My dad just managed to make it on the road to Possum Kingdom, where he'll be meeting Tim & Felicia & Catherine for a long weekend. He's hoping to get there early enough to get 9 holes of golf in (and grateful to his daughter for not making him hang around while I went on a bike ride). He got to fit in lots of different foods while here the last three days--oysters on the half shell, Tex-Mex from Antonio's, barbecue from Rudy's. Jennifer & Stepan came over last night to share the barbecue with us, which was nice. Jonathan is always pleased to have his Auntie Jenny to help him get ready for bed.
My child is following in the footsteps of his mum and Boppa regarding reading in bed, without a doubt. Last night he read for TWO HOURS in bed; I finally convinced him to put the books away at 9:30 p.m., and he was asleep within minutes. We are going to have to shepherd him through the next few days, teaching him good habits about when to put the books away and let yourself go off to sleep. That will have to Dale's job, obviously, since I'm totally incapable of it! Last night he kept saying, "But I love books. But I love reading," every time I suggested he put them up. It is so cool to see him lying in bed on his tummy, bedside light on, feet up in the air behind him, reading a book out loud. What a thrill!
I did enjoy this one about stupid thing to say regarding technology , and do make it all the way to the end for Bill Gates' lovely pronouncement.
And I couldn't omit this, as even die-hard Republicans must cringe at the mention of Dan Quayle. For those of us who spontaneously burst out into laughter at his name, take a gander at a collection of his most excellent utterations.
Saturday morning is a great workout with Team Danskin--swimming an open-water course at Decker Lake, where the triathlong will be held in just over two weeks' time, and then riding the bike course (12.4 miles). I'm really looking forward to it--I feel so strong! If only all these extra pounds would just melt away . . .
Around lunchtime or so, Dale, Jonathan, and I will head off to Houston for my twin cousins' graduation party. I think it's great that the whole family (except my uncle Matthew) is coming for it--although it's always hectic, it's also wonderful to have everyone around. I plan on heading to Kathleen's mid-afternoon on Sunday in the hopes that others will also be there; I want Jonathan to get a chance to play with everyone before he gets too exhausted, since the party doesn't officially start until 7:30 p.m., and that's about half an hour past when he usually gets in bed.
There are a few surprises in store for the weekend (NO I am not pregnant and neither is Jennifer, so don't even start), and I am really looking forward to being with my family. XOXOXOXOXOXOX!
In answer to Jennifer's question in the comments section of the previous entry, here are my plans for genealogy research in the next few months.
It goes without saying that I could simply enter data I've already collected, and that would take me probably two months working 40 hours a week. So that's an ongoing, behind-the-scenes process.
In terms of new research, I would like to take stock of where I am in all major lines of research and update the Research Log in TMG (The Master Genealogist, my genealogy software) accordingly. Then I want to start sending out more letters--I have documents that I need to request (birth, marriage, death certificates, etc.) and other items that are not so clearly defined. I would very much like to try to find out what orphanage Gertrude (Leo's mom, my great-grandmother) was at in Cleveland, Ohio. There are many documents that I'd like to have not only to prove things but also that may include a tidbit here or there that opens up new avenues for information.
I also have a wealth of information from Brian (Dale's dad) that I need to sort through--documents need to be copied, pictures need to be scanned, information and theories need to be entered. There's not all that much that could be done on the Churchett line, I think, as Brian's uncle Frank spent 30 years on it before he died this last December, but it would be very nice to see it all documented and sourced. And you never know, with records becoming more available all the time, one might find a connection not known of before.
Finally, I have things that insidiously lurk in my mind. How in the h*** did Sarah Dohoney and her three daughters come to the US? I can find no record at all of their entry (at least not in the online databases at genealogy.com); Sarah Dohoney is my great-great-great-grandmother, as her daughter Bridget married John Kenefick, and their daughter Sadie married John McCullough and produced Grama Karl as one of their children. I also cannot find John Kenefick coming into America, even though his naturalization paper says he came in September 1855. This frustrates me greatly! I've tried the obvious name changes but still come up with nada. So I'd like to explore that a little more. I'd also like to trace the McCulloughs back a bit further, which will require some documents (birth and death would be a great start). Their origins are very murky, and I would like to shed some light there.
I did it, I did it, I did it! I am so pleased to have finally located the Karls in the 1850 census. This has been a great last 10 days or so of work in the census for me. As noted earlier, I located our family in the 1860 and 1870 censuses--no one had a last name of "Karl", which is why they were hard to find.
For the last four nights, I have been going through the various townships in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, which is where our Karls settled. I knew that they had arrived in New York City aboard the ship Leander on 27 May 1850, so there was a possibility they might have gotten to Ohio quickly enough to have been enumerated there in the census. And sure enough they did! By three months after their arrival in NYC, the family had made it to Buck Township in Tuscarawas County. (I found this after looking page-by-page through ten other townships.) Even if there had been an index, I would have never found them--they are listed with the last name "Charles", which Daddy said is a very plausible cognate for "Karl".
