Archive for 6/4/2008 - 1 Sivan, 5768

I leave town early tomorrow morning so I am posting this a little earlier than I normally would.

July 1st is Canadian Independence Day, July 4th is US Independence Day. My great-grandfather Barney, when he entered the US for the first time in 1907, wrote down that his nationality was Canadian. He had likely been living there for 3 years. My suspicion is that he misunderstood the question, but it’s possible that he had officially become a Canadian citizen. This may not have been a complicated process since he was already a British citizen, and Canada wasn’t completely independent yet. On my mother’s side I have several relatives who discovered a need to leave the US and enter Canada in the late 1700s. So there is cause for me to celebrate July 1 as well as July 4.

My ancestral lines have never been shy from taking a stand — but we have often stood separately, from each other, and in some cases, from ourselves.

I am a Son of the Confederacy and of The Union. The Civil War was a war between brothers, and it was common that families split down the middle. (Especially in a border state like Missouri, though my ancestors who wore either blue or grey weren’t living here at the time.) I also have ancestors who fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War - loyalists and revolutionaries (link to a poem I wrote several years ago). One ancestor first went to a revolutionary camp, and after a few weeks, bolted, and joined the loyalist Butler’s Rangers. It’s not clear if it was a change of heart/mind, or if he discovered like the lost student he was in the wrong classroom.

Naturally, the Loyalists are those I mentioned above who found the need to speed over to Canada when the war was over.

We weren’t of divided mind during WWII. Both grandfathers and multiple great-uncles fought with the Allied Powers in various theaters. My father lost an uncle in France, and several relatives of my mother, who had remained in Romania, died in the concentration camps. I expect more relatives died there than we know, it’s just that much of our family genealogy stops on the border of the US, and we don’t know who remained. In my mom’s case, there were two survivors who migrated to Israel and started doing the research themselves to find us.

This first through fourth of July myself, my siblings, my parents, uncles, aunts and first-cousins will all be together, celebrating, in Costa Rica. We may not like the current administration, but this is no protest. We gather every few years for a reunion, in different locales, and we sought an extended-holiday weekend to plan around.

At these reunions, my parents’ generation always leads a discussion of family history. Passing on the stories they’ve been told, or have witnessed. I’m going to be expected to speak this year on my recent research. I shouldn’t be nervous; it’s my family. I’ve recited poetry in front of strangers. But then again — strangers are more forgiving (or at least more forgetful) than family.

Music? I don’t listen to music at work.
In the past I’ve done five random books.
But this seemed to be appropriate due to my latest obsession.

Five names from various censi. (I’m not completely sure what type of noun the word ‘census’ comes from, and whether the Latin plural would be censi, not all Latin words that end in ‘us’ are declined in that manner, but what the heck, it sounds erudite.)

Belgium Bonn
Born: about 1915
Home in 1920: Syracuse, NY

Switzerland Savage
Born: about 1910
Home in 1910: Shelby, TN

Madrid Jordan
Born: about 1927
Home in 1930: Chicago, IL

Jerusalem Smith
Born: about 1836
Home in 1841: Warwickshire, England

Nagasaki Iataro
Born ? (age not given in this particular census)
Home in 1900: Kauai Island, Hawaii

Update: For those curious, but not curious enough to look it up, Census is a supine noun, which takes a fourth declension form. So the plural would be ‘census’ as well.

$18,000 for a 10 year old book.

Meme taken from Blair.

In bold, the ones I’ve seen. I also have put *s by all the books I’ve read. (Not all have books, of course.) I’ve seen 45%. At least parts of them, as some of them I suspect I fell asleep, and missed key scenes. The books didn’t put me over 50% as I had hoped.

Yes, I know all my SF friends will tell me, and you’re right. I need to either see or read #97. I need to read several of PKD’s books. He’s on my list.

