Tika & Tombstones

Tika knows I love to visit cemeteries............ I'm always looking for unusual grave markers to photograph. I spotted these top two in Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas. The bottom one? Unknown origin. Was shared with me. Which is your favorite??

Tika & Difficult Problems

Tika and I are lucky enough to spend time in our boat out on the waters of Lake Roosevelt (the lake formed from the Columbia River when Grand Coulee Dam was built and so named for President Franklin Roosevelt).  I look at the trees and the rocks and see so many parallels to life and to genealogy. 

Somehow a Ponderosa Pine seed gets blown into a crack in a huge granite wall near the lake. There is just enough soil accumulated in that crack to get the seedling tree off to a good start. 

Parallel:  Too often we have just enough information to "whet our whistle" on a family history problem. We know that great-great grandmother, born in 1822, must be dead, but where did she die? In every available place or source..... or crack. 

Some trees manage to extend their roots and find enough soil and moisture to survive and grow. Others do not.

Parallel:  Sometimes we chase the wrong set of facts and end up with a "dead tree."

We solve some really tough genealogy problems by sheer perseverance.... and by learning how to effectively research.  (How did that Ponderosa survive to become so big from whatever little nourishment and water it found in the granite bluff's cracks?)

Parallel:  If we look "in the right place," we'll find the answering facts. But until we find the right place, we keep looking. 

Taking 100 photos of the granite bluffs and Ponderosa pines along Lake Roosevelt would not come close to capturing the majesty of the miles of views along the river/lake. 

Parallel: Some of our family lines are a joy to pursue for we find answers and ancestors!

Tika Thinks About Daniel Boone

In May of 2015, my friend Cecily and I were lucky enough to visit the home of Daniel Boone in Defiance, Missouri, near to St. Louis. This is the home where Daniel died in his bedroom on September 26, 1820. He was 85 years old. Of his long adventurous life, he only got to live for ten years in this lovely home. 

We all think we know much about Daniel Boone, and likely we do, but I didn't know much about this wonderful still-standing house. The story begins in 1799 when Daniel, then age 65, arrived at the Missouri River and took out several Spanish Land Grants. Boone's land consisted of 850 acres (for him and members of his family). 

Construction on this home began in 1803 and was not completed until 1810.  The walls are 2 1/2 feet thick and made from rubble-fill construction and local Missouri blue limestone. Much of the original wood remains in the interior of the home. The middle photo shows the view that Daniel and his family would have seen from the front porch (on the opposite side from where Cecily is standing) except that today there are trees and in those days it would have been vegetable gardens. 

The ancestry and lineage and descendants of Daniel Boone are extensively documented. One great website I found was www.BooneAssociation.com but there is also the www.BooneSociety.com.

I'm sure Daniel Boone and his family had dogs but they surely did not have dachshunds. This breed was not introduced into America until 1887.

"Ha!" sniffed Tika when I was explaining this to her.