I'm a day late, but this looked like fun to figure out! I'm talking about Randy Seaver's latest suggestion:
1) List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).
Yes, I admit it. I hate math, but love statistics. I'm nothing if not confused!
Unfortunately, I don't have all 16 because I've still got a few brick walls to figure out, but this is what I have now:
1. Adam Domelle: born bet. 1850 - 1860 in Austro-Hungarian Empire; married in Austro-Hungarian Empire; died in Austro-Hungarian Empire.
GERMAN
2. Christine Reiser: born bet. 1850 - 1860 in Austro-Hungarian Empire.
UNKNOWN, prob. GERMAN
3. John Francis Mix: born 09 Mar 1830 in Ithaca, Tompkins County, NY; married aft. 1854; died 1906 in Tioga County, NY.
ENGLISH
4. Mary Ellen Cook: born 19 Feb 1840 in Tioga County, NY; married aft. 1854; died Jun 1925 in NY.
UNKNOWN, prob. ENGLISH
5. John Francis Akins: born 13 Mar 1841 in NY; died 13 Feb 1890.
UNKNOWN, prob. ENGLISH (could be English, Irish or Scottish - "Akins" is spelled a multitude of ways in the records)
6. Hattie Elizabeth Kirby: born 19 Mar 1866 in NY; married 17 Apr 1885; died 04 Jun 1963 in NY.
UNKNOWN, prob. ENGLISH or IRISH
7. Nimrod Harrision, Jr.: born 19 Apr 1839 in Mt. Airy, Carroll County, MD; married 28 Nov 1860 in Frederick County, MD; died 1919 in Taylorsville, Carroll County, MD.
ENGLISH
8. Sarah C. Watkins: 22 Aug 1845 in MD; married 28 Nov 1860 in Frederick County, MD; died 1931 in Taylorsville, Carroll County, MD.
ENGLISH
9. Johann Andreas Kleylein-Weltdicker: born 04 Oct 1820 in Unterrodach, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany; married 07 Mar 1858 in Unterrodach, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany; died 26 Feb 1886 in Unterrodach, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany.
GERMAN
10. Katharina Schaller: born 24 Aug 1833 in Unterrodach, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany; married 07 Mar 1858 in Unterrodach, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany; died 15 May 1919 in Unterrodach, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany.
GERMAN
11. John Pawlak: born 24 Jun 1850 in Posen, Poland; married 30 Jan 1876 in St. Adalbert's Chicago, Cook County, IL; died 20 Apr 1911 in Hale Township, McLeod County, MN.
POLISH
12. Branislawa Lewandowski: born 30 Sep 1856 in Posen, Poland; married 30 Jan 1876 in St. Adalbert's Chicago, Cook County, IL; died 13 Mar 1910 in Hale Township, McLeod County, MN.
POLISH
13. John Pokornowski: born 21 Dec 1856 in Starawies, Gniezno, Poland; married 25 May 1881 in St. Adalbert's, Silver Lake, McLeod County, MN; died 21 Jan 1939 in Geneseo, Sargent County, ND.
POLISH
14. Pelagia Kautz: born 11 Mar 1864 in Posen, Poland; married 25 May 1881 in St. Adalbert's, Silver Lake, McLeod County, MN; died 15 Jan 1964 in Breckenbridge, Wilkin County, MN.
POLISH
Soooooo....my nationalities come out to:
English: 3 (21%)
German: 3 (21%)
Polish: 4 (29%)
Unknown: 4 (29%)
Now, if I'm right about my unknowns, it changes to this:
English: 6 (43%)
German: 4 (29%)
Polish: 4 (29%)
Of my English g-g-grandparent's, one line I know for sure is from Colonial New England (the Mix line). Two others (Harrison and Watkins) are from Colonial Virginia, which as you know, can't be any more different than the people that immigrated to New England. If you want to know more about the differences, I read this AWESOME book that gave me great perspective: Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: A Cultural History), by David Hackett Fischer. It's not an easy read, but I thought it was well worth it.
One thing this listing has helped me with is that I still have some major holes to fix in some of my New York lines! Hopefully my visit to the Tioga County Historical Society in a few weeks will help with that!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
My Brain Hurts...
I grew up watching Monty Python shows because my dad watched them. Each episode I would wait patiently for the animated sequences because when I was younger, that was all I found funny, it took a few years to grow up and get the humor of the live sketches.
