Walking (some got to ride) the Parade

It was hard to believe that Thursday of this week was the day for this town's Memorial Day Parade. It actually has to do with the Future Farmers of America and is held in the early evening on the Thursday prior to Memorial Day each year. This year was special for us -- for a lot of reasons. One, we have moved and are now close enough to walk to the parade route and not have to search for parking -- as a matter of fact there were cars actually parked near our house to attend the parade and the fair following the parade.

It all began with an invitation for Gail to ride the Dry Creek Vineyard float (their first for this event) in recognition of the 40 year anniversary of the founding of that winery. Gail has been associated with the winery all these years. I dropped Gail off as close to the staging area as possible and then Dino and I drove back home and walked to the staging area to catch up with them. It turned out that we did not have to hurry as it was a while before their float joined the parade -- in the meantime I snapped some of the above photos.

I (Dino and I) walked beside their float and in front of and behind the float during the route. The route was lined with spectators the whole way -- we had to watch carefully where we stepped as we were not too far behind the equestrian unit pictured above . . . all in all Dino and I walked 2.3 miles that evening -- I did not really feel the impact until some time later during my sleeping hours and the next morning . . .

The event was a lot of fun and there really is something for almost everyone to enjoy. When the parade concludes a lot of the spectators wander over to the football/baseball fields where booths and other attractions have been set up for eating and playing. The next two days there are auctions and animal judging. Along the route I spotted the above beautiful auto -- I am not sure what make or year that it is -- only that it probably looks "better" than new.

The theme for DCV was nautical and in keeping with that the riders all wore nautical type dress and there was a "pirate band" playing along the way -- very impressive and enjoyable. The whole event made it special for us.

Resting Up for the Events


Actually I would have rested more if I had realized that I was going to walk that much. But during this week I did do a lot of indexing for the 1940 Census. The indexing is "coming along" nicely -- almost about halfway completed. I have indexed some census pages in almost every state. Soon everyone will be able to search for their relatives effortlessly.

I do have to say though that if good penmanship had been a requirement back in 1940 we might be much further along . . . it is really a shame that some folks are going to NOT be able to easily find their relatives because of horrible handwriting. This week I had two census pages scribbled by morons people who must have been in a big hurry or who did not sit down to write or for whatever reason did not make it clear the names that they were enumerating.  I can only hope that that was not the case for the census takers talking to my (and your) folks . . .

Click on the above and you can see a little of what I refer to -- very tough to decipher writing -- most of it I could make good guesses at, but some were impossible . . . above too you can see the twenty states that are now completely indexed. There is still the need for volunteers to help out -- I do the indexing for Family Search and their program is excellent -- if you have some time -- check it out . . .

Around the House Today


Spring is here and this morning I took a few snaps of the blooms of the season. Dino always looks forlorn as he peers out of the window wondering why he is not out there with me . . .

The blooms do come with a cost -- we noticed a bit of a change in our water bill this month even though we had quite a bit of rain -- the pool may have something to do with it too . . .

Dino's Week


Dino turned eight months old this week and he tipped the scales at over 70 pounds. Our GDB training this week involved a visit to downtown historic Petaluma. All the younger puppies and their trainers met in front of the theater in Petaluma and then did some training exercises and then walked throughout the area. We walked along the waterfront on wooden railroad ties and across a bridge and up and down stairways. The pups are exposed to as many different surfaces as possible and like this trip the youngest pups are put in between two older pups so that can see how the older puppies handle things . . .

Dino took the training is stride and the whole adventure was enjoyed by all -- even in the windy cool . . .


The Search Goes On


One of the nice things about genealogy is that "it is never over" until it is over . . . my search for information about my family continues and the search for Gail's family as well.  In the 1940 Census, we did not see my father -- we saw my Mother and Brother and Sister -- but not my father. The 10 year period from 1930 to 1940 is unclear to me. In the 1930 Census my father was a soldier stationed at Fort Sheridan near Chicago.

We believe he left the Army shortly after that census to get married on 14 Jan 1931. In the following picture we see my dad and mom standing in front of Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC on 15 April 1932.
My brother recently gave me that photo and I was able to remove the black paper from the back to see the date written clearly in my Mother's distinctive handwriting.

