History vs. Legend

The interchange of ideas through online message boards and news groups has helped my journey into the history of my family immensely. I've been able to contact a cousin who shared a full family history interview with my grandmother's sister.  I've learned many ways to search, and places to go for help. And the exchange of ideas confirms what I have always felt about the search for family history - that it is as important to carry along the false ideas and misconceptions as well as the truth. Eventually, those tall tales may come to represent, as much as cold hard facts cannot, the personalities of those who passed them along. 

For those who've guided me, and chided me when I made mistakes, I owe a great debt. I look forward to completing the first section of our family history, and to editing and appending it as time goes on. 

One of the tales I enjoyed hearing was that of my fathers "Granny" - Bertha Ramsey O'Guin. She was a sturdy woman, and she raised my father and his sister after their mother died of tuberculosis.  Dad's sister, Madeline, whom I knew as "Aunt Bo" said granny was just mean to her, and treated Dad like a prince. After their baths at night, granny would line them up and give them a good swat or two on the butt, "for whatever you did that I didn't see."  Her understanding of Granny was that she was 1/2 Irish and 1/2 Indian [to be politically correct, I should say Native American]. However, she spoke german with my grandfather, so either she was quick to pick up languages, or there may have been something more in her background. Bo said they'd speak german when they didn't want the kids to understand what they were talking about.

Among the more recent misconceptions in family history may  relate to Bertha's ancestry. Dad always said she was Cherokee, and came down the Trail of Tears, but later he said she was of the Capaha.  His explanation to me was that this was a branch of the Cherokee tribe, but history says the Capaha [a name common in the Cape Girardeau area] were in the area when the first French and Spanish came along, and there are tales of the honor and dignity with which they met the newcomers. So, is she one, or the other... or perhaps a little of both. Since that would probably be the Ramsey side of the family, to find out more there is a group doing Ramsey family DNA testing I can contact. 

Another area in which Dad seemed to be in error was his belief that the german side of the family was from Heidelberg. I always had assumed he knew what he was talking about, especially after the 70s and the Baader-Meinhof group in that same city made news. However, once I began to look at information, I found Great Grandfather Matthais Bader was listed on as ship as being from 'Brumpelking' - which, as I delved deeper, turned out to be a erroneous transliteration. The family came from a small town called Dunstelkingen, and it is not far from Heidenheim. However, it is quite possible they went through Stuttgart or Heidelberg along the river to the northern seaports as they left Germany. 

I have discovered so much already, and my next big investment will be the Ancestry DNA testing. Expensive, but it will bring so much more to what I have been learning and will help with the narrowing of search areas in some parts of the history. 

Back to the search...

OT- Sci-fi Oops

OK. I love sci-fi, especially the Star Trek series, all versions. However, I have one major complaint.

Funerals. All this space on board, all these options, and when someone dies and we have their body, there is a huge funeral, as if at sea, with the body in a large coffin-like metal casket, which is slid out into space and left behind. 

Now I understand that in years gone by, ships at sea did put bodies into the sea. They were not in caskets or even wooden coffins. They were wrapped in canvas and weighted with ballast, which meant they would decompose naturally. I suspect it would have been rather unhealthy to keep a bloating dead body on ship before we had electricity and a way to keep the body either cooled to prevent decomposition till one could land and bury it, especially on cross ocean voyages.  Having personally experienced the aroma of a body that was dead three days before it was found, I certainly agree with that policy, though I'm sure that the cruise liners and other ships at sea in this day do not dump their dead into the ocean. 

So back to sci-fi and the dead in caskets. You've got a ship in space and the potential to land on any nearby planet. You probably have cryo units for stasis, so why would you dump a casket into space?  The real reason - for the story line. 

For a limited resource ship in strange space, it seems that recycling would be the most likely scenario. But no, Voyager opted for the casket, which gets picked up by an alien species that reproduces by reanimating the dead and giving them a new, changed life, even to the point of changing the dead's DNA. 

Grave robbers, I say! And if they are, does that mean other alien life forms also dump their dead into space? Ewww!  Can  you imagine the clutter in a few millennia? If you have to use a casket, add a small guidance system and push it in the direction of the nearest star. 

Besides the risk of the grave robber aliens, what about enemy aliens who might either mimic your species or study your features and dna to find a way to defeat you?  

Nope, sorry.  I can understand  Captain Kirk sending a steel casket into space, he was hardly beyond the Neanderthal, but Janeway, you've disappointed me. Tsk. Tsk.

Mags out.

Switchover

This began as a private musing, mostly about genealogy and the things that make me who I am.  The original profile said "I finally know who I am, and am satisfied with that. On the downslope, I guess it's time to write in the sand and leave something for those who follow, however inane, insignificant and ephemeral."


I figured it was something to leave for the kids and grandkids later. But I've made enough progress to be rather excited about my family, and enough to be willing to share. Hank's son Marty is a part of us now, and we're all looking forward to his visit this winter, and to meeting his  fiancee.


Meanwhile, historically, I've finally pinned down Dad's missing 3rd wife. She wasn't 3rd chronologically, just in the sense of the order found. She was his war bride, married a few days before he enlisted. It's odd, that he never mentioned  having lived in East St. Louis, or having lived in Indiana after the war. But there's so much I didn't know, and he never volunteered much. Jeannie's grandma says he was a bit of a womanizer. We knew that. Maybe not so much. She didn't have a lot of good to say about Dad, but then he had his moments... he could be a real stinker.  


Still not sure if he ever graduated high school, though I know he went to alumni dinners. I have so much more to find, and using ancestry.com has made it easier. Bit by bit, the image of our extended family is forming a more complete picture... not always one to be proud of, but certainly one with some staying power. 


Next up, filling in the grandparents I never knew.


Maddie/maggie out.

Slow warm winter

It's been an unusual winter for the central midwest. In STL, hardly any snow, it's the end of February, and temps are in the 50s and 60s. No complaints here.
Still, despite a rather balmy winter, the Fibromyalgia still has been kicking my butt. Maybe it's related to the lower amounts of available sunlight, but I think it may have to do with diet. I've been less concientious about staying on the foods I know are less inflammatory. When I stay to mostly vegetarian meals with a little cheese and stay off the sweets, I do better. But sweets are my comfort foods, and I've been really stuck on the sugar lately.
 I read recently that, without dietary changes, it takes 350 minutes of sweaty aerobic work to lose 2 pounds. That comes to 50 minutes a day. So my new goal is to use the elliptical while watching one 44 minute show a day. Going to work up to that slowly so I don't kick myself into a flare.
Meanwhile, I'm slowing getting back into the GF meals at work, no more grilled chicken and yummy fries - though I did buy some for here at home, for the craving moments... sweet potato fries. Hope they're as good as people say.
Meanwhile, going to try my hand at General Tsao's chickent today, make enough to last for a few days. I'll probably do some fried rice to go along with that, freeze up some meals and have them ready for work. Need to get off the sodie pop again, but need caffeine in some form. Found some caffeine gum at the gift shop, and have the coffee maker out.
Little here, little there... bit by bit I'm trying to get back to the style that had me losing weight.