"Welcome to the Weekend Chat!" All Members Invited!! March 24th - 26th, 2023 [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

It was popular in Mississippi too. I have bunch of Seaborn/Seburn/Seborn gentlemen in the family.

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iSPENT OVER 2 YEAR UNTANGLING THE pENNY'S PF sCOTLAND.  tHERE WERE OFTEN 3 OR MORE GENERATIONS IN SAME AREA WITH SIMILAR BIRTH DATES AND IDENTICAL NAMES.   THIS IS WHY MANY MERGER REQUESTS ASK FOR MORE RESEARCH MANY FAMILIES HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE WITH SIMILAR BIRTH DATES IN SAME AREAS  WITH IDENTICAL NAME THAT SPAN  GENERATIONS

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I'm doing the same thing, Laura. My Robertsons in Scotland have multiple people with the same name and very close birth dates and this happened in multiple generations. I have tons of Duncans, James and John. The ancestor I'm working on has 16 candidate births in the same general area. I think I can reduce that list to 5 but with the church registers having significant water damage it may not be possible. I see the same names showing up in my French Canadian ancestors but those are easier to sort out (until they come to the USA).

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I also have Robertson in my line.  So many with same names in same area across multiple generations it is hard to know if you get the right people.

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LOL, Robertson in Scotland... Amy Johnson Crow has in her 52 Ancestors sometimes the prompt "Same Name". In the Accuracy year I went into the Scottish list, looked for a Robertson family with three generations of same given name (IIRC son father granduncle) and corrected in at least one of the profiles something.

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Jelena. Robertson is like Koch or Weber in Germany. Tons of them.     InScotland’s People. There are 93,236 between 2800 and 1850.  Needless to say. Special care needs to be taken with any of these

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and in Perthshire, home of Clan Donnachaid (Robertson), it is even worse. Some other researchers of my ancestor have chosen parents but it is a guess and not based on evidence. Given so few of the records list parents, it does indeed take special care.

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once again Pip, thanks for the chat

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You are most welcome, K. As always, it is a privilege and a pleasure!

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I have same issues with my Penny and Kerr Scottish branches.

Answer 1

Hello Week-end Chatters from wherever you are!

We finally have spring weather here in north central Texas; the caveat is that it has included more wind and rain. The weekend is supposed to be beautiful with another burst of rain later in the week.

On the homefront, the patio make-over is almost complete; the concrete has cured enough and the two coats of sealer were applied. We are waiting for some of the crew to return and move the BigGreen Egg and our large umbrella from the yard to the patio - those take more muscle power than we have. Next project on Wednesday will be taking down the rest of the tree that was half-way split and blown over by one of the last storms. The stump has to be grinded out and then we will have another tree planted there.

I mentioned last week that my husband was due to get the results of a biopsy on Monday. The results were not what we were hoping for but the new best friends in the medical community have moved quickly. We saw the radiologist/oncologist yesterday (Thursday). His urologist has already scheduled one surgery and one procedure for April 6th and May 9th. The radiologist will be scheduling a "mapping" for an enhanced PET scan; by the end of May the radiation will begin - five days a week for eight weeks. We are happy with the medical advice and the quickness of their responses so we will just need to roll with the program.

I have not accomplished much in the genealogy department this week - was too distracted but now with a schedule I am tackling some projects again. I have begun making lists for the upcoming Thon. It is amazing how many holes can be found in family groups that I thought I had already completed!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed week.

Comments

Best wishes for your husband's ongoining healing, Virginia! Sending good energy.

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Thanks so much. I appreciate your thoughts!

Answer 2

Hi all from Germany

where the weather is currently dominated from a western flow. This means that the weather is changeable. This morning it was first rainy and we went grocery shopping only in the late morning. But for Sunday the meteorologist said: "There will be everything somewhere in Germany." Some will stay dry, some will get rain or wind, some will get snow. Looking at the detailed local forecast it seems to be dry, rainy and thunderstormy on Sunday here.