Now one of the other pictures shows my Father in the 26th  Army Infantry Unit in Plattsburg, New York, for the period of 1932 -- 1933 (top left in the photo). We know that he was in Walter Reed because of an injury suffered at some point in his military service (all peace time service) but we are unclear as to many of the circumstances of his military experience -- this is due a great deal to the fact that most of his records were burnt along with the records of millions of other servicemen in the St Louis fire several decades ago . . .
We will continue to try to piece together his military records -- I know he served in Hawaii at some point and supposedly along the US / Mexico border as well . . .

Family Dinner


This week too, we picked my brother and his wife up from the airport in Santa Rosa after they visited their kids and grand kids in Portland . . . for that they invited us over for dinner last night. We got what we feel is the better end of the deal -- we did not have to cook dinner and they served us a delicious chicken dinner, roasted potatoes with onions and fresh carrots not to mention a very tasty dessert of ice cream, strawberries and very thin cookies -- we thoroughly enjoyed it AND we will have our traditional burgers on Sunday night . . .

Even Dino enjoyed the visit -- though he got his regular food when we returned home . . .

Lastly -- It is Memorial Week-End


We feel as though we have already celebrated Memorial Day, but it is actually tomorrow -- and so that is a good thing. Even though I don't have the day off as such because I am "off" every day, I'll have the sense of a holiday and especially while driving throughout the town and up (and down) our street.

Some of the above flags are flying in our neighborhood and some are flags spotted in photos of some of the National Cemeteries across the country. It does remind one of the significance of this day. Have a good Memorial Day and we'll see you all in a few . . .

The Week That Was . . . Pretty Nice

The week was really nice in terms of weather with most days being warm and sunny -- there may have been one day when it was overcast a bit. Thank goodness though for a/c! We had a variety of activities that kept us busy including removing counter tops from the pool house in preparation for a moderate re-model.
But this morning around the house -- and we have kept close to the house the last few days because someone, we won't mention who,  is "on the mend" after participating too much on the counter top removal and now is paying the sciatic price . . .

I shot this collage this morning as we prepared for the day. The burst of color from the flowers around the house is brilliant. And the "visiting kitty" whom we have not seen for a couple of weeks showed up yesterday and today. Dino likes her and is actually very good around her -- but above he is looking through the windows as Gail pets her.

I Feel Pretty Lucky and I Thank My Lucky Stars . . .


Actually I DO feel pretty lucky this week! Last Sunday evening after we had celebrated Mother's Day earlier at a brunch, I made a telephone call to the Sonoma County Superior Court for the current status of my "summons for Jury Duty". For several weeks since receiving my "invitation" for jury duty I have been dreading the thought of going through that process yet again. I have served on three juries in the past and I have been called several other times as well.

The above document is intimidating to a retired person -- I welcomed it when I was an employee. The difference of course is that as an employee I received my regular salary while serving on a jury and I was away from the turmoil of the everyday workplace while serving . . . now, I would be attending the festivities on my own ticket AND I would be bringing Dino as well.

But on that Sunday evening when I called, my juror number was high enough to miss the first cut -- which meant that I did not have to attend on Monday -- but I was to call in that night to check if I was needed on Tuesday . . . and so it went each night of my "eligibility".  Eligibility runs for a full week so right up til Thursday night I could be requested to show up on a possible beginning jury on Friday.

It must have been a "slow" jury needs week because I got through each night with the message that my number was not needed yet. On Thursday night again my number was not needed and I had fulfilled my "duty" for at least a year -- but guess what -- there are benefits to turning 70  -- at that magical age no excuse is needed to "turn down" a jury summons, I feel pretty lucky . . .I know that some of our ancestors who were called for jury duty did not have the luxury of "phoning in" -- they had to show up and sit and wait just like I did a few times in previous jury summons.

I do have to say though that the experience I did have on the juries that I served was really well worth the insight into the legal system and I hope that the decisions we made as jurors were the right ones and just.

Speaking of Mother's Day Brunch


While Gail and I sadly do not have Mothers around to celebrate that day with, we do know some Mothers that need celebrating with and so we did with one group -- from our tree too. One Mother came from Wisconsin on vacation with her two small kids to join in celebrating with some of her sisters, their Mother, Magdalena. Alex and Josephina provided a great brunch -- the food was excellent and the conversation pleasant. We enjoyed the morning and did not have to eat again until later in the evening:

Above you can see some of the many delicious things we were offered to eat. In the bottom left photo you can see "J.T." peeking through the slats at my camera. Dino too can be seen enjoying the brunch -- though he only watched and listened as we ate . . .

