I’m going to be inside the yurt colony on Wednesday and Thursday, and at the library all day on Friday, so I thought I’d crank out a rare Sunday update this week.
Why no yurt on Friday, you ask? Because the rental prices nearly double on Friday and Saturday. That’s why. Plus, the place is usually overrun with howling buzzcut hicklets on the weekends. And I can’t have that.
So, I’m gonna move my base of operations to the li-bary, thank you very much. Hopefully no obese ‘n’ shirtless lunatics will show up, and start throwing haymakers at potted plants. Sheesh.
It was an uneventful weekend, here at Surf Report Central. The oldest boy got back safely from his whirlwind trip to Washington, DC. And that’s been the highlight, so far.
The Smithsonian and the seafood buffet seemed to be his two favorite attractions, in case you were wondering.
And he said he put his foot up on a step at Arlington Cemetery, to tie his shoe, and some man went wild on him, hollering and saying he was being disrespectful to the “war dead.”
“I’m tying my shoe,” he said, confused.
And the man reportedly answered, “Oh, and now you’re going to start talking trash, too?”
Yeah, who the hell knows? It’s possible that I’m not getting a completely accurate retelling of events. But on the other hand… I’ve been to DC, and know that such a baffling scenario is not outside the realm of possibility.
Other than that, it was pretty quiet around here. I mowed the lawn on Thursday, which sucked while it was happening. But I loved it when all the neighbors were mowing on Friday and Saturday, and mine was already done.
I think I could get addicted to “having mown” smugness. I really do.
My brother is heavily into genealogy. He’s told me all manner of trivia about our ancestors, but a few days ago I started thinking about our family’s country of origin. After all these years, and all the stories, I can’t remember him telling me the most basic of all information…
So, I texted him, and asked.
“England,” was his reply. And somehow that pleases me. I’ve had a fascination (fixation?) with the UK all my life, and now I have a justification for it. Not that I needed one, mind one. I’ll fixate on any damn thing I please…
Anyway, my brother’s full of interesting factoids about the Kays (as well as my mother’s family) who came before us. He’s told me dozens of crazy stories.
Including one about a great-uncle (or somesuch) who was on a catwalk over an open-top “drip gas” tank, whatever that is. He supposedly dropped his pack of cigarettes into the gas, tried to fish them out, and fell in. He drowned inside the tank, because his Chesterfields had gotten away from him.
Also, there’s the tale of a man who was married to our great grandmother. He was supposedly so dumb he didn’t know enough to stoop while getting into a car. So he’d just repeatedly walk into the side of the vehicle, standing bolt-upright.
Heh. Can that possibly be true?
I actually remember that old guy. He was deeply religious, and would sometimes stop talking in mid-sentence, and cock his ear like a dog. Then he’d go tearing out of the house, screaming, “I’m coming, Jesus! I’m coming!!” Scared the living crap out of me.
I’ve also been told that he turned circles while walking downhill. What the hell, man?
And that’s gonna be my Question for this Hallmark Corporation Sunday: has anyone tracked your family genealogy? If so, did it turn up anything of interest? What’s your country of origin? Do you have any good stories to tell about your predecessors? You know, that kind of thing… Use the comments link below.
And I’m going to go to work now, and start my abbreviated work week.
Have a great day, my friends.
I’ll see you again on Monday.
Yay! Numero uno!
Whoo hoo two
My Dad is into the whole genealogy thing. The whole clan is from Germany, immigrated in the 1830’s I think. Nothing overly interesting that I can think of. At this time.
Oh, and I was second when I started but it should be interesting on a Sunday where I’ll fall to.
Four!
Happy Mutha’s Day to all you Mutha’s out there !!!
Related News:
I recently received a copy of Google Me
signed by Jim KIlleen
You can see the trailer here
http://www.googlemethemovie.com/
He used Google to search his name and met several Jim KIlleens all over the globe. Documented the project.
He was related to one!
You can watch it free on hulu.
Best use of google yet.
I am told I am mostly Hungarian but the source may be delusional. It’s still up in the air.
wow a Sunday update!!
My ancestors were apparently involved in the nitwits protection program and there are family rumors about carnies and crimes against farm animals.
Top Ten! Happy Mothers day to all you Mom’s out there. Thank you for what you are and all you do. And now… like a fat girl in dodgeball… I am out.
# 10 on a Sunday.
There is a relative somewhere in my history that did “favors” to pay for a train ride home for her dead husband’s body. She’s about the most exciting.
An aunt traced our family back to 17somethingorother, and the family name back to the 11th century.
Like Jeff, we are English. Devon to be precise. Thing is, in the prevailing 1000 years we have moved a total of 80 miles north-east. By the year 2525 we are hoping to have reached the coast.