1. “Citizen Kane,” 1941.
2. “The Godfather,” 1972.
3. “Casablanca,” 1942.
4. “Raging Bull,” 1980.
5. “Singin’ in the Rain,” 1952.
6. “Gone With the Wind,” 1939.
7. “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962.
8. “Schindler’s List,” 1993. *
9. “Vertigo,” 1958.
10. “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939. *
11. “City Lights,” 1931.
12. “The Searchers,” 1956.
13. “Star Wars,” 1977.
14. “Psycho,” 1960. *
15. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968. *
16. “Sunset Blvd.”, 1950.
17. “The Graduate,” 1967.
18. “The General,” 1927.
19. “On the Waterfront,” 1954.
20. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1946.
21. “Chinatown,” 1974.
22. “Some Like It Hot,” 1959.
23. “The Grapes of Wrath,” 1940. *
24. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” 1982.
25. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962. *
26. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939.
27. “High Noon,” 1952.
28. “All About Eve,” 1950.
29. “Double Indemnity,” 1944.
30. “Apocalypse Now,” 1979.
31. “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941.
32. “The Godfather Part II,” 1974.
33. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 1975.
34. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937. *
35. “Annie Hall,” 1977.
36. “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” 1957.
37. “The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946.
38. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” 1948.
39. “Dr. Strangelove,” 1964.
40. “The Sound of Music,” 1965.
41. “King Kong,” 1933.
42. “Bonnie and Clyde,” 1967.
43. “Midnight Cowboy,” 1969.
44. “The Philadelphia Story,” 1940.
45. “Shane,” 1953.
46. “It Happened One Night,” 1934.
47. “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1951.
48. “Rear Window,” 1954.
49. “Intolerance,” 1916.
50. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” 2001. *
51. “West Side Story,” 1961.
52. “Taxi Driver,” 1976.
53. “The Deer Hunter,” 1978.
54. “M-A-S-H,” 1970.
55. “North by Northwest,” 1959.
56. “Jaws,” 1975. *
57. “Rocky,” 1976.
58. “The Gold Rush,” 1925.
59. “Nashville,” 1975.
60. “Duck Soup,” 1933.
61. “Sullivan’s Travels,” 1941.
62. “American Graffiti,” 1973.
63. “Cabaret,” 1972.
64. “Network,” 1976.
65. “The African Queen,” 1951.
66. “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” 1981.
67. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, 1966.
68. “Unforgiven,” 1992.
69. “Tootsie,” 1982.
70. “A Clockwork Orange,” 1971. *
71. “Saving Private Ryan,” 1998.
72. “The Shawshank Redemption,” 1994. *
73. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” 1969.
74. “The Silence of the Lambs,” 1991.
75. “In the Heat of the Night,” 1967.
76. “Forrest Gump,” 1994.
77. “All the President’s Men,” 1976.
78. “Modern Times,” 1936.
79. “The Wild Bunch,” 1969.
80. “The Apartment, 1960.
81. “Spartacus,” 1960.
82. “Sunrise,” 1927.
83. “Titanic,” 1997.
84. “Easy Rider,” 1969.
85. “A Night at the Opera,” 1935.
86. “Platoon,” 1986.
87. “12 Angry Men,” 1957.
88. “Bringing Up Baby,” 1938.
89. “The Sixth Sense,” 1999.
90. “Swing Time,” 1936.
91. “Sophie’s Choice,” 1982.
92. “Goodfellas,” 1990.
93. “The French Connection,” 1971.
94. “Pulp Fiction,” 1994.
95. “The Last Picture Show,” 1971.
96. “Do the Right Thing,” 1989.
97. “Blade Runner,” 1982.
98. “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” 1942.
99. “Toy Story,” 1995.
100. “Ben-Hur,” 1959.

There’s an article in this month’s issue of Smithsonian talking about how ‘genealogy is bunk’. Some bloggers have already talked about it, such as here. Not having read the article, I’m not going to talk about it, except to think about why I have dived so furiously into this activity, and why I enjoy doing this, and why I don’t think it’s silly. (But honestly, being a member of science fiction/fantasy fandom, I am quite used to people thinking my activities are silly. What could possibly be sillier than dressing up as a jester and going to a renaissance festival, or dressing up in a Starfleet Uniform and going to a convention?)

One common accusation is that genealogists are seeking how they are related to Napoleon or Chaucer or Triboulet. Someone reading my blog might assume that is my intent, but actually the ancestral line that might actually tie me to Chaucer if the 20-sided-die rolls an 18 six times in a row is the line I am least interested in researching. I don’t want my mom to be offended by this, but one of her relatives has so researched the heck out of the tree, and has taken it back to the early 1600s, with certainty, there’s nothing left for me to do except try to prove/disprove the line to Chaucer, which is likely impossible, and I would rather just accept it. So if that were my intent, I’d be done.

