May, 2008
Carnival of Genealogy: Gulf Coast Summer 1962
Right: Craig and The World’s Smartest Sister at the beach in Rockport, Texas, August 1962. As far as I recall, my first time at a beach was in the summer of 1962. Later that year, at age 8, I did my first major writing project. It’s presented here just as it was written 46 years ago, including photographs (the notes …
May 31, 2008 Saturday at 1:51 am
The Joys of Indexing
FamilySearch Indexing’s homepage(click to enlarge) It’s been more than a year since I first wrote about FamilySearch Indexing. That’s the volunteer project that’s’ indexing millions of new records that will be offered free on the new FamilySearch. Some of those records you can access now at FamilySearch Labs’ Record Search (which to my mind is almost the greatest thing since …
May 28, 2008 Wednesday at 3:04 am
"Until They Are Home . . ."
As we honor our war dead this Memorial Day, we must not forget that some families have no cemetery to visit, no grave to decorate; indeed, no knowledge of what became of their loved ones who went off to war. They may take some comfort in knowing that America is engaged in an intensive effort to find and bring their …
May 26, 2008 Monday at 6:30 pm
Decoration Day Roll Call
Today, we honor our war dead. If I could, I would be placing decorations on the following family veterans gravesites: Charles Troy Bowie (1915-1945), U.S. Army, Epinal American Cemetery, Epinal, France. Rene C. Mischeaux (1948-1969), U.S. Army, Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California They both gave “the last full measure of devotion” in service to our nation. While we’re …
May 26, 2008 Monday at 1:32 pm
Back in the Saddle Again
This Memorial Day weekend has started out a bit gloomy here in Carmichael–weather-wise, that is. On the other hand, the few horrible weeks we’ve been through here seem to be resolved. So, it’s time to get caught up on a number of things! This weekend, I’ll share with you one or two research adventures; some practical advice gleaned from the …
May 24, 2008 Saturday at 6:51 pm
Armed Forces Day
Today is Armed Forces Day. Curiously, Armed Forces Day seems over the years to have diminished in importance. There may be several reasons for that. It’s on a Saturday, not a Monday, so people aren’t as aware of it as they used to be. Then as security has gotten tighter, many military installations which formerly opened their doors to the …
May 17, 2008 Saturday at 8:51 pm
Life as A Country Song
These things actually happened in the last three weeks: My sister-in-law died. The car’s engine seized; new car required. The air conditioner stopped working on the day it hit 101 degrees. And other stuff . . . But I’m not whining. Life is like this sometimes.
May 17, 2008 Saturday at 1:16 pm
How’d My Mother[-in-law] Get So Smart?
My mother and my mother-in-law are both bright women, each in their own ways. But in keeping with my theme of praising mothers-in-law, we’ll leave my mother-in-fact for another day. My mother-in-law is a descendant of the French Negroes of Illinois. Her father, Joseph Perry Micheau, was born in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, in 1888 and married Edna Julia Lewis …
May 14, 2008 Wednesday at 11:11 pm
Give Another Mother A Hug
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in my families and yours! I want to deal today with that most complex of subjects–the mother-in-law. Simply put, they don’t get no respect. Even Rodney Dangerfield dissed them (“I wanted to do something nice, so I bought my mother-in-law a chair. Now they won’t let me plug it in . . . …
May 11, 2008 Sunday at 6:21 pm
Lynne "Angel" Harvey, 1916-2008, Good Day!
As both my regular readers know, I’m an old radio guy–that is, an old guy who used to be on the radio (more than thirty years ago!). So I was especially saddened to read the following press release from Washington University in St Louis. Following in bold type is Washington University Press Release May 6, 2008 — Legendary news producer …
May 8, 2008 Thursday at 2:46 am
