15 Months DO Make a Difference!

Back in September of 2007, I challenged my fellow geneabloggers to show what their workspaces looked like. It's now 15 months later and I just have one question: Just how did I manage to go from this:

To this:

Guess what's on my "To-Do" list this last week of 2008?

A Site for Sore Eyes

Ever get in the mood to browse new genealogy blogs? I do, though I don't often have time to do it much now. I used to use Google and just type in "Genealogy Blog" and browse. Or browse the geneabloggers' on Facebooks. Which are both good sources. Tonight I found a new source. Well, it's been around for a bit, I guess, but I was re-introduced to it tonight.

I was checking out my Feedjit widget to see where people were coming from to read my blog. I think it's fascinating to see where people come from and, when they come from a search engine, what search terms they used that brought them to my site. One came from the blogfinder from Genealogue.com. That site is written by Chris Dunham, and he is an absolute riot. He has a fantastic site called Genealogy Blog Finder that not only lists genealogy blogs, but categorizes them. Looking for instructional genealogy blogs? They're there. Looking for blogs on specific geographical regions? They're there. Surnames? Yes. Technology? Of course! Photography? Yep.

Head on over to www.blogfinder.genealogue.com and you'll be amazed, too. And check out the "Who's Blogging Where?" Map while you're ... there.

Forty Things About Me (And then about YOU).

Forty things about me and then about you when you do it yourself. (honestly, I'm not sure what this last part means unless it's just saying that you need to post this to a blog or facebook site after you read it?). At any rate, I posted it here so as to avoid forwarding it via email, so if any of my readers that don't blog or facebook wish to participate, answer the questions and email me the answers!

1. Do you like blue cheese? ICK~!!
2. Have you ever done something you regretted? Um, well, yes.
3. Do you own a gun? Nope.
4. What flavor of Kool Aid was your favorite? Grape.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Depends on what I'm there for.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Yum!.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? It's a Wonderful Life.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Hot Cocoa or decaf Coffee (yeah, counterintuitive, I know)
9. Can you do push ups? Maybe a couple of the "girly" kind.
10. Favorite hobby? Genealogy
11. Do you have A.D.D.? More like ADHD without hte ADD.
12. What's one trait you hate about yourself? Too high strung sometimes.
13. Middle name? Erin
14. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? Izzie, Be Quiet. Izzie Be Quiet. IZZIE, SHUT UP!
15. Name 3 drinks you regularly have? Water, Caffeine Free Coke, Hot Cocoa.
16. Current hate right now? Not being heard.
17. Favorite place to be? Home.
18. How did you bring in the New Year? What New Year?
19. A place would you like to go? Ireland, aboard a ship!
20. Name three people who will complete this: Probably no one.
21. Do you have slippers? No. Izzie ate them!
22. What shirt are you wearing? Beige turtleneck with brown sweater.
23. Do you like sleeping on satin? No. Satin is so overrated it's sickening.
24. Can you whistle? A little.
25. Would you be a pirate? I'm too honest to be a pirate.
26. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever tune is stuck in my head with lyrics I made up about Izzie.
27. Favorite girl's name(s)? Brenna
28. What's in your pocket right now? Lint.
29. Last thing that made you laugh? An email from my boss.
30. Favorite bed sheets as a child? I don't remember any of my sheets. I do remember one Christmas when I begged for a month for a new pillow!
31. Worst injury ever? Split big toe open while swimming. Made worse by the fact that I was warned there was glass in that spot in the pool five minutes before it happened.
32. Do you like where you live? Right now? Yes. In the middle of summer? Hell no.
33. How many TVs do you have in your house? Four.
34. Who is your loudest friend? Izzie.
35. How many dogs do you have? One living, two in spirit (Mandy and Skipper).
36. Does someone have a crush on you? I wish.
37. What is your favorite book? Hmmmmm. I should be a good Christian and say the Bible.
38. What is your favorite candy? Three Musketeers.
39. Favorite Sports Team? Buffalo Bills. Don't even ask me WHY!
40. What song do you want played at your funeral? Go Rest High by Vince Gill.

Do They Know It's Christmas?

