Mike has arrived in the Gulf

My son in law has arrived at the Al Basra Oil Terminal in the Persian Gulf.
He will be responsible  for  the upkeep of the facilities. It's about 15 miles offshore and I don't think it will be that pleasant (it's a 1/2 mi long hunk of steel). His deployment is until Aug 2010.
Tomorrow we will be going to spent Christmas  with our daughter and the grandkids. My other daughter will join us on Christmas day. Hopefully we will be able to connect with Mike via Skype.
Merry Christmas to All

An Issue With Picasa

JLOG has posted information on a problem with losing face tagging info on backups.
Its explained  here at  http://www.jgen.ws/jlog/backup/picasa-backup. The face recognition feature is a lot of fun but can be time consuming (program  Id'd 11,000 faces {mostly my grandkids}) and I would have not been a happy camper if I'd lost all that info. Another thing I noticed is that captions don't appear any where except on Picasa.  It seems no "free" photo image program can do every thing. I still prefer Faststone for general viewing and quick resizing.

Wordless Wednesday

"God Bless and God Speed"

We just returned tonight from a visit with our son-in-law Mike before he leaves for the Persian Gulf next week. He's a Lt.Commander in the Naval Reserve and has been called up for an 8 month tour.We'll be helping my daughter 3 or 4 days a week with our grandkids, but it's going to be hard for all of them. Mike is very "hands on" with the kids, sometimes coaching  3 teams for baseball or basketball. We all will miss "Coach Mike".  We pray for his safe and speedy return.

Wordless Wednesday- Thank You

Celebrate the 4th of July with Sherman Barnes in 1838 in Whigville Ct.

Celebrate the 4th of July with Sherman Barnes in 1838 in Whigville Ct.
Whigville hasn't changed much since 1838 except that it's much more quite since being the center of commerce for the Town of Burlington. You no longer see much evidence of the myriad of small shops and mills that lined the two streams on either edge of the pictures included here. The white house shown in this blogs header is about 700 ft beyond the red barns and up the hill. The fields are mostly hay now, but if I interpret the excepts from the diary I will quote, they were filled with peas,corn and ruta begas. The photos are from right to left at the corner of Main and South Main Streets as I stood in front of the Grange Hall.

From the diary of Leavet Mills of Whigville:
"1838
Sunday July 1st cloudy and warm
2. Hot. hoed potatoes for J S Peck .
3 very warm. Mowed clover for J S peck in A.M. P. M.Plowed corn for Do

Independence Day Hot. 100 cartridges had been previously prepared to celebrate this day & the people of this vicinity repaired to the appointed place at an early hour joyfully and with glad hearts.
We had discharged the piece 8 times & at the 9th shocking to relate the cannon burst with an awful explosion. The owner of the gun Mr Sherman Barnes had his thigh badly broken & lacerated. The others about 15 in number & myself amidst the whiling pieces of iron and wood wonderful to relate escaped unhurt. I was standing about 1 rod in the rear of the cannon & the butt end of which came whirling by me very swiftly & very nearly; our escape can only be ascribed to an all wise Providence and we all have reason to thanks to the giver of all good that matters are no worse. For myself I sincerely do that our lives have been preserved when we were so near eternity.
In Canton one person was killed and several wounded.
Hoed Ruta Bagas the remainder of the day"

I've posted about Sherman before and the more I find , life in his house hold was by far not dull. Notes for Sherman Barnes and the above quoted diary are from the efforts of L. Alderman, the Burlington historian which he has left recorded at the Town Library.Some of his additional notes for Sherman are:
He held offices of justice of the peace, county surveyor, was grand juror. He was a pensioner of the war of 1812. he was a man of marked mechanical ability and was engaged for some time making telescopes. I had posted before how he enjoyed giving friends and family views of the heavens down in those meadows. He belonged to the local debating society and I bet he won most of them. There is another note that while attending a church meeting the wood stove was not working and late in that winter afternoon Sherman developed
frostbite in his feet. Sherman and his wife Luanna (Smith) were Universalist. He was born 05 Aug 1793 and died 21 Jan 1878.
Such was the life of a patriot in 1838

My wife Nancy, the GGG Grand Daughter of Sherman and Luanna, was born on the 4th of July and we have a good gathering. I think we'll raise one for old Sherman.

