Tikas @ Ancestry.com

 

You noticed I typed Tikas (plural)?? BIG NEWS! According to Ancestry.com and their Surname Distribution page, in 1920 there were three families named TIKA in the U.S......... one each in NY, IL, and WV. Going back to 1880, there was only one TIKA family and they were in New York. Then in 1880 there were no TIKA families.

The surname TIKA originates either in Norway or Austria, according to the New York Passenger Lists (according to Ancestry.com).

And at Ancestry.com there are 358 historical documents and family trees for the name TIKA.

My, my, my. I would never have guessed that my little Tika dogger might be part of such illustrious pedigrees. Maybe she and I will have to check out some of those little wiggly leafs......think so?

Tika & Daffodils

Tika and I are watching the ground eagerly looking for the first signs of daffodils poking out. The little Tete-a-Tete ones are usually first and they are so adorably little and cute. Daffodils, and especially this varitety, are my favorites. Here is a bit of daffodil history, courtesy of the University of Illinois Extension Service:

Daffodils were brought to Britain by the Romans who thought that the sap from daffodils had healing powers. Actually the sap contains crystals that can irritate the skin. Greek mythology gives us the term narcissus. There was a young Greek named Narcissus. A nymph called Echo was in love with him, but Narcissus broke off the relationship. Heartbroken she hid in a cave and died. Later Narcissus, who was very handsome and quite taken with himself, saw his face in a pool, and as he leaned over to see better, fell in and drowned and became the flower.

Do you think YOUR ancestors enjoyed daffodils in their gardens? Bulbs would have been fairly easy to transport when they migrated. Does anybody have any documentation of their family enjoying these bright yellow spring blooms way back when???

Tika & Big and Small

When we bought our Tika, in November 2008, she was two months old and weighed less than three pounds. I keep remembering that as these days she's both struggling and enjoying her new chew-bone. Our dogs seem not to like boughten-bones but real-animal bones and since Handy Man is a hunter we have real-animal bones. He'll save the "knuckle" parts and our girls will chew on them until I throw them away. And if Dolly (25 pound German Shorthair) tries to take her bone, Tika will in short order show Dolly who is boss! The bone she's working on today probably weighs over a pound and it's so funny to watch Tika pick it up and haul it around...... head held high to clear the floor. And when she tries to jump up into my chair with it.... ohmy. Tiz a real comedy show.  I thought you might enjoy a baby picture of Tika, albeit a fuzzy one.

The doxie charm I found in the Erwin Pearl gift shop in the San Francisco airport and of course, had to have it. It came in a black form too. It's much cuter in real life and the eyes aren't quite so buggy as they appear in this copied-from-website photo. This company offered a huge number of different "doggie pendants" and if you're as silly as me about your boy or girl, check it out:  www.erwinpearl.com

So no genealogy nor family history today; just doxie fun.  Thanks for reading!

Tika & Kilauea: Not Really

We are on the Big Island of Hawaii, standing at an overlook on the Crater Rim trail of Kilauea Caldera and watching Halema'uma'u Crater and Pele belching her white, sulphur-smelling, glass particle laden, beautiful white smoke. Visitors could only walk on the upwind side of the crater; the windward side was closed to driving and certainly walking.

This is a real-time camera shot down into Halema'uma'u Crater and then a comparison of daylight and nightime.............. the red glow in the sky was awesome.

In the lower picture, the white arrow points to two little dots representing two people in size of the immense crater. Don't know about you, but I would not want to be that close!! (And you cannot.)

Now we're home, Tika is happy, and it's time to resume life and genealogy!!