Category Archives: My Life

Where To?

“Where should I go?-Alice “That depends on where you want to end up.”-The Cheshire Cat”

I have been researching my family tree for a little over a year. I did not know very much about my ancestors and never imagined where my search would take me. I have gotten lost in many rabbit holes along the way and I can not see where it will end. I have learned a lot. Lately, I have been tracing some of those who were early pioneers of Nova Scotia. The people in those days often had many children and I am finding that many families are interconnected in that many married couples are made up of cousins of mine on both sides. It seems like if your family has ancestors from Nova Scotia they are probably related to me. I get so engrossed in the research that I can spend hours doing it. My daughter can’t understand why I am so devoted to this and says we are all related anyway, like everyone in the world, which is what I have thought too. I think I am starting to find out it is really true.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word for today is “where.” Start your post with the word “where” and write whatever comes to you. Bonus points if you end your post with “where” too.

Quote from Lewis Carroll Lewis Carroll, ‘ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass’ via Goodreads quotes. Image of winding path from Wikimedia.org

Ancestors On The Edges

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I continue to be engrossed in genealogy research, looking for the clues that weave my ancestors together into a sturdy cloth. But lately I find myself assembling only the edges of the puzzle. I have more of the frame or boarder than the parts that fill in the center sections. So I just want to appreciate what I am learning about the history of the people who lived in those long ago times. I bet in those olden days many women did more practical weaving like cloth for their families clothes.

‘Tatua Partonun weaving Simalungun traditional woven cloth (Hiou), in her home at Purba Tongah’ by Arokh Thio Gunadi Purba on Wikimedia.org

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G. Hill. Today’s prompt word is ‘frame.’

You Takes It Or Leaves It

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What did the caterpillar say to the butterfly? “I’m turning over a new leaf.”

I would like to leave off a few things around here, like household chores. It would be nice to give up dish washing ,cleaning bathrooms, laundry and folding clothes. I do have a dishwasher (machine) but I wash off the dishes before loading them in, and it seems like there are always more dirty dishes piling up in the sink. I did do a new chore this past week, sweeping up some dead leaves in my yard and trimming the leaves and branches off some of the bushes. It was more satisfying that the household chores I mentioned, being outside on a not too hot sunny day with a cool breeze blowing. Wish it would stay like this all summer.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt word is ‘leaves.’ Use it as a noun or a verb.

Featured image of ‘Monarch caterpillar eating ‘ by Bradly Potter of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Midwest Region on Flickr.com

Shattered

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Accidentally, I dropped the glass lid of a large pan on my tile kitchen floor just as I was finishing up the dinner dishes. Oh joy! I got to clean up this pile of broken glass and its pieces that spread out from the point of impact to the next room. I am thinking, could the glass lids of these pans be made in a way to prevent breakage like this? (Well, that was not not my first thought, which was probably oh shit! ) I did some quick research and my lid could have been ‘tempered glass’ which is supposed to break in smaller pebble-like pieces and not so many shards. I have swept, vacuumed, and swiffered up the evidence before taking a photo, but I think the glass did break into smaller pieces and stayed together mostly, except for the pieces that got loose and flew everywhere. I wish they could make a glass lid that is really shatterproof.

Image by Jurgen Sieber on Pixabay.com

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is “adverb.” Start your post with any adverb and just run with it.

Let The Sunshine In

Time Slips By

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Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

I have been looking back across generations quite a bit lately and discovered so much about my family tree. I have connected with cousins in Ireland who were wonderful to share a copy of the family tree and another who helped me do research. At first we did not know we were related but discovered his great-grandmother on the family tree. Two volunteers, Margaret and David, at ‘Ireland Reaching Out’ helped me connect with my cousins and with research. Geraldine at The North Tipperary Genealogy Center with rootsireland.ie was a great help with questions about records. I met another cousin who spotted my posting on a message board and met a more distant cousin through Ancestry.com whose family came from the same county in Ireland as my great-great grandparents. I found the grandchildren of two of grandmother’s sisters. I have found the grandchildren of my Great Aunt and much more. Other Ancestry members have been generous with their help as well.

