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On TV, I’m watching a 24-hour news channel and the violence is horrific!! In a time of Coronvirus pandemic, all those people in close proximity. So much violence; so much damage to property; so much looting!!

Documentation of my family has taken me from coast-to-coast the past few days. I’m traveling at warp speed!! I’ve been working with families already documented in my database but also added one-thousand more individuals in nine days. I must travel fast because my vision is limited. I must get as much done as possible as soon as possible!

After four PM as I prepare this message and it is a “break” from the documentation. I get so excited when I make a major discovery, I want to share it with the world. Less than an hour ago, I was doing “normal” documentation and asked the question “Who is her mother?”  (A picture is worth a thousand words,)

Information is coming to me so fast I can’t stop to eat, drink, bath, or sleep!! ~~~ Remember the TV series L.A. Law? That’s Jill Eikenberry‘s great-grandmother and my second-cousin-three-times-removed.

“This old lady”  is very concerned about dementia, Alzheimer, etc., etc. Documenting details about “cousin” Jill Eikenberry, I read about their devotion to Jill’s mother. Here is a link to a “must read” article.

So many “branches” hitting me in the face. I don’t know where to turn!! I’m tired and I’m hungry.

“Checking in” so you don’t think I’ve “checked out.”

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Not only am I in a forest, I have a tiger by the tail and I can’t let go!! Three-thirty and I question when I’ll see civilization again!!

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My Trailer home is under a metal roof. When the hail was falling, it was like being inside a drum (with an exuberant youth pounding the drum).

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The computers were turned off immediately because I don’t want to jeopardize them. Later I was watching the TV weather news because the TV has a surge protector. Yesterday we had a power outage twice so I’m being cautious.

“The old lady” is always considering a title for a blog message. Today the word Kemosabe came to mind and that’s appropriate. Appropriate?? “Yes, appropriate.”  My computer is my faithful friend during this Coronavirus pandemic. I rarely leave my home (not even to walk to the mailbox). I’ve confessed to being obsessive-compulsive about “climbing the family tree.” Truthfully, I would go crazy if I did not have my computers. “Yes, computers.”  Often, I’m working with two or three at the same time!! In a strange way, the computer is rewarding me with kindness and affection. Recently I shared “surprising” discoveries that were akin to a warm hug and affection kiss.

“The old lady”  has barely come up for air!! I’ve begun research on a family with (so far) little information. I just thought I might put a smile on your face when I announce the surnames. I’ve been working with FINGERLE and a daughter married William TOOTHAKER. At first, I thought I was seeing a misprint. No, these are not individuals in my Old German Baptist Brethren “forest of families.”

This journey started because one of my Brubaker cousins adopted a child with the surname “Fingerle” but changed his name with the adoption. “The old lady”  was curious and never dreamed the search for information would require hours of searching. You ask why I bother? I love the challenge of finding information that may have eluded other researchers (or maybe “they” just didn’t try to find documentation).

(The preceding two paragraphs published at 7:40 PM.)

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Yes, eleven PM and I can’t walk away from the computer. I’m weeping with joy because the struggle to find and document “Fingerle” information brought me right back to the Frantz family. It is uncanny how there’s a “Frantz wife” in every surname associated with the Old German Baptist Brethren (faith and church). To make a point: I do research systematically. I started with the oldest child for search and documentation; twelve children with three wives. The last one to capture my attention, the next to youngest son, took me back to a second-cousin-three-times-removed. Even more precious: That orphan young man was in the home of the grandparents of the man who introduced me to my Frantz ancestry and my Old German Baptist cousins.  ~~~~ I’m so blessed!!

I’m obsessive-compulsive; I can’t walk away from the computer. I went to bed at 1:05 this morn and up at 7:30. I’m extremely tired!! The “cousin” continues to send obituary notices and I’m adding all the children, sisters, brothers, in–laws, etc, to my “Frantz family” database. The “cousin” had a lament with a recent email message. “We’re losing all our genealogists.”  Yes, dear “old” folks whom I’ve known, and shared with, are no longer with us. That forces me to work harder to have my information expanded and thoroughly accurate. (Parenthetical: I find so many errors when I compare my information with another Ancestry member information. One person went so far as to add a “screenshot” of a page from my book [Frantz Families–Kith & Kin] but it was the wrong “Anna Frantz.”) To my credit(?), I “know” theses families “by heart.” I recognize the surnames of the family “they” marry into. I know the locations because I visited the area for “old-fashioned” research (years ago). Forgive me for saying this: Fellow folks on Ancestry may just add names of ancestors they know nothing about. The sad thing: “Hints” and sources are available but they “copy” one another and therefore “copy” one another’s errors.

Memorial Day 2020