And before anyone asks, how do I know it's them? Same reason as stated in an earlier entry--all the names are what I expect (except for one I thought would be Maria--she is listed here as Ann M.), all the ages are correct, and no one is missing. There is one person living in the household whom I did not expect--one Barbara Renson, an 18-yr-old female. Dad suggested this might be a relative of Elisabeth, Johann's wife (we thought her last name was Rentz, and that's pretty close).
Yippee!!!
Mom and Dad return today from their 3-week vacation in Germany. I've missed them being in the country and having my dad around on IM in the evenings. It sounded like they had a nice time, and I am looking forward to reading about it on their blog. (Hint, hint.)
The bike ride yesterday morning was great, although the last horrible hill on the bike course has not gotten any smaller since last year, unfortunately. But I made it up without having to get off my bike. After we finished the ride, Jennifer and I both felt great, so we did about 1-1/4 miles of the run course. It's a pretty bad surface, I think; it's in a field, and the ground is very uneven. I'm a little surprised they don't have a better surface for this so that people don't get twisted ankles. I have discovered that I really have to concentrate a lot on my running gait when I'm doing it after something else--I guess when I'm not fresh, I'm much more prone to crossing and starting the knee pain. It's something to work on.
Yesterday evening saw a blowout for Dale, Glen, and myself--Jennifer babysat Jonathan while the three of us went to the Austin Land & Cattle Company for a lovely meal (Dale and I had the filet while Glen had the salmon). Afterwards we went to Dan McKlusky's and sat on their patio for a couple of rounds of after-dinner drinks. It was very pleasant.
This morning Dale took Glen to the airport for his return home. We miss him already! Jonathan did NOT want him to leave, but this morning he was such a big boy about it--just gave him a big cuddle and informed Glen that he was to return on the 10th of May. Guess his trip for next year is already planned then!
For some reason, I have been on a huge romance novel kick for the last few days (hence the title of this entry). What is up with that? I look at all these other good books I have to read, then I bypass them and pick up the bodice-ripper. I had to raid Jennifer's bookshelf yesterday for more; I managed to take home six, and I've already finished one of them. Hopefully this will burn itself out soon. It will have to since I need to read the bookgroup book for next week.
This has been a great morning so far. At the Team Danskin training, I got in a 50-minute swim. It is amazing to me how much better I swim just in the three weeks since the first swim training session. I felt more confident with what I was doing in the water, the different things my body is supposed to do are starting to come together, and a few times I even felt graceful! For anyone who is considering doing a triathlon and has never has any swim instruction as an adult, I STRONGLY recommend taking a class or two. It has certainly paid off for me.
I've just come back from about a 2-1/4 mile run in my neighborhood. I thought it would be good to do something else and see how my knee is doing. I did have mroe problems with my gait and crossing my legs that I did last week, probably because I've already worked out 50 minutes this morning. But I was able to catch myself whenever it started, and I didn't have to bail on my workout like I did a couple of weeks ago when I practically hobbled home after less than 5 minutes. So, good!
Now I'm about to do a 25-minutes yoga for abs tape (it will be the third time I've done it in less than 7 days), and then I'll finally shower and get this chlorine smell off of me.
Tomorrow morning I am going with a group from Team Danskin to ride the bike course for the triathlon. That means that I'll have done all three sports this weekend. I feel good enough right now that I'm almost tempted to go out on my bike right now!
Almost, but not quite. :-)
Today has been a busy, active day. Before taking Jonathan to Lunch Bunch at 11:30 a.m., I did a fair amount of weeding in the back garden & vegetable garden, and then we watered all the container plants, which were looking a bit droopy with the recent 90-plus-degree weather. Then we had to find time to change Jonathan, who had managed to water himself as well as the plants. He's turning into quite a gardener--he shouted out to me at one point that he was just going to pull the old ones off, and proceeded to deadhead the daisy bush.
While Jonathan was at Lunch Bunch, I went down to the Veloway in south Austin and did an 8-mile time trial (34 minutes and 50 seconds, for those of you wondering). When you add in the 6-1/2 mile warm-up and warm-down, I went close to 15 miles. Unfortunately that left me with not enough time to shower before picking up Jonathan, so I had to be smelly in the gymnastics front room.