Many of you know that I have a special blog set up for my dog, Izzie. I started this blog the day I brought Izzie home from the shelter. I'm not really sure why; part of me thought that adoption would make a good children's book and perhaps I could use Iz as the main character in the book. It turned out to be one, a creative outlet for me, and two, another method to connect with other dog lovers. Not too long after that, I'd found an online community of dog-bloggers known as Dogs With Blogs (DWB). I'd found that I was just 1 of over 600 dog-bloggers (now over 1,000!).

Anyway, it's quite a community with lots of funny blogs, educational blogs, and daily life blogs. Much like the GeneaBlogger community. Members share their laughter, tears, and joys of raising dogs and reaching out to others. One member, Pappy, created a video of a group of the dogs in the DWB community lip-synching to the song, Do They Know It's Christmas, by Band-Aid. I think it's a cute way to spread a message that reaches beyond the holidays. Since footnoteMaven is recruiting carolers, I present this video.


It's Christmastime
There's no need to be afraid
At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world at Christmastime
But say a prayer Pray for the other ones
At Christmastime it's hard, but when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clangingchimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you
And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life(Oooh)
Where nothing ever grows
No rain nor rivers flow
Do they know it's Christmastime at all?
(Here's to you) raise a glass for everyone
(Here's to them) underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's Christmastime at all?
Feed the worldFeed the world
Feed the world
Let them know it's Christmastime again
Feed the world
Let them know it's Christmastime againr
epeat then fade

(Bob Geldof & Midge Ure)

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm a little late joing Julie Cahill Tarr's Thanksgiving Meme, but it's never really too late to be thankful. I'm thankful for many things, including the continued health and safety of my family.

I'm also thankful for my job, as I was fortunate enough to survive a 33% workforce reduction last month. I'm thankful for our CEO who, when it became apparent in March that we were facing a potential reduction or even extinction, built in a generous severance package for anyone laid off and a retention package for those who waited out the storm and survived the transition. This type of thing is basically unheard of in the human services field, so it goes a long way that she worked so hard to take care of her employees.

I'm thankful for Izzie, my dog who rescued me more than I did him. I'm thankful that he's out of the puppy mill that calls itself a rescue organization, and I'm thankful for the other dogs who have been lucky enough to find homes.

On a more materialistic note, I'm thankful that my couch finally arrived last night so I don't have to make the furniture store one of my stops in my morning shopping trip!

In addition to being thankful, I'm also sending Thanksgiving wishes to all those who have lost their jobs, both at my aagency and around the country. I'm sending wishes to all families that are hurting in any way, that healing may come. I'm sending wishes to all animals living in shelters or worse, puppy mills and abusive/neglectful homes. And I'm sending wishes to all my geneablogger friends, whose hearts are generous and spirits are kind.

8 Things to Know about OMcHodoy

I've been tagged by Apple to share 8 things about me and then tag 8 people to respond with their own post. Actually, she tagged my Oracle blog, but I'm responding here :).

Here are the Tag Rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random fact/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. A the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their name.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

So here are my 8 facts:

1. Most already know this. but I'm so obsessed with my dog that he has his own blog!
2. I'm a die hard Buffalo Bills fan, even if they have blown it for another year!
3. Along that same line, I LOVE the NFL. I know more about the game than many men, and watch the games on Sundays and Monday. If I had to do it all again, I think my life goal would be to be the first female commentator in the MNF booth. Girls didn't aspire to that type of career when I was young.
4. My motto is "From Niagara Falls, NY to Tucson, AZ: From where hell freezes over to where it's hotter than hell".
5. I'm a very fussy eater, and I rarely try new things.
6. Along that same line, one of my life's goals is to get through life without ever cooking a turkey. I will do a turkey breast, but am terrified to try the full bird.
7. I insist that my horrible penmanship is physiological in nature, and no amount of "practice" will help.
8. I am practical to a fault. I don't care if you use the right fork for the salad or if you don't put out spoons when there's nothing on the menu to require one. I can't stand inefficiency, which has gotten me in trouble more than once in my career!

Okay, now to get busy tagging!

1. Cat at Diggin' Up Dirt (hope she reads this, I couldn't comment on her blog as I locked myself out of WLM)
2. Elyse at Elyse's Genealogy Blog.
3. Julie at GenBlog
4. Judith at Genealogy Traces

Okay, I'm horrible at tagging, so I'm cutting the work in half! If you wish to participate, consider yourself tagged!