I’d love to extend the other lines that far, including my maternal grandfather’s line, though it’s not going to happen. In Europe, there was a series of things called Pogroms and one major one called the Holocaust, that among other things destroyed most of the records I would need. And the records that do exist are mostly offline in Europe. I have a relative on my paternal side who has spent fifteen years, and traced one line back to the early 1800s in Lithuania, and it’s a little fuzzy there. She has had to actually go to Lithuania several times and spend weeks researching. In my mind she has set a marker indicating what’s possible with the most extreme effort. And I know I don’t have what it takes to make that effort, so I will just have to do what I can, and see what I find.

Genealogy for me is a puzzle. And one that matters to me personally. I love puzzles, and always have. My paternal grandfather taught/passed on a love for the crossword. As a child I had a subscription to Games magazine. Logic puzzles have always been my favorite though. Drawing the tables, and filling in the Xs from the clues given. No need for any trivial knowledge, just following a series of logical steps until conclusions are reached and the entire table is filled in successfully. That was what I enjoyed most when I was a computer programmer as well – the puzzle of getting the computer to do what you wanted it to do. Figuring out what was going wrong when it always did.

In 1987 my paternal grandfather was interviewed and recorded on his knowledge of family history. He talked about how his father, Barney, would say he was born in England, though my grandfather believed he was really born in Poland, and emigrated to England at 3 or 4. He also ‘knew’ that Barney, a brother, and their father explored North America – visiting Winnipeg, Memphis, and St. Louis before either returning to England, or sending for the rest of the family. There are certainly a lot of details there, but still somewhat fuzzy on particulars. In about a month of research, mostly sitting on my butt in front of a computer terminal, I have found English census records, ship manifests and other records documenting some of their life in England, and the multiple oceancrossings, and of course, raising more questions.

I know now that Barney’s brother Sol didn’t make the initial trip. (Older than Barney, and recently married, I suspect he stayed home as a means of support for the women and children.) The father and son left England in 1904, and were in Winnipeg for 3 years. (That 3 years was one of the bigger surprises; I’m not sure anyone in my family expected that their exploration was that lengthy. Maybe they needed 3 years to earn enough money to make the return trip.) In 1907 they crossed the Canadian border, and that’s how I know how long they’d been in Canada, because the border crossing document includes this information. It also says they’re headed for St. Paul, MN…a surprise…to join a heretofore unknown cousin…and I’m not sure yet if they ever went. I have the ship manifest from 1908 when they returned, with Sol, at Ellis Island. So obviously they weren’t in the US long. And the ship manifest when the wives and children arrived five months later. All the Ellis Island records say they’re headed for Memphis. And the 1909 one includes an address the father and two sons were now allegedly living at in Memphis. However, one month later, Sol’s wife gives birth in St. Louis. And in 1910 (the census) all of them are clearly in St. Louis. So there are a lot of questions I have about the immigration to America, but a lot of the pieces are also falling into place, and my family knows a lot more than it used to.

Does this information matter? Not in the grand scheme of things. But if we want to get philosophical – nothing matters. Nothing at all. The Earth will continue rotating on its axis until the universe comes to an end. Instead of getting all depressed about this, and committing mass suicide – paralleling Disney’s false portrayal of lemmings – cheer up! Real lemmings don’t act that way, and neither should humans! Life is what we make of it. So we should all do what we enjoy. Though it’s nice to do what we enjoy, while also thinking about those that are going to follow us. I know I have an interest in the lives of my ancestors. I consider it likely that one or more of my descendants (either direct if I am lucky, or through my brother/cousins if not) will be grateful for the research and archiving I do now.

Some might say there are several reasons one might wish to impeach Cheney.

However, in my opinion, one overrides them all:

The constitutional issue must be addressed.

What? You don’t want to follow my link?

OK. As everyone knows, the Senate presides over an impeachment trial.
And the Vice President presides over the Senate.

There is one exception, when the President is tried, because it has been foreseen that there would be a conflict of interest.

