Saturday, July 21, 2007
It's Done
So I finished Harry Potter 7, but I can't talk about it yet because Liz isn't finished. Anyway, just thought I'd mark the time, 3:20 pm pst, just so I can say I finished before those people on the East Coast who had three extra hours. lol
Friday, July 13, 2007
They Say It's My Birthday!
So it’s my birthday. It’s only seven, but I’m awake. I have a bit of a headache, but the Diet Coke should take care of that. Hey. It’s my birthday. I’m allowed. 
Yesterday was a long day. It started off pretty well as Clare and I went to find the Ancient Burial Ground and my Really Great Grandfather, William Leete, the first governor of Connecticut.
When we reached the cemetery, we split up and started searching. Clare was the lucky winner of the first annual Jenny’s Ancestor Hunt! We took pictures and wondered whether the stone had been replaced or not. Then we looked around a bit more and found a HUGE pillar monument dedicated to him right behind the gravestone.
Feeling quite successful, we hopped back in the car and headed to Mark Twain’s House. He was next door neighbors to Harriet Beecher Stowe, but I knew Clare was ready to get the heck out of Hartford, so we just did the main tour. It was very pretty, in that 1890’s Tiffany sort of way. Twain lived there (but not during the summers) for 17 years until he went bankrupt and his wife made him go on a speaking tour. They planned to return, but their daughter whom they left behind, died there.
The trip home Karma caught up with us. Getting over New York’s George Washington Bridge was a pain in the butt, literally. While we flew through New York on the journey north, the journey south was wall to wall traffic… and I had to pee… and I didn’t want to get off the turnpike, for fear on never making it back on.
We finally made it back home, and presented Mel with her gift and chatted like old friends. Then we went to bed at 10 like a bunch of old ladies.
Yesterday was a long day. It started off pretty well as Clare and I went to find the Ancient Burial Ground and my Really Great Grandfather, William Leete, the first governor of Connecticut.
When we reached the cemetery, we split up and started searching. Clare was the lucky winner of the first annual Jenny’s Ancestor Hunt! We took pictures and wondered whether the stone had been replaced or not. Then we looked around a bit more and found a HUGE pillar monument dedicated to him right behind the gravestone. Feeling quite successful, we hopped back in the car and headed to Mark Twain’s House. He was next door neighbors to Harriet Beecher Stowe, but I knew Clare was ready to get the heck out of Hartford, so we just did the main tour. It was very pretty, in that 1890’s Tiffany sort of way. Twain lived there (but not during the summers) for 17 years until he went bankrupt and his wife made him go on a speaking tour. They planned to return, but their daughter whom they left behind, died there.
The trip home Karma caught up with us. Getting over New York’s George Washington Bridge was a pain in the butt, literally. While we flew through New York on the journey north, the journey south was wall to wall traffic… and I had to pee… and I didn’t want to get off the turnpike, for fear on never making it back on.
We finally made it back home, and presented Mel with her gift and chatted like old friends. Then we went to bed at 10 like a bunch of old ladies.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
King Arthur and The Beatles
We started the morning with the strange weather which seems to be the constant of our trip – overcast and icky looking, while still being 85 degrees. Our first stop in Norwich, VT was the King Arthur Flour Bakery and Store where I finally found two of the more obscure ingredients listed in my new healthy bread cookbook. I also bought a cool silicon baking mat, a set of bread flavor mixes and a set of cookie cutters.
Down the road we stopped one last time in Vermont, only to curse the vending machine which spit out our dollars and launched our coins back at us. So we got back in the car, drove to Mass and put our money in their machines which happily dispensed its contents.
Our hotel, we decided is the least appealing of our three, even though it has breakfast and free internet. After dumping our stuff off we headed out looking for food. Considering we were near the airport, we didn’t think that would be too hard. Maybe we were being too picky, but a half hour later, we drove back to nearly across from our hotel and ate at Ruby Tuesday’s.
