Natter 69: Practically names itself.
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
the other thing about Ancestry is that people submit their family trees, and I don't always know how accurate the information is. I found some family stuff that seems to be verified, but I think it's just based on legend.
I have to do fairly routine clean up on my trees.
Sadly, when Granny in Scotland died, Betty Dick apparently burnt the family bible that had all the Aitken history in it. (And when Granny was alive, always hushed her when Granny was getting to the GOOD gossip, per my Aunt.)
So says Mom's cousin Mary. And speaking of small towns, Mary and Betty are related through a brother and sister who married a sister and brother.
I had a great theater anxiety dream the other night, the bright and vibrant dreams of those woken by menstrual cramps. I was one of a group of four who had a singing, dancing part in a major production. I, of course, didn't know the part and hadn't been to rehearsal, but the reason I was freaked out was that I was in the wrong costume, apparently only one of six (6!) expected costume changes for the show. So I refused to go on stage. It was all very fraught.
And then I walked past this stairwell, all scaffolded up, and realized that I hadn't been in the theater for a very long time and it had gone through a lot of improvements. And I knew very clearly that up that scaffold was one of my favorite dream spots, a place I used to go frequently in my dreams. It's one of the interstitial spaces, basically where you have to clamber around to get through backstage. It only exists in my dreams, but I've been there many times.
Anyway, even though I didn't go, and the whole dream was actually a nightmare, I woke up happy remembering how much I loved teching and climbing around backstage.
It's my Caribbean heritage that makes me.... I don't know what.
contact information for living people
You know there are a ton of other ways on the internet to find that stuff, right? Like, it's creepy how much they can reap from public records. Try intelius.com (another string of characters I've been trying to extract from my brain, not for years but weeks, and boom! Here it is--obviously the sick day has been good for me) for starters.
It's my Caribbean heritage that makes me.... I don't know what.
A cowgirl?
I found out that the main documented ancestor in maternal line came over earlier than I thought, during the French and Indian Wars, from Ireland with his brothers. They went back to fetch more of the crew, who later fought in the Revolutionary War. Hell, some of them fought at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse down in Greensboro, which I find fascinating (not far from my college.)
The family pulled over more relatives who didn't immigrate back then during the big Irish influx. Not sure whether my direct line comes from the first, second or third waves. I'd only known about the third wave until pretty recently.
The swedish side is easy for American history. I can find pdfs of the ship manifests at the Ellis Island site for both my grandparents.
A cowgirl?
That's got to be the Texas, no? (Not that part of Texas.)
It's my Caribbean heritage that makes me.... I don't know what.
Such a good dancer?
No, I don't really have much other than pothead.
I just found my Auntie Mamie on Ancestry with the dates 1898-1898. She actually died in 1984.
And ew, I accidentally stumbled upon an account, by someone who sat on the jury, of the murder trial for the guy who beheaded my dad's cousin (and her dog) and another person on a beach on one of the US Virgin Islands. I did not need that level of detail, thank you
My grandfather came to Canada because HOMG! TRAINS!
No, seriously. HOMG! TRAINS!
He was apparently brilliant, good with maths and languages, and was expected to go into teaching, but dropped out of everything to clerk at a train station before deciding he had to go somewhere with MOAR TRAINS.
His eventual bride was the first in her family (err, possibly the first--everyone is unclear about the actual date of birth of her stillborn brother) born in Canada. My great-grandfather had grown up a workhouse orphan, and her mother who knew him from church had corresponded with him after he left for Canada and came out to marry him.
Apparently, she wasn't allowed to take my grandmother back to England when she went for a visit home in 1912, because my great-grandfather didn't expect she'd return if she did.
I'm told he was pious and miserable.
And yet, still an improvement Gram's dad.