After collecting my son, I figured since I was already about as stinky as I could get, I might as well mow the lawn. So as soon as the two of us arrived home, I set Jonathan up in the back of the big car with his cash register and I went about it with my electric scythe. After a while we moved to the back garden, which had been mowed less than two weeks ago and was already over my ankles with all those little pollen stalks, and I did that as well. At no time, of course, on either the bike ride or the lawnmowing, did I consider applying sunblock. Naughty mummy! I just hope the redness of my arms fades before Dale and Glen return tomorrow afternoon so I don't get told off too bad.
My goodness, I was very dirty at the end of all that. Jonathan and I had a shower and took ourselves off to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. And to those of you familiar with Jonathan's eating habits, sit down--he requested popcorn shrimp for dinner, and when it came he ate about 15 of them! Blew me over. He also got the waiters & waitresses to dance, and thus turn on the ball of colored lights on the ceiling. He was quite gleeful about that and kept saying, "This is fun, Mummy! This is fun!"
Now I'm sitting here, having gotten sucked into an English movie called Maybe Baby. It's about a writer and his wife, who have primary unexplained infertility. Part of the reason I started watching it is that Hugh Laurie is the male lead, and I truly love him from his role in Blackadder. He's pretty good in it. Looks a little older though. I was glad I kept it on--Rowan Atkinson has a fantastic cameo as the doctor, and not a very sensitive one either. From someone who has had two miscarriages but also has a wonderful child, I laughed out loud at quite a few points. Some of them reminded me of stories a friend I used to work with at Dell told me about the things she & her husband, whom I also worked with, were going through in their attempts to conceive. Sean (her husband) had quite a sense of humor, luckily for them. I would NOT, however, recommend the movie to anyone who was in the middle of infertility problems--might be too raw. It did a great job, I thought, of just depicting all the indignities a woman can go through in any kind of gynecological situation, whether infertility or something else.
Throughout the whole movie, and this entire evening ever since I got Jonathan ready for bed, I keep having a huge smile creep over my face. Why? At the thought of a little nekkid Jonathan, about to get on the toilet to do his nighttime widdle; I was sitting on his stepstool. He looked at me and launched into a song that I have never heard him sing before--you all know the tune, but he sang, "One little, two little, three little mummies, four little, five little, six little mummies," etc., up to 10 and then back down to 1. The middle verse was "one little, two little, three little uncles", and he closed it out with "one little, two little, three little daddies". I love him to pieces and yet it breaks my heart, thinking of the child abuse stories I read in the paper this morning. How can some people's hearts be so dead inside that they could be cruel to a child? The smile he brought to me this evening will stay with me for years to come.
I do love my little boy. I just went to check on him as it's just gone 9 p.m., and I wanted to make sure he had settled down and gone to sleep. Sure enough--his reading light was still on, as he likes to go to sleep that way, but he was all snug & cozy under the sheet and comforter that he'd pulled up himself. Head on his arms, and a bare shoulder peeking out at the top. I kissed his blonde curls, and he didn't stir.
He had a big day today--Bal Pals at his gymnastics place for 3 hours, then we went out to visit our friends Jessica and Eamon (three months old next week) for a few hours. The first thing Jonathan said when I told him we were going out there was, "Can I stroke the baby's legs?" We even stayed long enough to see Archie for twenty minutes or so before we headed out.
Then we picked up Jonathan's zither from Strait Music, who had kindly restrung it for us for a very nominal fee, and we stopped at a restaurant to have dinner together. Dale and his brother Glen left for New Orleans this morning and won't be back until Friday afternoon, so I told my little boy that we'd go out to dinner. He was very appreciative of his newly strung zither ("Thank you for getting my zither restrung, Mummy!" without even being prompted), and while the dinner table he said, "This is fun, going out to dinner." He is good company. (Except for those times when he's not!)
Jonathan has been completely thrilled to have his uncle Glen around, and he has decided that Glen must not go back until 1st June. He does understand that he leaves on Monday (19th May), though, but this afternoon he did ask me when Glen would be coming back again. Always planning ahead, that boy.
I read about these sites in the Houston Chronicle this morning and thought they were interesting. One is "an attractively presented archive of photographs"--Women of Our Time--"in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery." It includes photos of Amelia Earhart, Billie Holliday, Julia Child, Mae West, and many others. Also, it's a Smithsonian site, and since I'm a member & supporter I might as well plug something they've done.
This is a fantastic site that only the English could create--an homage to those men who wear socks with their sandals. Scroll down to see the pictures. Could you be up on this web site? Do you want that trend to continue?
The other site that looked pretty cool unfortunately is not responding at the moment, so I have no choice but to close with a site that some of you have surely already visited: quotes from We Love the Iraqi Information Minister. It's good for a laugh.
Jennifer asked two good questions in her comment to the previous entry: how do I know the Karls (with a different spelling of the last name) in the 1860 and 1870 censuses are my Karls? And why are the names different?
