Tika & German Potato Salad

Yes, Tika is a German-dachshund-dog but she looks at German Potato Salad just about how this big guy above would view it:  No way. I attended the annual national convention of the Germans from Russia yesterday here in Spokane. One demonstration was showing how to make authentic German Potato Salad from a century-old recipe. It began with red potatoes ("russets get too mushy!") and the dressing included white wine, white vinegar and lemon juice and chopped green onions. NO bacon but she said it was optional. NO fried-in-bacon-grease onions. It was quite yummy. And, she said, it is great for a camping trip or picnic for it can sit at room temp for hours...... even days in a coolish place. (No dairy, no eggs, no mayo.)

So is a German dogger supposed to like German food? If its bratwurst, sure! Otherwise, no way! No problem, I'll eat her share.

Tika's Family Is Growing!

This is grandson Justin proposing to his Grethe at her summer work place, a day-care center. Isn't it great to see proposals being done down on one knee old-fashioned-like? Grethe ("gretta") is a VOGEL so hooray and hallelujah I'll have a new line to work on! And a German one at that. (By the by, she did say yes.)

Makes me reminisce about John's proposal to me and our wedding, etc. Gosh, me thought, have I written down that story for my posterity?  We may not have 1000 photos like today's young couples, but we still have the words and we are the only ones who can write that story. So there is Tika's advice for today: Write the story of your meeting your spouse, your engagement, your wedding, etc. They'll be glad you did.

Wouldn't you just love to read that sort of account from your great-great grandmother who got married in upstate New York in 1854?

Tika & Grass & Some New Stuff

Being close to three years old, you would think that Tika had learned that "if you eat grass you will upchuck." Even the Dachshund book says, "Often dogs eat grass, which, because it's indigestible in its pure form, irritates their stomachs and causes them to vomit." She was looking so cute sitting in my flower bed, chewing on whatever was there and the next she was below the rocks doing you-know-what. Will she ever learn?

We humans, especially we genealogists, can learn new things, bring them on!   Here are three new things for your learning pleasure:  (1)  The New Jersey Archives has posted a full dozen new databases, containing millions of name entries, to their website.  Check it out:  www.njarchives.org ;   (2)  FamilySearch offers you the opportunity to "Take a research consultant home, VIRTUALLY, on the new FamilySearch Wiki. A Wiki is a quick tutorial on just about anything you want to know and the FamilySearch Wiki contains information on all things genealogy. Click to http://wiki.familysearch.org;  (3)  Want to try a new search engine? Mocavo.com seeks to index and make searchable all of the world's free genealogy information. A friend reported to me that using this new genealogy search engine she found a tidbit of information that she'd never found before. Score!

Tika & Learning

Tika knows that I am a collector of words, especially words arranged into meaningful patterns. For instance:

Where there is a NEED there is an ABILITY to learn.  This was a quote from Lisa Louise Cooke in the opening address of the Colorado Expo. Thinking about this, she is so right! When we need to learn something, we can and we do! Lisa Louise was mainly talking about genealogists using new technologies for learning and said, "You may think you're not up to using this new techie stuff but review your history.... you have already progressed! You used to do everything on paper! And then floppies! You can learn!"

She continued, "Using new tricks (meaning that "techie stuff") makes us realize and appreciate old tricks.... think of the progress in citing sources.  And the benefits of embracing these new tricks, this new techie stuff, are worth it..... saves time, you find more and more quickly, and you connect with others."

Her parting admonition applies to all of us in all of our day-to-day activities:  "Don't be a prisoner of stagnation."  I really liked that.

Tika has learned that if she bangs open the cupboard door with her nose, she'll likely get a doggie treat. And she's learned to stop at the open back door and wait for her leash and not get scolded. Good doggie.

Tika stayed home; I went to the Family History Expos!

I snapped this photo from my window in the hotel in Loveland, Colorado, where I was attending and helping with Holly Hansen's Family History Expos. I first went to Sheridan, WY, to help, and then CO, and then drove home through Salt Lake City. These Family History Expos are held at many different locations all across the country. The next one is near Kansas City, MO........ if you live near consider attending. (Click to www.familyhistoryexpos.com for all the details.) Lisa Louise Cooke was the keynote speaker and her talk was on Tips to Teach "Old Dogs" New Tricks. She was targeting we older genealogists and encouraging us to use the fabulous Internet resources to further our research. (Yah, you've heard this before; do you believe it yet?) I intend to explore the product from one vendor:  www.ages-online.com. This service allows you to keep your tree, and all your documentation, online. This is good! Just consider it as a "cloud" back-up or storage system. So click and consider this "new trick."

I was gone only a week but Tika gave me 100 kisses when I returned. Hubby only gave me one. Hummm.

Tika and her "cousin" the basenji.

This is Jake (or what Jake looks like); he is a Basenji and the "love" of Handy Man's Sister Sharon and her hubby, Ron. Tika has never met "Jakey" but I'm quite sure the two dogs would get along famously. What do they have in common? They are both "red dogs" and they are special to us. They both love cheese. They both wag their tails. They are both dogs; they are canines; they are related; they are cousins in the natural world. So what is my genealogy point here?