Confessions of A First-Time Conference-Goer

Goodness, am I tired! But I've had one of the best week-ends I've had in a long time. I took a little road trip. I saw some long-time friends. I became better acquainted with a few online acquaintances I'd met once before. I met some people IRL (In Real Life) with whom I'd been blogging for a couple of years now. I learned a lot. I gained some much-needed motivation. I got great advice. And it all happened in 4 days of beautiful, 80° weather!

This weekend I drove the 115 miles to Mesa, Arizona from Tucson to attend the 2008 Family History Expo, put on by none other than FamilyHistoryExpos.com. This was my first ever genealogy conference/expo, and I'd say it was a smashing success. In this post I chronicle the adventures of a first-time genealogical conference-goer. At the end I get to tell you the biggest shock of the entire trip!

On Thursday November 13, at approximately 10:00 a.m., I dropped off Izzie at my friends' home, as they would dog-sit while I was gone. This was the tough part, as I am admittedly a bit obsessed about my dog! From there, I hopped on I-10 west-bound and headed to the East Valley of the Greater Phoenix Area. I hadn't actually been north/west of Tucson in about a year and a half, and I was pleasantly surprised by the widening of I-1o to Marana, and only a bit dimayed at the construction towards Picacho Peak to widen that portion. Traffic slowed just a little so no real time lost.

Upon arrival in the Valley, I stopped at the store to pick up some flowers for a visit to the cemetery. I wound up choosing cattails, of all things! See, we had cattails in Western New York where I grew up, and to me they represent very happy times. Unfortunately, in the 30 years that I've lived in Central or Southern Arizona I'd forgotten about the MESS these things make! Let's just say my car is now a mess! Anyway, after picking up the cattails, I headed to the Queen of Heaven cemetery in Mesa to visit the grave of the most influential person of my life:This date, November 13, 2008, marks the 20th anniversary of my mother's death. I cannot believe it's been this long already. Somedays the sadness is as strong now as it was then. Funny, though: On this day, visiting her gravesite, I wasn't sad at all. Well, I wasn't sad at all until I actually LOOKED at the headstone and realized they didn't put her dates of birth and death on it! FOR SHAME, dad, FOR SHAME!

I spent the rest of Thursday window shopping at the Superstition Springs mall and then having dinner with my hosts, friends from Tucson who'd moved to east Mesa almost 2 years ago.

Friday morning I arrived at the Mesa Convention Center, where the keynote address was held outside. Take a look at what kind of weather greeted us:

Most were wearing short-sleeves. It was colder inside the buildings than it was outside!

After the opening, there was time to visit some of the vendors. They had a little game going where visitors got a stamp or signature on their vendor cards as they visited the booths, and at the end of the conference, one was drawn for a grand prize! (I didn't win).

I was able to see many new services, products, and companies. I can't wait until all the emails start coming in! {koff}.

The first workshop I attended was hosted by W. Todd Knowles and it was entitled:

Well, the title didn't come up so clearly here, but it was entitled "Basic Irish Research". On the second picture, the presenter is in the white shirt in front of the screen. This was a very good workshop.

The biggest complaint I had about the Expo was that most of the rooms were set up with connected chairs in rows: No tables. Now, you all don't know this, since you only see my typing. But I am notorious for my horrific handwriting. And it's horrific when I have a table to write on. It's worse when I don't:

After each lecture it was back to the exhibit hall to visit more vendors!

Photoloom is a photo sharing site of sorts that I just may have to sign up for! Below is what I thought was one of the most clever booths I'd seen. I loved the sign to the left. In case you can't click to enlarge and read it, it says "How will she know about Grandpa...When he is no longer around?".

I also attended workshops on Immigration, where I got to meet Kathryn Lake Hogan of Loooking 4 Ancestorshttp://looking4ancestors.blogspot.com/. She lectured on finding the point of entry of immigrant ancestors.

Unfotunately, I did not get a picture of Kathryn, but I did get to chat with her a bit at the presentation of another Geneablogger,

Janet Hovorka of The Chart Chick and of Generation Maps.
I'm amazed at what Janet can do with a chart!