We braved the center of Hartford and went to Elizabeth Park, an apparent favorite of Mark Twain, for a concert in the park. Abbey Road is a Beatles tribute band, and let me tell you, George, man he must have been hit up the head with the ugly stick as a little kid. There was something slightly disturbing when the four came out in their suits and Beatle wigs. It was even more disturbing when they changed for the second half into their Sergeant Pepper costumes. Even though the sound guy was an idiot and couldn’t stop the bass from feedbacking, Clare and I both declared our adventure a success. It started raining halfway through and I guess the Californian in me came out when I remarked how many people were still out playing in the rain and not under the tent. 
We nearly got lost on the way back to the hotel, but found the way accidentally. We stopped at the diner next door for dessert, found it rather piddly, and got milkshakes to go. Tomorrow, Twain and the Ancestors!
Karaoke
So I forgot to mention the little girl who couldn’t have been more than four, wandering out of the Ben and Jerry’s factory with her parents and a fruit smoothie nearly as big as she was. “Let Daddy have a turn,” her dad said as they passed. She simply shook her head and planted the straw back in her mouth. Not stupid, that one. I only mention it because the same family group of six (from Ohio) without their kid were at the Karaoke night.
We walked in and saw John, the Karaoke DJ slumped over in a chair, singing badly to a few 80’s pop songs. We asked to see the book, and found he really didn’t have one. He had a few photocopied index pages and a lot of loose CD’s. The pickings were few, and mostly related to Bette Midler. Yes. Melissa would have had a fit.
I sang Lean on Me (by accident), Wind Beneath my Wings, and From a Distance.
Clare ordered us drinks and proved once again that the people of Vermont can’t understand British accents. When our drinks arrived, I nearly keeled over when she told me how much they were. They were pint glasses of pretty damn strong drinks for $5.50. Man, we should all get drunk in VT! I only managed about a quarter of mine before shoving it off in Clare’s direction. Yeah, well, I had to drive home… down a mountain road… in the rain.
We had fun, and at the end of the night, Oblivious Omouse wanted to go home because her stomach was beginning to hurt. Two “blokes” approached and wanted me to sing a duet with one of them. I declined politely and got told off in the parking lot by Clare for not seizing the day.
We walked in and saw John, the Karaoke DJ slumped over in a chair, singing badly to a few 80’s pop songs. We asked to see the book, and found he really didn’t have one. He had a few photocopied index pages and a lot of loose CD’s. The pickings were few, and mostly related to Bette Midler. Yes. Melissa would have had a fit.
I sang Lean on Me (by accident), Wind Beneath my Wings, and From a Distance.
Clare ordered us drinks and proved once again that the people of Vermont can’t understand British accents. When our drinks arrived, I nearly keeled over when she told me how much they were. They were pint glasses of pretty damn strong drinks for $5.50. Man, we should all get drunk in VT! I only managed about a quarter of mine before shoving it off in Clare’s direction. Yeah, well, I had to drive home… down a mountain road… in the rain.
We had fun, and at the end of the night, Oblivious Omouse wanted to go home because her stomach was beginning to hurt. Two “blokes” approached and wanted me to sing a duet with one of them. I declined politely and got told off in the parking lot by Clare for not seizing the day.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Taste of Vermont
7-10-07
Today was Vermont Sampler Day. If Vermont makes it, we checked it out. Who needs to eat lunch when you can get free samples? Unfortunately most of Vermont has a sweet tooth. Here’s an outline of our adventures.
Cider – Cold Hollow Cider Mill – Scale of 1-10, it was a 4. Unfortunately there aren’t any apples to make into cider or other good things, so I tried some apple butter, perused the gift shop, and swung back and forth in a cool rocker thing that made me slightly queasy. 
Ice cream – Ben and Jerry’s Factory tour. Now this was definitely the Main Event. We chucked over our $3 entry fee, waded through the short kids, and discovered the history of Ben and Jerry. They’re 29, and very eco and community friendly. Our free sample was Strawberry Cheesecake. It was pretty good. I’d definitely eat it again. We then waded through more kids and up the hill to visit the ice cream graveyard, where they have headstones and epitaphs for all of their retired flavors. Afterward, since it was about 90 degrees and humid, we thought we deserved some more cool flavors. I got Crème Brulee. Yum. Clare got the New York Super Fudge Chunk. “It was gorgeous,” she says.