In our genealogy pursuits, we will find cousins........distant or near cousins......... who are people like us but are vastly different in looks, size and personality from us. So are we all really cousins? I read once where a senior medieval research specialist in the Family History Library said that any one of us is really no further removed than 50th cousins from any other person on the planet. Think about that! 50th cousins to anybody. And you know how different all the peoples of the world seem to be. 

Am I related to you? Probably. Can we prove it? Maybe.  Is Tika related to Jake? Probably. Can we prove it? Nope. As all dogs pretty much accept each other, shouldn't we pretty much accept each other, seeing as how we are cousins???

Tika's Ancestry?

Reading in the Southwest Airlines magazine (from the seat pocket) I saw an ad for a Dog DNA kit. For a not-cheap fee I can send in a mouth swab from my Tika and find out if she is a "read" dachshund. Will I? Nope. Wonder how many folks do this?

I have done a DNA study with "Handy Man," my Phillips husband. Did it give me answers? Nope. Did it give me clues? Yep. I'll explain.  The Phillips DNA Project showed two (and now three) nearly perfect matches between John and others. But each of us only know and can document so far back and none of us can go back far enough to connect! Maybe in time. I believe in these DNA tests but I realize and recognize that there often are no "red hot" answers.

To learn more about this fascinating topic, do a Google search for "genealogy + DNA + research."

Tika & "County" Trivia

"Tika," I said, "this sort of thing is really interesting to genealogists." You see her response. But I was reading some notes I took from the book The American Counties by J.N. Kane, 1972.  I learned stuff like:

Of the 3067 counties in the U.S. only 2136 have been named for individuals. This figure includes the 203 counties named for 25 presidents. The president for whom the greatest number of counties was named  is (would you guess?) George Washington who leads the list with 31, followed by Thomas Jefferson at 26. Jackson has 21 counties named for him, excluding Hickory County, Missouri, for his nickname.

There are 20 counties named for Madison, 17 for Monroe, 17 for Lincoln, 12 for Grant and 11 for Polk. There is a long list of presidents for whom 1 to 8  counties were named. Only one president had both his first and last name used as the name of a county. Millard Fillmore had Millard County named for him in Utah as well as Fillmore County in both Minnesota and Nebraska.  And there are 11 presidents who do not have a county named for them.

So if there were 3067 counties and only 2136 have been named for people, that leaves 931 counties named for other than individuals. What about your county of birth?  (Mine: Kalamazoo, MI)  Or your county of residence?  (Spokane, WA) Have you ever thought about the origin of "your" county's name?

Tika has not. She was born somewhere in Idaho, remember.

Tika Listens To A Lesson on Names

Was giving Tika two genealogy examples today in our lesson....... first was "proving" that so often in olden-times people were given names from the Bible. Charles Wilbur Gurney (1864-1923) m. (1) Sarepta Mae Bishop (1867-1892).  I wondered about that name....... and then found it in Luke 4:26. Sarepta was a city of Sidon. But guess her mother liked it as her name.  Sarepta had Leila Mae in 1889 and died in 1892...... I'd bet from complications of a second pregnancy. No, I've not studied that out because my ancestor is Charles Wilbur's second wife, Viola Belle Evans (1872-1962).  And because I did rather/kinda ignore Sarepta Mae Bishop I nearly missed out on some good photos. OF COURSE she had sent photos of her new husband to her family, and her wedding photos, and with her dying so young, of course they kept the photos........ and doing a search on the Bishop family online I located those pictures of a very young Charles Wilbur and his first bride.  Pays to be totally thorough in your research; that's what I was teaching to Tika in our lesson today.

Tika Reads Comics

Tika was snuggled by me in our chair as I read the morning paper recently. I laughed out loud at the Dennis the Menace cartoon and when I read it to Tika she.............. yawned. No matter. Dennis and his little friends were admiring a momma dog's new babies and the caption was, "WOW! She downloaded EIGHT PUPPIES!"""" "   While that cartoon was darn cute enough, it made me wonder how many computer and Internet references have crept into our everyday language?? I suspect that the list would be long. Surf does not involve ocean waves; mouses do not eat cheese; we keyboard and not type; and website does not mean that lovely big dew-spangled spider web in your flowers. Bet you could come up with many more.

While we're thinking, how many definitions for the word dog can you list? Dog as an adjective, dog as a verb, and dog as a noun. Interesting exercise.  And by the by, Tika says she is not a "dog," but a dachshund.

Tika Likes Webinars

Tika likes webinars.......... or rather I should say Tika likes it when I'm at my computer listening to a webinar. She sits at my feet but also where she can look out into the yard. She does not care if I'm listening to and learning from Geoff at Legacy, Thomas at High-Def Genealogy or dearMYRT expounding. She just knows I'm eager to learn and she's there to support me. (And get a doggy treat half way through.)