I also got to meet Lisa Louise Cook of The Genealogy Gems Podcast and Dick Eastman of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (eogn).

Don't worry; I'm not finished yet! I was also fortunate enough to meet DearMyrtle. Yes, folks, DearMyrtle in person. Not only did I meet her, I had a chance to sit down with her for a little brick wall chat. I even managed to test her patience, I think! See, I was explaining that I was trying to find a passenger list that would show who I believe is my great-grandfather Edward HODICK arriving in St. Kitt's. I have a list that shows him on the ship Pennland in 1885 (some information added today as I didn't have it with me. Another feaux-pas!). However, I was trying to find a source on St. Kitt's end to see if I could find him on a ship TO that port. As I was chatting with Myrt, a FHL consultant, Baerbel Johnson, walked by and Myrt nabbed her to assist. As Baerbel started speaking, Myrt grabbed some paper and wrote down the email address of a woman from the next booth over who stated she had a friend who was the ultimate source on St. Kitt's. DearMyrtle then handed me the paper so I could write down the suggestions Baerbel had for me, including checking Census records for naturalization dates and any other information on immigration, seeking marriage records, etc. The problem here was, I wasn't writing anything down! I was so busy listening I just couldn't tear my eyes and ears from the consultant (having worked with deaf people for many years, eye contact has become vital in my own communication). DearMyrtle, being the dear that she is, grabbed the paper from me and began writing for me! I was eventually able to multi-task and take over the note-taking, but it must have appeared rather haphazard for me to not be taking notes! Below is a shot of DearMyrtle hard at work!

The last picture, below, is one of David "Dae" Powell of GenTrek fame. With Dae are myself and fellow GenTrekkers Kathy and Joyce, who I'd joined a few years back for a research session at the Mesa Family History Library.

Well, that about sums up my Expo Experience. I know it was a long post, but I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventure.

Oh, and just what was the big shock I'd received at the Expo?

The difference in pronunciation of the word "Genealogy". Webster and I pronounce it "Jeannie-alogy" while most people at the conference pronounced it "Jennie-alogy".

You say Jennie, I say Jeannie (then again, my mother went by the name Jean or Jeannie!).

A New Branch Sprouted

Genealogists are a lot like parents in reverse:

Parents are ecstatic to learn they're becoming parents, and they are ecstatic when the new life is born and they get to see the face of their child for the very first time.

Genealogists are ecstatic to learn the identity of that long-dead woman in the weird clothes from the photograph ca. 1895. They are ecstatic when they find a long-lost dead ancestor and they can finally say from what country they hailed.

Tonight, I share an ecstatic post announcing the pronouncement of Nan Qi Qing of the city of Maoming in the province of Guandong in southeast China as the new daughter of Joe and Donna of Arizona, to be reanamed Lauren Elizabeth. Joe and Donna have waited a long, long time for this day, and I urge you to hop on over to their newly christened site, Loving Lauren, and set your eyes on the most precious thing to touch my eyes since I laid eyes on Izzie ;).

Congratulations, Donna and Joe. Here's to one more generation to add to your family tree.

To The Admins of It's Our Tree.Com

Dear Sir or Madam:

Someone should really tell your public relations/marketing people to change your emails. I mean, it's nice that they've been short, sweet and to the point, but seriously, do you really expect people to read these emails? Was it your intention to make your marketing emails look like spam? If it was, CONGRATULATIONS! You've succeeded!

Come on, now, you must have received those truly spam emails from Jamaica and other countries. You know the ones that ask recipients to send them cash to free their leaders from oppression? Or to build their economies? Do you realize that your marketing emails look just like these spam mails? And do you realize what most sensible people do with those spam emails?

They block them! Yup. I know this for a fact, because it's exactly what I do with them. And I'm so incredibly average that I know all about what average people do: They block spam emails.

So what do you think I did with your emails that look just like those spammers trying to get me to send money to their banks? Yup, that's right. I blocked your address.

Of course, I didn't realize your site is a legitimate genealogy site until I saw your site discussed on my favorite genealogy blogs. How would I know your emails were legit when they look just like the spam emails I get from other countries asking for money?

Okay, I think I've made my point. Change your marketing techniques. It can only help your cause.

The Underground Cemetery: Fact or Fiction?