Tea – Omouse the Flyer Lady, as Clare has begun to call me, picked up a flyer for Vermont Liberty Tea Company. It was only a mile or two from B and J’s so I thought we should take a look. We followed the little map on the flyer, and nearly missed the little road, cough, cough. If you can even call it a road. I’d say more like an alley. We had to turn around at a gas station… and little did we know that if we’d looked a little harder, we would have been able to see that the gas station and the alley were connected. Anyway. We get to the tea shop, and there’s this friendly guy (must have been fabulous) and he poured us a few samples of cold and hot tea. Then we went around opening tins and smelling things. Intoxicating! I bought three different teas; two lovely greens and one Cream Earl Grey. I can’t wait to get home and steep myself silly.
Maple – Our next trip took us further afield and we headed to Bragg Farms Maple and Sugarhouse… again, we were out of season, so we watched a video and sampled four different kinds of maple syrup. It’s a lot thinner than the usual, and amazingly yummy. I bought a sampler pack with the four main grades.
Coffee – Our next stop was the Green Mountain Coffee Welcome Center and Café – which wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but interesting enough. It was sort of a combined visitor center (read flyer shelving) and coffee making museum. It was in an old train station that they’d revamped. Clare and I both bought a café latte (Yes. Jenny drank coffee), though the girl behind the counter seemed to think “Latte” in a British accent sounded like “Mudslide.” Huh.
Cheese – We made a quick stop to the Cabot Cheese Annex, which was also paired with Lake Champlain’s Chocolates, and the Vermont Teddy Bear store. We made our way around the cheese samples and decided that the garlic and herb cheddar was the best. Their reduced fat cheddar was also the best low fat cheese I’ve ever tasted. I googled it and found that they sell it at Trader Joe’s. Must go looking for it next time.
Glass – Ziemke Glass Blowing Studio, “Needless to say, we stopped blowing glass early today,” says the woman behind the counter as we look at all the beautiful, but very expensive glass. With no air conditioner, yeah, I understand. A large dog wandered up to me as well, and I pet her, and then she walked away and suddenly started to howl. The woman opened a door and told the dog to “Find Dad.” Odd.
Our last stop was a market where we continued our Vermont Theme and bought Maple Glazed Ham, Cabot Cheddar slices, bread and drinks to eat for dinner back at our hotel. Tonight we’re going to go to Pie Casso’s for my favorite thing – yup – Kareoke!
Today was Vermont Sampler Day. If Vermont makes it, we checked it out. Who needs to eat lunch when you can get free samples? Unfortunately most of Vermont has a sweet tooth. Here’s an outline of our adventures.
Cider – Cold Hollow Cider Mill – Scale of 1-10, it was a 4. Unfortunately there aren’t any apples to make into cider or other good things, so I tried some apple butter, perused the gift shop, and swung back and forth in a cool rocker thing that made me slightly queasy. 
Ice cream – Ben and Jerry’s Factory tour. Now this was definitely the Main Event. We chucked over our $3 entry fee, waded through the short kids, and discovered the history of Ben and Jerry. They’re 29, and very eco and community friendly. Our free sample was Strawberry Cheesecake. It was pretty good. I’d definitely eat it again. We then waded through more kids and up the hill to visit the ice cream graveyard, where they have headstones and epitaphs for all of their retired flavors. Afterward, since it was about 90 degrees and humid, we thought we deserved some more cool flavors. I got Crème Brulee. Yum. Clare got the New York Super Fudge Chunk. “It was gorgeous,” she says.
