McDonald's First Drive Thru?

You never know when or where you'll run into family history. My husband and I went to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge today and the sign below was in one of the trail parking lots.

I tells of the family that once lived here and how they lost their land to the government for Kennedy Space Center. I didn't transcribe all of it, just this part that caught me off guard and made me laugh.

Doctor and Mrs. George McDonald, cracker farmers, lived about 1.2 mile east of here. They raised chickens and sold eggs from a drive-thru window of their home.

A New Chapter

Between Facebook and my other blog I forgot that those of you who follow me here have no idea what is going on in my life right now. It took an email from Mary Warren at Mary's Musings to point this out to me. Thanks Mary! Here's what has been going on, with a little background information.

Way back in March of last year, based solely on pictures and a quick walk through by my sister-in-law, we bought a mobile home in Orlando, Florida. It was too good a deal to pass up but we were still at least two years from our plan to retire.

In April I had surgery on my foot to correct a previous surgery. My mother became very ill. I did not heal as I should have. Fast forward to July and while still on crutches I fell and broke the other side of my foot. We finally got to Florida to see our new place but being in a wheel chair we couldn't do much while we were here. We crunched numbers and made a new plan to retire at the end of the year. I went back to work in September in much pain but determined to work to the end of the year so our finances would be in order. Mom got better. Life improved.

In late October it was determined that I would have to have more surgery. It was put off until mid December which fit with the plans we had already made. Surgery went well and it was determined that I was allergic to the plate used in the earlier surgery. I felt better almost immediately. We would have been all set except -

We didn't get out of Snowville fast enough! My husband gave himself a hernia shoveling. So now it was his turn to have surgery. That went well but we had to count on others for snow removal and it snowed every day.

He finally was released by his doctor the last week in January and we hit the road. Made it as far south as Syracuse before we were stopped by snow - in the south. It's been bad everywhere this year! We finally arrived in Orlando at the very end of January.

It took a couple of weeks to get internet access. And as with any new place we are doing repairs and making changes. The weather here has been perfect so there has also been a lot of doing nothing but enjoying it! My husband seems to be completely healed. I'm getting around better everyday.

As for genealogy I have had some time to do a little work. Nothing exciting and mostly eliminating possibilities rather than making any new and wonderful discoveries. Once we got back online I had several emails for information and have poked around on those lines some.

I have no idea when I'll get back to regular posts here but we are starting to feel settled, so I expect it will be soon.

Thanks for following along!

What do you see?

I'm still working on trying to either prove or disprove that one set of Badgley's is related to another and I keep finding Badgley's in Central New York that I can't identify. I found this at Family Search (Beta), 1850 census for Syracuse city, ward 3, Onondaga, New York. I am interested in lines 31, 32, and 33 (near the bottom) but have included of lines for handwriting comparison. The indexer and I agree on John, age 32, and James, age 1. What is the woman's name on line 32? The indexer and I agree only on the first letter. The last name? And where was the family born? This isn't part of the indexed information and I'm stumped. Any thoughts on occupation?

WDYTYA - White Gloves!

Much has been mentioned in various places about the stars of Who Do You Think You Are? not wearing white gloves when they handle documents. It seems gloves were necessary to handle an antique gun from the Civil War. I found this web exclusive on the show's HULU page, where you can view other short clips that didn't make it to the final cut.

National Medal of Honor Day, March 25th

Thursday, March 25, 2010, is National Medal of Honor Day. To commemorate the day I will be reposting articles about two of the honorees that have connections to my family. Please join me in honoring those that have received our nations highest distinction.

If you do not have a connection to a hero in your family please write about a recipient from your hometown or state. You can find the names and citations of those who have received the award at both Home of the Heroes and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, as well as the history of the award. 

JOINT RESOLUTION

To designate March 25, 1991, as `National Medal of Honor Day'.