Personally, we now started to plan for our visit in Serbia during summer. (No this is not my birthday present, that is a trip to somewhere else.) We were looking for flats for rent to stay, since we cannot stay anymore where we stayed all the time, but then mum's cousin said: "Hey, you can stay in my flat. I will be away anyway for some time, there's no problem. " The wife of a cousin of mine also said we could stay with her. So we will stay with family, the only question is with whom.

Genealogy: The Germany project is still working to get a grip on the category structure. The location categories seem quite straight now, at least in the order how they should be created and parented. But the migration categories are... hmmm how to call them... a bit messy, or maybe a bit more than a bit messy. Yes this is also because of the zillion of territories we talk about. The German Wikipedia has a list of territories in the Holy Roman Empire. Yes, some of these territories were not in modern Germany, but most of them were. We now have to come up with a structure how to manage the migration categories and how to deal with them when new ones have to be created. A project member of us will probably some time in April write a draft for a suggestion how to structure it and put it on G2G to get also ideas of the people who work with HRE.

Yesterday and today I took a bit of a break of all this category stuff and worked on my own things. Yesterday I went into the online heritage book of my ancestral town and looked for people who emigrated to the US. And when I found them also on WikiTree because someone else created them I tried (and achieved) to connect them to my own profiles. That shortened one connection from 28 to 17 steps and one (once the profile manager reacts since the connection goes to a green locked profile) from 54 to 22 steps. Today I worked a bit on my watchlist and completed some profiles with all the children and parents, so that I could throw them eventually from my watchlist.

That's it for today. Stay safe and have a great weekend

Comments

Wow, Professor...looking at the map, with my few remaining words of German, all I can say is "ach du lieber Augustin." Or as our local Finns might say " holy wah"!

My husband's grandparents immigrated from Bavaria, or the equivalent, sometime before WWI, but that's all he knows. They didn't talk about it much.

Take care...D

Answer 3

Hello from Christchurch, New Zealand. Been rather busy this week with work so haven't done much on Wikitree.

 Watchlist is down to 4932. I have done a new Cemetery Free Space page at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Karoro_Cemetery%2C_Greymouth%2C_West_Coast as the old one was done to old Global Cemetery project standards whereas the new Cemeterist Project has different and better standards and naming practices. 

No new 15 for 15 missions completed but some missions have been added to which will slowly get completed.

Comments

Darren, you DID get some good stuff done, from reducing your watchlist to creating the new cemetery space page. Good for you!

Answer 4

Happy weekend, Wikitree!

Thank you, Pip, for hosting the weekend chat. Catch your ZZzs where where you can. You are a lifelong learner and conscientious reader- there's no shame in coasting through a few weeks of class. 

I am quiet in G2G for a bit while I work through one of those multigeneration same name New England Soduko genealogical puzzles that has tripped up so many genealogists that the AI systems are now serving up random documents on Ancestry and FS so the wise have just stopped and left warnings or research notes. I happen to be descended from a combination of the Richardson and Partridge same name/same places that I think my perspective offers a clearer view of what happened in the Ellis family. People in New England seem to take even their dating advice from the scriptures- like the patriarchs, they kept going back to the same well to look for a spouse. My family tree has numerous braids of interwined family lineages. I've got a lot of profiles to create to fill in the gaps! No worries- I do a thorough job of scouting ahead and using Ancestry to mark my trail between the PGM people and their nineteenth century descendants.

Happy hunting, my friends!

Comments

@A, I can relate. Not looking forward to sorting out my Williams, Johns, Jameses, and now Dempseys (!). At least in New England they have good birth/christening records...not like in Georgia where you might get a family Bible record or will probate, if you're lucky...marriage records too, but they can be sporadic.

