Beauty in the City -- People in the Plaza, Healdsburg

It was one of "those" weeks where we did not "have" to do anything . . . and we accomplished most of that. But we actually did do a lot, just the things though that we wanted to do. My attention was focused as usual on things genealogy while Gail focused on needle-pointing and puzzling. Dino has fit right into the mix and as a 22 month "pup" he is sooo mellow and agreeable:

We actually did go to a nursery (department of) and purchase the colorful plant above -- we hope that it lasts for a time . . . it is inspiring to see it while working in the kitchen, Dino is non-plussed.

We did accomplish a lot this week and managed to squeeze the basics of house maintenance in -- as well.

Webinar Wednesday Friday

I did feel the absence of a Webinar on Wednesday and was pleasantly surprised to find one scheduled on Friday for a change. This one was sponsored by Legacy Family Tree Webinars and hosted by Geoff Rasmussen and the presenter was Maureen Taylor with an excellent topic -- City Directories and how they can assist in the research of our ancestors.

I learned a great deal about City Directories and even though I have used them before -- the presentation triggered a renewed interest in finding more of our tree dwellers in actual City Directories. And for the missing 1890 Census (due to a fire) City Directories can often place our ancestors in a city or town.

As I have mentioned before these webinars on Legacy Family Tree are free when viewing "live" and then usually for a week afterwards, then they can be purchased if desired.

Maureen Taylor has written several books, mostly about photography (she is known as The Photo Detective). One that I have is "The Last Muster" -- Images of the Revolutionary War Generation. She mentioned that she is working on a new project "The Last Muster Film" which you can get more details about on:     Last Muster Film     the film got funding at the start from Kickstarter donors.

The Puzzling Dilemma

When one takes about a month to finish a puzzle there is a period of time when the question arises -- "how long do you leave the completed puzzle on display" . . . and what to do in the meantime:

That is exactly the place Gail found herself -- wondering "what now" as it pertains to the puzzle environment. She does have another one "waiting in the wings". The solution came when she realized that the completed puzzle would be on display until (today) Saturday when three of her friends were going to visit -- and they did and they expressed how much they liked the puzzle.

So now we'll see how the new puzzle will replace the completed one as the center of activity . . . these are not the same kind of decisions that we were making ten or twenty years ago when we were actually out and about in the work-a-day world. But some decisions feel like it though.

Working in the Branches of the Tree

As I have mentioned before, I don't always know where I'll find interesting relatives -- even if they are so "out there" on the branch. Sometimes it is hard to fathom the relationship as it might appear on a family tree chart but never-the-less if the people seem real it does not matter if they are distantly related -- but it would be nice if they were "direct-line" folks:

Clicking on the above you can see some of the actual relationships that I uncovered this week -- there were many more and some even more distant than these -- I won't name names . . . but while searching around for these folks it is really rewarding to rebuild their families and if photos are provided there is a real sense of "family".

So that is how that theory was unfolded . . . I can understand that a family tree and description can be really perplexing -- and I see it when folks roll their eyes when hearing descriptions like the above . . . I love it . . .

Birthdays & Anniversaries From the Tree 

There were six folks from our tree who celebrate a birthday today AND one marriage anniversary for this day. The couple are in my wife's branch and they were married 73 years ago today. The wife is still very active at 92, driving, playing golf, mall walking, enjoying . . .

Clicking on the above for marriages check out Gladys Rahman. If Paul Harvey was still around he'd be mentioning her on his program . . .

Genealogy on TV This Week

This week was productive in "doing" genealogy but it was also fun to watch others do some of it as well. This week Christina Applegate got involved in her family history -- very fascinating and the show is still available to view at TLC and other sites as well.

Next week -- on TLC on Tuesday night -- Chelsea Handler will be featured and some of the results are already "floating" around the web -- it sounds very interesting -- check it out next Tuesday night.

Genealogy Coming Soon to TV

On a date well known to me, September 23 of this year on Monday evening on PBS a new genealogy based show will air -- and these several shows will be featuring "everyday" folks, so it will be different than the current genealogy based shows airing now.

PBS has taken the format from their successful show "Antiques Roadshow" and have created "Genealogy Roadshow". Click on the above to see more in-depth descriptions of the show -- to me it really sounds like a rounding out of the styles between what is on now -- so I really look forward to September 23 . . .

And so that is a bit again of our week, hope your week went well! See you all in a few. Burgers tonight.