Tika Follows the Census News

In our daily newspaper for 25 March 2011, the AP had a story explaining how the U.S. population center has shifted constantly west/southwest over the last 220 years........ as this map above shows. Now according to the 2010 census, our center of population is Plato, Missouri, a little town of 109 residents. So in a nation of nearly 310 million people, the 109 residents of Plato, Missouri, have a big claim to fame.  Any of your ancestors from Plato, Texas County, Missouri??? None of Tika's are. She's from Idaho remember.

Tika & Cookies

Tika has no fear of cookies; in fact, she and Handy Man share one most evenings after dinner. But cookies to Tika and cookies to you or me are two different things. Had a wonderful afternoon helping a friend get going with her blog http://africanroots.blogspot.com and to set up her own iGoogle page and to get her Gmail account. And over "real" cookies we talked about "internet cookies." Internet cookies are not always bad; they're rather like a cookie-crumb trail more quickly taking you back to where you were. Tika likes her cookies to be lick-able.

Tika's Sort-of Grandmother: Esther Mary Oswald Phillips

Today, March 25, is Esther Mary Oswald's birthday. Born in Spokane, her parents were living in Hillyard in 1913 where John Peter worked for the railroad but her mother Mary Ethel was adamant that her children would be born out of the city.......... the Great White Death (tuberculosis) was a city-killer in those days, and I think Ethel wanted the best for her children. So way, way, WAY west out of town (10" today) they went. Esther attended Cheney Normal School (now Eastern Washington University) and at age 18 was graduated from college and teaching in a rural school in Newport, Washington. For the next decade she and her girlfriends traveled all over the world during the summers often sailing on tramp steamers.  She met Chuck (Charles Alexander Phillips) and they were married in November 1941 in her parents' home. She was 28; he was 35 and they had a rocky marriage. Newly pregnant in Shelton, Washington, in 1942 and expecting to quit teaching, the war-need for teachers was so great that her principal told her "to put on a smock and go to work." So she did. Divorcing in 1952, she finished her teaching career in Spokane and succumbed to Alzheimers in 1998. She left two children, five grandchildren and nine greats (so far). She was a great lady with never a hair out of place and always uncomfortable in slacks and she loved a daffodil-themed birthday party with all the crystal glasses on the table. Happy Birthday, Esther.

Tika Says WHO????

While Tika stayed home and I went to Port Townsend, I got to rendezvous with Marcia........... we hadn't seen each other since we graduated high school in 1961. That was 50 years ago; gollygeewhiz. Neither of us has been to any of the reunions; just not our thing. But it was grand to connect and exchange hugs with her again.

With the Jefferson Co (WA) Gen Soc group we talked about our ancestors' emigration, immigration and migration and the myriad of reasons and push-pull factors influencing their movements. Then we talked about online resources for finding these immigrant ancestors. They were a fun group. And the cookies they brought were out of this world.

Tika was all wiggles when I got home and I got a million kisses....... and only one from our Handy Man. So go figure. 

Tika Stays Home While I Go Teach

Tika must stay home with Handy Man while I travel west to Port Townsend to spend Saturday with the Jefferson County (WA) Genealogical Society. We're having an all day seminar on Emigration-Immigration & Migration. Did you know that a favorite movie, "Officer and A Gentleman" was filmed (parts of it) in and around Port Townsend??? I enjoy going to the Olympic Peninsula to see my genealogy friends and to visit family living in Port Angeles. Tika would enjoy the beach romping but not the bath that would certainly result. So better she stay here ........ and keep blogging.

Tika and the Wind.

Tika, like most dogs, does not like to be outside in the wind. I think it is because in the wind dogs cannot hear or smell as well and so are sort of "blind." Here she sweetly sits, looking out the window, waiting patiently for spring. But I, on the other hand, am making great progress is cleaning up and cleaning out my office. I challenge you: I've tossed three big black garbage bags....... want to top that??? This sort of major office-cleaning has to be done periodically and why not as we wait for spring??? Beats just sitting in a chair and gazing out the window.

Tika Helps With "Messy Desk Syndrome"

Went the other day to help a friend sift, sort, re-file, toss, give away and generally give a good CLEAN UP to her genealogy room. We made a great start and will have a follow-up session.... call it "Messy Desk Syndrome Therapy."

Tika has been sitting by my feet encouraging me to be just as brutal in cleaning out my messy-desk-bookshelves-floor office. Several garbage bags have gone out, several boxes of stuff given away......... oh! And there are two tote-bags of genealogy "good stuff" for our society's Swap Meet upcoming. Boy but it feels so good to shed that kind of extra weight!!

My desk did not look this bad but it was on its way to becoming this mess. I caught it in the nick of time..........thanks to Tika prodding me! She is a neat-nick, did you know?

Are YOU suffering from "Messy Desk Syndrome?"

Tika & Seaborn Phillips

Tika always likes me to cuddle and pet her and tell her a story. Today it was about Handy Man's great-grandfather, Seaborn Phillips. Born in Georgia on
9 March 1844, Seaborn served the Confederacy well. According to his obituary he was at Gettysburg and suffered a "mini ball through my lung" but lived to be with Lee at Appomattox. (Or so he told the story.) Georgia being devastated, and having no money to pay pensions, Seaborn moved his family to Hill County, Texas, and there applied for a pension. He lived until 1910.

"Now it's your turn," I told Tika. "Tell me his genealogy story!" For his ancestry is still a mystery to me........... Scots-Irish frontiersmen, I'm sure.

While this is not a photo of Seaborn, I would rather guess he looked somewhat like this, tall and proud. And bet he liked dogs too.

Tika & EWGSI

Tika is bored with statistics, especially after I told her all about FamilySearch, but I just HAD to tell her about the stats from our Eastern Washington Genealogical Society website. According to Cecily our webmaster, here are the figures:

*****Nov we had 438 unique visitors and 572 visits

*****Dec we had 376 unique visitors and 586 visits
*****Jan we had 532 unique visitors and 896 visits

*****Feb we had 789 unique visitors and 1158 visits

While most of our visits are from the US, we also have had visitors from China, Russia, Nigeria, Canada, Germany, Romania, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Thailand, Great Britain, Ukraine, Israel, and South Korea.

I would challenge any other genealogical society (of our size) to match that!

Go take a look for yourself: www.EWGSI.org

Tika & New FamilySearch

To be totally honest, Tika does not care a dogbone
about New FamilySearch, but are you aware of the
recent statistics about how many do care about this?

Launched in 1999, here are the stats as of March:

Number of names in databases: 1 BILLION +
Number of hits per day: 10 million +
Number of pages viewed per day: 1 million +
Number of registered users: 1 million +
(and now anyone and everyone can register)
Number of hits since launch: 15 BILLION +
Number of visitors since launch: 150 million +

That speaks loudly to the credibility and general
usefulness of this website. If you're not using the
New FamilySearch website, Tika and I both urge
you to start..... answers await.