But since the language was written back in the days when the Vice President did nothing. No one foresaw there would ever be a desire to impeach the Vice President. So no exception is written for this case. Cheney would preside over his own impeachment trial.

And there’s only one way this situation will be fixed.

Yes, I’ve seen the headlines on the news stories regarding the supposed hacker and the supposed plot.
I haven’t read the news story.
I remember what the news did with Captain America and Spider-Man.
Of course, they spoiled those books with the headlines, and I don’t think any newspaper’s done that yet.
I’m not saying they’ve learned anything. Next major comic book event, if it’s a slow newsday, they’ll spoil it in a headline. If it’s not a slow newsday, they won’t cover it.
Harry Potter is different.
But I don’t have faith he’s that much different.
So I’m not reading the news stories.

If anyone I trust can direct me in the comments to a newspaper that has just covered the process…and has no reveal of any content…be my guest.

Someone wished me a “happy longest day” today.
I told them that today was the same length as any other day.

Either 86,400 seconds,
or 23.934 hours
depending upon how you figure it.

Just ask wiki

They wanted to know about night.

I told them if they wanted to add hours to the day to observe something they wanted to call ‘night’ it would mess up the calendar. It would be better if they scheduled their ‘night’ at som point during the day. For example, ‘night’ could start at noon and last for 8 hours.

I haven’t heard back from them, but that was only a few minutes ago.

Sons (or Daughters) of

1. the Confederacy
2. the Union
3. the American Revolution
4. Butler’s Rangers

I qualify for all four.

Georgebush Neeway (Born May 4, 2007)

Probably not as bad as Aryan Justice born back in February of 2005. (Since the website says pages are taken down after 180 days, it’s somewhat suspicious that it’s still up.)

I never knew Mandell, my great-uncle, the youngest son of Barney. He fought in WWII, just like his older two brothers. However, he didn’t return home. I’ve known for awhile that my uncle had Mandell’s war journal. And I’ve mentioned to him I’d like to read it. Last time I said this was a couple years ago when he wrote a poem based on his own reading of the journal, and showed the poem to me. He said sure. My uncle and I have a similar personality in that we are both forgetful, and if you want something from us, you sometimes need to be persistent. And I haven’t been. It was always something I could ask for again later.

In a conversation with my mother Sunday night, I discovered she had a photocopy of the journal. So I went home from Father’s Day dinner with it. Mandell’s handwriting was better than my own. But a chimpanzee’s handwriting is better than my own. Luckily, his was better than a chimpanzee’s too, but it’s still not the most legible at points. Of course, he wasn’t writing under the best of circumstances.

It looks like a journal that was ’standard issue’ because there were predefined spots to write down names/addresses of ‘buddies’ and dates to remember (birthdays/anniversaries) of family back home. Every page has a quote from someone famous on courage or heroism or such. There was a spot in the front that said “The following pages contain the diary of my life in the service. This simple record of my daily experiences and thoughts has given me pleasure in the writing of it. If for any reason it leaves my possession, I would like to have it forwarded to: “. The addressee was “B. Newmark” - which could be either his father Barney, or mother Bertha.

Note: Obviously in the 40s there was no gender-connotation to the word ‘diary’

So far I’ve made two other linguistic notations. The slang term PO’d was already in use in the 1940s (And Mandell thought it was an appropriate term to associate with ‘APO’) and he refers to a beer as “Green Death”. Apparently this term has long been associated with Rainier beer, and one of his buddies was from Seattle Washington, so even if it wasn’t referring to Rainier in particular, its possible the Seattlian introduced him to the term.

I may include some excerpts here I don’t know how many people care about what life was like in the army in the 1940s for a relative of mine, but then again, perhaps more than those who care about my views on George W.

I was told last night by someone who’s arm I twisted somehow, forcing her to try ScriptFrenzy, with my assurances that I was going to try it too, that my current word count of 550 words is unacceptable for 20 days into the month. That’s an average of 27.5 words a day, what’s wrong with that? (Perhaps that, at this pace, it will take me two years to finish the 20,000 words I’m supposed to be trying to get done in a month.)

I’m just not good at multi-tasking my extra-officular activities. (In my editor, there’s a red line underneath that word, indicating it may not be spelled correctly. I’m pretty sure it is, since I made up the word.)