Greetings from Sebago Lake

Well after a busy last two months it looks like we'll be able to stay at "the camp" until the middle of September.
The past month has been filled with a graduation, "moving up days", a wedding in New jersey, gardening, packing,Dr's appointments and on and on.
The graduation was at Seton Hall in New Jersey for Laura. She is now a Physicians Assistant and will be working in Boston, we're very proud of her as we had helped care for her since she was born.
The picture is early morning which Nancy took and is one of the few moments which was calm and without rain. No boating or fishing its been too rough.
We took one run when we put the boat in to check out the eagles nest. The eagles are there and it will be fun to watch the activity.
We have no Internet here and I post from the Library when I can.
Have a safe summer.

The Puckerbrush Award

I have been awarded "The Puckerbrush Award by Delia at Delia's Genealogy Blog and also by Cindy at Everything's Relative. Thank you both for thinking of me. I am still trying to figure out why I deserve an award, when I see the time, effort and talent shown in so many other blogs. It's a great way to find new blogs by going through all the blogs listed. Thanks Terry for posting that link over at google showing all the posts.
Here's a background of the award.
"The award was created in honor of genealogy blogger Janice Brown by Terry Thornton, author of "Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi", who explained that "Janice told us all about the word 'puckerbrush' in an article she posted August 27, 2007 at "Cow Hampshire". Terry elaborated a bit further in a comment: 'On any land allowed to go fallow and left untended, a wild assortment of wild plants grow – in some areas, this wild growth results in such a thicket of plants that it is almost impossible to push your way through the growth.So it is with the growth of blogs --- so many that it is impossible to read them all. But in the puckerbrush eventually a few plants/trees become dominant and influence all who view them through the thick surrounding puckerbrush.And it is those outstanding blogs whose influence spreads beyond just the surrounding rabble of puckerbrush that I'm honoring.' Terry issued this challenge: Henceforth these awards will be called the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence. All blog authors are hereby challenged to name the ten blogs which have influenced their writing the most and list them as a tribute to Janice --- the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Awards for Excellence."

I can't compete with the above description of "Puckerbrush" which is eloquent. As my use of the word growing up in rural CT, was that strip of brush between the road and a field into which the vehicle drove into.

Now for those blogs and people on my "short list" that lift my spirit's and aid my efforts. They have all been nominated at least once.
1 Grace and Glory - Becky asked me to add the follower gadget and became my first follower and her posts are heart felt.
2 Ernie's Journey's - Ernie memories refresh my own often and his courage is inspiring.
3 A Couple of Bubbles Off Center- Harold's Daughter (Her blog name reminded me of always been introduced as "Harrison's son". Her blog posts are interesting and I love the "look" of the blogs format.
4. Be Not Forgot- Vickie's use of photo's and the details of her posts are amazing.
5 Family Stories- C M Pointer is another who's talent make one envious.
6 Everything's Relative- Cindy's post about her family are amazing. To be nominated by such talent humbles me.
7 Janinealogy- Janine's posts on photo restoration are very instructional and I hope to learn much from them.
8 A Canadian Family- Evelyn just started the "Post Card Carnival", so much effort. I just know I'm going to find a clue to my "Brick Wall" in a New Brunswick post from her.

I'll reserve 9 and 10 for now for the one's I've forgotten.

