Pet List Continued

Well, I started my pet list tonight. I like the way this blog prompts me to do something I said I would do. The list of budgies, cats, dogs, fish and a canary and hampster is quite long.

Now to jot down everything I can remember about them. It's a good opportunity to talk to Mom about the cats that belonged to my family when I was born and the budgies we used to have. Maybe she can remember them and we can have a warm, fuzzy talk and maybe even a laugh or two.

There are some fish that were nameless until just a minute ago. Hank and Scully were named after the characters on Dr. Quinn.

After the stories are written, I'll add the photos I can find for each of them. Sadly there aren't any of the early budgies but they were kind of standard looking :) The challenge will be to find photos of all the pets before digital cameras.

The other challenge will be to wade through the tons of digital photos that aren't tagged or named.

I think I've identified another project!

Genealogy Mysteries

I've been reading some genealogy mysteries lately and was happy to see an article on Dick Eastman's genealogy newsletter that talks about the website Stop You're Killing Me, a website that lists hundreds of mystery books and their authors. There is a new genealogy section and I will be looking for these books at my library.

Pets and Genealogy

You might say "what do pets and genealogy have in common" and, I guess the answer is nothing. However, my kitty, Skittles, certainly adds some laughter and comfort to my life and that got me to thinking that I've never really recorded any information about pets that I've had during my time here on earth. From the cats that my family had when I was born to budgie birds and dogs and more cats, they all had unique personalities and provided a few funny and sad stories here and there. I do have pictures of most of them too. So, I will have to make a list and start writing about them. After all, they were part of my family and deserve to be remembered.

Genealogy Fiction and How Time Flies

I'm still reading genealogy fiction novels and thoroughly enjoying them. The current one is "Blood Relations", another Torie O'Shea mystery by Rett MacPherson. It's funny and fairly light and is obviously written by a genealogist.

I can't believe my last post was the beginning of August. The days and weeks go by so quickly and before I know it, 6 months has passed. That doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything genealogy related though.

Last night was the first lecture of the 2010/2011 year for the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia It was our first ever Brick Wall Busters and it was a great success. We had a great attendance and people really enjoyed the comments that were made about the queries that had been submitted.

It took a fair amount of work to get it organized, but it was worth it.

My mother fell and broke her hip a few weeks ago, so there was a fair amount of time spent in hospital. She's had surgery and came through that ok, but she is 88 years old and the recovery will be difficult. Family from Ontario will be visiting over the next couple of weeks.

Also, I just returned from Camp Mini Ha Ha in the beautiful Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. This year we created a castle carved from pink builders' foam. It was a big project and won't be finished for a while, but I learned a lot and had a great time.

My castle is home to Axel DeMise, Executioner Extraordinaire. And, he had to have a family tree which I constructed on the blackboard at Camp. It was fun to do and I had a lot of input from fellow campers. I'll post it here in a few days...once I get unpacked and have some time to download pictures.

Hopefully, I'll have some time for my own genealogy this weekend. I would like to start working on a biography for my great-grandfather, Charles Henry Smith. I've recently broken down a brick wall with the help of an email friend and discovered Charles' true identity. I would like to share the story with my mother's siblings and their families. My plan was to spend some time Sunday mornings working on biographies. What a great way to discover the pieces of information that are missing!

Of course, I've never written a biography before, but I'm guessing a bad biography that includes all of the information is better than no biography at all.

Happy Researching!

Childhood Food Memories

I bought some corn on the cob yesterday. While I was cooking it tonight, I remembered that my father had a strange way of eating corn. He had dentures and couldn't sink his teeth into the kernels on the cob. So, would stand the cob up on his plate and slice the kernels off with a paring knife and then eat them using his fork.

Each time I have one of these memories, I think I should write them down. Then I get busy and forget until the next time.

This time, I've started a word doc and saved it in my Dropbox folder. That way, I can add to it whenever I want. Soon, I'll have enough to write a chapter in my family's history.

To me, genealogy is more than names and dates. The "corn on the cob" stories add flesh to the bones and make the genealogy more interesting to read.

This 'n' That

Well, I'm still reading a Comedy of Heirs and I'm really enjoying it. Torie O'Shea is a genealogist and in this book she discovers a family secret while holding a family reunion. I was amused that her cousin makes dollhouse miniatures for a living. That's another of my favourite obsessions.

This series is light and fun and I'm glad I discovered it.

Great Day in Windsor

Helen and I had a wonderful day in Windsor, NS yesterday. We arrived in Windsor just as the West Hants Historical Society opened for the day and dug right into our research. Helen focused on the obituary files and I looked through the family files for the surnames Cox, Sherman, Carmichael and Leighton. Last week, I had copied some information from a book I found at WHHS and forgot to record the source information, so I was able to get that.

We went out for lunch and then got sidetracked for about an hour with the Windsor parade. It lasted about an hour and we took lots of pictures for facebook. Then we got back to our research. WHHS closes at 5:00, so we had a full day. I'll add my research to the pile to "process" this winter. WHHS is only open on Wednesdays from mid September to June so I may not get there again until next year.

When we left the genealogy room, we drove to Chestnut Street on Ferry Hill to have a look at a B & B there. I spent a lot of time in that house when I was a teenager and I wanted to take a picture and get the name of the B & B so I could look it up. It's called Phoenix Hollow. The owner, Kelly, was sitting on the front verandah and gave Helen and I the grand tour. They have done a wonderful job of renovating and decorating this house. I am so pleased that they had the dining room hand painted original ceiling restored. The rooms are gorgeous and seem to have everything a person would need from an overnight accommodation. We plan on staying there sometime in the near future. Oh, and Kelly told us that Debbie Travis recently stayed there so it can't be too shabby!

We then drove around Falmouth a bit on roads where I've never been. It's pretty countryside but I'll have to look at a map before I explore a little more. We then took the Bog Road and drove through Hantsport to Hants Border and R and G's Family Restaurant. My mother (and others) had told me that they have really good "fish bits" and I was looking forward to having some. However, they only serve them on Wednesdays :( But, we did have a good bowl of chowder and caesar salad. The service was great. We had a view of the water from our table and could see a house close to the shore that we thought would have a wonderful view. So, when we left the restaurant, we drove down towards the water and to Avon Street. Well, let me tell you, that little shack by the water was to die for :) We drove slowly along Avon Street gawking at the lovely old homes with wonderful landscaping. I was green with envy :)

We ended up at a small park that is on land donated by Fundy Gypsum. There was a set of steep stairs leading to the beach that afforded a really nice view of Blomidon. Helen and I went down the stairs to the beach and took tons of pictures of the gypsum sitting there. It has really interesting texture and the pictures look great. Helen mentioned that she would use some of her pics for a screensaver and a scrapbook page for her ancestors that worked in the gypsum industry. That reminded me that I have several collateral ancestors that worked at the quarry on Wentworth Road, Hants County and I can do a similar scrapbook page. We plan on getting together during the winter months to work on these.

This was our last stop for the day and we headed home with lots of info to add to our family histories.