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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...

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C&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.

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Cheers & 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...

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GFHC ~ 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...

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Wednesday: (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...

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DK 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...

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GFHC 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...

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Dvar 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)

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WAYWO (open thread): variations on a theme....

Sometimes, what a pattern looks like isn't what the final product really looks like...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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LePage 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...

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Umm... 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...

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Meet-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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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Meet-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...

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I 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,...

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Lakeside 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 ;-)

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GFHC 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...

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World'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...

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The 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...

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Flowers 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...

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Quilted 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 ~...

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GFHC 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...

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WAYWO: 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...

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What'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....

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Mothers 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC: 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.....

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Why 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....

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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GFHC 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...

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Meet-up, June 27, western Maine

It's that time again.....  my sixth annual meet-up by the lake ;-)

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Meet-up, June 27, western Maine

It's that time again.....  Next week is my sixth annual meet-up by the lake ;-)

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June 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,...

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C&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...

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Lakeside 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...

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Lakeside 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...

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Lakeside 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...

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Time 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...

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Maine 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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