The Down's of Google

I Google my GG Grandfather's name often and it was a name repeated often in the history of the family.I even found my cousins efforts to obtain help from the VA, which bought up some memories of some happy times and some very, very sad events in his life, but that's not for this blog.
I had early in my start in genealogy found on a message board a family tree with a list of names that went back to the 1650's. Being the sceptic that I am about things I see in print, I had a problem with the link between him and his father. I could follow the family down through to the 1840 census in Poland Me. His age in the 1850 census matched the 1802 birth date given in list and I had found a matching birth in the records at the Mass Vital records site. I went to the Poland town hall with no luck and also the local library there which has a nice history room. I was looking for some documentation of he getting from Lynn/Malden Ma. area to Maine. [I had also found another earlier possible error in the list.]
The original emigrant Stephen Larrabee is believed to be the start of the Larrabee family in Massachusetts and Maine, and the names of his sons were repeated in the various branches. And there in lies the problem of taking things at face value. So what threw the monkey wrench into the middle of my Gencom?
I got a hit on Google Books for a history of Middlesex County, in which it stated that my "John of the list" was born in 1802, died in Malden Ma. in 1848 two years before the "John" listed in the 1850 Me census. It looks like two John's were born around 1802 and a lot of people are following the wrong line. I have found a reference to my "John" being married in Durham Me which is next to Poland Me. and this makes me think he was born in Me not Ma..
So it looks like I'll need to review the Larrabee families in Durham for more clues. I'll need to visit the town hall this summer for sure.

Update: Upon re-reading file on Durham  Marriage, John was from Freedom Me. which is next to family farm in Thorndike and Many were buried in a Freedom cemetery.

The Up's Blogging

Back on May 7, CM Pointer gave me the "One Loverly Blog Award" and with me saying that with all that pink I needed to hold out for a more "Manly" badge. I hope you took no offence.
Well Vickie E at "Benotforgot " came though with a "Lov ur Blog" badge which I have posted over on the side bar. Thanks again Vickie I think it fits in with the posts I have had on railroading and trollies. So again thanks to both of you and your great posts.

TURN BACK THE WHEEL OF TIME

Turn back the "Wheel of Time" and take a look at downtown Thorndike, Maine around the early 1900's. It hasn't changed much since then. Oh the vehicles are more likely to be pickups and cars today, but the tracks are still there and so are the buildings I suspect. (I have not been there in years). The tracks are of "The Belfast and Moosehead RR.", which I had posted earlier also run behind the family farm. My grandfather probably saw the same image when he hopped that train out of town.

The postcard has a lot of wheels, at least 5 or 6 buckboards and buggies. And don't forget the wheel barrow over on the side. I like the older gentleman window shopping. Thorndike is in mid-state between Augusta and Belfast, with its rolling hills, open farmland, and green forests. In many ways its the "Brigadoon" of my mine when I step back in time.

Here's the reverse side of the post card. I believe the split indicates the early 1900's. If any one knows the date the style indicates please leave a comment.

Another Award--WOW!

CMPointer at Family Stories nominated my blog for the "One Lovely Blog Award". I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to make an award or to even leave a comment. I'm having a little trouble posting the "PINK" badge that comes with the award. I'm holding out for "The manly blog award".
In all seriousness though, all the blogs I follow are great and have different qualities to offer and most have received some sort of recognition. That's how I find some of them.One blog I've been admiring for not only her stories, but also for what she does with the photo's, is "Be not forgotten" . She also just received this award but I would like to second it.

The Things Kids Say

My daughter calls it "Modern Genealogy" when she captures things her family is doing. My favorite is her "Heard Around the House" which she captures comments the kids make. Imagine if we could go back in time to hear what we or our parents said when we were 5 and 8 years old. What goes on in this little guy's mind is priceless. A sample follows:

Heard Around The House
We are driving in the car and he says, "I wish I still had my tonsils."
Mom, "Why? You aren't getting sick anymore buddy."
Ben, "Because I want them back. Katie still has hers. Why does she still have hers?"
Katie, "My tonsils weren't to big. Your tonsils were to big so they had to be taken out."
Ben, "I want mine back!"
Katie, "Well, your not in charge. God has the plan for you and you needed your tonsils out."