Cousin Connection


I did talk to a few cousins this week via email. Bruce is a second cousin (we have a common Great Grandfather, John) and we trade emails regularly -- for whatever reason, growing up I never even knew of the existence of Bruce, nor did he probably know of my existence, but I am glad to be able to communicate with him now.

So I asked him where he was living in 1940 and just today he responded with that information and so I went searching for him in the 1940 Census. I was lucky to find him after going through about 30 census pages. I would have had to go through a lot more if it were not for a website: www.stevemorse.org/census
which is a great place to get help to locate someone in the census (until there is an index).

Above (click to enlarge) you can see Bruce living with his Grandparents and Father in Neillsville, Wisconsin at 206 S Grand Avenue. Bruce is only the third living relative that I have located in the 1940 Census. It is rare that someone gets to see themselves in a Census since the U.S. Federal Censuses are held 72 years before they are released.

But Otto his Grandfather is listed as the Proprietor of a Tavern and his Dad, Gale is listed as working as a Case Worker for the State and County Relief Program. There are other interesting facts that are gleaned from this census like the amount of rent being paid (if renting) and in this case it was $23 per month that Otto was paying for rent . . . times have certainly changed.

So Bruce I hope you enjoy seeing yourself in the census!

A Fun Website


I always look for sites that I am interested in and usually they relate somehow to genealogy and family history. And I have found one that is quite interesting in that if you like photography as well it is great. This site allows folks to upload historical photos of places. These places are then available to be viewed by others visiting the site and to compare what these places looked like from then until today. Some places or houses are no longer in existence so that gives one a chance to see what they were like.  Google maps are used for the today portion to compare with the historical picture:

If you like click on the link and take a look -- What Was There ?   In the above collage you can see an example of a picture someone uploaded from La Grange, Illinois. The house is no longer there but the ones next door are and can be seen using Google Earth. This house was on the same street that our family lived on when they moved from Chicago to La Grange, so that was interesting. But try areas that you are interested in and maybe you'll see some pictures of interest -- if not -- maybe you could upload a picture or two that you have from your family albums for others to "find".

Spotted on our Short Walk


Since half of us are "on the mend" our walk yesterday was a brief one -- but not so brief that we couldn't spot something of interest:

What a beautifully kept auto -- a 1953 Packard Convertible -- our neighbor in LaGrange, Illinois had one that was similar to the above -- they walked their Great Dane with it . . .

Dino's Week


Besides eating, Dino's favorite activities are running along our "boardwalk" along our side fence AND chewing. He chews a great deal of the day and so far it has only been his toys that he chews. He has chewed through a lot of toys and we were on the look for a "tougher" chew toy -- and we thing we have found one:

The top photos show Dino in his stance and then running full speed the maybe twenty yards to the lemon tree -- after two of three of these he is ready to go rest and chew. We bought a "Goughnut" rhymes with Doughnut and it is guaranteed to not be able to be chewed through . . . we'll see. It certainly is heavy enough -- though it is supposed to be float-able as well (we'll see about that too). The pups are there to just watch . . .

And Lastly -- What's On Our Nightstand and What's Not Going to be on TV . . .

We both love to read and we are constantly reading on either our iPads, iPods, Kindle or even an actual hardback . . . in this case we are reading a hardback version and a very interesting book -- "Life Itself" by Roger Ebert. What makes it so interesting for me is that Roger apparently is the same age as I am AND he grew up in Illinois (albeit Southern Illinois). We are just about one third of the way through the book -- we read it each night and are enjoying it.

The other "news" is that a favorite show of mine (and apparently not enough of others) is that NBC has said that they are not going to renew Who Do You Think You Are for next season. Ancestry.com's stock price dropped over 10 percent at that announcement -- but we can only hope that maybe another network will pick up the show -- I have enjoyed every episode (except for the ones that NBC pre-empted . . .).


So that was a bit about our week. Last night we did enjoy "burgers and sweet-potato fries" tonight it is going to be "Dixie Fried Chicken"  hmmm hmmm good.

See you all in a few!

Bed Bag Beg & Beyond in Wine Country

The week was filled with "things" to do and with excellent weather except for today -- what happened. All week there were bright sunny skies and warming trends. Today there was a marine layer (fog) plus noticeable mist in the early morning hours . . . jackets were worn on the way out this morning.
I continued to do volunteer indexing for FamilySearch.org to assist in getting the 1940 Census indexed and more user friendly. Since I have done pages from almost all of the states now, I am concentrating more on just the states in which we have relatives -- or the possibility of relatives. For the fun of it I did locate some folks in the 1940 Census who currently live in our town -- unfortunately they are not relatives. I also found some folks in other trees that I work on -- in the 1940 Census.All fun to do . . .