One phrase (of many that my mother is sick of hearing) is from one of their "gumby" sketches. Mr. Gumby was always this guy wearing a handkerchief on his head, with a little brush mustache who talked funny. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound funny when I describe it, but it is. I always liked the one sketch where the gumby guy said "My brain hurts."
Unfortunately for me, sometimes my brain does hurt, I guess that's why that phrase always stuck with me. I've had migraines since I was 17 years old. They started after a car accident I was in where I had a head injury. Tests showed no reason for the headaches, but I've had them ever since.
My special triggers seem to be irregular sleep schedule, dehydration, hormones and stress. I manage the sleep schedule pretty well. I screw up on the dehydration one if I have too much fun drinking alcohol and don't get enough water. Or if I skip a meal and don't get enough to drink during the day. Hormones? Well, that's one reason to look forward to menopause I guess!!! Stress? Not so easy to manage. I left my last job because my stress was through the roof, for years. My current job is wonderful, but we do have an intense project coming up in the next few months that I think has given me some small flashbacks to the old days at the previous job. So maybe I am a little more stressed than usual.
Oh, and I forgot to mention barometric pressure! Apparently I am
sensitive to sudden drops in barometric pressure. I don't think that doctors officially accept that yet, or at least there's not well-documented studies out there, but I don't need that, I know it's true. Also, abrupt changes in weather, like a sudden heat/humidity wave will get me. Oh, and sinus pressure. Oh, and when it's sunny, and also when it rains. :-D
I don't get the aura that lots of people with migraines get, I get
sensitive to sound and all irritable (yes, more than usual, haha). That's how I know one is coming. You know those scenes in movies or shows where like, there's a drip from the faucet and the camera starts to slowly zoom in on the drip hitting a pan in the sink and it gets louder and louder like it's beating a drum? That's what I get like with sounds around me, I cannot abide rhythmic sounds like that when I'm pre-headachy. And for some reason I try to act all normal and live my life and that takes SO MUCH ENERGY because I try to save the medication for when I actually have a headache so as not to waste it, when really, after 8 decades of living through this I should just take the damn pill when I know one is coming. But that's how a brain works I guess!
So yes, I've got a medication that works for me, and has for several years
now. But of course the insurance companies only pay for nine pills per month, so there's always that fear. Also, in the past few years I find that after I take the pills I tend to get weepy. Weepy is the best word for it because it's that special kind of girl-weepy where girl movies or those commercials that show shelter animals where what's-her-name that sings the sad songs tells you about all these poor animals makes you just SOB like your best friend, dog, parents, and siblings all simultaneously passed away just after telling you that you were adopted and they never really liked you. It's really wallowing, trust me.
It's been on my mind lately because I seem to be going through a phase where I'm getting them a lot. It occurred to me today that I might actually have a sinus infection that just doesn't have a lot of symptoms so I guess I should go to the doctor...
I remember years ago one of my doctors telling me that they just don't know for sure what goes on with a migraine and blah blah blah and what it comes down to is that for whatever reason, my nervous system is more sensitive to stimuli. Kind of like how an asthmatic is more sensitive to air quality I guess.
The point of this post today? No point I guess, just blogging about what's on my mind. I haven't had a lot of energy for genealogy research or genealogy bloggings while struggling the past few weeks and I miss it. Hopefully I can pull my crap together here and get over this particular phase. Oh, and it would be cool too if the migraines would just go away completely. That would be awesome! I promise, I would use my new found time and energy only for good. :-)
Meanwhile, I can't bring up Monty Python and not show my favorite song:
One phrase (of many that my mother is sick of hearing) is from one of their "gumby" sketches. Mr. Gumby was always this guy wearing a handkerchief on his head, with a little brush mustache who talked funny. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound funny when I describe it, but it is. I always liked the one sketch where the gumby guy said "My brain hurts."
Unfortunately for me, sometimes my brain does hurt, I guess that's why that phrase always stuck with me. I've had migraines since I was 17 years old. They started after a car accident I was in where I had a head injury. Tests showed no reason for the headaches, but I've had them ever since.