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Yes, I love my tan books. A lot of towns were blessed with scholarly types who assembled decent histories which include genealogical summaries. Those can be cross- referenced with family genealogies and the "prominent men" collections. When the documents line up, you're golden...until the DNA results inform you otherwise. Who would have expected one result of the Great Awakening would be a bump in extramarital affairs? https://doi.org/10.2307/2711022 A few of the clergy diaries have survived and been discovered; they testify to the full humanity of our ancestors.

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:My family tree has numerous braids of intertwined family lineages." Oh, yeah, A, I know exactly how this works, bit in one sense it does makes a few things easier, like not having to create more lines as they are already there.

Answer 5

Thanks for hosting, Pip, and howdy to all the WikiTree folks from snowy Upper Michigan! Beautiful sunny day in the 30s, so Alice and I took a *short* walk. My hip, having tried to compensate for the blown-out knee from my spill on the ice 3 weeks ago, decided to yell at me, hence the brevity. I've been limping through my dance classes, taking it easy, but my students are pretty advanced and I can always call on them to demonstrate more complicated steps. I generally still put on the YakTraks even to go to the mailbox.

Genealogy: I belong to a Facebook page for descendants of Civil War soldiers (I have 6 known CW ancestors, 3 on each side). One lady's post caught my eye, as she was looking for info on the Frink surname, and it jogged my memory. I vaguely remembered a family story or two about an "Aunt Mary Frink", and said I'd check my connections. Turned out "Aunt Mary" was my 3x ggrandmother's older sister, and this woman was related to her husband. We struck up a lively conversation, and she sent me scans of some pages from a book she had. Of course, I had to go build out Aunt Mary's tree. I'd forgotten how she was related to us!

Then I had to go clean up a mess I'd made, clicking the wrong link and accidentally listing a woman from Transvaal, South Africa, as her sister *sigh*

Wish me luck. Last night I took the online Jeopardy! test for what must be the eighth or ninth time (been doing it since back when you had to sign up for a specific date), and been invited to 1 online and 3 regional auditions, with no success. They generally contact me every other year. Maybe this time...I did pretty well, only missing a few questions about chemistry, basketball and such.

Friends posted some pretty spectacular pictures of the aurora borealis last night. I missed it. Grrr.

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Comments

D, all six of my CW ancestors were all Confederate, but I did have a couple of mountains uncles/cousins who crossed the Smokies to join Tennessee Union regiments.

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Yup, cuz, quite a few Unionists in w. NC/e. TN. A friend is writing a book about these tangled lineages. My mom' s family are all from New England, lol...

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There was a book published by a fella here in the mountains whose research showed there was a lot more Confederate sentiment than was previously thought. For the life of me I cannot remember his name or the title.

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Some were just too busy trying to take care of their farms and families to be too involved in the war effort. Have you read the diary of Basil Armstrong Thomasson (published as "North Carolina Yeoman")? A farmer and teacher in Iredell County. I believe he was a Unionist but never had to commit, as he became ill and died in 1862.

Answer 6

Greetings from Braman Corners, folks.  Thank you, Pip, for hosting.  Spring is finally coming, after a few false starts.  The fields are starting to show some brown, as the snow melts.  There are piles of dirt and sod all over from plowing the last big snowfall, and the mud season is around the corner.  The birds at the feeder are starting to change with new arrivals, and the deer are out in force.  My dearly beloved let out a yell and tapped on the window.  "They're in the day lillies already!"  I went out and spread some blood meal to discourage them.  The early spring flowers emerged budded out as the snow receded, and a glimpse of sun opened them up. 

A recent visitor:

Crocuses this afternoon:

Snowdrops:

I've continued to work on local profiles, catch as catch can, for the last few weeks.

Thank you all for the connections.  Enjoy the chat!

Comments

Mark I'm hoping for crocuses and snowdrops in the next few days, they are popping up out of the soil, daylilies are just starting to grow.

Have you tried Leucojum Gravetye Giant, white sort of like a giant snowdrop.

Another good choice and native is Camassia leichtlinii, blue yes really blue, blooms here late May to mid June

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Thanks for the great photos, Mark!

