Apropos of Nothing v.9

We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1072628/

This thread can't be derailed because there's no topic. HA!

I had a great Valentine's day. Tracy totally pulled one over on me. He gave me a pink fishing rod with a reel that lights up when it spins, (I actually wanted this, it's the funniest thing ever.) and the biggest box of chocolates I've ever seen. I was going to have him open his presents but he kept insisting I open the giant box of chocolates. I was a little confused by this, as it was before breakfast, but I figured he just *really* wanted to try them. So okay, pull off the shrink wrap, open the box, and it was a laptop. A shiny green Dell Studio 15. He took this giant freakin' chocolates box to a deli and had them shrink wrap it for him so he could trick me. LOL! He's so devious and sneaky! I loves him!

Oh, and there was a smaller box of chocolates in with the laptop- he wasn't taking any chances. *snicker*

Here's a random picture of Myrrh. :)

How awesome, Pony!!!!!

Now that's a great guy - and enjoy the new laptop Pony!

"Tomorrow we are going to try bookmaking with some friends."


HA! The first time I was in Ireland I kept seeing all these "Bookmaker" shops. I finally decided I wanted to go in and watch them make some books.....

Imagine my disappointment to go in and find nothing but some tables,newspapers, tv's and betting windows.

Now every time I'm there my friends point them out and suggest that I need a book, while snickering.....

Humph.

Ginger

Pony, that is so cool! How sweet of him.
Ginger, that is a funny story.

Big points for Tracy on that one!!

Myrrh has eyes like my Dolce - those big round ones.

Pony, You have such a sweet man! Lots and lots of points for being both thoughtful and creative.

We have agreed to stop giving each other gifts for valentines day other than the gift of the other's undivided attention for the evening (something that we rarely get with family and chore obligations). After you have been together for almost *gasp* 20 years, a romantic evening is a wonderful gift in and of itself. I did however get a little surprise yesterday morning... this was on my computer....

Who else can say that they received an annodized billet aluminum battery hold down with their name hand milled into it for valentines day? Who says that car parts can't be romantic?

Great gifts and givers, girls.

I was just over reading an article on gardening at the White House and started thinking about my paternal grandfather. His name was George Washington Bennett. My dad's name was Carl Harrison Bennett and my uncle was William Howard Bennett. Rumor has is my great grandfather had thirteen children and named them, all the boys, after presidents. If any of your ancesters from the 1800's were named that way, we might be related. I have a picture of the ggrand and my grand when he was about three years old, in a dress. Just a fun fact.

This message was edited Feb 15, 2010 3:12 PM

No one in my family named so creatively! However, my DH's family's original pioneer was Thomas Sawyer and several generations later a second Thomas Sawyer was cousins with Mary Prescott for whom the ditty "mary had a little lamb" was supposedly coined.

That's fun.

On my Mom's side I am a Clark..from THE Clarks. on the other side...my Dad's name is David Livingston(e). I am genetically predisposed to explore!

G.

Hmmm. Maybe we need a genealogical thread. This is fun stuff. We're related to Mary Todd Lincoln and, very far off, Princess Diana.

I'm not sure I want to know who I'm related to beyond the family that I know. What if they are scoundrels and convicts? Eeeek.

My Mom loves geneology and found out that we are related to Benedict Arnold(by his sister ).What a proud moment! All I care about is my late Grandparents,parents, 7 siblings and my children and neices & nephews..the rest is so not relevent to me. My Mom is always telling me about some ancient relatives and all I hear is blah..blah..blah.blah. She is also an active member of the DAR . More Blah..blah..blah. I like to live for today. :)

Beadmom
One of the residents where I work is a great granddaughter of the CLARK. She is 102. LOL

Who are THE Clarks? As in the explorer?

My mom's sister researched and was in the DAR also. She was miffed when we said no thanks. No one famous just a heck of a lot of people.

Maybe we can find a '7 steps removed from'.

This message was edited Feb 15, 2010 6:52 PM

Yes Lewis and Clark, Clark.

My great aunt was in the DAR also. Made sure everyone had copies of the paperwork. I think she was pretty disappointed no one else was interested, either. It's still kind of interesting to know some of that history even without anyone important in the family back then (or now, lol)

I am just a mutt, no lineage here. However, my late husband and our son has traced the Weidman family to the 1500's, I think. Now I will have to ask him.

We have a very hard family to track as our last name on my father's side has several different spellings. Mom tried for a short time but got stalled at the great great's I think. I am good with living in the now as well!

Awww! Julie, that's totally sweet. :D

That was so sweet, Julie. He's a keeper!