Whereas the Medal of Honor is the highest distinction that can be awarded by the President, in the name of the Congress, to members of the Armed Forces who have distinguished themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty;

Whereas only a few of the millions of men and women who have served the Nation in war, military operations, or other armed conflicts have received the Medal of Honor;

Whereas the 1st Medal of Honor awards were presented to 6 men on March 25, 1863, by the Secretary of War;

Whereas it is appropriate to honor the heroic recipients of the Medal of Honor;

Whereas public awareness of the importance of the Medal of Honor has declined in recent years; and

Whereas the designation of National Medal of Honor Day will focus the efforts of national, State, and local organizations striving to foster public appreciation and recognition of Medal of Honor recipients: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That March 25, 1991, is designated as `National Medal of Honor Day', and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

HJ 652 CPH, 101st CONGRESS, 2d Session, H. J. RES. 652

102d CONGRESS

1st Session

H. J. RES. 370

Designating March 25th of each year as `National Medal of Honor Day'.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

November 7, 1991

Mr. CHANDLER introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service

JOINT RESOLUTION

Designating March 25th of each year as `National Medal of Honor Day'.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That March 25th of each year is designated as `National Medal of Honor Day', and the President is authorized and requested to issue annually a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe such day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

The Library of Congress HJ 370 IH

Doyle Family Story Hits the Stage

I stumbled across this article and just had to share because it is such a great story! "From The Mountains of Mourne to the Mines of Montana" is a play about Irish immigrants. What makes the story great:

A Playwright's Inspiration

The playwright Lisa Hayes, discovered her inspiration on a website created by Doyles' granddaughter Fiona Jones, who traced the genealogy and passionately writes about the Miners of Mourne and their journeys. Jones possesses what she calls, a "fierce personal pride" in her Irish roots. "I hope that after watching this play that the audience will have a deeper understanding of the cost to our ancestors paid to provide us with the life we have today," says Jones. Her website is: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mourneminers/ .

You need to check out the amazing website that Ms. Jones created, The Miners of Mourne. If I ever get around to creating a web page for my family I will looking to this page for inspiration!

Bathroom Follies

While I'm away I thought I'd share one of my travel follies from a few years ago. This originally appeared at The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree. While our destination was different on that trip I've found that the experience is pretty much the same no matter where we roam.

John and I aren’t quite yet to the point where we need to buy a trailer to tow a blue-boy when we travel but we do make fairly frequent stops. I dread the filthy gas station facilities so we usually try and stop at public rest areas.

Most of the places we’ve stopped have commodes that flush for you. Are they on a timer or something? It’d be really nice if they’d wait until I was done! Am I the only one that this happens to? Then you get out to the sinks. Nobody else seems to have any problem but there I am waving my hands all over trying to get the water to start. At one stop I gave up and moved to the next sink and started waving again only to have the first sink turn on. Then I have to make the huge decision – paper or air dry? I have yet to get one of the new “no touch” paper dispensers to work without touching the red sensor. The air dryers involve more wild hand waving. In the interest of saving both trees and energy I usually opt for the seat of my pants.

We stopped at one rest area that had a little cut out in the wall and was labeled that it would give you water, soap and then air all in one spot if you’d simply place your hands in the wall. It must have been designed by a tall man but since there was nobody else around I decided to give it a try. I lifted my hands up to shoulder level and plunged them into the wall. Of course nothing happened so I started wiggling my fingers and then waving my hands as much as the small space would allow. Luckily for me they had an old fashioned sink. John said they had the same set up on the mens side and it turned on after he’d moved on to the regular sink, so it’s not just me! We’re lavatory challenged as a couple!

At our first hotel things were pretty straight forward. I was quite pleased that I didn’t need an instruction manual to turn on the shower. My luck changed when we got to the resort. The commode worked fine but I could not get water to flow from any of the three sinks. I called the desk and they sent maintenance down. Seems they’d turned off the water to the unit earlier in the day but failed to turn it back on. The unit has a really pretty corner unit - combo jetted tub/shower. I can’t reach the water controls until I get into the tub first! The water was scalding hot so I kept moving it towards the blue. Red for hot, blue for cold right? Wrong! I finally got the temperature right but there was nothing there to switch over to the shower. I pushed and pulled on everything until I gave up, got out of the tub and went in search of John. He got in the tub and proceeded to push and pull on everything to the point that I thought he was going to pull the thing right off of the wall! He finally pulled down on the ring where the water was flowing out and eureka! I later tried to take a bath but couldn’t get the jets to work. John to the rescue again. I simply hadn’t held the button down long enough. A couple of days later John went to take a shower and after getting in the tub discovered that we had no hot water. Hopefully I won’t run into any more new designs on this trip but I have a bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse just in case!

