Hanging around

There they were again. I'd seen them yesterday when I went to cash my check: hanging from the top of the 20 story office building. They were each sitting on a board, attached to a single rope strung from the building top. Cleaning supplies strapped on, squeegee in hand and a double suction-cup handle to help them. The sidewalk below was roped off to prevent pedestrians with earthbound gazes from walking into falling water.

Gotta hand it to them. They make it look fun. And graceful. Not only were they cleaning the windows, they were washing the entire building. Oh, my! Talk about not-quite-spring cleaning. You couldn't pay me enough to hang from a rope to clean a building. I wouldn't mind the cleaning part. It's the hanging around that gets me...I hope they're paid enough.

Meanwhile, last night I spent some of my earnings from teaching genealogy classes last week. I bought a desk like hers, after tracking one down, and got it put together in the front room. Now we can compute, back to back, in the front room. No longer will we have to walk back and forth, up and down stairs to talk to each other as we compute.

We also had dinner at Tony Roma's. Now I know why they're famous for ribs! They convinced me.

My database didn't grow yesterday. The first thing I did after setting my computer up on it's new desk was lose two games of scrabble. Hmm. I did copy the census returns from 1870 and 1910 for Millard County. Why copy the 1870 census, when I've already made a transcription? Reference. Did I transcribe everything that could be a clue? Doubtful. So, now I have digital images of the 1860, 1870, 1900 (poor), 1910, 1920 and 1930 census returns. Good stuff.

As I trolled the obits today I ran across the following in the Southern Utah News which reminded me that miracles still happen. Looking at the picture of Dallas and her lamb, I could see remnants of her tears of concern and her relief that prayers are answered. The poem by her grandma touched me:

The Miracle
By Myrna Cox

He walked through the front door
With a lifeless little lamb.
Placed the creature in our care,
Said, “ Save him, if you can.”

“He was born about an hour ago
On a heap of frozen clay
I suspect he will not live,
But - try to save him, anyway.”

Oh, the faith of a little child
Expressed in her voice today
“What about a blessing dad?”
“Do you think we ought to pray?”

So amidst the remedies
A simple prayer was said
A miracle revealed today!
As he raised his little head.

When you’re older, little girl
Remember, if you can
The miracle of faith and prayers

That saved - your little lamb.

Rollin'

Okay.

Got the front room done. She said before I put the books back on the shelves to get the dust off the tops of 'em. So I vacuumed. Then I decided to vacuum the rest as I took them off the shelves rather than as I put them back. Prep time increased dramatically. The time it took to paint the wall was insignificant in comparison to cleaning the books, moving the books, moving the shelves, taping the drop cloth and door frame. But it's done. None of the other rooms have that many things to move before re-painting...

So I got back to my computer in the late afternoon. Continued my walk through the Callister Collection. By the time I called it a night, I'd gone through about 180 documents and had added or updated records for 369 people. Only 894 documents left. Another good project to do in my spare time. Another rock on the pile.

Easter Eggs

I've had a good two days to begin going through the papers in the Callister Collection. My arrogance notwithstanding, I have been able to add several news families to my ancestral database. Granted most of the records date from 1963, but that is still 20 or forty years closer to "up to date". Mostly I've been able to fill in blank spots: middle names, birth dates and places.

Every time I find records of new cousins it is a holiday.

Of course, the majority of records I add to the database connect up with my Millard County collection: folks who lived or died in that area. These are valuable papers, adding significantly to my knowledge and understanding of the folks surrounding my ancestors.

Saturday I did begin to paint the front room. That cut into my search time significantly. I was able to get three walls done. I only had to move three bookcases to do the work: one small and two large. This morning I need to reshelve the books from the two large cases, move the loveseat, empty the remaining three large bookcases, move the bookcases, vacuum, put down the drop cloth and paint. No biggee. Thank heavens for days off. Getting back to my database is a strong motivator, though.

Saturday also began a battle with a cold/flu. I've been upping my vitamin C intake, supplemented by Echinacea, Golden Seal and plenty of rest (which also cuts into my database time...). I did attend most of my church meetings yesterday, including 6 hours with the Stake Presidency. They only had to put up with a couple sneeze sessions from me. I'm still not 100%, but it hasn't put me completely out yet.

Catch-up time

So much happening. So little time to write.

I taught three classes at the Institute of Genealogy this week. They were well received. Or so it appeared to me.

A possible distant cousin spoke with me after class yesterday. His wife shares my last name. He told me a familiar story of the original clan grandfather in old New York. His wife can't prove her connection to that grandfather, but highly suspects the connection. I can't prove (family has proven and dispoven the connection-I might have a go at re-proving it soon) our connection with that possible ancestor, either. The student, a former librarian from Oregon, was receptive to the idea of a family organization whose goal is to sort out that whole ancestral mess. More organizational work that I need to do...

Meanwhile, I continue to try to add to the total number of members that I've identified as part of the family. That total is a little over 29,000 at this point. Today I chipped away at the effort by doing a little census research. That was augmented this afternoon when I found a new two-CD set of scanned family information about the Callisters. I copied all of the documents to go through at home.

It appears that the documents were created in about 1964-5. I have most of the information about that corner of the family already, so I have little faith that I'll find many new names to add to the file. On the up side, it appears that there are a lot of dates and places included in the documents that I can use to build the database. Many of the documents include brief autobiographies, physical descriptions and occupational listings. Most of the documents also contain 40 year old addresses. Anyway, it'll be fun to go through the stuff.

Life goes on

The question on my mind is: How long do you wait after an obituary is published before you call to ask for genealogical details?

I've got a recent obit that mentions the spouse of the deceased, but doesn't give enough information to link it to my database. I've got a cousin with the same name as the deceased's spouse, but no other information. Just enough information to make a poor leap...

My genealogical itch has been triggered.

Can I keep that itch in check long enough to allow an appropriate mourning period?

How long is long enough?



A good thing today, though...I did look for and find census records for Fred McQueen and Mary E. Gonder. I found they had at least four children. Fred died sometime between 1910 and 1920. It was a fun search. I had to return to microfilmed census records, because the 1910 census returns for Nevada were a bit screwy on Ancestry.com this morning. But I did find them...