Goin' Back, Goin' Way Back . . .

Gail and I had not been back to the Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy meetings for over a year. We missed them and for one reason and/or another we did not attend -- of course one major factor is that Dino is a "career-changed" pup, so he no longer was "in-the-group". The very small cataract found during Dino's physical examination allowed him to be our "pet" dog -- and we couldn't be happier.

But this past week we did attend a meeting on Tuesday evening. Not a regular meeting -- but a surprise shower for leader Cassie and her husband John -- who are expecting their own "puppy-raiser to be" in a few weeks.

Of course, in the top left is Gail with Dino just before attending the shower. Then, some of the pups in the current group -- a couple of puppy names come to mind -- "Logger" & "Walt", the other names escape me at the moment -- but the images are great.

We petted and held some of the pups and Dino was like he was back in the group as well, enjoying himself now as an elder statesman at two and a half . . .

We really enjoyed seeing our friends from the group and the pups almost convinced us to "get another one". We'll see . . . Gail felt very attracted to "Walt" who she sure is named after her Grandfather . . .

Identifying Another Cousin

Earlier in the week I received an email from a cousin who had attended a meeting of their local genealogical society and had inspired her to dig around some Ohio records -- which she did and found a cousin that she thought I'd like to have in the tree . . . she was right, and he is now in the tree:

So, Samuel Hiles is a third cousin, two-times removed.  Click on the above and you can see how he fits into the tree. On the right side is the marriage certificate for Sam (with his signature) to Charlotte. On the certificate is a previous married name for Charlotte whose birth name was Hammond.

The email to me resulted in about three days of follow up as each name brought up additional names and facts. It all is fascinating e.g. Sam apparently took his mother's last name (Mary Isabelle Hiles) but that is another story. Mary wound up marrying another man (Tigner) and they had children who would be our relatives as well.

So my week was again fully engaged -- some hours continuing to "reorganize files" and some hours doing the fun stuff . . .

Dates for People in our Tree

Wow! Some forty folks celebrating birthdays next week and seven couples with anniversaries:

Best Wishes to all!

Goin' Way Back . . .

Long before Gail and I met -- we both had "other" lives. One of her adventures during those times involved a several months trip throughout the Middle-East. And as happens lately, we are going through all kinds of pictures and slides.
Because of the current Middle-East issues and conditions, the trip that Gail took with two others, probably would not be advisable today and we are sure her trip caused concern back then for her parents:

That actually is Gail as she approaches Jordan's most visited tourist attraction. The picture was taken in the mid 60s and the area is "Petra" -- it has been featured in numerous movies and written about by many journalists. Gail is quick to point out the site in any movie that we see it in . . .

The trio "camped" out of their land-rover and toured many of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. We have a large number of slides from that trip and most have been digitized -- sadly not in order nor identified as to the locales -- some, like the above are easily identified though.

We'll share additional "highlights" of that trip in future posts.

Speaking of Pics

In my mind I "see" cousins and other relatives and I know pictures exist for most of them -- somewhere. I am sure that someone or several someones have copies of pictures of our relatives -- and sometimes it is me that has the pic. Case in point, I was going through some of the boxes that I am currently sorting out and I found this picture:

It is a picture of my Great Aunt Esther and her husband Frank Lampark. I vaguely remember meeting them at some time in my past up in Racine, Wisconsin. I only wish that I would have taken the time to visit them in later years. Esther was the younger sister of my dad's mother (my grandmother).

I have other pictures of Esther, but I believe that this is the only one of Frank that I have.

Webinars

Beside the numerous baseball games that we watched this week, I attended a great webinar on "Evidence & Online Trees".  As usual I learned a lot.

Coming up are two more great sounding webinars:

The Homestead Act of 1862 I believe is about the program that replaced "land-grants" of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 giving land to veterans. Now during the Civil War came the Homestead Act. I look forward to hearing Thomas MacEntee deliver the facts on this, he always presents a great webinar.

And the week after that, a webinar about Google Glass is coming and I really want to know more about that fascinating product -- just in case I'm thinking about how to justify a purchase . . .


Spring Seminar

Each year I look forward to attending our local Genealogical Society's major seminar. This year it will be held next Saturday, April 26th:

Above you can see the details and four lectures are scheduled and the one that caught my eye was the one that I have underlined above -- "Finding the Origin of Your Immigrant Ancestor".  That is truly the goal of so many folks like me . . .

I have resigned myself to maybe "never-knowing" the details of who brought our surname to this country and from where they came. But I do not give up hope -- so I'll be paying attention especially to that lecture that comes "right after lunch" . . .

Maybe, just maybe I'll get the direction and possibly the steps to take to find out "crossing the pond" details.


So, that was a bit of our week -- it is Saturday night and that means -- burgers. See you all "in a few"!