You all think I have 6 fingers on each hand, webbed feet, and am married to my sister now don’t you?
I have the lineage of my Father’s family going all the way back to 1720 when they came over from Ireland. Lots of craziness over all those generations. The most interesting is that both sides of my family fought for the South during the civil war and my great grandfather, yep, just 3 generations back, was a prisoner of war for the final 2 years of the war. Apparently something bad happened and he changed the family name when he was released. Hard to believe it was just 3 generations removed, but I am the youngest of 8 and my Dad was the 7th of 13 children. If my Dad was still alive, he would be almost 100. My grandfather was in WWI and my father, WWII. Brother drafted during Vietnam, but failed the physical and I enlisted in the USAF during the 80’s and many Cold War tales. End of report.
My mother is big-time into genealogy and has traced our family way back. She could tell me tons about my ancestors, but I’ve never much been interested. I don’t even care about what my living aunts are doing, let alone what some long-dead distant ancestor was up to. But I do know the basics of my ancestry — fraternal grandfather is of Welsh descent; maternal grandmother is of Irish descent; maternal grandfather is of English descent; and maternal grandmother is of German descent.
My sister’s mother-in-law, who is neither well-educated nor bright, and belongs to a fundamentalist Christian religion (the type of church that requires their members to be uneducated and not very bright), upon hearing that my mother was a genealogy buff, asked my mother if she had traced our ancestry all the way back to Adam and Eve. My mother politely replied that no, she had not yet gotten back that far.
My mother didn’t actually have two mothers. The Irishwoman was the fraternal grandmother
My great-great Grandfather was the Douglas half of the Lincoln -Douglas debates. I wonder how my life and this country would have been different if he had beaten Lincoln? I also lost
Great Uncle was the strongest man in illinois back when handlebar mustaches were in style. Have a pic of him with an iron bar he bent to win the title.
Some relative was a Wells Fargo carriage driver. He was robbed and fired because they thought he was in on the robbery, but could not prove it. Spent the next 10 years hunting down and killing the guys that robbed him.
A multi great grandpa was a Union quartermaster in the civil war. He found out that the commander and another general were in a scheme to steal horses and sell them back to the Army. Went to the higher ups who were also in on it. They pinned it all on him and put him up on court marshal. He was found guilty and dishonorably discharged. Spent the rest of his life proving he was not guilty. Got his discharged changed to honorable and some cash from the Army when it was all said and done.
Most of my family came from Germany or Ireland. Here is a great map that shows the genealogy of the USA according to the 2000 census.
http://www.economicadventure.org/visit/exhibits/nbss/maps/ancestry/ancestry.cfm
Notice that the southern whites say they come from America. In reality they are from Scotland/England/Whales. (Insert quip about southerners here)
One side of my fambly is from Germany, the other side from England. A village in Sussex or something.
Should we hold our fambly reunions in Potsdam? I just don’t know.
Father’s side: mostly Germans with one Jewish line (which presumably died out under the nazis). Supposedly one of my cousins did a full genealogy a few years back. But to see it would require me to talk to her and that ain’t gonna happen since most of my relatives find me only slightly more tolerable than week old roadkill.
Mother’s side: largely lunatic Brits and drunk Irish. Surprisingly the OCD that runs strong in my family doesn’t rest on the German side, but the British. I’m baffled by that. The alcoholism sits squarely on the Irish side. Yeah, shocker.
When I last visited the fam I was handed a copy of an old typewritten abbreviated genealogy of my mother’s side. It startlingly revealed an Asian love child in the family.
So I asked what was up with that and it was further revealed that the Asian love child had contacted our family many many years ago in an attempt to reconnect with any living relatives, as she had been largely, uh, removed from everybody growing up. She was promptly kicked to the curb. Nice. :/
The first thing I did after learning all this was to frantically dig around in my husband’s family history to make sure his Asian side somehow didn’t get tangled up with my Irish side. Thank gawd NO. I was afraid we were gonna have a Star Wars “Oh shit, we’re related!” situation. After that I forgot matters. But thanks for jogging my brain, I ought to do some further research.
I am currently working on my fambly tree. I have taken a couple of branches back to the early 1700’s. My dad’s line is from Onsberg Germany. My mother’s ancestors are Scots and Irish.
I have lots of eccentric ancestors and stories have been handed down. I have been able to confirm some and refute some other stories. I had heard a granddad was given away to another family – no one knows why – and I found that to be true and that is was my great granddad. He was very bitter about it and didn’t even like his adoptive family. My great uncle was murdered in 1947. The guys were caught but never went to jail. I am still trying to find out why. I was told a romantic story about a great aunt who died in a car crash in France during WWII but I found where she had kids and everything so the story was wrong. Her name was Montene so surely I have the right auntie. How Montenes could have been in the family tree? One old guy had 4 wives and 17 kids. Sheesh!