The 58th edition of The Carnival Of Genealogy is posted! This edition asked participants to relate a story that represents the eeriness of Halloween without revealing it's status as fact or fiction.

My own entry can be found HERE. The story surrounded these two women:

Let's start with the women's identities, which my story stated were my paternal grandmother's aunts. Well, this could be true, but fact is I have no idea who these women are! I do suspect they are from the HODICK or NAHADIL lines, but I can't prove it. I do also suspect that, if they are relatives of my father's mother, they are at the cousin level, not the aunt level.

So what about the underground cemetery story, stating that the bodies were buried 12 feet underground and the plaque buried six feet above the coffins? That would be weird, wouldn't it?

Were the women dared to go in there to prove there weren't ghosts in the shack? Heck I dunno, but what little we can see of the building looks crickety enough to withstand such a story, doesn't it?

So what was the "hoooo hoooo" the women reportedly heard?

That was the howl of laughter the women heard in their premonition about this FICTIONAL story!

Thanks to my fans for partaking in this fun activity! Head on over to the COG now to read about other genea-bloggers' tales of Halloween!

Getting to Know Me

Sheri at the Educated Genealogist tagged me for the newest Meme going around Genea-blogger land. I'm to answer the following prompts (5 answers each) and tag 5 bloggers.

***10 Years Ago I........

1. Had FINALLY finished my Bachelor's degree.
2. Was as broke as I am now with a Master's degree.
3. Was tired.
4. Was working my life away.
5. Was terrified to touch a computer.

***5 Things on Today's To-Do List......
1. Write a blog post of Blog Action Day (running out of time here!)
2. Work on my special project I can't talk about (did this).
3. Work (did this).
4. Play with the dog (did this, though not as much as I'd have liked)
5. Watch the Presidential Debate (just finished).

***5 Snacks I Enjoy........

1. Potato Chips and Dip
2. Tortilla Chips and homemade salsa
3. Ice Cream
4. Potato Chips and Ketchup
5. Watermelon.

***5 Places I Have Lived......

1. Garlow Road in Niagara Falls, NY
2. College Ave. in Tempe, Az
3. Libra Drive in Tempe, Az
4. Speedway Blvd. in Tucson Az
5. Oracle Road in Tucson Az

***5 Jobs I Have Had.....

1. Courtesy Clerk at ABCO (let go after grand opening)
2. Counter Person at Godfather's Pizza (walked out at 10 p.m. on New Years Eve)
3. Cashier at Target (quit after 4 years to move to Tucson)
4. "Teaching Parent" at residential school for deaf students (quit after 12 years after graduating)
5. Social Worker (still plugging away)

Now the hard part, tagging 5 others!

1. Cat at "Diggin' Up Dirt"
2. Dru at "Find Your Folks"
3. Julie at "GenBlog"
4. Cindy at "In My Life"
5. Let's see if I can offer Donna a distraction as she's this close to getting her baby, and get her to do this tag "Waiting For Lauren Elizabeth"

The Underground Cemetery?

These two women, aunts of my father's mother, Mary HODICK, are laughing in this picture. The story is told that the shack they are leaning against was built on a buried cemetery. That's right. A buried cemetery.

Now doesn't that sound like a no-brainer? A buried cemetery, according to gramma, was kind of like the underground. Oh stop laughing, this is how gramma explained it. You know how they refer to secret maneuverings of secret organizations as The Underground? Gramma said this was the same concept, only it was an underground, or secret, cemetery holding the remains of black sheep ancestors of the residents of Nanticoke, Luzerne County, PA. No one wanted to admit to a sense of family or loyalty to someone the town abhorred, yet they firmly believed it was an abomination to not have a Christian burial.

So they secretly held funerals and services for those loved ones who'd gone far astray, and the black sheep were buried twelve feet below the ground with a flat cement-like plaque that was also buried beneath six feet of earth. To you and me it'd look like an empty lot with a shack. To my grandmother's family, however, it was a place of mourning for the truly lost souls.

So why are these women laughing, you might ask? Because they had been dared to go into that shack up there as a way to prove there were no ghosts in there. Grandma said they'd gone in, but only got in far enough to close the door behind them. It was pitch black in there except for one thing: a virtually sheer, glowing image of a woman that looked just like Helen, the woman on the right in the picture. They bolted out only to find their brothers at the door laughing at their prank of reflecting a worn-out night-gown in front of a mirror, so it made the image -- now with a head from the women inside -- look like Helen.