This is also the first trip where I have been provided reading material in the stall. At the resort they have “mini-billboards” on the stall doors so I can think and think about what shows I want to see. At the one of the visitor’s centers they had the schedule of events posted there and that was how I discovered they had a butterfly garden. With informative reading like that you better hope the line doesn’t get too long!

Happy Thanksgiving

How I Spent my Extra Hour

I saw the heart at Cindy's first.



Then Greta had an apple so I just had to try it out!




They even have an Apple tree!


Gini opted for a butterfly.

Go on and try it - you know you want to!

Crabby Apple

I recently connected with some very distant cousins research my Hall line and I've spent the last week working on it. I hadn't looked at my file for some of the branches of this line for years so it was a very good thing they contacted me. When I first started out I made some very wrong assumptions and added them to my file. I spent a good part of last weekend going over that part of the tree and trying to fix it. Hoping I have it all untangled now and have everyone in the correct family. I continue to move laterally along the brickwalls in this line in hopes of finding that loose brick or two that will bring the whole thing down!

A big frustration was trying to fix both on file on my computer and my tree at ancestry.com. In reading Randy's article about FTM 2010 I think it will be much easier in the future, as I can work on just one tree and simply download it to the other. The thing is I have been very frustrated with FTM 2008 because it is sooooooooo slow. I hate to spend good money and still be unhappy. Several people have recommended that I switch to Roots Magic. I have to make a decsion soon.

I spent way too much time at FaceBook this week. I find myself reading blog articles there. Then I get them again in my reader. I also see lots of comments left at FB on blog articles rather then on the actual blogs. Before joining FB I had wondered if that was where the commenting had disappeared to. It's sad because comments left there aren't available to others reading reading the blog online.

I also have added We're Related to my page there. What is the point? I have yet to figure out how to look at anyone else's tree. It keeps asking me to add my "friends." I've added my sister and my nieces. I guess I could add Randy and Bill too now that I stop and think about it but what will it do if I do that? Will it then suggest that I become "friends" with all of their "friends." I haven't found a page that really explains what We're Related really does or how best to use it. I thought it might search other FB user's trees and see if we connect. FB continually suggests people that I should add as friends based on my friend's, friends. There was one suggestion seemingly out of the blue for another very distant cousin, who does not seem to be a friend of any of my other friends, so does that mean the program is working? There was no reference to We're Related. (I've sent her a friend request.) I have found other distant cousins on FB that it has not suggested and that I have not contacted yet. I guess I feel funny about saying, "Hey I'm your 3rd cousin, six times removed. Do you want to be friends?"

The whole friend thing still is weird to me. Maybe if they called it something else I'd be better with it. I'm also finding myself on information overload on FB. How on earth do those of you with several hundred friends manage!?

I feel guilty about the time I did not spend working outside this week. Even though it has been a cool, wet summer our summers here are too short to not spend as much time outside as we can. I'll try to get back to posting letters as I can. I really need to find some way to manage my time better for the next few weeks!

Fun Charting Relationships

Reading Becky's post at Kinexxions yesterday (yes, I am way behind in my reading!) started me thinking about some of the unusual relationships in my own tree.

Michael and Sarah Ann Camfield were my 2nd great-grandparents - twice - except not really, now that I know that their daughter, Anna, was adopted. Now if it turns out that their son, Joseph, was also adopted they aren't really on my tree at all! Always fill in your charts in pencil - you never know when when we'll have to give an ancestor you've become attached to the old heave-ho. My mother and I are cousins, except not anymore. I still say "Hey, cuz!" every now and then when I see her just to get her going. Ashley Carlisle's aunt was his mother, it's in a history book and everything! Besides that, he addresses her as "mother" in his letters, what more proof do I need? My great-grandfather, Joseph Berry's brother was also his brother-in-law so my grandfather's mother was also his aunt mother. You'd think a marriage like that would cause some kind of fun blip in the tree. I appear in invisible ink on my son's tree. Humf- I may not have been in the delivery room when he was born but since he has caused me so many gray hairs you'd think he could at least pencil me in!

