Category: Musings

Happy Father’s Day!  Here are a few photos of men in my life who are great fathers.

So technically I would not qualify for an excused absence from this blog if I applied the rules from my local school district.  But my excuse is pretty awesome!  I have been missing in action because we buying a new home.  According to Google Maps, our new house is only .9 miles away from our current one.  My in-laws have been wonderful and let us temporarily move into their home while we sell ours.  All is going well and fingers crossed we will move into the new house at the end of June.

Unfortunately I did not have any extra posts ready and scheduled for this blog.  Now that we are settled in at my in-laws house, I am able to look at my genealogy files again.  It feels so good to be writing!  In fact, I am really surprised how much I missed writing these last couple of weeks.  My fingers clicking away on the keyboard is a happy sound.

I have a plan to get back into the groove of writing and stay here.  I have already jotted down a list of blog posts I would like to write.  I am going to focus the next couple of weeks on writing for a short amount of time each morning.  I also want to create a buffer for myself with some blog posts that can be written in advance for any breaks in writing (like vacation, moving our furniture, etc.).  I am motivated and dancing the happy dance.

I have to admit that I missed my 2nd Blog Anniversary yesterday.  I was catching up on reading genealogy blogs in Feedly this afternoon when I saw my blog listed in the Daily Blogging Beat.  I could not help but laughing because Mommy Brain has struck again.   This is not the first anniversary I have missed.

This past November we were lucky to go to Maui on vacation.  One evening I was sitting at a luau with my kids, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and sister-in-law’s mother-in-law (did you have to read that twice?).  We were having a fun girls night out.  As we were talking to the newlyweds across the table from us when it suddenly occurred to me, “Haha! Today is my 5 year wedding anniversary and we both forgot!”  I quickly texted my wonderful hubby a message of love.

My kids are the best thing to ever happen so a pesky thing like mommy brain doesn’t bother me.  Knowing I have a problem with remembering things has forced me to find ways to help myself out.  I have a bunch of alarms on my phone so I don’t forget to pick daughter #1 up from school, take her to dance class, forget items for share day, etc. I also have created Google calendars for important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries.  I added a new event today – my blogiversary!  Hopefully next year will be more successful in remembering that I have accomplished the goal of writing for another entire year!

Thanks for reading my adventures in genealogy.  Cheers to another year!

This past weekend I received an envelope from my Dad in the mail.  He was recently cleaning out desk and found some papers he thought I might enjoy seeing.  Most of the photocopies are things I made as a kid that my parents kept.  It was fun to get a view of my child self.

There are also two newspaper clippings in the envelope my Dad sent me.  The first one I read was titled “Man shot to death by a police officer.”  It tells the story of a man who beat up his girlfriend at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley, California.  He then fought with a group of picnickers who stepped in.  There was off duty police officers at the park attending a neighborhood watch picnic at the same time.  They stepped in when the aggressor returned to the fight with a hammer and shears.  After repeatedly telling the man to drop his weapons, he lunged at the one of the officers and was shot.  He died minutes later on the way to the hospital.

The second newspaper clipping looks to be from the Orange County Register, 18 May 1980.  It is titled “Picnicking SA Cope Kills Anaheim Attacker.”  This article repeats the story as told above.  The most important thing about this article is what is written in the margin.  In my Mother’s handwriting, it says, “Sierra – age 2- 50 yards away feeding ducks.”

I knew what these articles were about because my Mom had called me when my Dad found them in his desk.  She had never told me about being at the park that day because she had simply forgotten about it.  We lived nearby in Huntington Beach, California at the time.  It sounds like we went to this park a lot together while we lived in the area.  We were present and a little close for comfort when the police shot the man who attacked them.

It occurs to me that these newspaper clippings would be pretty much meaningless without the notes in the margin of the second one.  The only names mentioned in the articles are those of the man shot and the off duty police officer who shot him.  I would have no idea my Mom and I were present if I did not have any clues.

If you find newspaper clippings in your family’s possession that seem random, they might not be.  It could be an event that they were present at but not named.  It is definitely worth more investigation!

I am embarrassed to admit this but I have over 100 items sitting in my shoebox on Ancestry.com.  I wish I had some great story as to why they are sitting there.  The reality is I have put the records in the shoebox because I am too busy pinball researching in the late hours of the night. (Dear Myrtle wrote a great post about Pinball Genealogy in January.  Read about it here and here.)  I am shocked at how many great records are waiting for analysis and a citation.

In an effort to stop any further lazy behavior and practice better researching skills, I have decided to clean out my shoebox.  If it is empty, I will be less likely to toss records into my box of shame.

I am hoping to post on Thursdays fairly regularly with the items I am recovering from that genealogy purgatory.  Hope you enjoy!

One of the genealogy blogs I love to read is Leaves for Trees written by Heather Kuhn Roelker.  One of the reasons I enjoy the blog so much is the graphics and photos that are included in the posts.  Check out this Surname Saturday post about James Madison Thomas.  The post includes fun graphics that highlight the children of James Thomas, a map, a snippet from a book, and a marriage record.  Having more than just letters on a page makes for a fun read.

Heather Kuhn Roelker has written a couple of posts on her blog about how she creates the graphics and timelines in Excel.  Check them out at SmartArt and Excel Timelines.  I used the directions for the SmartArt graphics in my Sunday’s Obituary – Lydia Ummel Lawbaugh.  Here is my first attempt at making a timeline in excel:

I can’t thank Heather enough.  By sharing her tricks with Excel, my blog will be a better looking place to visit.

I have been a little absent from my genealogy blog as of late.  Twenty four days is the longest I have gone without a blog post since the inception of my writing endeavor. Surprisingly, I am okay with this.

This year I am working on not stressing so much.  I am a control freak so having kids was one of the best things to happen to me.  It took me a long time to come to terms with the idea that once you have a kid (or two), you can’t get as much done in a day.  I have found that I am still stressing over things I cannot control so I am making a concerted effort to change that.  “Go with the flow” has become my mantra.

I think that most will agree that December is one of the craziest months of the year.  Added to the “normal” December crazy, I was involved in a car accident.  I am so grateful that my children were not injured.  It was not until last week that I felt completely like myself again.  Added to my recent stress levels is having to be in court.  Not to worry, I have done nothing criminal.  The last two weeks were worth it because we ended with a moral victory.  I sure wish that I could have had The Legal Genealogist with me in court to translate all of the legal jargon.

The good news is that I have managed to somewhat stay relaxed during all of this.  More good news is I have received a couple of pieces of information regarding my husband’s maternal line.  Now that I am in my regular schedule and my refrigerator has food in it again, I am back on the blogging wagon.  It feels good to be back.