Helen and her sister Tina yelled and screamed at their brothers until they ran away. Once they were gone, they couldn't stand up straight, their knees were shaking so badly. Once they collected themselves, they burst into laughter themselves.

Until a "hoooo hooooo" sound echoed from within the shack, sending Helen and Tina chasing after their brothers!

This post was submitted as an entry to the Halloween 2008 Carnival of Genealogy.

GeneaBlogger Yearbook

Wow! What fun this has been! The challenge I put forth for the genea-bloggers for this event was to go to Yearbook Yourself and upload a photo of yourself to the site to have it create a lifespan yearbook, if you will. There are some pretty interesting and funny photos in here! Heck, there were some of mine that I liked better than my current day style! Here's a look at the Geneablogger Yearbook!

Kathryn Lake Hogan of Looking 4 Ancestors created her styles for the Yearbook, too! Check it out to see if you'll roll over laughing like her boys did.

Midge Frazel of Granite in My Blood thinks GeneaBloggers "Take the Cake" when it comes to crazies! She even took it a step further and dolled up the photo a bit at her site!

Julie Cahill Tarr of GenBlog put together quite the collection at her site. You've got to see this classic yearbook layout! Is Marsha Brady in the house? :).

Linda Stienstra posted a photo at Facebook that best aligned her with the year of her graduation! Gotta admire a gal not afraid to announce her age! Course, I'd be willing to bet Geneabloggers as a whole aren't "age-shy"!

Jennifer Jones Regan employed a similar tactic and posted two photos at Facebook. One was almost the year she graduated and the other another Marsha Brady flashback!

Ben Sayer, our resident Mac guru and author of the blog MacGenealogist.com, also participated in this nostalgic event! Check out his look HERE.

SheriFenley of The Educated Genealogist joined the Marsha Brady bandwagon and then some! See her great photos HERE.

You have to see Thomas MacEntee's entry on Destination Austin Family. Just how does a geneablogger come to be? Check it out and you will see (hey, I'm a poet and don't know it!).

And what collection wouldn't be complete without the GeneaDiva? She doesn't fail us here, so go over THERE and take a gander at how she put Olivia Newton-John to the test!

Marsha! Marsha! Marsha! Oh wait, THIS PHOTO of Paula Hinkel for some reason brought to mind JAN Brady! Remember Jan's wig? Paint it black!

Now HERE is an entry that took a rather unique turn. Richard Cheek of The Cheek That Doth Not Fade included a real photo of himself in the same year as one of his Yearbook Yourself photos! What a great post, and I can't wait until the weekend when I'll have time to add his blog to my blogrolls!

Many thanks to all those who participated in this activity and to those who read about the experience. It was a fun way to break up the week! If you created a Yearbook Yourself photo or post and it isn't listed here it's likely because I didn't know of it (and hopefullyl not because I missed it!). Post a link under "Comments" for others to enjoy!

Marianne Gets Her Due

Back in March, I participated in a Carnival of Genealogy topic of "Tribute to Women". I posted about my dad's sister, Marianne (1930-1978), who had Down Syndrome. Well, someone from Temple University's Disabilities Studies BLOG read the Carnival at Creative Gene and posted a comment. From there things have been very exciting for Marianne.

I'll make a long story short, but the post on the Tribute to Women Carnival caught the attention of a professor who was working with an organization called Facts on File. They are working on publishing a three-volume encyclopedia on the History of Disability in America and hoped to use one of the photos I'd posted on my blog in their work! They were impressed, apparently, with the manner in which she was raised as part of the family and even often the center of attention. Today I granted them permission to use the photo in their project (to be published around June 2009), provided that I maintain the rights to the photograph, a condition to which they agreed.

It is my hope that the encyclopedia will help educate America to the value of people with disabilities and raise awareness to the inequities that they have faced and continue to face. I'm so proud that Marianne will be part of that endeavor. While this is not the photo they chose for the section including Marianne, it is representative of the fact that it is I who should be saluting her.