I'm sure there are other dual relationships in my tree that I haven't thought of. What about your tree?

Now I have this song stuck in my head. This version has a chart to help you follow along - or not.

Sad Fate

There have been several posts lately about leaving instructions as to what we want done with our genealogical treasures when we're gone.

While scanning some auctions today I was saddened to read this:

I believe these where the children of Mr and Mrs Arthur Short of Providence RI. Mrs Short was a genealogist turning the 1930/40's

as these where found on the bottom of a box of genealogy records from her estate.

Time for Spring Cleaning

I took my mother for a drive last week and we stopped at Onondaga Valley Cemetery to visit my paternal grandparents grave. The stone is in need of cleaning and I need to get the shrubs that were planted nearly 40 years ago removed and replaced.

The company that the monument was purchased from is just a couple of minutes from where I work so I'll stop this week to see if they have a cleaning solution that is safe to use.

Many of the nearby monuments are in much worse shape and I've been walking for exercise in the local cemetery and have noticed many stones there that also need a good cleaning. I wouldn't mind cleaning them but I'm hesitant because I don't know any of these families. I would be very careful and I have read up and watched some videos about safe methods but still there is a chance I could leave some scratches or do other damage I guess.

What would you do? Have you ever cleaned a stone as a random act of kindness?

Back in Snowville

My week of warmth and Florida sunshine was great! I had no internet connection and I read several books and just relaxed. It seems nobody else took the week off as my reader is overflowing with over 1,000 posts to read. I'll be spending the next couple of weeks trying to catch up.

I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that I received the Kreativ Blogger award from Taylortales Genealogy, Msteri at Heritage Happens, Colleen at Orations of OMcHodoy, Diane at Attic Treasures and from Generatins Gone By, who said, "Probably the prettiest genealogy site it’s very soothing on the eyes and love all her documents." Thank you all! (And I am very sorry if I missed anyone.)

Nikki-ann at Notes of Life tagged me for the 6th photo meme. She bent the rules a bit and I will too by sharing my 6th picture from vacation, a pretty view from Blue Springs State Park.

Genealogy in School

The middle school kids on my bus don't spend much time talking about what they did in school during the day so I was very pleasantly surprised to find this article in the local paper. The kids do a unit on immigration and Ellis Island.

Continuing she explained, “They have the opportunity to base their character on an ancestor that may have traveled through Ellis Island. In order to research this valuable information they work with family members. I feel it helps to build familial bonds and develop a sense of family pride. So often, that rich family history is lost as family members pass on and this allows them to be gatekeepers of their family’s past. They can learn about and write this information down to cherish for a long time. Both students and parents loved this aspect of the project.”

At the end of the unit a classroom is turned into the waiting room at Ellis Island, the kids can show up in costume and have to go through several stations as immigrants. Be sure to check out the article for details. I'd love to see this in all schools. Does your school district have a program like this?

Housekeeping

I mentioned when I played with geotagging that I really needed to update my blog because the template I was using was not functioning well. I have visions of how I'd like my space here to appear, I love the look of some of the magazine style formats that I've seen and I seriously thought about buying one. In the end I decided that I should stick with something within my personal ability so as not to have problems again down the road. My ability confidence level is such that this is what I came up with. Yes, I do know that all of my blogs are starting to look alike. Perhaps I'll learn more and build my skills to come up with something more attractive and distinctive later in the year. Please bear with me as I continue to move things around and add and delete things. If you find something that is not working or simply looks wrong please let me know.