THE PEOPLE IN THE BARNES' BOX PART 2

Browsing though the Bristol history book from the library, I found over a page of info on Rodney Barnes who I posted on a few days ago . Included was a photo of him in his old age. It also gave a clue to where the family lived before the Bradley St home. It mentions a Monce trout pond which could be located on Monce Rd. just around the corner from our house. For those of you unfamiliar with the area the town of Farmington was the mother town of Bristol and Burlington.The Bristol and Burlington area was called the "West Woods" and later "New Cambridge" and "West Briton". Bristol became a town and still contained Burlington until the early 1800's. Other areas I mention in the blog are the villages of Forestville (Bristol) and Whigville (Burlington).
It looks like Sherman Barnes' had at least 3 sons that followed him in the machinist trade, Monroe (our line) Bainebridge and Rodney. Brainbride and Rodney worked for the Hubbell Co.in Forestville. The most famous product been the Hubbell Marine Clock. While looking that up I found the History of Bristol on line at Google Books. Who knew!
Smith, Eddy N., and George B. Smith, comps. Bristol, Connecticut ("In Olden Time New Cambridge") Which Includes Forestville. Hartford,Conn.: City Printing Co., 1907.

A Swamp Yankee's Research Gadgets

First of all some free things do work well. I use Mozilla Firefox for my browser and one add-on available is ZOTERO which labeled as the "next generation research tool". It allows you to take snapshots of web pages. It sits at bottom of the browser window and you can access files from there.
I also use Google Docs and Notes, which is another method of copying and storing things of the web. Google docs can render a great PDF for down load also. Its also great to access from other locations and retrieve later from home.
As for photos I use Faststone Image Viewer available at Faststone.org. It has some neat viewing options, quick resizing and editing tools. I discovered this week I could use in the photo properties the "jpg comments" feature to add info to the photo. I'll be posting some soon to see if the info can be accessed in Blogger. I tried Picasa awhile ago but found it lacking.
I finally took a look at Roots Television and found a video on adding comments below a photo using GIMP . So I viewed it 4 or 5 times and opened my Gimp program (it has always scared me) and did it. The man giving the demo gave me the clue about the photo properties option. Good stuff on there. I saw videos for retouching photos which I will be going through real soon.

BLOGGER IDENITY ISSUE

I've had a problem leaving comments on several blogs and then I noticed my smiling face was missing on most of the blogs I follow. Some how I was one of the blanks with no id at all.
I went to the "manage blog you follow" screen and changed all back to a blogger ID.
Is google acting up or did I do some thing?

HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY TO ME !

Well it's been a year since I stepped out into the world of Blogging. I felt a little like I did about 65 years ago when I stepped out on that door step and into the sunlight. "What I'm I doing out here naked to the world ?"
Well just as life has treated me pretty fairly, this trip on the blog has been a lot of fun. When I started I wondered if I would find anything to write about, but it seems interesting stuff always turns up in genealogy.
I called the blog "Bits and Pieces" because when started genealogy all I had was a few scraps of paper and a lot of facts floating around my memory banks. I needed to record some besides a list of names and dates in a computer program. A blog adds a little life to the hobby!
And then all of a sudden you get followers, which you would think would cause added pressure, but it doesn't. They are there to support you.
Thanks for showing an interest in my "Bits and Pieces".

A.K.A. Poppy--"I need your help"

I received a phone call this afternoon from my oldest grandson, he's in the fourth grade and the project is due Tuesday. He had to answer 10 questions about someone in the family who emigrated to this country.
So I thought my mom was the most recent (1920) and the youngest (age 4) and I have the most information on her. She was born in 1915 in the Azores, in the village of Sao Amaro on the island of Sao Jorge. Her parents were here before (her older sister was born in the U.S.) but returned to the Azores.