My special triggers seem to be irregular sleep schedule, dehydration, hormones and stress. I manage the sleep schedule pretty well. I screw up on the dehydration one if I have too much fun drinking alcohol and don't get enough water. Or if I skip a meal and don't get enough to drink during the day. Hormones? Well, that's one reason to look forward to menopause I guess!!! Stress? Not so easy to manage. I left my last job because my stress was through the roof, for years. My current job is wonderful, but we do have an intense project coming up in the next few months that I think has given me some small flashbacks to the old days at the previous job. So maybe I am a little more stressed than usual.
Oh, and I forgot to mention barometric pressure! Apparently I am
sensitive to sudden drops in barometric pressure. I don't think that doctors officially accept that yet, or at least there's not well-documented studies out there, but I don't need that, I know it's true. Also, abrupt changes in weather, like a sudden heat/humidity wave will get me. Oh, and sinus pressure. Oh, and when it's sunny, and also when it rains. :-DI don't get the aura that lots of people with migraines get, I get
sensitive to sound and all irritable (yes, more than usual, haha). That's how I know one is coming. You know those scenes in movies or shows where like, there's a drip from the faucet and the camera starts to slowly zoom in on the drip hitting a pan in the sink and it gets louder and louder like it's beating a drum? That's what I get like with sounds around me, I cannot abide rhythmic sounds like that when I'm pre-headachy. And for some reason I try to act all normal and live my life and that takes SO MUCH ENERGY because I try to save the medication for when I actually have a headache so as not to waste it, when really, after 8 decades of living through this I should just take the damn pill when I know one is coming. But that's how a brain works I guess!So yes, I've got a medication that works for me, and has for several years
now. But of course the insurance companies only pay for nine pills per month, so there's always that fear. Also, in the past few years I find that after I take the pills I tend to get weepy. Weepy is the best word for it because it's that special kind of girl-weepy where girl movies or those commercials that show shelter animals where what's-her-name that sings the sad songs tells you about all these poor animals makes you just SOB like your best friend, dog, parents, and siblings all simultaneously passed away just after telling you that you were adopted and they never really liked you. It's really wallowing, trust me.It's been on my mind lately because I seem to be going through a phase where I'm getting them a lot. It occurred to me today that I might actually have a sinus infection that just doesn't have a lot of symptoms so I guess I should go to the doctor...
I remember years ago one of my doctors telling me that they just don't know for sure what goes on with a migraine and blah blah blah and what it comes down to is that for whatever reason, my nervous system is more sensitive to stimuli. Kind of like how an asthmatic is more sensitive to air quality I guess.
The point of this post today? No point I guess, just blogging about what's on my mind. I haven't had a lot of energy for genealogy research or genealogy bloggings while struggling the past few weeks and I miss it. Hopefully I can pull my crap together here and get over this particular phase. Oh, and it would be cool too if the migraines would just go away completely. That would be awesome! I promise, I would use my new found time and energy only for good. :-)
Meanwhile, I can't bring up Monty Python and not show my favorite song:
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Why urbandictionary.com is Very, Very Accurate
I was on urbandictionary.com the other day looking up a phrase (please, don't ask, I was sorry I knew what it meant once I looked it up, let's just move on, shall we?) and I found that my first name was actually on there! That's odd, I thought, what could my name possibly mean in a hip and urban language?
The first definition is this:
Leah
Verb;
To describe something of such superb standards it almost cannot be described by any word or sentence or onomatopoeia in the English language.
Oh man, look at that Leah!
She soooo sexy!!!!
Imagine my delight and surprise!!
There were several other definitions, not quite as accurate as this one, with things in them like:
"...Leah = pretty and thin even though she may not think so."
"...May bite and twitch if provoked."
"...extremely attracted to shiny material, especially coins."
"...Of latin origin meaning someone who did a bad job with their due diligence."
Who knew? :-)
The first definition is this:
Leah
Verb;
To describe something of such superb standards it almost cannot be described by any word or sentence or onomatopoeia in the English language.
Oh man, look at that Leah!
She soooo sexy!!!!
Imagine my delight and surprise!!
There were several other definitions, not quite as accurate as this one, with things in them like:
"...Leah = pretty and thin even though she may not think so."
"...May bite and twitch if provoked."
"...extremely attracted to shiny material, especially coins."
"...Of latin origin meaning someone who did a bad job with their due diligence."