I used to link to all of my family history posts that appeared on my first blog, The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree. I've decided that they really belong here at Apple's Tree so I will be republishing them here, one each Sunday until they're done. Some will appear just as they did the first time and others I plan to update so they may not appear in the same order they originally did. I apologize to those of you that already read them way back when and I hope that those of you that just recently started reading here will enjoy them. All of the posts that now appear as Family History Links are links to other sites with shared ancestry, such as Bill West's great series on Levi Ames, a very distant cousin that I would never have spent much time on myself. I hope to find and add many more such links in the coming year. Once I have finished moving them all I will be adding a list of my personal favorites, many of which are from those early posts.

I also used to have link lists to various sites that I found helpful. Two were lost in the move so right now only one remains. (I do have backups of the "lost" ones.) The one that remains is a disorganized mess so I will be creating new pages in some (hopefully) organized manner and burying them in the archives and then I'll create a link list to these pages. I did loose some of my bookmarks when my computer died so I hope to keep all of my bookmarks here in addition to on my browser. I need to learn how to use Diigo!

I spent a good amount of time this morning trying, unsuccessfully, to reorganize my reader. As I keep working on it you will notice changes to the blog link widgets. There are so many good, new blogs while some of my old friends rarely publish anything anymore. Perhaps I'll switch to some other feed based widget.

As I went through my reader I tried to follow several blogs but blogger is being a poop this morning and the link for "follow this blog" doesn't seem to be showing up on any blogs. I added several through my dashboard and I'll add more as I come across them.

I'm still working on one of John's computers and since I have little hope of getting mine fixed in the foreseeable future, I'm slowly making it my own. I have added Family Tree Maker 2008 and it is taking me way too long to learn how use it efficiently. If it crashes one more time I'll probably go hunt up FTM 2005! This computer has Internet Explorer and we are not playing nicely with each other so I will add FireFox and some extensions that I miss later today.

Well I just created a very big to-do list so I best get at it! Maybe I'll even have a little time to write or dig up something new.

What Child Is This?

What Child is This? was written in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix. It was later set to the music of Greensleeves, which is one of my favorite pieces of music. So start the music, scroll down for the words and carol along with Josh and me!

What Child is this who, laid to rest,
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh;
Come peasant, king to own Him.
The King of kings salvation brings;
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise, the song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby;
Joy, joy, for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce him through,
The Cross be borne for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

Now head on over to
footnoteMaven's
and see who else is
blog caroling today!

Today at Shades of the Departed

I am tickled pink to be the guest author today at Shades of the Departed, Friday From the Collectors. It was fun to be able to share my experience photographing family letters on my trip to Michigan earlier this year. Please check out My Families Letters Preserved with Digital Photography.

Thank you footnote Maven for being such a gracious hostess!

Wordless Wednesday - Today

Did You Catch These?

Tex is still on a Blogging Pause. She is on a "medical mission" and her blog, All My Ancestors, is still blocked as a malicious site. I have no idea what's up but I'm sending good thoughts her way.

Another friend who is MIA is Janice at Cow Hampshire. I hope all is well and I'm sending good thoughts her way too.

Way back in July, Amy's Genealogy, etc. Blog had a great link to Spring Grove Cemetery and all of my Cinncinatti Carlisle's are there. Thanks Amy!

Salute to the Old Timers! at kinnexions. Becky takes a look at some of the active geneablogs that she has followed the longest. I'm flattered that Apple's Tree is one and in very good company.

Becky also had a great tip for making illegible inscriptions on headstones legible!

T.K. has an amazing link at Internet Buffet. I may just have to but some markers! Of course I don't know as I have enough artistic talent to pull it off.

Kathryn Doyle, at the California Genealogical Society and Library blog, had a great reminder that some of the published genealogies out there really need to be verified. I've never before run across a work citing "occult powers." Have you?

I've played a little with trying to make a migration map but nothing I've done comes close the the map Judy made at Nevada Genealogist. Check it out!

Fall is a very busy time for me and I don't get to travel much, therefore I really enjoyed Nature Girls pictures of Mt Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY.

J.L Bell had an interesting piece, Driving the Battle of Brandywine, at Boston 1775. I admit that I did not pay attention in history class when wars were covered but I didn't remember ever hearing of this battle before.

Another piece of history I missed in school was the Whiskey Rebellion. Thanks to Les at Family Genealogy.