Does blood meal really deter the hoof rats? They're pretty determined around here...

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M, we don't have either of those, here.  I'll look into them.  The blood meal seems to work, D, as long as we're faithful about reapplying it after each rain.  It has the side benefit of attracting coyotes, which deter the deer.

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Blood meal does work but has to be reapplied as Mark says.

Another option that does not need to reapplied is Plantskydd, it includes vegetable oil so it doesn't wash off.

It smells awful and that is a polite description, you need to wear clothes you don't care about when applying it, and preferably store the clothes in a garage or shed, it stains and if stored inside your house the smell will permeate everywhere.

It was designed/ created to stop deer browsing on newly planted trees. I have used it on trees both deciduous and evergreen on ecological restoration sites.

" Plantskydd is the first animal repellent OMRI Listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute as suitable for use in the production of organic food and is USDA approved for organic gardening."

https://www.plantskydd.com/prodfaq.html

Answer 7

On this day:

1611: The Turkish explorer Evliya Çelebi is born

1655: Saturn's moon Titan is discovered

1821: In the Greek monastery Agia Lavra starts the Greek War of Independence

Comments

Lesson #2: Agia Lavra, sounds like a good one. Thanks again. Professor!

Answer 8

Hello from a cool and wet day in south Cheshire  I am currently sat in a bedroom which is ideal for watching visitors to our bird feeders A pair of ring doves are sat in an aged apple tree with nesting materials in their beaks. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of swallows who will nest in our woodshed The earliest they have arrived was 24th March and the latest 23rd April .

I had been adding sources to a profile of a distant relative when I received a private message about him. It turns out that he was her gg grandfather and we are now conversing via email. She has offered to look up some details for me - yet another kind person so willing to help me .

On the home front we had a wood burning stove installed recently and this has meant that we need to redecorate My hubbie is not at all fond of doing such and in the past I have done all the paiting etc - but since having had a serious accident and having had too have a shoulder replacement I cannot manage to use a paintbrush successfully...so he had had to become the painter of the household. But before he could paint there were repairs to plaster work and some new skirting was required so this has turned out to be a marathon Two and a half walls are now painted and he has had enough for the day escaping to a polytunnel as his green fingers have been itching to pot on seedlings and to pollinate our nectarine trees as insects are somewhat scarce at the moment

Well must do some jobs TTFN

Comments

A, we have just started to see the mating rituals of our native birds here. I think they know that it's been a long winter and are ready for some action! 

Answer 9

I don't complain, I am thankful for easy contributions, but it seems I have to say it again.

In the German language there are no "middle names"! 

No matter if a person has three or ten given names, all of them should come into the "First Name Field".

Comments

May your message resonate from hilltop to hilltop and reach far into the valleys of Wikitree!

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Same for French! I periodically undo some helpful researchers who change my French Canadian ancestors names to have middle names. I wish the middle name field would just go away.

Answer 10

Hi, all - finally got over the Sierras to visit my sister. Greetings from sunny California!

Comments

Enjoy your visit, Shelley. I know you have been waiting on that trip for a while.

Answer 11

On this day:

1828: Franz Schubert performs his only public concert

1923: The BBC sends the first weather forecast for the UK

1973: ABBA releases its first album Ring Ring

Comments

Lesson #3: Going with the BBC, then I'll be all caught up. Thanks a million, Professor!

Answer 12

It is 5:39 am Sunday morning in Fenton, Missouri. A sw suburb of St Louis. Close to the middle of the USA   It is 44F. And expected to get into the 60s today. Partly sunny today. It rained Thursday and Friday. We seem to have 2 days of rain each week lately.    

My 2nd granddaughter turned 6 last week and we had celebrations of her birth. She loves to read and art projects are always something she enjoys 

on the genealogy side after 30 years of looking I finally found my biggest brick wall blasted through. Family Search added records and there she was.  Hurray.  Check out Eva Weber Walter.  Weber was her maiden name. So having a common surname did not make research easy in those 30 years.  She is Weber-5077 on WikiTree.   

