Disagreeable weather predicted for the next few days. As I prepare this message (2:40), it has begun to rain. Fortunately, sixty-seven degrees (outdoors) is pleasant when I work “undercover.” I have a large covered patio, and a large carport. Likewise, a very valuable laundry room. A really ridiculous project (right?) to spend time washing bottles and vases!! On a humorous note: I’m thinking about Christmas. I’m organizing the bottles for a Christmas bottle tree. It will be similar to the one I prepared several years ago. Tiny lights are inserted into clear bottles; red and green bottles carry out holiday colors. ~~ (A monster clap of thunder at 2:44 PM that shook my trailer home.) ~~ My “Patriotic” bottles will be stored until an appropriate holiday?!

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The NBC Today show presented an entertaining review of our life before the Internet. Later, I’ll try to find the news segment by searching “the Internet.”  According to Today‘s hosts and hostess, this is the fiftieth anniversary/birthday.

Old lady can’t count? Four identical medium-size hanging baskets plus two identical large-size hanging baskets. “The old lady” was awake half the night reprimanding herself for that dumb mistake.

Spray painting mania!! When I exhausted my supply of spray paint (in my private hardware store) I made a trip to Walmart  for more. I’ve said it frequently: “I hate Walmart.”  So you know the project(s) are important if I make a special trip to Livingston, to Walmart, for paint. “If & when”  I’m settled at my new location, my garden paraphernalia will be clean and/or fresh paint. Note that I also purchased cleaner for the carpet in my trailer home.

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‘Tis “Lorraine Cleaner,”  not Stanley Steamer.

The old lady was pushing herself to get things done at this location. Obviously, “the old lady” has lots of space, and an unlimited amount of water. Wash with water, move it clean, spray with paint, attractive when seen.

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Yesterday, there wasn’t a “stopping point.” I’d finish one project and sit down for a few minutes. I’d see something else that needed attention and jump up to do that task. Repeat: There wasn’t a “stopping point.”

The story A Gift for the Ages appears in the current issue of Mennonite Family History.

A Gift For the Ages  by Lorraine Frantz Edwards

What could this old lady—with limited resources—give her children and grandchildren? She owned no Real Estate, no stocks or bonds. Her household items were well-worn. She had computer skills and she had a passion for genealogy. She’d document the ancestry of her in-laws (and “out”-laws); she’d “climb the family trees.” 

No longer the familiar names of Old German Baptist Brethren, and Mennonite, ancestors, and their descendants. Now a virtual phone book of known—and unknown—surnames. For example: Duerksen, and Gaede, from Russia, and Rainwater (Google search suggests NOT Native American). 

Challenges were numerous—and embraced. Several incidents of individuals with identical given name and surname erroneously (in Ancestry.com) attached to the family tree. Search records, document children, compare dates and locations. Discard the “duplicate” who wasn’t the spouse. Example: Dorothy Mae Kirby married to Stanley Lee Cotton. Two such marriages, two couples, several men named Stanley Lee Cotton. 

Working with surnames “in the Deep South” proved to be a very unique experience—a “first” for someone with twenty-plus years experience “climbing the family tree.” Specifically: Grover Cleveland Blackwell. Several men… and two with similar birth year. The only way to properly identify them: Document their spouse and children, and examine their resident localities. Where did they live; was it consistent with known information? Eventually the “maternal grandfather” (of her son’s father) was positively accepted, and documented. Documenting men named Andrew Jackson Blackwell and Napoleon Bonaparte Blackwell posed a whole new search criteria. Check each “source” for the reference to race. Sometimes simply “B” or “W,” sometimes “black” or “white.” The “hints” on Ancestry did not discriminate: Five, ten, fifteen… and each “hint” had to be scrutinized. Sadly “black” Blackwells had been attached to our “white” Blackwell tree by careless subscribers to Ancestry.com. 

Often the given name was simply “A.T” or “S.W.” Frequently the name is spelled different from one Census to another (and detective work required): “Agnew” on one is “Andrew” on another. For the women: Lizzie, Eliza and/or “E.A.” 

What could the old lady give her grandchildren? Answer: A well-documented, accurate list of their ancestors, their ancestor’s children, and children’s children. A tree full of aunts, uncles and cousins. (If and when they have a DNA test, they can find that fourth or fifth cousin on their tree.) Hours, days, weeks…. Accuracy was imperative; no hastily prepared, or “copied” from Ancestry individual Member Family Tree(s). The old lady admits she compared her work to that of Ancestry individual Member Family Tree(s) and witnessed obvious duplicates, and inconsistencies. (Three daughters named Eliza, Lizzie, and E.A., with same birth date.) Two, or three, marriages while wife number-one was still alive. Didn’t the owner of that Ancestry tree see the discrepancy? A man in his 70’s didn’t leave Mississippi and marry a woman in Ohio—and have more children! (In Real Estate they say “location, location, location.”) 

Speaking of “location.” this question came to mind: “Why did this widow die in Texas after a (documented) lifetime in Mississippi?” The answer was apparent when all the children were documented. Widowed mother was living with married son or daughter, in Texas. 

Climbing the trees for grandchildren revealed unexpected fruit. In two places, two uniquely different “trees,” the branches overlapped. What a joy to find her sixth great-grandfather, William Glover Vestal, was the father of David, and James, two branches of the tree. Grandma (Lorraine) and granddaughters are cousins.

Sweater weather!! The propane furnace is “on” long enough to chase away the cold temperature.
I’m  s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g   the remaining propane so I don’t need a refill prior to a move.

This old lady is desperate to regain energy for the mountain of projects ahead of her. Today, an email message arrived promising renewed health. I listened to a very long presentation and purchased the product. True story: My brain likes to think I’m forty-eight but my body screams eighty-four.