If you would like to know about upcoming (free) online genealogy webinars, click to www.geneawebinars.com
and mark your calendar to be sitting by your computer and ready to learn something new or great or wonderful or just plain fun.

If Tika and I both recommend webinars to you, well, what more do you need????

Tika & I are glad to be home.

The Colorado River water was 47-50o but the nice clean warm beach sand was a delight to walk on; Tika would have loved it! So did I do any genealogy? Looking at rocky ledges and walls that were MILLIONS of years old......... boggled the mind. They said a casual rule of thumb is 1 inch equals 5000 years and our human history in the last 10,000 years is .00008 of an inch. Boggles the mind. So I talked genealogy to my boat mates!

Tika Goes to Gramma Kay & We Go To The Grand Canyon

Tika gets to go visit Gramma Kay, her favorite dog sitter, and our house sitter will tend all our many plants, and we're off to float the Colorado River through the entire Grand Canyon. Cannot wait to get there!  Tika will be spoiled rotten when we fetch her home and not miss us at all!

Tika Dog Blog Speak

In one of his bird dog hunting magazines, Handy Man found this list of explanations................. to which Tika said "wwwhhhaaaatttttt?"  Here they are:

Hard Drive Back-up ..............  Dog in a brace
Search Engine ......................... Dog nose
Twitter .................................... Sound a bird makes
Tweet .....................................  More sounds a bird makes
Browser..................................  Going from smell to smell to smell
Megabytes............................    How a dog eats
Gigabytes................................  Dogs "singing" for their dinner
Linkedin .................................   Dog kennel fencing
Hyperlink...............................    Dog "prong" or "pinch" collar
Router ...................................   Dog flushing out/smelling out a bird or critter
Download ................................ Dog squatting and doing her business

This was just too cute not to share with you............. Tika gave her blessing to do so.

Tika & FamilySearch Indexing

Since we are a full month behind in having spring weather............ these are lilac BUDS..... our annual Lilac Festival is in about three weeks and the buds are still tight green buds........... Tika and I have not much felt like being out-of-doors. Perfect time to do some FamilySearch Indexing! According to the website, the 1930 census for New Hampshire is their highest priority....... that just means it's almost finished and let's get it finished. So while Tika sits looking out the lower part of the sliding glass doors, and I look out the top part of the sliding glass doors, I will spend some worthwhile time doing FamilySearch Indexing. And we're both hoping for a sunshiny warm day tomorrow!

Tika Went Easter Camping

This group's annual Easter event started in 1977 with 6 adults and 7 children and we've grown over the past 40 years to a group of 50ish......... friends, in-laws, outlaws, employers, relatives and neighbors of the original group have been happily added. (Tika and I are third from the right; Handy Man/John is second.) So what has this to do with genealogy! Lots......... do we believe that "the family that plays together stays together?" These are all good, family-oriented folks. In the next couple of posts I'll share some bonafide genealogy lessons that Tika and I learned.

Tika Goes Easter Camping

Despite the fact that it snowed on our daffodils yesterday, Tika is going camping with us! For 40 years the same group of good folks have gone to the same place on this same weekend and what a big celebration there will be this year...... 40 years! Thank goodness it is a desert-ey place and should be warm enough for only one pair of socks. Tika will be loved and mauled to pieces because she is so darn cute. No genealogy this weekend..... just plain old good camping family fun. But I have my copy of Dan Lynch's Google Your Family Tree to read. I'll report back on how well Tika listened.

Tika & Earthquakes????

Tika and I live in eastern Washington state.......... did we know that our little part of the world had a 3.4 earthquake last week on April 6th??  It was centered south of Mt. Rainier. Just the day before there was a 2.7 southeast of Mt.Hood, Oregon.

I just found a Google Gadget that shows the earthquakes in your (zip code) region. How cool is this?  Search for "google gadgets" and then type in "earthquake watch" and add that gadget to your iGoogle home page.  I just did.

Maybe Tika digging those craters triggered the earthquake?  Nawwww.........

Tika Goes Digging

Tika is such a good genealogy teacher........without even knowing she is!  Last couple of times when we've gone out walking, I hook her leash to the fence while I take wildflower photos. Not only wildflowers are coming up but little critters too........ and Tika can both hear and smell them and BANGO she's after them. She can dig a grand-canyon-sized crater in minutes. So what does this teach me? When I get even a whiff or a breeze of an idea about a new resource or research thing to do, I should bango be right on it and keep digging until I achieve my goal. Difference between Tika and I about this ends here: I find information. She digs and digs and usually catches nothing. But that does not stop her from trying another day!

Tika gets a lesson about the Civil War

Tika sat so quietly and appeared interested as I explained to her that the Civil War both began and ended in the month of April. Did you realize that factoid? Shots were fired on Fort Sumter on 12 April 1861 and pen was put to paper on 9 April 1865 at Appomattox. Both a Potter and a Phillips ancestor were participants in the Civil War so in this year of the 150th anniversary of the beginning, I've been doing some extra Civil War reading. How about you? Did you have an ancestor who fought in the "War Between the States" and have you been doing some extra reading this year??