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Weber-5077

I was able to add her parents and grandparents.     I was so excited I screamed and my husband came running thinking something bad had happened. He said I need a calmer hobby.    He made me check my blood pressure. It was admittedly higher than we would want.  

Bookcases  we have  19   Floor to ceiling it too a 14 foot truck to move our books in 1994 when we moved here   I keep donating books to book fairs that support charities  and we still don’t seem to have empty shelves   

Never too old to learn   With a good library you can learn so many things.

Ok new topic    I have a friend who lives in a rural area and asked me to research Bigfoot  don’t laugh    This is someone who is not given to histrionics or fantasy  and was shook to the core at what he said he saw   After doing a lot of research  it was interesting to discover more scientists are starting to say it needs to be investigated with scientific methods      So anyone have any good resources?   My friend has had advanced surveillance and survival training   He is not unskilled in tracking or hunting  anyway he is looking for good resources    I sent him a number of links to statements by a number of primatologists and anthropologists and people who specialize in ancient dna in human evolution and archeology as well as folklore    It is amazing what multiple disciplines have to say   On the topic    Feel free to drop me private message if you’re not comfortable discussing on a public forum     

Comments

Congrats on breaking that brick wall! I only hope San Pietro follows suit and gets more records online. Though, requests are more than welcome, it seems. :)

As far as Bigfoot goes, you never know. The world is a strange place.

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Laura,  Cousin Frank, Kathy and I are planning a trip across the river, in the near future, to the Sasquatch Inn for lunch.....perhaps we might ask him some questions.

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Sasquatch, skinwalkers, paranormal, aliens.... why not? There is probably more evidence for their existence than for not. Since time is money, and you can't buy more of one with the other, that question my have to go unanswered in my lifetime.

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The man who asked.me for research help is close to Mark Twain National Forest   gage wants to understand what to do and not do. His wife is really scared.   I sent him a lot of university research and some government data I could find and access.    He is following the training of don’t panic. Assess your situation sans don’t underestimate your possible adversary but don’t overreact either. My advice was don’t go looking for trouble.  Go into a populated area and stay there.

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I used to pull all nighters fishing as a young man. I've also spent a lot of time alone in the woods. I've seen and heard stuff that you never see or hear in the daylight. Kind of makes one wonder.

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SINCE i HAVE IMPAIRED MOBILITY i STAY OUT OF THE WOODS.   mY ELECTRIC MOBILITY SCOOTER DOES HANDLE GRASS AND WELL PACKED GRAVEL ROADS BUT WOODLAND TRAILS ARE NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR ME.  I USED TO HIKE A LOT.  THOSE DAYS ARE OVER UNLESS IT IS A PAVED TRAIL.

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Woohoo! Fantastic news on that brickwall, Laura. I am so glad for you. How excellent!

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I know the deal. A botanical garden is now the great outdoors. I think Powell Gardens had a dinosaur exhibit a few years back, but, no "Squatch"

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Thanks Pip I am still doing a happy dance.

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I'm dancing with you, Laura! 

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Hugs my friend. You are a most marvelous host.  Thank you for everything you do but mostly for being a good man. You make this world a better place. Never doubt that you matter

Answer 13

Very late to the party but I made it. I had a post written about my week but it got lost due to computer problems. We had another antenna party yesterday morning and got it working but then we lost power due to a bad storm and I went into disaster mode. Today we have power but two great granddaughters, with their parents, are visiting so have a good weekend and hopefully next weekend I can fill you all in a bit more.

Comments

Hey Dale, my wife's uncle who was a "ham", Gus Justice, caused me to do a little research. I came across a youtube video on his family life, of which, I was ill informed. The Justice Brothers History. I'm not sure how big the Ham Community is, but I'm sure somewhere out there, someone is still enjoying his equipment

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Have fun with the family, Dale.