For my search on current folks going back in time I find myself -- I can only hope temporarily -- at a place many genealogists find themselves every now and again:

Do any of you recognize this place. It does seem to have patches and things and so that is a good thing. I hope to be behind this only for a short while . . . a brick wall pretty much means breaking through it or maybe climbing over it to move forward -- or backward as the case may be.

While I may be hemmed in a little in terms of linear research I have filled my days with a lot of "fleshing out"  of some of the folks that I have uncovered -- meaning I have dug into a lot of old newspapers and found numerous tidbits about a variety of folks from our tree. From time to time I'll share some of that info here and on my website(s).

Finalizing Other Projects


The back deck is taking shape. The removal of the hot tub and the replacing of the railings and slats and painting of all that are now complete -- we have brought the deck furniture out and maybe we will actually sit on some of it and enjoy the moment . . .

The above is a collage of the deck and free of all furniture -- for the moment. The French doors also got a new set of retractable screens installed as well. We are looking forward to the next project that is formulating in the minds of many as we speak . . .

Snoopy & Dino Meet


One of the neat things about GDB training has been the nice variety of training sessions that our leader has presented to us -- this week was no exception. All the puppies met on the grounds of the Charles M Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa. It is here that Dino got to stand next to the famous Snoopy.
The group went through a variety of exercises outside in the evening warmth -- then we all went into the ice arena to view the ongoing hockey game and to enjoy the fresh cool air.
Dino and the other puppies were all well behaved and actually appeared to be interested in the hockey players as they moved around the rink. After viewing the game we had a brief meeting in the Warm Puppy Cafe -- very nice!

We had been to the arena before -- but not as a group of puppy trainers. It is amazing to see even the 11 week old puppy behave so well with the rest of the group. Watching the skaters on the rink-ice made me think back to the days when I lived on Ruth Lake and in the winter we would shovel off a patch of ice and play hockey the rest of the day. This is where my younger brother took on the look of a "hockey player" by stopping the puck with his front teeth . . .

A Special Day of Thanks


It is the day we set aside each year to pay tribute to our Mothers and for all they do and did for us. Today I  paid tribute to my wife for all the "motherly" things she does and has done over the years.Since she is not one for "serious" cards the following was somewhat appropriate:

You can see that Dino and I actually worked together on this and Dino even inspired the gift that accompanied the card -- a new "bag" made especially to carry his necessities while we are out and about with him -- nice, huh . . . she likes it:

Above you can see Gail adjusting the strap on the bag AND can see Dino from his NEW bed watching. We are actually on our way out to a "Mother's Day Brunch" looking to fill up for two of the three meals of this day . . .

Opening Day at the Farmer's Market


Yesterday was hot and we avoided the afternoon heat by walking in the morning heat to town. Actually it turned out to be pleasant and we are glad to have gone early. We passed by the ball fields as games were going on and made our way to the market. We felt good about taking Dino because he is not a "pet" dog but a working dog, so he is allowed into the market. Prior to now we had to leave our dog at home when we went to the market. We did notice though three other dogs -- of the pet quality -- in the market . . .

The market was crowded with people -- not a whole lot of produce though as it is so early in the season. We did manage to buy a box of delicious cherries and looked at the mostly plants and assorted items. It was nice to see so many people out and we look forward to returning to get the produce when it arrives.


The Way Back Home


After sitting for awhile to rest we started back home along a different route and part of that we walked down one of the alleys in town. Much to our delight we found a "fence" that we'd like to duplicate in our yard -- and soon -- because the fence we have we are discovering is starting to crumble in places . . .

We are glad that we chose this alley to walk home a large part of the way. Besides no traffic at all we enjoyed the different view of things. The red garage reminded me of so many that I remember while growing up in the Midwest. The cactus is actually in the backyard of folks from our tree who live in town -- needless to say the walk home was nice.

Some Yesterday Ads


As I mentioned earlier when I ran into the brick wall I diverted by searching through old newspapers for any articles that I could find that were connected to folks from the tree. But along the way on some of the pages where I found articles I also took some time to peak at some ads. The ads from other eras really can be enlightening as to how life was at that moment in time:

The above ads are from three different papers and from three different time periods. I have always been interested in automobiles and the ads for them -- top left is an ad for a 1950 Pontiac and I remember that car well, the price is nice too. On the top right I personally do not know that car like I knew the Pontiac -- but some of you might. The 1929 Pierce-Arrow, a straight eight -- priced more than the Pontiac and it was twenty one years earlier -- right before the "crash of '29".