The World Is NOT Black and White

Whenever I browse through old photographs I find myself needing a reality check, as I struggle to remember that only the pictures were in black and white, not the people and scenery themselves!


The pictures on the top are from the DOYLE lines. On the left is a photo from the earlier part of 1900. We believe the young girl sitting on the lap of the mother is my maternal grandmother, Regina DOYLE. On the right are my great-grandfather John Doyle's sisters Margaret, MaryAnn (Mame), Alice and Johanna. Thanks to my cousins who sent me these photos.

We don't know who is in the photo on the bottom right. I suspect it might be my father's dad and his sister, Annie. Only because the man looks like my grandfather and the woman does not look like my grandmother. I could be terribly far from the truth, however. The photo on the bottom right, I believe, are four of the HODICK men, which were William, Anthony, Thomas, Frank and Edward. If this is accurate I would bet that it's William that is missing, as the stories I've heard depict him as a lone wolf of sorts.

Addendum to Stylin'!

I stole an idea from my friend, Donna of Waiting for Lauren Elizabeth and yearbooked myself and my mother. It is a fun site, though I had a hard time finding decent headshots that were looking straight ahead and didn't have bangs (I haven't been without bangs since first grade). Bangs makes some of the results look rather funky. But here goes!

First, my shots.
1960. 1966.
1968. 1976.
1980. 1990.

And finally, 1996.

Mom's turn! She was only about 10 or so in the photo I uploaded.
1968. 1974.
1990. 1996.
So, geneabloggers and others, I challenge you. And yes, they do have a male "prototype" to use! If you try it out and post it, send me your link by September 30 and I'll do a run-down of participants. I guess it's my turn to do a collection of articles! http://www.yearbookyourself.com/.

Award Time

Sheri Fenley of The Educated Genealogist and Bill West of West in New England have awarded me the I Love Your Blog award.

It always makes me happy when I hear people enjoy my blog. My task now is to find seven other blogs that haven't received it yet and nominate them. I'm going to choose some blogs that are newer to me and hope they haven't been chosen. If they have been, it still doesn't hurt for them to know others like their work! Click on the blog titles to be taken to their sites!

1. Taneya's Genealogy Blog

2. The Research Journal

3. Tracking Thomas, and More If you love old photos like I love old photos, check this site out!

4. Vidars Slektsblogg

5. Tarenne's Tales This blog tracks a family of a child with Down Syndrome.

6. Roots Reading

7. In My Life

There are so many other blogs that deserve this too. Go out there and find them!

Stylin'!

The 5th edition of I Smile for the Camera asks participants to show off the "Crowning Glories": Those Mahvelous hairstyles of our ancestors. I hope you enjoy my extensive collection of hairstyle do's and don'ts.
HAIR-DO'S

The Hodick Family 1918, Nanticoke, PA

Mary Hodick McHugh, ca. 1920.

Vesta, Mary, Celia Hodick, ca. 1920's.

Possibly the Hodick men.

My dad's cousin Jerry, ca. 1950's.

Hodick Sisters.

Mrs. Williams, Janet, and Blanche Doyle-Tighe.

My mother, Jean O'Rourke, ca. 1946.

Catherine Hoover, Neil Johnson, Ann McQueen-Tighe, Jane Williams-Johnson, Regina Doyle-O'Rourke.
HAIR-DON'TS

Gotta love it! Leo and Jack, I believe.

Joseph McHugh, Jack Thomas and John "Jack" Hodick. Gotta love this one, too!.
HAIR-DO'S AND HAT-DO'S

The Breaker Girls, Luzerne Cty, PA.

I believe this is my grandmother Mary Hodick (McHugh)'s sister, Sue.

This one was labeled "Gma Nahadil's Sister's Daughter". The name on the photo that I edited out said "Helen".

My mother with two of her cousins, Bobby and Jackie. Probably taken in Niagara Falls, NY ca. 1945.

James O'Rourke. I believe this was my mother's grandfather James, not her father James? Perhaps Aunt Joyce can clarify for me.

My mother's brother, James (1929-2005).

This photo had the words "Hinky Eyes" on the back. It may be my father's uncle Edward and his wife Isabel, but I'm not sure. I'll have to call Tom and ask him to check it out.

Mary Hodick McHUGH on her wedding day in 1925.