Following my being filmed for a documentary, my talented cousins have snagged a steady job in Hollywood Burbank for at least two years. Not as actors, but as writers/producers.

This week’s Car Talk Puzzler

I’d send this to Nobody so they could post it on their site, but it was way too easy to figure out.

Here is the direct lineage of Catherine the Great to Henry David Thoreau — according to OneWorldTree

I don’t see any issues with it - do you?

Sure … 19 generations is a lot to go through between 1729 and 1817, but here is how it works:

Catherine the Great
(1729-1796)

Paul I Romanov
(1754-1801)

Marie Pavlovna Romanov
(1786-1859)

Marie Von Saxe Weimar Eisenach

(1808-1877)

Friedrich Karl Hohenzollern
(1828-1885)

Louise Margaret
(1860-1917)

Patricia Helen Windsor
(1886-1974)

Alexander Arthur Ramsey
(1919-2000)

Agnes Ramsay
(1372-)

William Urquhart
(1411-1475)

Alexander Urquhart
(1445-1503)

Agnes Urquhart
(1885-1956)

Hugh Rose
(1505-1597)

Janet Rose
(1537-)

Mark Dunbar
(-1642)

Ninian Dunbar
(1575-1693)

Robert Dunbar
(1630-1693)

Peter Dunbar
(1668-1719)

Samuel Dunbar
(1704-1786)

Asa Dunbar
(1745-1787)

Cynthia Dunbar
(1787-1872)

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862)

Of course, as I’ve said before, when discussing the case of Lucy and Desi, this doesn’t mean I’m not descended from Chaucer. Some of the linkages they come up with are bound to be correct — so mine could be one of those.

poor choice of words, maybe, since we were paying tribute to a cafe that burned down.
or excellent choice of words.

i saw old friends i hadn’t seen in years.
some of them are still performing at open mics…just different ones than me…and now i know where they are.
i was told by a handful of people that i gave my best performance ever.

and to tie this into my other recent hot topic, i recently learned the address of the last residence for my faux-irish great grandfather. he lived on delmar, about four blocks from where i performed tonight. four blocks from where the wabash triangle cafe used to be.

…just kidding. (I guess I shouldn’t joke. There are still 3 more hours left, it could happen.)

For those who haven’t been reading any of my blog posts for the past couple weeks (and why haven’t you?!) there’s a performance tonight of several Slam Poets from the Wabash Triangle Cafe era (along with a few members of the current St. Louis Slam Team). It all starts at 8 pm at the Regional Arts Commission, which is on Delmar, Across the Street from The Pageant. (And The Pageant was built on the ashes of The Wabash.) I will be one of the poets performing. There will be explicit content and explicit language in the poems. I can guarantee that. So parents should keep that in mind. I have no idea whether I will be scheduled first, last, or in the middle. There is a $5 admission fee, which is miniscule for an evening of quality Performance Poetry.

There’s some controversy over a recent cover to a hardcover collection of a series of Marvel Comics called Marvel Zombies. Basically people upset that Marvel took the artwork of Mary Jane Watson (Spidey’s girlfriend) from the cover of a series of Spider-man comics aimed at kids, and turned her into a somewhat alluring zombie. (Original and adapted artwork linked to above)

The original series of comics were a hit, so no one is upset over that. And MJ was turned into a zombie within the storyline, I suspect (haven’t read it) so they aren’t upset about that. They just seem upset that Marvel adapted earlier artwork. There is also some complaints about how this makes zombies ‘alluring’.

And I recalled a poem I once wrote about Marilyn Monroe fresh from her grave. And in case there were some readers who never heard that poem, or haven’t even read that poem, I thought I would make it clear that that poem will be performed Saturday night at the Regional Arts Commission on Delmar in the Poetry Showcase that begins at 8 pm.

Not appropriate for kids. This applies to the Marvel Zombies comics. This applies to the Poetry Showcase on Delmar Saturday Night. And this applies to my poem.

I am a procrastinator. Have been for a long time.
I’ve thought about working to change that…but you know, always tomorrow.

So I’ve known for over a month that I will be performing 3 poems at the Poetry Showcase Saturday evening at 8 pm at the Regional Arts Center on Delmar — across the street from The Pageant.