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Missed you, Dale. Thanks for checking in with us.

Answer 14

Under normal circumstances I wouldn't post a second answer. But it seems normal circumstances are less than common these days. As I prepare myself to say good-bye to a friend of 35 years, I took a pause to help celebrate 40 years of marriage with other friends. It included several of my former co-workers, who have been friends first for several years. The only one missing was Scott, my friend of 35 years who is dealing w/ cancer.

Upon my return home, I am advised of another friend, from a different circle, who died suddenly, unexpectedly at 62, night before last. The last time I spoke to Dave, he called to advise me of another friend who was in poor shape who died within a couple days of Dave's call.

From a genealogical point of view, it's to be expected. From a personal view, it's difficult to process. How will they be remembered? As long as I live, they shall remembered by their laughter and their love for life. The last face-to-face Dave and I had was a chance encounter where we decided we should meet for beer and remember some of our old friends to keep their memories alive. Another missed opportunity I suppose. No doubt Steve would be a topic of discussion and good laughs. He died unexpectedly at 60 from a stroke almost eight years ago.

As I visit local Historical Societies, and cemeteries where silent headstones serve as reminders of family and friends existence, I am reminded that we all fade over the coarse of time. For those that I knew, I can still hear them laugh. For those I never met, I wonder if they had a sense of humor. Did they take the opportunity to help someone up, or did they use them to better themselves. For whatever reason, the first article I saw this morning, answered many of these questions and more, including "brick-walls"  ‘A public disgrace’: The forgotten desecration of bodies at Kansas City Union Cemetery

Don't be afraid to laugh in life, it might just be how you are remembered

Comments

Good Morning, K......I took some time, yesterday, to look up several YouTube videos of an old friend, 'Pepsi Pete' and his self loading log truck.

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"From a genealogical point of view, it's to be expected. From a personal view, it's difficult to process." I know exactly how you feel, K. I read the article and it hammers home the concepts of grief, remembrance, and honor. What a shame.

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I don't go to the city much anymore. But I will make it a point to not drive on the roads that were once Union Cemetery. My next query is, was it my James Hunter that contributed to the original fraud in the burial practices of the past.

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K you have warm cyber hugs from me. Like you I have endured too much loss of young people. And it takes a while to deal with grief. Every life they touched will remember them based on their interactions.  Every night I talk to those who have left this world to let them know I still care and I still want them to know what they meant to me

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Thanks Laura

Answer 15

Here I sit this morning looking for the sun, that came back a day earlier than forecast, yesterday and now I can see blue sky breaking overhead through the cloud.  I must confess that I created last week's hot spell by taking some unneeded nighttime degrees, from the forecast and adding them to the daytime......I paid the price by way of a cooling off period with sprinkles and snow on the mountains down to the 2000 ft. level.

Comments

Hey John, I did some of the same. I was looking at YouTube and came across, The Justice Brother's History. They were much more into racing than I ever imagined. In the video, mention was made of "Big Daddy" Don Garlett and a sponsorship of his. Rapid Ron said he could not compete with guys that didn't have to pay for what they broke. The world gets smaller and smaller it seems, as the pieces come together. I can't remember if I shared w/ you my more recent find. After tracking down a second cousin, I find he was known in the racing world as "Mr Horsepower" aka Clay Smith of Clay Smith Cams. Both companies are alive and well today as they approach 100 year anniversaries. To my knowledge, none of my family knew anything about his, yet I can't believe Gus and Clay didn't know about each other.

'Pepsis Pete' will be my next video. As luck would have it, dad told me stories of how he left home at 14 for Colorado. In his journey, he drove wore out logging trucks when he was 15 or sixteen as the war created a shortage of "man power" state side. Is it me, or did the world just get smaller yet again.

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K, there seem to be other 'Pepsi Pete' characters......my 'Pepsi Pete' worked a substantial area surrounding Vancouver, B.C.