The family returned here on the S.S. Manchuria, sailing on 7/28/1920 and arriving in N.Y. on 9/4/1920. From there they went back to Taunton Ma.
Her father was a weaver in the cloth mills of Southern New England.
I received most of this info after I had posted on a Google group for Azores genealogy. The folks there were so helpful. Of course this made me go off onto another tangent and I looked into the history of the Azores. I found one of the early settlers in 1439 was a Flemish knight William van der Hagen of Bruges , which the Portuguese translate as Silveira Borges. This is the name my mother had written down for her mother, grandfather and great grandfather. I had always thought it as a middle and last name, but it seems it was combination name carried down though the ages. At any rate to get to the point, my ggrandfather did not approved of my grandmothers marriage.
He felt she married beneath herself and disowned her. Love is blind. They were married for almost 50 years and raised two great daughters.

People from the Barnes' Box Part I

Portraits of Rodney Barnes, Mrs. Rodney Barnes, and two children Emerson and Darwin were in the Barnes box of pictures. They were all labeled with narrow strips of paper with their names in the same script. I had no idea for their relationship (although tonight I did find him and his wife Roxanna Horton in my piles of paper).. I felt he may have been a brother to Monroe Barnes my wife Nancy's GG Grandfather. I suspect another unlabeled photo maybe Monroe and his wife Ann. I'll be posting the others along with a photo of Ann in another post.
Rodney Barnes


Roxanna(Horton) Barnes

Emerson Barnes


Darwin Barnes

Emerson Barnes
So not knowing who Rodney was, I e-mailed Mr. Alderman the Burlington Town Historian (an a distant Barnes cousin). He was kind enough to send the following info about Sherman Barnes . Last year he had told me that Sherman and Monroe families were "Universalists" and that Sherman built telescopes. I later found that Monroe lived in Meriden Ct. for a while and was a founder of the Universalist Church there. What Mr. Alderman sent appears to be from a history and gives a glimpse into life in the mid 1800's.

With many enjoyable things in the life of the village, not the least was the astronomical "observation given by Sherman Barnes with the aid of a telescope" of his own make. This later became the property of Yale college, Mr. Barnes replacing it with another still better. He was at all times interested and pleased when people came to his home, to show them what could best be seen at the time in the heavens. When the planets and stars or moon were showing at their best he would invite his company to meet on the school house lawn or street to study the skies. He was son of Joel of Wise, and lived west of Caleb N. Matthews. He married Luana Smith, daughter of Gideon. The children were Rodney, Cyrus, Banebridge, Juliette, Hannah, Monroe, Gideon and Amelia.

Mr. Barnes had a machine shop on the brook near His Home, the old house place of Gideon Smith his father-in-law, opposite and beyond was in the now almost deserted district of Falls brook and the "Nigger Bridge," Mr. Schriver lives northward from the bridge. Southwest from Norman Matthews lived Josiah Barnes, father of the twins Elias and Eliada Barnes and a younger brother, Austin. The house is a ruin and the sons gone.
I would say life in the "Barnes" home was interesting to say the least. At the bottom of this blog is a photo of the brook his and Monroe's shop was on.
I should make a photo of "Whigville" as it has changed little since Sherman held those sky viewings.

A Trolly Man's Holiday

James P. Wrenn b.1880 in Tulamore, county Offaly, Ireland. He died at the age of 48 in New Britain Ct. About the only thing we knew of him was that he was a Motorman for the old Connecticut Company. We had no pictures of him, so when my wife saw her paternal grandfather in the paper, she optained a copy from Ruth Hummel at the Plainville Historic Center.

James Wrenn is front and center with the big mustash

The article explains how the trolly companies created parks to bring folks out of the cities on the weekend. When I lived near Crystal Lake there was a long straight as an arrow dirt road that intercected our dirt road. My dad said it had been a trolly line that went out to the lake. As a kid, he remembered going out there and also out to Lake Compounce here in Bristol. My father-in-law (Leo) told me about the work trollies carrying "traprock" (crushed rock) from the quarry in New Britain all over Ct. Today
we could use such a system in our area.
The article is shown below.



