Common Ground ~ uncommon fun!
This last weekend was Common Ground, the annual fair put on by the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association (MOFGA). Their whole fairground is dedicated to stuff grown or made in Maine, so ~ in...
View ArticleC&J blogathon ~ Saturday night special
It's that time of year again.... time to purchase Bill in Portland Maine's soul ~ and humor ~ for another year.
View ArticleCheers & Jeers blogathon: Maine and more Maine
Now, I could spend this whole diary raving about how wonderful Bill in Portland Maine is ~ and (by reflection) how wonderful we are for having the good sense to buy his soul (and his humor ~ especially...
View ArticleGFHC ~ papers, please!
Lineage societies, despite the reputation that they sometimes have of being for snobby socialites, do serve very useful purposes in the genealogical world.Why do people join lineage societies? The...
View ArticleWednesday: (mostly) woozles
Welcome to the Wednesday afternoon pootie woozle diary, our daily friendly place to take a few minutes to relax, smile, and recharge before going out to battle the forces of evil in the big, bad real...
View ArticleDK Quilt Guild: Quilts at the fair
It's autumn in northern New England, and (along with gorgeous fall color in Maine's abundant woods), that means it's fair season.I've written before about going to quilt shows: the Maine state show run...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: It's in our genes
A couple weeks ago, when I was writing about lineage societies for the open thread, I cut a paragraph about how lineage societies don't accept DNA evidence for membership. The diary was getting too...
View ArticleDvar Torah: Chayei Sarah
As usual, I've collected some snippets from the commentaries that I found though provoking on this week's parsha (weekly Torah reading) ~ Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1 to 25:18)
View ArticleWAYWO (open thread): variations on a theme....
Sometimes, what a pattern looks like isn't what the final product really looks like...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: booking it
A visit to Maine's wonderful state library yesterday has prompted this week's open thread topic: genealogy books.Lots and lots of genealogical information is on-line ~ and the amount that is on-line is...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: Just because it's in print...
When I started tracing my family tree, I started with a fair bit of information. One great grandfather had (with more enthusiasm than expertise) collected all the information he could find on his...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: Weston, ho!
So, last week, we looked at the memorial for William Low Weston and the errors it contained in this diary.This week, a bit about his parents..... and, no, neither mobile nor dysfunctional families are...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: That next step...
My original plan had been to write more about the whole Weston family saga that I've started telling the last couple weeks (see here and here for those installments) and my meanderings through...
View ArticleLePage vs. Michaud ~ another reason this election is historic
Driving around the foothills of the White Mountains here in western Maine, where billboards are banned by state law, political signs are quite visible, espcially at small crossroads. There are many...
View ArticleUmm... there's a lady present...
About a decade ago, the fairly self-contained division of the company I worked for had a clear line between the professional staff (a dozen or so men and me) and the clerical and support staff (a dozen...
View ArticleMeet-up, July 12, western Maine
For the last several years, I've held a meet-up at my summer cottage. In previous years, I've aimed the invitation at people who swim in the kiddie pool (a.k.a. Bill in Portland Maine's Cheers and...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: If I could just ask....
When I started tracing my family history, I made the beginner's mistake of not double-checking all the family stories I had grown up with. A major (and relatively recent) one was that my grandfather...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: Four in a row....
A couple weeks ago, a friend and I were wandering a bit along the Maine coast. We were mostly interested in yarn and fabric (having met through a crafting group), but she's fairly recently started...
View ArticleMeet-up, July 12, western Maine
For the last several years, I've held a meet-up at my summer cottage. In previous years, I've aimed the invitation at people who swim in the kiddie pool (a.k.a. Bill in Portland Maine's Cheers and...
View ArticleI took to the woods, camera in hand
Several diaries here at DKos recently have focused on US national parks. And magnificent parks they are. I've loved every one that I have been to.But let's not forget the little local wonders we have,...
View ArticleLakeside fun (meet-up pictures)
This weekend I had the great pleasure of hosting my fifth annual lakeside meet-up. Lots of food and more than a dozen wonderful people..... just the way I like it ;-)
View ArticleGFHC open thread: Dead and buried ~ or genealogical cemetery love
Genealogists tend to love cemeteries.I know I do ~ both as an information source and for their beauty, whether it's green space in the city or a little family plot on the side of the road.So, over the...
View ArticleWorld's Fair (photo diary)
A little town near me hosts what is called a world's fair every summer ~ it's been going since 1852. It's small, but has most of the elements of larger fairs.... since Friday was a perfect summer day...
View ArticleThe Way Life Should Be ~ Maine as seen by quilters (photo diary)
Roads entering Maine have signs proclaiming "Maine ~ The Way Life Should Be." This year's Pine Tree Quilters Guild show used that slogan as the theme for its quilt challenge.So how did quilters look at...
View ArticleFlowers of the Forest in No Man's Land on Tisha b'Av
Instagram (well, at least my feed....) over the last few days has been full of pictures of various European royals and government officials placing wreaths to commemorate the centennial of the start of...