While I’ve been reading poetry at open mics for 13 years, at open mics no one minds if you bring a chapbook to the mic and read from it. Or sheets of paper. This performance is by former Wabash Cafe Slam Poets, and slam poetry is different. It’s a mixture of poetry and performance, and you’re expected to memorize your poems.

It’s actually been a decade since I memorized a new poem, I think. I wondered if I could do it. I assured the MC of the event there would be no problem. I had over a month.

Well, since two of the three poems I will be performing are old Wabash poems, that made it somewhat easy, since recalling those from my synapses wasn’t too difficult. But I waited until tonight to start memorizing the third poem. Thursday night. Saturday performance.

Now, I will admit that I have ‘performed’ the piece before. It’s about a year old, and I have read it several times at the Hartford Cafe open mic. But I read it.

I memorized it in one night. I’ve still got it. I will give it a dry run-through at Hartford tomorrow night, but I’m confident I won’t embarrass myself.

And you know…despite the fact that the crowd at Hartford doesn’t require memorization, I think I’m going to start memorizing poems on a regular basis again.

Some of you may be familiar with the ’sport’ of Googlewhacking where you search for two words that exist in Google’s dictionary, but when used together in a search yield only one result.

Genea-Musings talks about “Census Whacking” Searching an online census for a given name that only one person has, or a surname that only one household has.

I thought I’d give it a try and I actually discovered five people in the 1930 census named Balaam, four named Belgium, and 820 named CAIN. OK, yes, that is a biblical name. But 820 parents who thought “Hey, let’s name our kid after Cain!” So, of course I had to check:

Satan - 21 people.
Lucifer - 7 people.
Beelzebub - 0 (whew!)
F_ck - 3 people! (no kidding!)
Slartibartfast - 0 (not surprising)
Trillian - 1 !

My first Census Whack!
Trillian McDaniel - age 11 in 1930 - lived in Nowata Nowata OK (I think whoever named the town was thirsty)

Some other related discoveries in the 1930 census

Arthur Dent - 26 people
Ford Prefect - 0

Let’s say — as a hypothetical situation — you are at a fancy country club restaurant. You are looking at their menu. And on one side of the menu, there is the heading: Entree’s. (Spelled exactly in this manner, with the possessive apostrophe there for all the world to see and guffaw at.)

Would you say anything?
If so, what would you say?
Something like:

Waiter: Any questions?
Self: Yes. What exactly do the entrees possess?

(No. I only thought it.)

For me, the most interesting aspect of the Israel Baseball League, which begins its inaugural season in just under 2 weeks…is that I can read every page of their website. You can too.

What does it say on the baseball?
The second line of Hebrew reads (from right to left): League Baseball Israel…or, to be more precise, Leeget beysbol yisroel.

So why aren’t they calling themselves the LBI? Gut question.

As I noted a couple months ago I’ve been doing some genealogical research. It’s been fun. Beyond discovering I’m maybe, perhaps, possibly descended from Chaucer.

This past week I added an entire branch to part of the family tree. The brother of a great-great grandmother, and all his descendents. Beforehand all I knew was the name of the brother.

That’s rather exciting, and several of these new cousins live in Chicago, which isn’t too far. I see a possible reunion at a Cards-Cubs game in the future.

Somewhat sadder has been the death certificates I’ve found of great-great aunts and uncles who never made it out of childhood. A common occurrence in the first half of the twentieth century. But either having blocked it from their mind, or not wanting to pass on the painful memories, the parents and siblings never said anything to their children and grandchildren, so the names were completely lost, until uncovered in Missouri’s online archives.

I must say I am really impressed with the archives. They’re scanning in every death certificate from 1910-1956. (And I have the impression that in 2008 they will add 1957, etc) They have some records prior to 1910, but counties weren’t required to keep them prior to 1910, so the archives are a little spotty. Those that aren’t scanned in yet, can be ordered for $1/copy. Compare this to Illinois, where nothing is scanned in, and ordering a copy costs $10. Those copies can add up when you’re doing a lot of research.

It sounds gruesome to be ordering death certificates of your ancestors, but they contain information such as the names of parents, date of birth, and cause of death.