I was in the DAR as a kid. My mom wrote a book about our descendants from a pivotal guy in the 18th century. For those people who took the time to establish their lineage, I think it's a landmark, so I can see how it would be important to them. I'm grateful for all the work she did. Each of those people has a very interesting story that tells a lot about their time.

I'm pretty sure I'm related to my husband. Okay, seriously. We think our families crossed paths somewhere in Tennessee around the 1700's when my father's family was moving down through Tennessee and into Texas. Our family's claim to fame on the mother's side: John Hancock . On the father's side Hiawatha. Talk about 180 degrees of separation. I relate more to my father's people.
My sister is the keeper of the family history. I think it is quite interesting but don't have the time for the research. She recently got a ton of information on my paternal grandfather's family from, of all things, an oil company in Texas that had extensive information on that side of the family. Who knew? They sent her everything they had. It was like, well, striking oil!

So how did you all find out so much about your families? Now I'm curious.

My mother did it the old fashioned way by visiting libraries, cemeteries, requesting census records, reviewing church records, etc. This stuff wasn't online when she did it, so it was all about written correspondence. I wish I had 1/2 her patience.

Now there are lots of online resources. I just heard that for ancestry.com, one of the first of these, business is booming right now. I think it's $30 a month, but there you can hook up with other people who may be related to you or who may have information that is pivotal to your research.

"I'm pretty sure I'm related to my husband."

LOL...Pixie, In researching my maiden name (Livingston) I found that my Grandfather's family and my Grandmother's family married up quite a bit in the 1500-1700's.

Fortunately, when I told them, they were both more entertained by that than horrified.

Ginger

:-D

All this intermarrying---maybe it results in being crazy for plants.

I did join ancestry.com for awhile but they just kept giving me back what info I had entered. My aunt gave me all her info and pictures. I have my mom's sisters graduation pictures. I just like to see their faces and hear their stories. I look like my great-grandmother more than anyone else.

I think that's what my mom liked - meeting people (albeit in a limited way), corresponding, setting things in order, and finding out their personal struggles and stories.

I haven't ever tried ancestry.com, so I don't know how it works. It seems to me that what one needs is software to generate what they used to call "family group sheets". Then you can do your research on census and church records and store it all in your own little database.

My mom typed her book, Descendants of Nathan Spicer, on an IBM Selectric using carbon paper. I still can't get over that! She paid for the publication herself.

http://openlibrary.org/b/OL4431631M/Descendants_of_Nathan_Spicer_1735-1811

One of my dad's relatives is writing a book on the Bennett's also. My sis keeps in touch with a cousin.

Very good. :-)

I have used a software program called Family Tree Maker for a few years now. Sometimes when I buy a new update from Sams Club, it comes with a trial to ancestry.com. That source is good for old census records, social security death info., and some immigration records. A catch is that you have to subscribe to more than one area to get a lot of information. I have tried to track family history off and on for a long time but find it is very time consuming. (one of those "winter" projects that the winter is always too short for here in the PNW. There are quite a few family trees made public on the internet. If you google a name of an ancestor, you can get hits on some of those if the name is not too common. I am trying to remember where I saw a geneology thread....either DG or ....that I plan to pursue in my "spare time."

I got lucky and stumbled on a Livingston group that was free and has some excellent researcher on it. It is such a social site that I am having fun so it doesn't seem like work and the people are amazing.

http://www.clanlivingstone.info/

I am going to Scotland next year to see the family hometown and the quarry where everyone worked, as well as headstones people have sent me photos of and to meet the Bacuil (Clan Chieftan).

....and this summer to some of the clan gatherings.

My research led to some real and fun live people!

Ginger

That's cool. I guess I didn't realize that Livingstone was Scottish. Should have known, though, as the Scots seem to have come up with a thousand different uses for stones . . .

I use Family Tree Maker also and find it pretty user friendly. I was fortunate in that someone on each side of my family had previously done a lot of research and written down their memories, so had a good start. I think you can buy individual months on ancestry.com atlhough I just knuckled down for my free month and got what I could out of it. It's really easy to get off on a remote limb, like my daughter-in-law's extended family, who are not really related to me at all, but the info was there so off I went...

And, yes, my husband's maternal family a few generations back also had the notion to use president's names for their children - Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, a couple George Washingtons.

Were they from around Minn or Ind?
You are so lucky to be going to Scotland. And even a clan of your own, how neat is that?

Hmmm. I know my mom tried at least one database in its early form before she got sick - I wonder if it was Family Tree Maker. It would be great to get all her information into electronic form. You can't imagine how many notebooks she has with names and dates all carefully entered into their respective locations on the sheets . . .