Who knew? :-)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
COG 77 - The Shooting at Salt Lake City Family History Library
The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: "Disaster". As human beings, our very existence is proof of the survival skills, faith, or just plain luck our ancestors possessed in order to persevere through millenia of disasters: epidemics, wars, pestilences, famines, accidents, and acts of nature. Tell about a disaster that one or more of your ancestors lived through. Did they survive a hurricane, flood, tornado, train wreck, sinking ship, plague, genocide, explosion, mine collapse, or some other terrible event? How did they survive? Research the details of the disaster and explain how it affected your ancestor (guilt, fear, faith, gratitude, etc.), your family's history, and even yourself!
When I first thought to write a posting for this topic, I immediately thought of my parents. They've both lived through many hurricanes, having spent the greater portion of their youth and early adulthood in Miami Florida. I've spent most of my life in Pennsylvania and we don't get a lot of extreme weather here, tiny earthquakes, a tornado here and there, typically F1, and hurricanes have usually lost their oomph by the time the get up the coast to us. Mudslides and brush fires are also pretty rare. We're like the anti-California. Probably our worst natural disaster is flooding from rivers.
While I was quizzing them on their memories, another topic came up. My dad was in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City when the shootings happened in 1999. I wonder if any genea-bloggers were there as well?
He's taken a few trips out to the library in Salt Lake, I've only been there once, but do plan to go back.
So, on the morning of Thursday, April 15, 1999, he was happily ensconced at a carrel on the first floor of the library. He says he heard some pop-pop-pop noises.
To get out of the open, he quickly headed towards a room to the far side of the floor away from the popping noises which he recognized right away. Along the way, he gathered two little old ladies that were also researching and the three of them entered the room. There were already some people hiding in there, it was some sort of scanning room/office that was for library use only. The door was closed and my dad said he stood, didn't sit.
Eventually, a library employee came to the room and said, okay, c'mon, let's GO and he led them to the left out the door (to the right would have been to go back to the main room of the floor). They followed him down some back stairs and they all found themselves in the back alley between the library and the hotel next door, where the garbage trucks come through. They all went in to the hotel and sat in the restaurant where they were eventually interviewed by police. My dad said that he veered off along the way to a pay phone (remember those?) and called my mom. He told her, "Look, I'll tell you all about this later, because you're going to be hearing some really odd stories about what's going on here, but I wanted to let you know that I'm all right."
My dad says it was a long time before anyone was allowed to go back into the library to gather their belongings, naturally everyone had pretty much jumped up and left all their research and stuff behind. He said he was upset with himself later when he realized he should have grabbed his briefcase and papers. They were told that the Library would be closed for a few days. So he ended up taking long bus trips to the Brigham Young University Family History Library in Provo. At that library he discovered the series "Germans to America" which lists the transportation details of German national to the US. It also happened to list his Polish ancestors too, which was a bonus. So even without all his papers, he was able to find something while on the trip.
When he went back in finally to gather his things at the Library, my dad says he has a picture imprinted - it's strange the little things your mind picks up and refuses to let go of - he remembers seeing a roll of nickels. This was back when you actually needed the coins to make the copies, they didn't have the little cards to put money on. So there was this roll of nickels, laying there and one side had opened up, and the nickels had come out in a little perfect cascade. It's one of the those crystal clear picture memories that we sometimes get to keep, all the other normal memories get all mushed up and revised and forgotten. He remembers thinking, wow, with all the investigators and police in and out of the library, nobody moved or bothered that little roll of nickels.
The shooter was a man named Sergei Barbarin. He was an older man, 70-71 years of age, and his family said he was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had gone of off his medication.
No one knows why he chose the Library, no one who knew him had ever heard him say anything bad about the Mormons or the library. He was known to hassle people that happened to cross his path, but that was it.
That day he killed 2 people at the library and wounded 4 other patrons. Certainly the last place you would expect to be harmed or killed would be while you were doing genealogy research, it's such a gentle pastime. But you just never know what's going to happen. The police killed him shortly after the shooting started.
Some links to stories that are still out there on the internet are here:
http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastapr20-99.htm
http://web.ksl.com/dump/news/cc/lshxap.htm
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,660195182,00.html
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/990426/archive_000849.htm
And me? My thoughts on the whole thing? I'm just glad he wasn't in the lobby that day. I'm grateful he's still here so we can repeat lines from AIRPLANE! to each other ad nauseum (you can tell me, I'm a doctor), drink gin and tonics in the heat of the midday sun (british tonic please, Bombay gin (no, not Bombay Sapphire, ptuh, yuck, gak)), and watch Family Guy on Tivo when we think my mom isn't paying attention (she doesn't hate the show, she just dislikes it with the heat of a thousand suns). Yep, he's definitely my favorite Dad and all in all, I'm lucky to have him.