View ArticleQuilted beauty (photo diary)
The quilts at the Pine Tree Quilt Guild annual show this year were ~ as usual ~ gorgeous.Over the weekend, I posted a diary about the Maine-themed quilts at the show. But ~ as nice as those were ~...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: Oops......
We all goof. Sometimes it's a beginner's mistake, sometimes it's a typo, and sometimes the record is wrong.Today's topic ~ mistakes I've made or run across in my research, so others can learn from them...
View ArticleWAYWO: summer sanity crafting
It's been a busy summer on the non-craft front (when one has a house on a lake in Maine, one also tends to have a fair bit of company over the course of a summer, so I can easily claim say that one of...
View ArticleWhat's for Dinner? v9.03: Mining Pinterest for Recipes
Pinterest is addictng. Very addicting. Very, very addicting.But it's also a great place to find new recipes....
View ArticleMothers all the way down (bonus GFHC open thread)
Straight maternal lines..... they tend to be hard for genealogists to trace, as written records for women are less complete (England is just now getting around to adding mother's names to marriage...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: Who would you sit next to?
A few weeks ago, I was at the wonderful Maine state library (an excellent place!) and saw a new biography of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, one of the Peabody sisters of Salem.Since I have people named...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: ancestral places
Getting to know the places your ancestors lived, both physically and sociologically, can enhance your research, fleshing out the names and dates, and also can help suggest new ways to find further...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: right place, right person?
We've all had it happen during our research ~ run across a record where the name is the same but it's not clear that it's referring to the person with that name that we are looking to trace.Sometimes...
View ArticleGFHC: DNA.... it's all the rage!
DNA is all the rage in many genealogical circles.So, let's do a bit of a round-up of genetic fun.....
View ArticleWhy the third night of Chanukah is not my favorite (women's health PSA)
Today is one of a couple days a year that I get up on a great big huge soapbox about something very important -- a major women's health issue: ovarian cancer, a still frequently deadly form of cancer....
View ArticleGFHC Friday fun: light reads for dark nights
Last week, Klompendanser wrote about genealogy books, a wonderful topic.This week, I'm going to look at good genealogical reads that are born digital.... so, pretty much blogs, with a few Facebook...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: No, they didn't ~ but, yes, they do....
Along with descent from a Native American princess, it's one of the biggest genealogical myths.... something 'everyone' knows.That names were changed at Ellis Island.Nope, names weren't changed at...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: black sheep leave records
I recently spent a day cozily tucked in the National Records of Scotland (a.k.a. the Scottish national archives), investigating a thief and a minister ~ not the same person ;-)Let's leave the minister...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: dead ends and brick walls
Brick walls. Ancestors who appear to have been aliens dropped from outer space.Anyone researching their family tree runs into people like these :-(My recent research trip has me thinking that it's...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: finding that obscure record
On my recent research trip to Scotland and Ireland, I spent lots of time in various archives and libraries. (Yeah, I managed to fit in some other stuff.... a few pictures here....).I'm pretty familiar...
View ArticleGFHC open thread: at a certain place and time.....(photo diary)
One of the fun aspects of genealogy for me has been tracking down places my ancestors lived. On my father's side of the family, I've been to most of the places which are still extant where ancestors...
View ArticleMeet-up, June 27, western Maine
It's that time again..... my sixth annual meet-up by the lake ;-)
View ArticleMeet-up, June 27, western Maine
It's that time again..... Next week is my sixth annual meet-up by the lake ;-)
View ArticleJune 25: seventh annual western Maine lakeside meet-up
t's that time again..... Next week is my seventh annual meet-up by the lake ;-)The details: A meet-up at The Point (my family's summer cottage in the western hills of Maine), this time on Saturday,...
View ArticleC&J meet-up by the lake, June 24 ~ eighth annual!
It's that time again..... for my eighth annual meet-up by the lake ;-) Past years have included lots of fascinating people, and I’m hoping this year will be no different.The details: A meet-up at The...
View ArticleLakeside meet-up, June 30th, western Maine
It's that time again..... for my ninth annual meet-up by the lake ;-) Past years have included lots of fascinating people, and I’m hoping this year will be no different.The details: A meet-up at The...
View ArticleLakeside meet-up, June 30th, western Maine
It's that time again..... for my ninth annual meet-up by the lake ;-) Past years have included lots of fascinating people, and I’m hoping this year will be no different.The details: A meet-up at The...
View ArticleLakeside meet-up, June 22nd, western Maine
It's that time again..... for my tenth (WOW!) annual meet-up by the lake ;-) Past years have included lots of fascinating people, and I’m hoping this year will be no different.The details: A meet-up at...
View ArticleTime flies: Maine lakeside meetup new date ~ 3 August
UPDATE: Due to various conflicts, we’re rescheduling to 3 August.Reposting…. we’ve had a short spring here in Maine, but otherwise the year seems to be flying by. It's that time again..... for my tenth...
View ArticleMaine lakeside meetup ~ 3 August
It's that time again..... for my tenth (WOW!) annual meet-up by the lake ;-) Past years have included lots of fascinating people, and I’m hoping this year will be no different.The details: A meet-up at...
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