Tea – Omouse the Flyer Lady, as Clare has begun to call me, picked up a flyer for Vermont Liberty Tea Company. It was only a mile or two from B and J’s so I thought we should take a look. We followed the little map on the flyer, and nearly missed the little road, cough, cough. If you can even call it a road. I’d say more like an alley. We had to turn around at a gas station… and little did we know that if we’d looked a little harder, we would have been able to see that the gas station and the alley were connected. Anyway. We get to the tea shop, and there’s this friendly guy (must have been fabulous) and he poured us a few samples of cold and hot tea. Then we went around opening tins and smelling things. Intoxicating! I bought three different teas; two lovely greens and one Cream Earl Grey. I can’t wait to get home and steep myself silly.
Maple – Our next trip took us further afield and we headed to Bragg Farms Maple and Sugarhouse… again, we were out of season, so we watched a video and sampled four different kinds of maple syrup. It’s a lot thinner than the usual, and amazingly yummy. I bought a sampler pack with the four main grades.
Coffee – Our next stop was the Green Mountain Coffee Welcome Center and Café – which wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but interesting enough. It was sort of a combined visitor center (read flyer shelving) and coffee making museum. It was in an old train station that they’d revamped. Clare and I both bought a café latte (Yes. Jenny drank coffee), though the girl behind the counter seemed to think “Latte” in a British accent sounded like “Mudslide.” Huh.
Cheese – We made a quick stop to the Cabot Cheese Annex, which was also paired with Lake Champlain’s Chocolates, and the Vermont Teddy Bear store. We made our way around the cheese samples and decided that the garlic and herb cheddar was the best. Their reduced fat cheddar was also the best low fat cheese I’ve ever tasted. I googled it and found that they sell it at Trader Joe’s. Must go looking for it next time.Glass – Ziemke Glass Blowing Studio, “Needless to say, we stopped blowing glass early today,” says the woman behind the counter as we look at all the beautiful, but very expensive glass. With no air conditioner, yeah, I understand. A large dog wandered up to me as well, and I pet her, and then she walked away and suddenly started to howl. The woman opened a door and told the dog to “Find Dad.” Odd.
Our last stop was a market where we continued our Vermont Theme and bought Maple Glazed Ham, Cabot Cheddar slices, bread and drinks to eat for dinner back at our hotel. Tonight we’re going to go to Pie Casso’s for my favorite thing – yup – Kareoke!
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Road Trip 2007
7-7-7
Ah, the wonders of technology. I brought my new laptop so hopefully blogging will be a bit on the faster side than in the past. Though we opted not to pay the extra $10 for tonight’s internet, so you should be able to read this a few days later… but at least I’ll be able to copy and paste.
We started off at 7:00 (7777) completely by accident… well, mainly because Hrothgar, Mel’s cat, seems to think 5:30 is a great time to HOWL at Mel’s door. Mel wears earplugs, and Andy apparently sleeps like the dead. With Clare’s ears out, I seem to the only one bothered by the howling cat. I opened the door abruptly, and got a few hisses from him as I shoved his fat butt down the stairs.
Up, I bathroomed and breakfasted, turning on the TV while I ate my Kix. The movie, I think, was Adam’s Rib… a great Spencer Tracy and Kathryn Hepburn movie about two married lawyers arguing opposite sides of a case.
Clare and I got ready with little fuss and jumped into our Trusty Rusty blue Aveo. It has no power anything, and for some strange reason, I can’t lock the driver’s side door without turning the key. The good thing about it, is that it’s covered in dings and scratches, so if I bump into anything, no one will be able to tell! Not that I plan any collisions.
We made it out of Pennsylvania pretty easily, even managing to stop for gas without getting turned around. Then, it was pretty much a straight shot onto the 95… even though there were no signs stating we were on the 95. We just hoped we were heading the right direction, and kept going. We zipped through Jersey, paying the $10 in tolls. Mel’s observation… you don’t have to pay any money to get into Jersey, but you pay out the nose to leave. Clare was a bit agog over the tolls we had to keep paying.