When I first thought to write a posting for this topic, I immediately thought of my parents. They've both lived through many hurricanes, having spent the greater portion of their youth and early adulthood in Miami Florida. I've spent most of my life in Pennsylvania and we don't get a lot of extreme weather here, tiny earthquakes, a tornado here and there, typically F1, and hurricanes have usually lost their oomph by the time the get up the coast to us. Mudslides and brush fires are also pretty rare. We're like the anti-California. Probably our worst natural disaster is flooding from rivers.
While I was quizzing them on their memories, another topic came up. My dad was in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City when the shootings happened in 1999. I wonder if any genea-bloggers were there as well?
He's taken a few trips out to the library in Salt Lake, I've only been there once, but do plan to go back.
So, on the morning of Thursday, April 15, 1999, he was happily ensconced at a carrel on the first floor of the library. He says he heard some pop-pop-pop noises.
To get out of the open, he quickly headed towards a room to the far side of the floor away from the popping noises which he recognized right away. Along the way, he gathered two little old ladies that were also researching and the three of them entered the room. There were already some people hiding in there, it was some sort of scanning room/office that was for library use only. The door was closed and my dad said he stood, didn't sit.
Eventually, a library employee came to the room and said, okay, c'mon, let's GO and he led them to the left out the door (to the right would have been to go back to the main room of the floor). They followed him down some back stairs and they all found themselves in the back alley between the library and the hotel next door, where the garbage trucks come through. They all went in to the hotel and sat in the restaurant where they were eventually interviewed by police. My dad said that he veered off along the way to a pay phone (remember those?) and called my mom. He told her, "Look, I'll tell you all about this later, because you're going to be hearing some really odd stories about what's going on here, but I wanted to let you know that I'm all right."
My dad says it was a long time before anyone was allowed to go back into the library to gather their belongings, naturally everyone had pretty much jumped up and left all their research and stuff behind. He said he was upset with himself later when he realized he should have grabbed his briefcase and papers. They were told that the Library would be closed for a few days. So he ended up taking long bus trips to the Brigham Young University Family History Library in Provo. At that library he discovered the series "Germans to America" which lists the transportation details of German national to the US. It also happened to list his Polish ancestors too, which was a bonus. So even without all his papers, he was able to find something while on the trip.
When he went back in finally to gather his things at the Library, my dad says he has a picture imprinted - it's strange the little things your mind picks up and refuses to let go of - he remembers seeing a roll of nickels. This was back when you actually needed the coins to make the copies, they didn't have the little cards to put money on. So there was this roll of nickels, laying there and one side had opened up, and the nickels had come out in a little perfect cascade. It's one of the those crystal clear picture memories that we sometimes get to keep, all the other normal memories get all mushed up and revised and forgotten. He remembers thinking, wow, with all the investigators and police in and out of the library, nobody moved or bothered that little roll of nickels.
The shooter was a man named Sergei Barbarin. He was an older man, 70-71 years of age, and his family said he was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had gone of off his medication.
No one knows why he chose the Library, no one who knew him had ever heard him say anything bad about the Mormons or the library. He was known to hassle people that happened to cross his path, but that was it.
That day he killed 2 people at the library and wounded 4 other patrons. Certainly the last place you would expect to be harmed or killed would be while you were doing genealogy research, it's such a gentle pastime. But you just never know what's going to happen. The police killed him shortly after the shooting started.
Some links to stories that are still out there on the internet are here:
http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastapr20-99.htm
http://web.ksl.com/dump/news/cc/lshxap.htm
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,660195182,00.html
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/990426/archive_000849.htm
And me? My thoughts on the whole thing? I'm just glad he wasn't in the lobby that day. I'm grateful he's still here so we can repeat lines from AIRPLANE! to each other ad nauseum (you can tell me, I'm a doctor), drink gin and tonics in the heat of the midday sun (british tonic please, Bombay gin (no, not Bombay Sapphire, ptuh, yuck, gak)), and watch Family Guy on Tivo when we think my mom isn't paying attention (she doesn't hate the show, she just dislikes it with the heat of a thousand suns). Yep, he's definitely my favorite Dad and all in all, I'm lucky to have him.
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