Speaking of Mothers and all that they do and did -- my Mother always bought Allsweet Oleomargarine.The above 1939 ad appeared in the Seattle Times but it probably appeared nationally and my Mother probably took advantage of the 10 cents off coupon. The interesting thing about the ad above is that it shows (I cut off most of the dealers) local dealers in the market that would accept the coupon AND one of those dealers in the Seattle area was a first cousin of Gail's -- see the highlighted Jack Bouldron owned store on Madison Street in Seattle . . . so on that page I got a bonus "hit".

The State of the "Net"


Someone must have been listening in, in my office this week. For some reason I have lost the "internet connection" many times in the last few weeks. I actually know though that it is due to the new router I added recently. Adding a new router is one of the all time worst activities relating to using the computer that I have grown to dislike -- a lot.

It is always amazing to me when I read a daily comic and it actually relates to what is happening now. The above desk and pile of wires could be mine -- and this week too, besides the router thing, I finally (at the urging of someone close to me) unplugged the dual keyboard and mouse that I had left attached because I did not want to face going in behind the desk to remove the connections from the tower. After unplugging the keyboard and the mouse everything was fine except that a wire got "jiggled" for the phone connection and service was disrupted -- luckily for me I discovered the loose wire in the cable modem . . . I just want these things "to work" the way they are supposed to . . .

And so went our week -- last night we enjoyed maybe the best burgers ever. Tonight, since we got to combine two meals into "brunch" we are having a form of pork for dinner -- most likely chops . . .

See you all "in a few".

Super Cinco Moon de Mayo in Healdsburg

Okay so another week has "bit the dust" so to speak. The one day that rain was predicted this week -- it did rain lightly all day. The other days were basically sunny and warm. The one day rain came at a time when half of us were under the weather anyway AND the painters (of the deck) took the day off. That brings us to this weekend and it all seemed to align by Saturday night:

It is amazing that the largest appearing moon of the year AND a very large celebrated holiday would fall on the same day AND a Saturday to boot. Above you can see several views of the "Super Moon" (in case you missed it) around and from our house. The top right moon shot was from the back deck and the little white speck appears over our roof line -- it appeared larger in some of the other shots. It was impressive. I can only imagine the effects this "larger" moon is having on all kinds of behavior. I'm glad to be retired as I remember the workplace during full moon times . . .

And we celebrated Cinco de Mayo in our traditional manner and that was fun. We were glad not to be on the road though.

Projects and more Projects


We have a variety of projects going on at all times and this week was no exception. On the sunny days the deck and the new portions of the wall relating to the new slider were primed. And the garden area was worked in preparation of the planting and Dino helped by not getting in the way. Then there were the trips to purchase soil and plants. By the end of the week we have a growing garden containing mostly tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and I think green beans -- I successfully steered someone away from the zucchini which I view as the "accordion" of the garden -- meaning plant a zucchini, go to jail . . .

We are looking for a better season this year versus last year and the available sun is much better. There are no oak trees overshadowing this garden -- we'll see how it goes. Besides the vegetable garden project there was the flower pot project as well and that is coming along nicely too. We look forward to actually sitting in the shade at some point and viewing the gardening efforts -- not to mention the produce.
Above Dino can be seen contemplating the water in the pool which he has cleverly avoided so far in his seven months of life. Maybe later in the summer he will learn to love the pool . . .

This Week in Webinars


While some of the work in the garden project was taking place, I attended two very interesting and helpful webinars. The first was on the 1940 Census -- what else is new -- and was sponsored by "My Heritage" and was really very nicely done. They had some excellent examples of how to find images in the census which as you know has no index (as yet). So, the searching takes place almost like in the old days of genealogy -- viewing page after page waiting for your ancestor to "pop up". My Heritage had some good suggestions as to how to make this process easier AND their examples include showing Charlie Chaplin's listing in Beverly Hills also showing his next door neighbor Fred Astaire.