We made it out of Jersey alive, pointing at the foggy looking Empire State Building as we passed by NYC. Then it was into Connecticut. Now, the strange thing about the I95 through Connecticut. They have plenty of rest stops and gas stations. Like one every ten miles. Seriously. And at each one, there was a McDonald’s and a Mobile. Can you say MONOPOLY! It was creepy. We stopped at the first one for coffee and soda, thinking, oh, it’s a good place to stop. Then we drove on another 5 miles, and oh look! It’s a McD’s. I should have counted them all.
We were actually excited when we got to Rhode Island and saw that one of the stops actually had a Taco Bell! Anyway, on Natalie’s recommendation, and the fact that it saved us some driving time, we changed our first plans and stopped in Mystic, CT instead of Newport RI.
We snapped a picture of Mystic Pizza, and ate at a Cajun place called The Voodoo Grill. Great atmosphere, reasonable prices, and the medium hot sauce was plenty spicy for me. Glad I didn’t go with the hot or really hot. I had to go into the yarn shop, well, because I’m crafty. I didn’t find anything I couldn’t buy at the Alamitos Bay Yarn Co, so I didn’t buy anything.
We got back in the car and headed into Rhode Island. We were going to stop in Providence, but we kind of blinked… and missed it. Darn. I told Clare to stick her hand out the window, and we agreed that was good enough to say we’d been to the smallest state in the Union. We also decided that RI was slightly larger than the Isle of Wight, but not by much.
On we went to Massachusetts… which I apparently can’t spell… that’s another story. We hit Boston, and were so busy talking, we nearly missed out exit. I did a quick lane change and came off the freeway to discover two things about Boston. They have Roundabouts. And they don’t have a whole lot of street signs.
The Yahoo Maps directions wouldn’t have been too bad to follow, if we could actually have known what street we were on. That would have been nice. We ended up turning around twice, and found the hotel accidentally on our way back from one of the U’s. Success!
We then learned which of the Hotel Desk clerks was the helpful cheery one, and which one hated her job and wanted to be at home. Guess which one we got? Yup. At least we got a warm cookie. Yum. Anyway, we go to the 5th floor, and I think, 501… that should be right there. Nope. We’re on the corner at the very end of the hall. At least we have a corner and two windows and a nice view of the parking lot.
After about 2 hours of down time, we took advantage of the free shuttle and headed downtown for dinner. As we passed China town, we both decided that wasn’t where we wanted to eat. Instead, we cut through Boston Common and headed towards a bar that they I’d read about. We found the street that it was supposed to be on, but without cross streets we kept walking. It was full of trendy shops and I felt like we’d found the Beverly Hills of Boston. Goody. All the restaurants we saw were a bit on the pricey side, so we cut a block over and found, well, no restaurants. We were about to give up when I walked right by a Radio Shack. Clare had wanted a card for her camera. She got a 2 Gig card for $30 which I think is a pretty good deal.
Anyway, as we were coming out of the Radio Shack we noticed The Rattlesnake! We’d read about it earlier, and based on our decision to eat at places with cool names, that was perfect. We split a $10 pizza and ordered a drink and were quite happy.
Back at the hotel, we’re blogging and having beauty night. Clare has just emerged from the shower with a huge grin and a satisfied smile on her face… so that means it’s my turn. Signing off for now, Omouse.
Ah, the wonders of technology. I brought my new laptop so hopefully blogging will be a bit on the faster side than in the past. Though we opted not to pay the extra $10 for tonight’s internet, so you should be able to read this a few days later… but at least I’ll be able to copy and paste.
We started off at 7:00 (7777) completely by accident… well, mainly because Hrothgar, Mel’s cat, seems to think 5:30 is a great time to HOWL at Mel’s door. Mel wears earplugs, and Andy apparently sleeps like the dead. With Clare’s ears out, I seem to the only one bothered by the howling cat. I opened the door abruptly, and got a few hisses from him as I shoved his fat butt down the stairs.
Up, I bathroomed and breakfasted, turning on the TV while I ate my Kix. The movie, I think, was Adam’s Rib… a great Spencer Tracy and Kathryn Hepburn movie about two married lawyers arguing opposite sides of a case.