Here's how I feel 100% certain that these households are ours. I'm going to work backwards and start with the 1870 census, where I found two households--Peter Carl and John J. Karrer. First of all, I already had found both Peter Karl and John J. Karl (brothers, and sons of Johann and Elisabeth Karl) in the 1880 census, so I knew where they lived--what county (Tuscarawas County) and even what township within the county (John J. in Sugar Creek Township, Peter in Dover Township). I also knew that Johann had died in 1865, and in the 1880 census his widow, Elisabeth, was living in her son Peter's house.
So when I went to the 1870 census, which did NOT have an index, I simply located Dover Township and went through the census schedules page by page, looking at all the names. Finally I came across a "Peter Carl", aged 26, whose household included Sarah, Rose May, Clara, Elisabeth, and Catherine. The age of Sarah was correct for his known wife, Sarah Auman, and the names of his first two children as I knew them were correct, along with the ages listed. Elisabeth was the right age for his mother, and Catherine was the right age for his sister. There were no children missing. That's how I "know" this is the right household. Similar reasoning applies to the John J. Karrer household--all names and ages are right, and no one is missing that I would have expected to find, as well as no one being there that I didn't expect to see.
In the 1860 census, Johann was still alive. So I just tried different townships within Tuscarawas County (again having to go through them page by page), and on about the third township I found them. The household has John as the head, with the age ours would have been, and it also includes Elisabeth, Peter (the oldest son John was already married by then, so I did not expect to see him there), Jacob, etc.--all family members I expected to see. The only one missing is a sister named Maria; I suspect she died between arriving in America in 1850 and the 1860 census being taken. The last name spelling of "Caroll" is fairly phonetic for "Karl".
Re why the names are different--although our family was literate, many were not, so names would often be spelled phonetically. Also, there was less emphasis on consistent spelling. Furthermore, if a family (or the adults) wasn't at home on the day the census taker came by, he may have just gotten their information from the neigbor next door, or from the oldest child in the house, who might not have spelled too well. Also, foreign names got (and still get) Americanized, and that happens over years. "Johann" gets changed to "John", etc.
Grama Karl's household in the 1930 census shows up as "Sadie McCologh", for instance. In at least one of the censuses, John Kenefick (Sadie's father) shows up as "Kennefick", and I think there were other variations as well. The census sheets, while extraordinarily valuable research tools, are not considered by genealogists to be proof of anything other than where a family lived--they should just be tools that point you in a direction for verification of what's recorded in the census.
Congratulations to anyone who read this far!
When I got into this family history project early last year, I pretty quickly found when the Karls came to America--they arrived in New York City on 27 May 1850. But the next time I could find any documentation of their presence in Ohio was in the 1880 US Census. I had information from other people that some of the children had married in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and had children there, or died there, but I had no proof.
I finally decided that three things were possible: 1) they weren't in Tuscarawas County (v. unlikely); 2) they were there but living in someone else's household, so they wouldn't turn up in the index; 3) they were there but recorded with a different spelling of the last name. So Saturday evening, while Dale and Glen were off at The Backyard hearing Jimmie Vaughan and Buddy Guy play, I went through one of the townships within Tuscarawas County page by page by page by page. It paid off--I found the households of the first two children of Johann and Elisabeth Karl, John J. and Peter. Each had different spellings of the last name.
Then Sunday evening, I went through the 1860 Census, again looking in townships of Tuscarawas County where family members had been recorded in later years. I had to start somewhere, right? And on the third township--I FOUND THEM! They were listed with a last name of "Caroll". I can't describe how pleased I was that my slogging through these census pages was worth it. And it sure was nice to be able to do it from the comfort of my own home rather than having to be sitting in front of a microfilm reader in a windowless government building somewhere.
Okay, I heard from my trusty babysitter (aka Jennifer) this evening before she went home that Meredith has actually posted something new on her blog. I figured I could get away without adding anything else until either Meredith, Kathleen, or Leah posted on theirs, and since Meredith has now done so I am getting off my lazy butt and taking a brief few minutes to get back in the habit of blogging. It takes such little time (since I type so fast) I don't know why I've taken so long . . .
As mentioned in my last post, I have spent a great deal of time deep in my family history program over the last 3 weeks. First I pulled together a bunch of data for Daddy to take with him over to Germany, and then I started customizing the program and entering a lot of data that I'd collected but not input. I have also been wringing out the last bits of info from my genealogy.com subscription, which I will end on Tuesday to avoid renewing it for another year. So that has occupied most of my evening energy.
Also, we are very lucky to have my brother-in-law, Glen, here for a few days. He arrived last Friday and will be here until next Monday, 19 May. On Wednesday he and Dale are taking off to New Orleans for a couple of days. Since the only place he's been in America is Austin (and a day or two in Houston), the Big Easy should be an interesting change. And really, who can't have a good time there?