This Picture and article was run in the New Britain Herald back in 1994. The story was written by Ruth Hummel from the Plainville Historic Center.

Katherine Gaylord a Mother in the American Revolution

I noticed this monument in the Milford St. Cemetery in Burlington Ct. and although I had heard her name I had never heard of the Wyoming Massacre.
Ever since reading about the events of 1778 and her heroic return home, I pass many homes along Rt 6 between Danbury and Bristol and wonder which she may have stopped for shelter. There are many fine renditions of her story that I can not hope to equal.
The area had been fought over by the Six Nations , Pennsylvania and Connecticut for many years and the residents were no strangers to warfare.
Katherine's husband had served at Bunker Hill in 1775 and was a Lieutenant in the Ct. militia. Most of the young men of the area were off serving in the Revolutionary War leaving about 300 mostly older men for defence. They ventured out without known the size of the force they would encounter. They entered a trap and were surrounded by over a 1000 Indians, British Rangers and Tories. One account says only 35 survived. Aaron Gaylord was not one of them.
Aaron had counseled his wife to prepare to flee if he did not return. She fled at midnight with her three children and two horses. She left behind a surrender that only lasted a few days before more death and destruction. She lost one horse the second day and traveled in fear of being captured for days. Travel was slow crossing streams and rivers finding shelter under their blanket or abandoned cabins. For a time she felt they were being stalked by a panther. They were befriended along the way by hunters soldiers and friendly Indians or going hungry for days.
Today that trip is 199 miles and according to google a three and a half hour car trip. Their original trip to Wyoming was about three weeks, hers back to her fathers home much longer I would guess.
One rendition written by Florence E.D. Muzzy is contained in [A History of Bristol or "New Cambridge"]. It is on Ancestry.com and at our local library.
Another shorter version(but longer than mine) is on the Burlington historian's site :
www.munic.state.ct.us/BURLINGTON/burlington_articles_of_the_past.pdf
It starts on pg 95.
I think Katherine's story is very compelling and reminds me of my childhood favorites "Drums along the Mohawk" and "The Last of the Mohegans"

Celebrate Your Name Week

And LESTER is my nameo ! I think that might be a song. It's a name that rarely is used now, in fact one site I looked at didn't even list it. It's also a surname of early settlers in the New London Ct. area. I'm named after my paternal grandfather who I never knew. My nephew has it as a middle name, and my Uncle Frank was born Lester Putnam Larrabee. He went by his Christening name Frank. Jeepers if I knew that I might have gone by my Christing name of Michael. It might have saved me a lot issues in school ;-)
Back in those days Catholic priests only would baptize you with a saints name, I wonder what John the Baptist required?
I'm glad I'm named after my grandfather as I believe he was an independent person. As the story goes he left the farm at an early age. They found an axe and his initials (LML) carved into a stone out in a back pasture. (I've seen it). He then hopped a train that ran behind the farm ( the Belfast and Moosehead RR) over to Waterville. He was a lumberjack for a while before becoming a railroad engineer. I wonder if he learned his trade on one of those 2ft track engines they used in the woods back then? I may not have hopped a train, but I sure didn't end up as I had started out to.

IT'S A MYSTERY

It's a cold gray afternoon, and we are waiting for a nor'easter to hit tonight. Its expected to drop between 12 to 18 inches of snow. So I ask you, why did over 100 Robins appear today? They covered the lawn looking for worms. They ransacked the leaves in the woods. I guess they may have found grubs in the leaves, but I doubt if there was a worm to be found.
I have heard that some winter over around here in the swamps, but I've never have seen that. Robins do appear in the early spring and some times I've opened some paths on the lawn, hoping they can find some thing.
I do wonder about things like this. Perhaps I should join Twitter and a "Robin" could send me a tweet ;-)

A Post Card From Dalhousie N.B.

