December Ruminations

A year ago today, I planned for 2010 to be The Year of Getting Stuff Organized. I set some goals and promised myself some very cool rewards. Let's see how I did with that!

My main project for the year was to be entering into my family tree database all documentation I have for each of my direct-line ancestors. I'd planned out a calendar: one ancestor per day, starting at the near end and working back in time for ... huh, where is that calendar? ... well, for as many months as it would take to complete them all. Having started that process with enthusiasm during the week before 2010 even began, by the time the new year did begin, I was already behind. Reader, let's leave it at that, shall we?

My daughter has a theory and, because we share brain genetics, I think it's a fine theory indeed. If one sets a goal, and then in the avoidance of working on that goal accomplishes some other fine project, that's counts as a win. In the interest of avoiding the heinous job of data entry, I accomplished quite a fair bit of other organization, to wit:

• I labelled most of my genealogy binders so that I no longer have to guess what's in each one.
• I reorganized some of those overstuffed binders, breaking out some of the material into new binders.
• I printed out my complete pedigree chart and put those pages into a stand-up binder as an aid to working on the organizational project, so I can see what data is already entered for each, and where work needs to be done.
• In the course of poking around online trying to do some of the work that needs to be done, I added a number of additional ancestors to my future research list, including Charlemagne and some other big-name history types. (Honestly, I'll probably never go there! I just don't see any need!)
• The pedigree chart I printed out was instrumental in working on my Surnames page and in creating the daily surname posts I did early in the year.
• The Surnames page led to creation of my Cousins in Cyberspace page.
• The potential reward of creating an ancestor photo book led to a test run of Blurb. The test run ultimately resulted in six books created from my personal blogs and one very awesome book about my mother's childhood. In addition, several other volumes are either in progress or in the planning stage.

So, Yippee!!, I won big in the data organization project.

And what about 2011? More books! That's the plan, plain and simple! Not that the actual projects are plain and simple... they're not! But the end results are highly motivational!

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Once again the genealogy-blogging community was invited to vote for the Top 40 Genealogy Blogs. There's something about this that kind of rubs me the wrong way. I don't like to think of the blogosphere as a competitive arena, and if I ever had, I probably would never have begun blogging in the first place. I think the blogosphere is every bit as expansive as the Universe itself, for all practical purposes, with creative space for everyone who wants to use it. Each and every blog is a unique entity and, I hope, as much a source of satisfaction to its creator as mine is to me. In addition, each blog enriches the blogosphere in its own way, for which I'm very grateful. All of which is to say, I chose not to vote. I'm more of a bear* than a fish.* (But you already knew that, right?)

Speaking of unique blogs, Janice Brown, everyone's favorite Cow Hampshire correspondent, has returned to her little corner of the blogosphere, plopping The Christmas Box under our blogospheric tree after a hiatus of more than two years. Two long and silent years. Well, two years, three months, twenty-six days, twenty-two hours and fifty minutes, to be exact. If you haven't been to Cow Hampshire, really!, you must go!

*cave-dweller
*synchronized swimmer

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December Accomplishments

• Upon completing the book about my mom, I promptly started a new book, one which I thought would be very quick to finish. I'd hoped to finish it by December 10, in order to take advantage of Blurb's December promo (free shipping). As the deadline drew near, though, I warmed to my topic, I guess you could say, and decided it was worth spending more time on. What started as a simple copy-and-paste compendium is now calling for some actual writing on my part, or at least some summarizing, and I think I'll have to cut some of the 100 pages I've already included to make room for other more readable material. Still, at this point I'd say the book is at least half done.
• I wrote a post for the very awesome 100th Carnival of Genealogy at Creative Gene!

And in the other column . . .

• Seriously... let's not even go there.

Why, kiddies, in my day we...

... ten miles ... barefoot ... didn't talk back ... penmanship ... Santa Claus ...
... a Christmas present from Google so technology wouldn't pass us by...





Merry Christmas, my peeps, and to all a good day!

Mary and Joseph, Immanuel, and a couple of Christians...

...well, actually, I've understated the count. In fact, the name Joseph appears no less than nine times in my pedigree chart, and twenty of my grannies were given the name Mary or Maria (not to mention Maryanne, Marybelle, and Marrayetia). But there is only one Immanuel--Hinrich Immanuel Behm to be exact, my fifth great-grandfather, born in April of 1725.

In total, there are more than 300 given names (counting both first and middle names) in my pedigree chart. Variety-wise, I was surprised to find that more than 100 different names were represented.

Other Biblically-named grandparents include:

A Joshua, a Gabriel, and five guys named Josiah,

A Benjamin, Ezekiel, and two named Jeremiah,

Micajah and two Peters, and two more named Elijah,

Nine grandpas known as Samuel and one as Jedediah.

And that's just the boys! Among the grandmas, there were four Ruths, three Deborahs, two Sarahs and a Naomi.

Those Puritans had Desire, Freedom, and Experience. And one of them was Thankful.

Grandpas with regal names include:

• Alexander and Edward (one apiece)
• David, George and Ludwig (two of each)
• James (4)
• Richard (half a dozen of those)
• 11 Williams
• and a full dozen Henrys... Henries?... whatever!

There are two Ferdinands, and that's no bull.

Regally named grandmothers include half a dozen Annes, two Eleanors, nine Katharines, and a whopping twenty-one Elizabeths (the most popular girl's name in my pedigree chart).

Johns? There must be one of those in every family, isn't there? I have at least a dozen, along with seven Johanns, two Joans, and a Jonathan. On the distaff side, there are half a dozen Johannas and two Janes.

There are seven Roberts, and twice as many Thomases. I'm surprised that's not the other way around.

There's an August, but no April, May, or June.

I have a Russell in my chart--just one--my father. Russell is not a particularly common given name, but my children have two in their charts. Both of their grandfathers are Russells. Oddly, my daughter's husband also has both grandfathers sharing the same first name (Robert). And my daughter and her husband both have a paternal Uncle Gary. (My daughter's father grew up on a street named Hilldale, and her husband's father grew up on a street named Hillsdale. Although that has nothing to do with the given names in my pedigree chart, it certainly is a funny little addition to their list of odd similarities.)

Tryphena, Elvina, and Herman were handed down, but only once (at least in my direct lineage).

Dorcas, Lubbert, and Balthasar weren't handed down at all. Just as well!

But I did get two Valentines!

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Today is your last chance to post for Jasia's 100th Carnival of Genealogy. The prompt is "There's one in every family!" and it's wide open to your own interpretation. The goal for this very special celebration is 100 posts (or more!), so write on! You have until midnight, Hawaii time, to join the fun!

As usual, this great COG poster was created by footnoteMaven. Thanks so much, fM, for sharing 100 fabulous COG posters with us over the years! Readers, don't miss fM's post for this carnival, "We're Still Having Fun, & You're Still the One." She's expressed perfectly what so many of us feel about Jasia and the Carnival.