Another great resource has been census forms. In the US they’re available online through 1930. There’s a federal law making them private for 72 years, so 1940s won’t be released until 2012. Genea-Musings has some tips on searching the census databases, since the information was spoken from the individual to the census-taker, and then handwritten, so the indexing of names wasn’t 100% accurate where spelling is concerned. Phonetic spelling of names aren’t uncommon.

One of my most interesting discoveries, I think, is the sister-in-law of my Great-grandfather Barney. The faux-Irish great grandfather I’ve mentioned before. His brother married Sarah Nathan while they were still in England. That was the name in the British Marriage Index. I have every reason to believe that is the name she went by — so lets call it her maiden name. However, her father wasn’t named Nathan. OK, yes, her father’s name was Nathan. First name. She was “Sarah daughter of Nathan” without the “daughter of” which is really confusing for research. And this wouldn’t be all that surprising if we were talking 19th century Europe and not 20th century England. Of course, her parents were 19th century Europe. Luckily her death certificate didn’t ask for her maiden name, but asked for her father’s name. So with that information, I went to the 1901 England census, and found all her brothers and sisters. Because the English census taker, obviously, asked the father for his name, and then assigned the last name to everyone. Why wouldn’t he?

In order to get the right answer, you need to ask the right question.

I wish I listened to top 40 music more in high school. I really do. Because, I’m sure if I did, The Police would have been one of my favorite bands. And believe it or not, they have TWO opportunities for PaidPosting, potentially propelling the happy bloggerfan into the doubledigits in income.

I mean, sure, I know their music. Who doesn’t?

Every Breath You Take
Don’t Stand So Close To Me
Every Little Things She Does is Magic

The songs got a lot of radio airplay when I was a lad. But they want bloggers to write about their favorite concert experiences, or gush about how they “absolutely love the band” and are “ecstatic that The Police are going on a new worldwide tour” or write about their favorite song that appears on their upcoming album.

I’m creative. I could write it. But it would be a lie.

I had no idea they were going on tour. I had no idea there was a new album. I don’t own any of their albums. I have two of their songs on my computer. (2 of the 3 listed above) I must have downloaded them from ITunes.

If I could honestly do what they want, I probably would.

Sorry.

I better make it clear that the website offering these opportunities is ThePolice.com, which looks to be their Offical Fan Club, but for all practical purposes, they’re an extension of the band.

IDrive.com wants positive reviews. The name sounded familiar, so I looked at their website. They’re an Online Backup provider. Cool. Backup is good.

Of course…uploading your documents to a server, you kind of want to know who owns the server. Call me silly, if you wish. Even if all you’re uploading is some pictures from your camera, you’re using them as backup, so you don’t want the website to go under in a year.

So I clicked on the tab that said “Press”. Their press, since January of this year, consists of two press releases. And of course, when I did the google search, I discovered millions of blog posts. And I discovered why IDrive sounded familiar (but not in these blog posts…)

1) IDrive is a computer system in BMW cars.
2) There’s a wiki article on I-Drive, which **used** to own i-drive.com. (note the hyphen). It was a backup space provider too. What a coincidence! Rated highly by CNet and Fortune Magazine. No longer exists.
3) There’s a software program for backup called IDrive, offered from IBackup

So you know…it kinda looks like this website here is trying to cash in on the name of some other products past and present. So, even beyond the legal issues they might face (I’m not a lawyer), I don’t think I’m uploading any of my stuff on to their servers. Nor am I blogging positively about them.

Sorry.

I’ve been blogging since 2002. It’s a fun thing to do, and even though I talk about religion, politics, and various entertainments a lot, this is a personal blog, and always has been.

A month ago there was a discussion at StlBloggers on getting paid to blog. I looked into the concept. One of the biggest complaints from people in the StlBlogger discussion was those who don’t disclose when the posts are paid and when they’re not. I read a few blogs, and honestly, I could tell a mile away. The posts were not written in the same style.

I knew, though, if I did this, I would do my best not to make my paid posts sound like a used car dealer. I would never write anything I didn’t believe in a post. Even though some companies will pay you to write a negative review, what they are seeking are the links to their site, just like the links in spam comments, so I also would never write a negative review of a site that didn’t at least look respectable. (No Viagra, gambling, or Vacation timeshare posts.) And of course, I would categorize each post clearly, so the reader would know anyway if I succeeded in masking the nature of the post.