I was asked how do I know if Lillian Balfour was from Dalhousie and all I have are memories of my father's and of my own. The photo shows the long hill down to the harbor and I recall her telling me how she would slide down it in the winter. The reverse side I believe would date the time as after 1915.
It was addressed to my uncle who must have remained in school while she traveled. She refers to the boys as been well ( I'm inferring she's referring to my other uncle and my father as being with her). The ages of the brothers at this time would be about 11,9 and 2. The first child was born in Boston in 1904, so I'm guessing a marriage around 1902 or 1903, coming to the U.S. maybe around 1900 or 1901. I recall she worked in Boston and probably met my grandfather there. He was a railroad engineer whom I have posted about before. I find no record of her prior to 1910 (Census 1910 Webster Ma.)
P.s. I Googled H.V. Henderson and found him listed with (1920-1960) .If compared to other publishers the dates would refer to the time in business.
This would now date my postcard as post 1920. The site I found is
http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersh.html
The boys ages would now be at least 16,14, and 7.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY, EXCEPT THANK YOU

MY GOODNESS !! I've been nominated by Gini at http://www.ginisology.blogspot.com/
for the Kreativ Blogger Award.
When I started this blog almost a year ago, I was disappointed by the lack of comments from our families (except of course my daughter Lynn). I did get a E-Mail from my brother (I think it was first one he ever made) who rarely uses a computer. I felt like that tree falling in the forest with nobody around to hear the fall (does it still make a sound?). Then I posted that photo over "footnote Mavens" Carnival or maybe it was the comments I made on "Ernie's Journey's", and all of a sudden I had follower's. I think it's great, the way this GeneaBloggers Group is a source of encouragement.
I'm going to pass on the list of seven just now, many of you have all ready been listed. I'll think on this because you are all deserving.

And Out of the Corner of My Eye

Well this afternoon we took a ride over to a Co-Op Antique shop. You know the kind where dealers set up a cube with their wares. As I cruised the isles for genealogy books, I spied a fellow looking at a city directory. The advertisements on the front cover had got my attention. I circled around until the man left and picked it up. Well it included the small town we had lived in (I, from the 4th grade until I married), so I looked up my parents and there they were, along with so many other families I knew. I wasn't going to buy it (it was well worn and I thought a little pricey[I've been told that I wouldn't spend a nickel to see a mouse eat a bale of hay], but my wife insisted [price has never bothered her ;-) ].
I'm so glad that I did, as the book is full of memories and information. Most of the time you find a line of info on-line with a name and address of some one you may never have known. This book had people and business' of my childhood. As thumbed thru the pages, I'd say oh look there's Mr and Mrs. ---, I didn't know her name was Julia. Or that obituary I read the other day, the directory showed the woman had been a widow in 1954 (wow). I saw that we didn't have a phone at the time. We lived in a 2 family house on a long dirt road, and it was the only house on it. The owner lived below us and they had one. Another line probably wasn't available.
The back of the book had telephone numbers and names listed, but they were listed by order of number not by name. That made no sense to me why the numbers were listed that way.
Another neat thing in the book was a section with the streets and roads with the name of residents in order along the road. If I can't remember the name then I'll just follow along their street till I find them.
Today has been a "blast from the past", Thanks Honey you were right again!

IT FEELS LIKE SPRING

Well it's 60 degrees today and the "BAT Truck" got a bath. The snow's melting fast. I hope that ground rat in Pennsylvania is wrong about 6 more weeks.
I took a look at the web cam up on Long Lake Naples, Maine. (link on my side bar, the live link is working today). There were some ice fishermen out there and they had their trucks out on the lake. I could never bring my self to bring mine out there. I remember when we first moved out near Crystal Lake and my dad drove our "53" Chevy down to the edge of the lake. He had all intentions of driving out ( there were a lot of other vehicles out there). Well we sat there for a few minutes before he threw the car in reverse and we drove home. I think I got my "good sense" from my "POP".