Anyone can go to the "My Heritage" site and search for their relatives or celebrities if you wish in the 1940 Federal Census.
The second webinar I attended was on "Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors". It was sponsored by "Legacy Family Tree" and presented by Lisa Alzo who did a great job -- lots of examples and lots of possible solutions to getting passed brick walls whether in Pennsylvania or elsewhere. The HILES branch does have some evidence of being in Pennsylvania in the early times after arriving in this country -- and probably after more research more evidence will show up.
It is really a nice thing to be able to be a "virtual" attendee at webinars like the above -- most are presented free of charge and usually you can view them again later for things you want to review.

A Pleasant Break


When out on our back deck often the sounds are "of the ballpark" experience. There are two ball fields that are used almost every day by "small players" and the other field by even "smaller" players. Apparently the way they play is that "no one" loses and the emphasis is on learning and having a positive experience. That is not the way my kids unfortunately experienced early sports.

So we took Dino the other day and walked around the block and visited the ball fields from the opposite perspective that we see from our deck. We saw two games being played by enthusiastic kids. Dino was interested as well -- especially just in hearing the kids and seeing them run around the fields.
As you can see there is lots of green, lots of kids and even a great snack bar. And from this side of the field it even gave us ideas on things we can do in our back yard to enhance the appearance . . .

Back to Work


After the break -- and we have several "after the break" periods -- I have continued this week to do volunteer indexing of the 1940 Federal Census for FamilySearch.org. I have indexed several more pages and feel very comfortable doing it -- except when I get a page with poor penmanship . . . and after I do a couple of indexing pages I allow myself to do some searching of my own for some of my own.

This week I did find some more relatives from our tree -- Carl Bumgardner, Dayton Bumgardner's brother, so my Grand Uncle. What I find interesting about families in general and mine in particular is that the only time that I know of that I saw Carl was at his funeral when I was about 10 years old. Even though Carl lived in Chicago as did Dayton I can not recall any family function where he or his family attended. I have to assume that there was "some" reason for that. I do know that Dayton B and Carl seemed to be close when they were younger and maybe they were as older men too and just did not socialize with our side of the family -- who knows -- sadly, I don't think anyone is around to answer my question about this.

The other interesting fact from censuses comes out when you look at the occupations each ten year period. For Carl he went from being a "machinist" in the 1920 Census, to a service station manager(oil & gas) in 1930 and in the 1940 Census -- a "Bank Guard" in a savings & loan . . . none of these things I ever heard anyone talk about in our family . . . maybe I was just not "listening".

So in the above you can see (on the top excerpt) Carl Bumgardner and his wife Lydia, not shown are his two children Leonard & Ada -- they are on the next page. Unfortunately I never met any of them.

The second excerpt shows relatives from Racine, Wisconsin. All living (1940) in the house that was Samuel Martin's home -- now split into three units apparently. The first family are relatives that I do recognize the name -- Lamparks. The second family consists of Samuel Martin's widow, Elise and her daughter Carrie, also listed as a widow (though I know she was divorced from her husband who apparently died in 1940).
The last family I do not recognize -- Neisen -- maybe someone can enlighten me.

The bottomline is that "good information" is coming out of the 1940 Census and if you follow the principle of "delayed gratification" as I do, it is great.

Dates (this Weekend)


Here are the folks from our tree celebrating important anniversaries in the last two days:

I added the "how is that person related to me" diagram to illustrate the relationship of Clarence Stufflebean to me -- as you can see in the above chart -- he is the 5th cousin 2 times removed of mine . . . 

Who Do You Think You Are (WDYTYA)

A week ago Friday (Apr 27th show) Rob Lowe appeared as the featured guest. His genealogy uncovered something that I believe may be in the HILES genealogy as well -- though at this point only speculation. We have yet to prove or discover how our HILES branch came to be in the United States. But the scenario that Rob Lowe was shown for his family sounded like a scenario I have heard about the HILES as well. And that is that in Rob Lowe's example his relatives came here in the mid 1700s and actually fought on the side of the British during the Revolution AND then were given the opportunity to stay in this country if they would fight on the side of the Americans . . . I have heard it proposed that that could have been how our branch came to be in this country -- there is no proof as yet.

So if you haven't yet watched WDYTYA above gives the times and channel for the show.

Lastly


And so goes our day and our week. We will end it up traditionally with our evening featured meal. In the past we have had sliders, last night we had our traditional Saturday night burgers -- tonight I am not yet sure what is on the menu:

Actually we are heading to the "world famous" establishment shown above and so we will select the specialty of the house at that time -- NOT. The above sign actually though is for sale on ebay.com and is one of several HILES type signs and pictures -- made for sale for any surname of your choosing . . .

Have a good week and we'll see you in a few!