Clare and I got ready with little fuss and jumped into our Trusty Rusty blue Aveo. It has no power anything, and for some strange reason, I can’t lock the driver’s side door without turning the key. The good thing about it, is that it’s covered in dings and scratches, so if I bump into anything, no one will be able to tell! Not that I plan any collisions.
We made it out of Pennsylvania pretty easily, even managing to stop for gas without getting turned around. Then, it was pretty much a straight shot onto the 95… even though there were no signs stating we were on the 95. We just hoped we were heading the right direction, and kept going. We zipped through Jersey, paying the $10 in tolls. Mel’s observation… you don’t have to pay any money to get into Jersey, but you pay out the nose to leave. Clare was a bit agog over the tolls we had to keep paying.
We made it out of Jersey alive, pointing at the foggy looking Empire State Building as we passed by NYC. Then it was into Connecticut. Now, the strange thing about the I95 through Connecticut. They have plenty of rest stops and gas stations. Like one every ten miles. Seriously. And at each one, there was a McDonald’s and a Mobile. Can you say MONOPOLY! It was creepy. We stopped at the first one for coffee and soda, thinking, oh, it’s a good place to stop. Then we drove on another 5 miles, and oh look! It’s a McD’s. I should have counted them all.
We were actually excited when we got to Rhode Island and saw that one of the stops actually had a Taco Bell! Anyway, on Natalie’s recommendation, and the fact that it saved us some driving time, we changed our first plans and stopped in Mystic, CT instead of Newport RI.
We snapped a picture of Mystic Pizza, and ate at a Cajun place called The Voodoo Grill. Great atmosphere, reasonable prices, and the medium hot sauce was plenty spicy for me. Glad I didn’t go with the hot or really hot. I had to go into the yarn shop, well, because I’m crafty. I didn’t find anything I couldn’t buy at the Alamitos Bay Yarn Co, so I didn’t buy anything.
We got back in the car and headed into Rhode Island. We were going to stop in Providence, but we kind of blinked… and missed it. Darn. I told Clare to stick her hand out the window, and we agreed that was good enough to say we’d been to the smallest state in the Union. We also decided that RI was slightly larger than the Isle of Wight, but not by much.
On we went to Massachusetts… which I apparently can’t spell… that’s another story. We hit Boston, and were so busy talking, we nearly missed out exit. I did a quick lane change and came off the freeway to discover two things about Boston. They have Roundabouts. And they don’t have a whole lot of street signs.
The Yahoo Maps directions wouldn’t have been too bad to follow, if we could actually have known what street we were on. That would have been nice. We ended up turning around twice, and found the hotel accidentally on our way back from one of the U’s. Success!
We then learned which of the Hotel Desk clerks was the helpful cheery one, and which one hated her job and wanted to be at home. Guess which one we got? Yup. At least we got a warm cookie. Yum. Anyway, we go to the 5th floor, and I think, 501… that should be right there. Nope. We’re on the corner at the very end of the hall. At least we have a corner and two windows and a nice view of the parking lot.
After about 2 hours of down time, we took advantage of the free shuttle and headed downtown for dinner. As we passed China town, we both decided that wasn’t where we wanted to eat. Instead, we cut through Boston Common and headed towards a bar that they I’d read about. We found the street that it was supposed to be on, but without cross streets we kept walking. It was full of trendy shops and I felt like we’d found the Beverly Hills of Boston. Goody. All the restaurants we saw were a bit on the pricey side, so we cut a block over and found, well, no restaurants. We were about to give up when I walked right by a Radio Shack. Clare had wanted a card for her camera. She got a 2 Gig card for $30 which I think is a pretty good deal.
Anyway, as we were coming out of the Radio Shack we noticed The Rattlesnake! We’d read about it earlier, and based on our decision to eat at places with cool names, that was perfect. We split a $10 pizza and ordered a drink and were quite happy.
