Knee Deep in Discovery

I'm knee deep-not "knee deep in June" as the James Whitcomb Riley poem describes..knee deep in genealogy. I'd been away from it for nearly a year-regretfully but feeling that I'd gone as far as I could. Refreshingly, I got started again full on course. I received by email (the internet is one of the most amazingly convenient and immediate modes of communication and sharing)some pictures I'd never seen from a cousin of Michael's. Michael hadn't seen his cousin in 50 years and then only saw him rarely. His cousin's quest was initiated by a friend of his son's who had contacted me through Ancestry.com. She was doing a favor for her friend as a gift whom she knew never knew much at all about his father's family. She and I unlocked many lost pieces and secrets that I'm sure Michael's mother didn't even know.
Things started clicking in my mind again and I got the big hat box of old pictures and grandma's funeral guest book. I started looking up the names of family who had signed their condolences and who had sent floral gifts. VOILA~perseverance, lots of patience and a discerning eye for birth dates, scrambled names written by well meaning census takers and other members of families are the key to unlocking the mysteries of relationships and identity of old photos.
Michael and his cousin knew none of the names I asked them to recall..they both said they only knew their grandma and she died when they were 9 and 17. They really didn't pay much attention and no one ever seemed to talk about the family which is a common thread in many families. Maybe because back then relatives lived very close together on the same street or in the same town or county. Maybe because there were secrets that were to never be discussed.
Last night after many hours of checking pages and pages of census and border crossings and ship arrivals for siblings of whom I deduced were related to their great grandma I am 98% sure I have found her maiden name and her parents name and their origins. I didn't uncover royal ties like Brooke Shields did in the television series "Who Do You Think You Are", and rarely will you uncover such a link, but it is exciting to at last know names and occupations and to be able to identify people in photographs...people who worked in skilled labor and farming jobs and lived ordinary houses that housed many children who grew up,got married and did the same hard working jobs to build this country from the ground up.

Springy Spring

Spring has SPRINGED! Here are some shots of spring around the Wildlife Habitat back yard. This is our neighbor's cat, Lucas. The squirrels call him "Danger" although he doesn't scare them when he tries to chase them..they love to taunt him. We took these photos of the magnolia tree right before a spring storm with the storm warning sirens blowing. Fortunately it only thundered and rained. The best kind of spring storm and afternoon entertainment of furry creatures. (You can double click on the images to see what's going on with the cat and the squirrel)

SHARING OUR DIARIES

Blogs are the new diary of our lives. They are the way most of us wile away the evening or late night. What is the purpose of it, one might be asked? Not so much a purpose as it is a joy. The thrill comes from writing, photography, reading and connecting with so many people all over the world who actually think like you do and think MORE than you do. It exposes you to all sorts of ideas and images that you might not be as readily exposed to if you didn't shout out in cyberspace. It helps you hone your skills at text writing for teaching a craft or moves your mind in a way that helps you improve your thinking and verbage;it enables you to discover computer skills you didn't know before. It surprises your kids! It makes even the home bound feel they can travel and connect with new found friends. That is worth more than monetary income. Once you start blogging it is addictive...it vitalizes you and it makes you go to bed at night thinking about what your next few posts can be about and what things you want to share or wonder about. It fills that creative need and helps us sort out our jumbled minds at times. Sometimes you get plagued with writers block...it is only temporary and natural and well understood by your fellow bloggers. Interesting note is that no matter what anyone has to talk about..no matter how great or how seemingly insignificant..it strikes a cord with your readers.
Only downside...your butt has a tendency to get wider.!!

We're having Kentucky Legend Ham (the only kind of ham to buy according to my dear friend Ginny)~delish rice and mushroom casserole, roasted peach halves with raisin filling for Easter dinner. Then our next project is to assemble the gazebo we bought at Target Thursday night. It says it only takes 1 1/2 hours to assemble...we'll see.....a man and a woman working on an outdoor project....uh. It'll be a snap...hope we don't snap each others head off! hahaha Oh, and here's something I did Friday afternoon. I painted my old poly resin outdoor settee and chair. Give me my craft paints and an afternoon and I am a happy girl! It started out green and I sprayed it yellow with paint made for plastic..great stuff. Then I took watered down red paint and painted it on. This is the effect you get. I have done this before and even though you might have to redo it to make it vibrant again in a year or so if you leave it out in the harsh winter weather, it is a fast easy project. I also repainted my cement frog...he loved it and it gave me a chance to chat with him. He loves to chat and tell me all the things that he has seen this spring in the Wildlife Habitat backyard...believe me he says he has seen a lot! Ollie the mystery cat, the skunk, the opossum out in the middle of the day... It's a very happenin' place.

Happy Easter Eve

Yes, it's a family name of ours! Daffodils are bloomed and spinach quiche for Easter Eve supper~next we color Easter Eggs!

STORIES AND A GOOD NAP

I love stories. I love to listen to stories, to people telling me stories, listening to songs that tell a story. I really don't talk all that much. Most of my friends carry the conversation and I listen because it's like they are telling me a story. Guess it stems from when I was a little girl and at nap time my mom or dad laid down with me and my sister and they read or told us stories. My mom read from a very old book of ours wonderful poems like Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright, The Owl and the Pussycat, Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat, Lil' Orphant Annie...stories and poems like that. I read those to my kids too. My dad loved to tell us fables...like the one about the Crow and the Pitcher, The Wolf In Sheep's Clothing, and my favorite The Fox and the Grapes. He would lie back on the pillow with each of us beside him and put his arms behind his head and make up some fables too and we especially loved that~they always pertained to something that happened and it would make us think about doing better. I wish I could tell stories like my daddy could. Just had a thought~maybe that's why I like little short naps so well~ nap time was a very happy time when I was little.

Who Do We Think We Are?

Working on my genealogy again. I've been away from it for a while and realize now that I really made a lot of family connections while I was at it but now I am not remembering the connections as clearly. My, gosh, it really is addicting..causes you to stay up very late especially if you keep finding more and more information. I made a lot of progress on Michael's side this past weekend...found old pictures of grandparents and great grandparents from other unknown relatives' family trees on Ancestry.com. I am sure that I am discovering relatives and pictures that our ancestors never knew existed. I can't emphasize how great that website is and what a boon it is to those of us who are on the road to know who we are and who we are from. The new television show.."Who Do You Think You Are?" is really getting people revved up. And besides it is so much fun solving mysteries in your family that relatives older than us never really talked about. I discovered wills and land owner documents...all kinds of interesting little tidbits to help define who we came from. It is helpful to track illness tendencies within families and we've discovered that many of our relatives lived to very old ages~kind of blows the life expectancy numbers out of the water. Well, back to more discoveries!