Tika & RootsTech

It's that time again, early February and time for the second annual RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City and I'm off tomorrow morning before sunrise. I am excited about all the learning I'll get to do and I think Tika is glad in a way to have me gone. It's that time of year here when the snow and ice are melting and the ground is muddy and after our daily walks Tika must be bathed in the laundry tub and she does not like it at all. Handy Man walks her but not where she can play and get down-and-dirty. Me, I plan to get down-and-dirty at RootsTech and dig right in and learn all I possibly can absorb! Several sessions are being streamed live on the Internet for those who cannot attend. Google it, tune in and learn along with me!

Tika & Trivia

We finally have some snow and Tika does so love to dig-dig-dig into the snowbanks. Can't imagine that she smells much of anything through a foot of packed snow but dig she does. Really funny to watch.... and I do not mind because she does not get dirty from snow digging!

I am a consummate collector of words, of trivia and I like to liken everything to family history. So:

The "Gas Law of Learning," is that any amount of knowledge, no matter how small, will fill any vacuum of ignorance, no matter how large."  (Hugh W. Nibley)

Did you know that the word fiction derives from the same word as fictive and refers to the shaping of the imagination??  That must be why I do so enjoy reading good historical fiction and you?

"A river of thought is always running out of the invisible world into the mind of man." (Signboard)

Recently we went to see the movie Iron Lady, the biography of Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of England for eleven years. Here were some quotes/thoughts from that movie:   "We used to be about trying to BE someone; now it's about trying to DO something..... Americans are unafraid of success; their philosophy is formed by what can be done..... What's crucial is that you told your course and stay true to who you are.... What kind of a leader am I if I didn't try to get my own way??............. It's best not to push our colleagues' loyalty too far.... All the years of talking and making tough decisions, what does it matter now?............If you take tough decisions today, people will hate you today and remember you in the future or throw you out with the rubbish..... You're going to be alive on your own; you always have been." 

Tika and I hope that you enjoy some of these trivial thoughts.

Tika & Airplanes & Thoughts

Tika is a funny girl. She sits in my chair keeping watch to alert us to "dangers" outside the big window and those "dangers" usually include anything that moves. Since we live only three miles due north of the airport, we often see airplanes taking off and "going by" our windows in their launching flight path. Now dear Tika does not know a thing about airplanes; all she sees is something moving and is moved to bark and alert us to the "danger."  She puts a doggy 2 and 2 together and gets 13. Do we do that in our genealogy?

Found a great and thoughtful quote the other day from Richard Lloyd Anderson, Professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. I paraphrase a bit:  "Local historians and genealogists deal with highly specific data and careful standards of proof. If quality evidence is not carefully considered, today's avalanche of information will certainly mix the new bits of information with misinformation. So the answer is to have more awareness of what makes first hand sources, more determination to gather all the major ones, and more care in judging sources fairly on the basis of their broad agreements."

This really smacks me; I've recently worked on several cold-case research projects for folks. In all those cases, I started with very little "for sure" information and added 2 plus 2 and got 13 in two of the tree cases. What could I have done different? Obtained more facts from the primary or original source. These experiences humbled me and the above words put words in my mind regarding future such projects. I vow and promise to be a better researcher! With Tika's help, of course.

Tika & New Year's Resolutions

Tika and I were discussing New Year's Resolutions. She yawned and stretched and dictated this to me:

"Why think hard about resolutions that you likely will abandon, ignore or break by the end of January? Don't you know that if you live to be a happy person that everything will fall into place? And that what you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while? So from today on, realize and tell the folks that what you do today and everyday matters as long as it's the right thing and it makes you truly happy. Now you may have to step back and ask yourself what is the right thing to do? and what does make you truly happy? what do you want to be doing every day?"

After a lengthy but one-sided discussion, Tika and I decided to just strive every day to be better "people", to be happy, and to try and bring a smile to somebody else. You agree??

Tika & Postcards

Don't we all love old postcards? Especially of places dear or interesting to us? Our morning newspaper carried a bit extolling the appeal of old postcards of Spokane (Paul Turner, 3 Jan 2012, www.spokesman.com). We here in Spokane are so very lucky for there has been a book compiled of a great many of these wonderful old scenes. Vintage Postcards from Old Spokane, 2005, by Duane Broyles and Tony and Suzanne Bamonte, is a book we each can have (Google it) for our own enjoyment. And this makes me wonder.........have similar books been compiled about other places where I've lived or where my ancestors lived?? Hummmmm.......... 

Tika, unfortunately, could care less about vintage postcards from anywhere. But as we sit together in our chair looking at them I'm thinking that I'd like to go walk past that building today or the Falls today and see what's changed and Tika (who can read my mind, of course) yips her interest in trotting along! Think I just might.