Tika & Red Fish

Tika really did not care much that Red Fish finally died. (See his white chin? He was an old fish, I guess, by fish standards, at least two years old.)

I took this picture of Red Fish to illustrate a point, which I was trying to explain to Tika.

"Fish, in their natural state, eat bugs, right?" I asked her. "So why wouldn't fish-in-fishbowls like a bug every now and then too?"  Tika looked away and gave no answer. She is really not interested in fish......... unless it's salmon tidbits in her bowl.

Point of today's story is this:  I did catch some mosquitoes and other tiny bugs and dropped them right on top of Red Fish in his bowl. And he turned up his nose at them and turned away! He, in his generations-inbred-domesticity did not recognize a bug when it was presented to him. Here was a tasty treat but he did not recognize it. (I had to spoon the bugs out.)

Are we like Red Fish in our genealogical endeavors? When presented with something totally new, some totally unexpected and totally unknown previously information, do we turn and swim away???

Bugs for thought............. err, food for thought.

Tika & Women's Clubs

I was honored to be one of the four presenters at the Autumn Quest last Saturday, an annual all-day event sponsored by the Heritage Quest Research Library.  While Tika could not make the 5-hour drive from Spokane to Sumner, I left her in good hands.

My topic was one I'd never seen presented before...... Women's Club, Societies & Organizations. 

I began by musing that we, today, join clubs, societies and organizations so why would we think out lady ancestors were any different? They in their day, as do we in our day, joined groups that reflected or enhanced their lifestyle.

How do we know our lady ancestors joined clubs? We see the evidence in their grave markers, obituaries, cookbooks, pieces of clothing, photographs, jewelry, photos and certificates.

Once we realize that our lady ancestor did belong to a group, then we can go looking for any extant records of that group. Who knows what we'll find?

Back home, I assured Tika that I was a card-carrying member of the Dachshund Lovers Club for sure! No meetings, no dues, no handshakes, no certificates, etc. etc. but there are dachshund T-shirts abounding!

Tika & Cyndi Ingle

Tika did not actually get to meet the genealogy-famous Cyndi Ingle when she came to Spokane on October 3rd but when I told Tika that Cyndi has two Boston Terriers, Tika was pleased. She likes me to have dog-lover friends. "But I'm much cuter," sniffed Tika.

Cyndi Ingle maintains the website,

www.CyndisList.com. This is a directory

to over 300,000 genealogy-related links.

Some are paid sites; most are free sites. 

Among the pearls of wisdom that Cyndi

shared with us last Saturday was this: "If you've looked everywhere and not found your answer or ancestor, you are not looking in the right place, at the right record. You have not done your homework to learn about the records created in that place and for that time...how they were created, where they are kept now. In other words, you've not done the genealogy of that place."

Good advice and we thank you, Cyndi.