So I signed up with PayPerPost and waited for any opportunity that
1) I qualified for (some opportunities require a google ranking higher than I have)
2) that I could honestly accept without compromising my ethics

That was a month ago. I’m still waiting. #2 is what’s making this difficult. In that time WilWheaton attacked PayPerPost, then slightly backtracked, but not by much, and overall I agreed with what he said. The paid posts need to be obvious. PayPerPost should require disclosure on a post-by-post basis, and not allow bloggers to have a disclosure notice hidden in their sidebar saying some of their posts might be paid. Otherwise, they are as wrong as the advertisements in newspapers that are made to look like real articles.

So this post initiates two new categories on my blog. One will be obvious. It will say “Paid Post”. Considering I have yet to find something to post about that meets my strict guidelines, I don’t expect many of these.

The other category might be of more interest to some. I’ve called it “Sorry”. These are opportunities I have turned down, but I want to say something about them anyway. They may be companies only willing to pay for positive reviews, but I’m not willing to write a positive review. Or they may fall in the category: “Did you know ___ was paying bloggers to say good things about them?” Consider it a PSA. If you see someone else blog about these products/websites, it’s possible they’re being paid to do so. If your favorite 80s band is doing this – will it change your view of them?

I am interested in your input, so let me know what you think. If any part of this idea is offensive to you, I want to know. This being a personal blog, several of you know me, and are my friend, so I am naturally even more interested in your feedback.

My boss today wished me a “Happy Aliyah”.
I raised my eyebrows. “Are we opening a location in Israel?”

Another possibility was that he thought I was about to die, and ‘ascend’, but only one of my tribe has, allegedly, done that in the past. It would be near miraculous for it to happen twice

I don’t have to move. He misread a news story and thought Aliyah was a holiday.

Should have posted this sometime yesterday. Can’t believe I spent all day yesterday not thinking about this once. But on June 5-6, 1832 a barricade was set up in the streets of Paris. It was a failed revolt. One of several that would have been mostly forgotten, especially by those who don’t live in France and therefore study French history. But Victor Hugo chose to write a novel with the barricade at its climax, and the rest, as they say, is history.

If you are related to me, and are a parent, aunt or uncle, don’t click on the link below Just skip and go to the next message. You’ll be glad you didn’t. Thanks.

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Some of you may have noticed over the weekend that scary “Account Suspended” notice, and then yesterday when the blog reappeared, you may have noticed the most recent post was a month old.

Everything’s a little complicated to explain. I’ll just say that my host found the pornography. That’s not true, but it’s a lot easier explanation than the truth. Anyway, it looks like all the messages are back.

Without a blog to post on, I should have had more time to write my ScriptFrenzy screenplay. I have approximately 600 words so far. I’m on a pace to do even worse than I did in NaNoWriMo. I wish I didn’t have all these pesky distractions — most importantly the 40 hours a week distraction. That’s the most time-consuming one.

AG Edwards is being bought out by Wachovia Bank.

I worked there for 10 years. Yeah, they basically kicked me out on the street in 2002, in a major ‘workforce reduction’. I shouldn’t be sad about this. But I worked there for ten years, and it’s been a St. Louis institution for 120 years. The “Wachovia Securities” division will be moving here, so it’s not like all the St. Louis jobs will be lost. No one’s saying right now, naturally, what the plans are for consolidation. The deal won’t likely be completed until October. But my suspicion is a lot of jobs will be lost, as much of the “back office” work (like IT where I was) will likely be moved to the Wachovia headquarters, where the work’s already being done by someone else.

There may be a few champagne bottles being uncorked at Edward Jones. No one will ever confuse them again with another brokerage, and they’ll likely get a few AGE customers who like the idea of an independent brokerage.

How did I miss this! The interview/post is dated April 17th. I have a Google Alert set up for any appearance of my cousin’s name. But this slipped past Google’s radar, and for some reason he decided not to tell me he got cast in Iron Man! I had to learn it from my mother who read it in last month’s Alive St. Louis magazine.

(I don’t think it’s a big part. I don’t even know if he has any lines. Haven’t had a chance to listen to the interview as I’m at work without a soundcard. But it’s still a movie I was planning on seeing anyway, and which it is unlikely I will have to twist too many arms of my friends to see it with me.)