!

So, I will continue to try and use phrase books and dictionaries. When I have trouble with pronunciation now, I just ask Alexa.

Diolch yn fawr iawn! Nos da! Mae'n un a.m. yma!

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Good morning Carol, when you put the phrase or word in on google there are you tube vignettes that pronounce them for you, just to get the proper way of saying it.

Good on you for picking Welsh, there are a lot easier ones to learn.

James

Answer 19

I know, I know I am late to the party but I have my reasons. First Happy New Year. We got a message on New Years Eve that is never good. The 2 month old great granddaughter was rushed to the hospital after a bad fall. She seems fine now but that was a bad thing to hear at the time.I have not done anything about the personal tidbit I planned on this week and might just put it off for a week but let me say that other than the little one we are all in good health at the start of this new year even if it is very cold around here.

Comments

Having grandkids is as scary as having kids, but in a different way.  My granddaughter threw a scare into us when she was rushed to hospital (almost 14 years ago now).  So glad your little one is ok.

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Hope your little grandchild will be fine with no after effects. Scary for all of you, I'm sure.

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Just for the record I did make the Byers Surname contribution list as number one for both December and the year 2020. An example of one of those that I created back in 2014 during one of my visits to North Carolina where my daughter lives is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Byers-862 .

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Glad you made it, Dale. I was wondering where you were. Hope all is well with granddaughter is well with no side effects.

BTW: Thank you for your offer from last week. I will remember that when we need to get away a while. That was very kind of you!

Answer 20

Happy New Year everyone.  I envisioned any "wikikin cousin" that would allow my mind to hover over them at ten o'clock my time in New York to say that for me, and went to bed.  It will always be with a tiny bit of sadness for me.  My husband died eight years ago yesterday, although it was the very best thing that could happen for him at the time.  A
three year battle with the big Uncle Al, that had finally ended in an irreversible coma at age 93, gave him relief from a condition he never would pick for himself or wish on
anyone else.

Comments

It's good to hear from you, Beulah......All the best of the New Year.

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My heart goes out to you, Beulah. My dad lingered with Uncle Al for several years before death brought relief and peace.