Back at the hotel, we’re blogging and having beauty night. Clare has just emerged from the shower with a huge grin and a satisfied smile on her face… so that means it’s my turn. Signing off for now, Omouse.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Relations
So this was all started when Clare and I were planning our trip through New England. I decided I wanted to visit my relations buried in the Hartford Ancient Burial Ground.
Then Melissa got the bright idea to take a short day trip to Doylestown, PA where another of my reputed relatives (by adoption) lived. Off we went to the James A. Michener Art Museum to see if we could find the direct link between him and my grandmother, who is also a Michener.
The curators shook their heads when I asked, and we visited the library next door and could find no direct link. So what does Omouse do when she is confounded and wants to know more? She uses the Googles.
Here's the summation:
Out of the number of people I'm supposedly related to:
David Crockett (dismissed long ago by Bruce Crockett)
James A. Michener (Grandma said)
Ulysses S. Grant (Dad)
Total found lurking in family tree? : Zero.
Other random people I'm related to:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Jane Austen
Queen Elizabeth II
Georgia O'Keefe
James Barrie
Andrew Johnson
Mark Twain
John Locke
Bette Davis
Humphrey Bogart
Henry David Thoreax
Emily Dickenson
Lucille Ball
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Laurence Olivier
Robert Louis Stevenson
Gregory Peck
Willa Cather
And the following First Ladies
Laura Bush
Jane Pierce
Anna Harrison
Elizabeth Truman
Edith Roosevelt
Florence Harding
Coolest
I guess having my 18th Grandfather as Chaucer has to be pretty cool. The rest are just mostly cousins.
After tracing back the lines, I found the Mathis's go back to 1680 Virginia. The Crocketts don't go back that far at all. Most of the higher connections are through Maude Hanks, who is my Mom's Great Grandmother on her dad's side.
This information set off a chain reaction, and Mel wanted her tree done as well. We found her line all the way back to Sviede the Viking and Alfonso the Slobberer.
We do take this information with a grain of salt... knowing that we rely mostly on the work of others when we get way back. It's actually rather easy once you get back before 1930 and you can troll the census data and the other people's trees to pull in information.
Right. Soon to be off to Ikea!
Then Melissa got the bright idea to take a short day trip to Doylestown, PA where another of my reputed relatives (by adoption) lived. Off we went to the James A. Michener Art Museum to see if we could find the direct link between him and my grandmother, who is also a Michener.
The curators shook their heads when I asked, and we visited the library next door and could find no direct link. So what does Omouse do when she is confounded and wants to know more? She uses the Googles.
Here's the summation:
Out of the number of people I'm supposedly related to:
David Crockett (dismissed long ago by Bruce Crockett)
James A. Michener (Grandma said)
Ulysses S. Grant (Dad)
Total found lurking in family tree? : Zero.
Other random people I'm related to:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Jane Austen
Queen Elizabeth II
Georgia O'Keefe
James Barrie
Andrew Johnson
Mark Twain
John Locke
Bette Davis
Humphrey Bogart
Henry David Thoreax
Emily Dickenson
Lucille Ball
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Laurence Olivier
Robert Louis Stevenson
Gregory Peck
Willa Cather
And the following First Ladies
Laura Bush
Jane Pierce
Anna Harrison
Elizabeth Truman
Edith Roosevelt
Florence Harding
Coolest
I guess having my 18th Grandfather as Chaucer has to be pretty cool. The rest are just mostly cousins.
After tracing back the lines, I found the Mathis's go back to 1680 Virginia. The Crocketts don't go back that far at all. Most of the higher connections are through Maude Hanks, who is my Mom's Great Grandmother on her dad's side.
This information set off a chain reaction, and Mel wanted her tree done as well. We found her line all the way back to Sviede the Viking and Alfonso the Slobberer.
We do take this information with a grain of salt... knowing that we rely mostly on the work of others when we get way back. It's actually rather easy once you get back before 1930 and you can troll the census data and the other people's trees to pull in information.
Right. Soon to be off to Ikea!
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