Now I need to pause and look at my own life as I am living day-to-day and the people living in it. I don’t want to lose track and let it all slip by. Lifetimes pass much too quickly.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lip.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “lip”in it.

Fabulous

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I made an exciting discovery in my search for members of my family tree. In the late 1970s my aunt wrote in a letter information about my father’s family. She told me about my paternal grandparents and their siblings. At that time, my aunt still corresponded with a cousin back in Ireland. She told me what she remembered about her aunts and uncles. She said three of my grandmother’s siblings had remained in Ireland and her two youngest sisters had emigrated to Canada. She mentioned that one of the sisters had 3 children and other had none. At the time I received the letter there was no internet and I never thought I could access databases to locate family members. I envisioned myself making a trip to Ireland or Canada in search of ancestor records and maybe living relatives. I did not ask any follow-up questions about the married name of the sister or where they lived in Canada. When I recently started doing genealogy research I was amazed by all the information I could find online. But because my great aunts names were common I could not be sure of the records. I thought I might never find out what happened to them. After I had been researching for a while I decided to have a DNA test because I though it might make it easier to identify ancestors. I did have several cousins confirmed through DNA that I already knew belonged on my tree. I have used the DNA matches with various surnames to try to find answers when the records are not clear or not available. During a recent search for DNA matches and surnames a new name popped up on my match list. Ancestry was saying our DNA match was extremely high and this person could be my first or second cousin. I contacted him through Ancestry and as I read his answer I became very excited. It turns out he is the grandson of one of the sisters who emigrated to Canada. Through him I now know who my great-aunt married and the names of her children. I am in touch with her descendants and to me this is just fabulous.

‘Wild Irish Rose-Royal Canal’ by Peter Mooney on Flickr

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The ” prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “fab.” Use it as a word or find a word beginning with “fab.”

Bill Of Fare

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One of latest (e)mail messages I received was from the MD with whom I had a telephone appointment and received an Rx for eye drops for me. Just recently, my daughter was down with a sinus infection that took her out of commission for about a week and a half. She had an in person MD visit and a telephone visit. I really came to appreciate the telephone visits because it saves the time of having to drive to a doctor.

I morphed into my maternal role of cooking soups of chicken and minestrone but her taste buds were not up to appreciating my efforts. At least that is what I am telling myself not wanting to accept that my cooking is bad. The illness kept my daughter from wanting to cook anything and I have missed her contributions to our bill of fare. Now I am a bit under the weather with an eye infection and she is getting back to normal and appreciates feeling better. So she made dinner for us which was great. I really am not into cooking the daily dinners any more and really love that she likes to cook and does not mind pitching in with menu suggestions, cooking, and shopping with me. I am grateful too for easy to put together items from the local groceries and restaurants that deliver.

‘Bill of Fare’ of Glen Island Grand Cafe 1892 via Wikipedia.org

In the meantime, Spring has sprung in my backyard.

Jelly beans

Lavender doing well

Wooly Thyme

Crazy succulents

Blooming succulent

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt: “the last piece of mail you received.” Talk about the subject of the last piece of physical mail you received, i.e. a gas bill–talk about gas, not the bill itself. Have fun!

Life Affirming

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Creativity, self-expression, art, voice, vision, nature, wonder.

Wonder

Beach, Pacific Coastline by Roger Mosley

Valley of the Gods

Lighting strikes the Grand Canyon.

Photo by Davyd Betchkal NPS Denali National Park

Ancient coast redwood towers about hikers at Simpson Reed Trail

Documenta Kassel by Etel Adman

‘Secret Beach’ by Bryce Edwards

‘Dolores’ by Adoph de Meyer 1919

Goal, door by Tama66

Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SOCS is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘affirm.’

Binge Watching

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The trouble for me with all the streaming TV services is that they allow me to watch several episodes of a series in one sitting. I am drawn to mysteries and will end up watching the whole series of something at once, kind of like staying up into the wee hours reading a page turner. I want to know how it ends. The episodes are written with cliff hanger endings to keep you engaged. But if I binge watch all the episodes I run out of mysteries to watch too quickly.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday,#SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt is ‘television.’ Featured image of ‘Netflix at home’ by MoneyBlogNewz on Flickr.