Why Do I Blog ?

First off -- WOW!! I have followers! With so many great blogs out there, it is nice to think some would take the time to read yours. I started because I enjoyed my daughter's blog so much, I thought what a great way to share with the family our history. As I've said before genealogy is much more than lists of names, it's finding things or stories to reveal something of their life. I follow quite a few blogs using Google Reader and now I've added "The Blogs I Follow" to my blog . I find that they work in conjunction with each other.
I had always thought I should write about my growing up, so my daughters and my grandchildren would know something of me, my mom and dad and their parents too. The experiences that we had were so much different than theirs. Listening to the radio before we got that television in the early 50's.
Having the ice man lug in a big chunk for the ice box in the late 40's. Using the "candle stick" phone of a neighbor until we moved to the country and got on a 4 party line. Our job experiences were a lot different than the kids have today. In high school, jobs were limited to all types of farms in our community, dairy, chicken, turkey and tobacco. Oh, and one crazy job hanging stage curtains in schools all over Ct and Mass. My mom when she was younger along with her sister and parents worked in thread and cloth mills. Those big granite or brick buildings stand empty or converted to condos or hold a variety of small business. I guess what I'm trying to say is our world is constantly changing, what I've experienced is not what my grandchildren will experience nor is it like our ancestors life time. There's a lot of stories hidden in these lines that I need to share, I hope the kids find it interesting.

P.S. One tidbit I picked up on "Facebook Bootcamp for Genea-Blogers"
is to export your blog. I backup mine to my computer and a backup drive.
Maybe I''ll cut and paste some of this stuff into a little booklet, that would be neat. And who knows maybe someday I'll really come out of my shell and join Facebook ;-)

Does 3rd Cousin 4 Times Removed Count?

My GG Grandmother was a third cousin to Abe Lincoln, which would make them Great Great Grandchildren of the same Lincoln back in the early 1700's.
Try to keep that straight in your head. I'm not 100% sure yet but I think my 5th great grandfather (Lincoln) was born in Massachusetts in around 1778.
Its a challenge to get focused on any family for the branches are many. I hope to get back to the Lincoln's soon. Interestedly at the time of 1850 census the town of Washington was in Lincoln County, Maine. Other towns in the neighborhood were Liberty, Freedom and Unity if that isn't a patriotic area I don't know what is. Branches of our tree lived in them all.
I found the "Vital Records of Washington Maine" compiled by Marlene A. Groves at the Godfrey Library in Middletown Ct.. In it Sarah E. Lincoln is married on March 9,1850. What is interesting and what makes makes genealogy so difficult is what you may find in a census. In the Washington Me. 1850 census Sarah E.(18) is listed as a daughter of James Lincoln and 9 days later we have our Sarah E.(19) listed with her husband Almond Newhall. It is easy to go off on a wrong tangent. Unfortunately neither birth was recorded.
P.S. I read another blog today with tips on researching genealogy and he talked about who might have given the info to a census taker and whether
they understood the questions. It makes me wonder if the two Sarah E.'s were the same person. If question about the families children was understood as "who are your children" and not as "the names of the children living in the house".

I Wish You Could Speak

I'm re posting this picture to enter it into the "Smile for the Camera" Blog Carnival. My hope is that others can offer comments on any clues contained in the photograph. As I said in my previous post that it has intrigued me for years.
It was with my grandmothers album, and I suspect that it may be from her family in New Brunswick Canada. My uneducated guess is that it was taken around 1900. The women's clothes could help date it, as well as the frame.
I think the older woman on the left interesting as it looks as she intended not to look at the camera. She may even be an Native American. If from Dalhousie,New Brunswick the family name would be Balfour, but as of yet I haven't located any records to match my grand mothers birth in 1882.
Even without names the picture will remain a wonderful image of our past.