I was told that I am related to my ex (and the father of my kids) because both our mothers have the same maiden name and this is Georgia. That is not true. We have no direct relatives in common all the way back to the 1700s. My kids are disappointed because they used to like to brag about being inbred. Sigh…such is life….
English as can be on my father’s side with ancestors in same county in GA since early 1800s when they came from NC. Mother’s side a whole ‘nother story–some of ’em came from (or maybe out of) turpentine and swamp territory in SE Georgia. Rather dark and brown-eyed. Some mention of Native American bloodlines and purported to be related to Burt Reynolds. No idea past Great Grands. Probably better not to know.
Happy Mom’s Day…
After this week’s announcement of the successful mapping of a material amount of the Neanderthal genome, and the revelation that all non-African humans are part Neanderthal, quick stops in Europe or Asia along the way seem almost trivial. Well, an occasional Long Now perspective can’t hurt.
Grandparents:
– one from just outside Hurlford, Scotland for many, many generations
– one from Montana from Indiana from New York from Denmark
– one from Alabama from England
– one from Wisconsin from French Canada from France
The Danish great grandfather hunted buffalo for the building of the railroad and passed down many stories of adventure. I think he just missed out on outliving the buffalo species.
I suspect the really colorful stories are sometimes lost to the ages.
And maybe now we can stop calling each other neanderthals since most of us are.
jtb
Um…Douglas did beat Lincoln, at least in the election. People are still scoring the debate.
jtb
I had some guy come and mow my front yard the outher day. He said I had called him, but i think he may have been supposed to mow my neighbors yard.
So he told me he would finish cutting my front yard for free if I took his card and called him next time I needed my lawn mowed.
Who knows? Maybe I will call him. It is like a drig dealer. You don’t think you need a guy to cut your grass for you. But, then someone does, and it is so nice that you don’t have to do it. You just want that rush of sitting naked on your couch drinking beer, uninterrupted by the yard work. What a high.
All three essentials are outstanding today. As crazy as the other two are, I have to go for the Bunker Cam.
Maybe it’s because the guy looks like a Saudi terrorist; maybe it’s the photo of his dead grandmother looking over his shoulder; maybe the sheer pathos of the whole situation.
And just by the way…there are no such restrictions regarding my own pants. I’m just sayin’…
jtb
Well both sides of my father’s family were from county Cork in Ireland…my grandfather did the whole genealogy thing back in the ’70’s going back to Brian Boru(surname of O’Brien which means if you were Irish, you started out as a bastard child of Old Brian.lol
I found out after the birth of my 3rd child that my grandfather(father’s father)was a bigamist….left my grandmother, eventually turned up in England fighting during WWII and married at least 2 women over there(at the same time). After the war ended, he left both of them and came back to the States. They both thought he had died in the wars so they applied for their widow’s pension from the same deceased husband…..that is when the shit hit the fan. So I have aunts/uncles/cousins? over there I don’t even know about and can’t find.
On my mother’s side, I just found a second cousin twice removed living in PA just 5 hours away from me. He is in his 90’s and has traced my mother’s side back to our 1st American ancestor who arrived here in 1635. That ancestor was we think originally from the county of Norfolk in England. We have a revolutionary war soldier in that line so I can apply to the DAR if I actually gave a shit.lol
We’ve got some Cherokee blood mixed in down that line too.
The Harpers on my mother’s father’s side were from Scotland originally so I come by my cheap ass ways honestly.
Me, nothing that interesting, just poor and Irish.
My wife though, whole other story. Ancestors come over on the Mayflower, related to Lizzie Borden, and a few other interesting things but don’t spring to mind.
I’m a scotsman despite my latino influences. About this shoe-tying incident- you know the boy had his foot on a tombstone right? Had to be the case. A step? That’s what I would have told my pop too.
95% of my family came from Sweden. They traveled to Maine in 1870 and settled a Swedish Colony called “New Sweden.’
On my mother’s mother’s side of the family, my great-great grandmother was the first girl born in the new colony and her family was part of the founding settlers.
My great grandfather’s family came from Norway VIA Ellis Island and made their way from New York to Massachusetts. When they heard about the Swedish colony in Maine and the farm land available, they made their way to Maine.
We’ve traced our family roots on both sides of that family way back to the 1600’s in Sweden and Norway through church records.
On my mother’s father’s side of the family, his father came to the United States in 1911 from Sweden. He met another Swedish girl who’s family was also moving to the United States and they fell in love. Her family moved to Minnesota, but he and she went to Maine and settled in New Sweden.
Two of my daughters are named for my great-grandmother’s ….Kjersti and Elin. The greatest part of it for my children is that there is a museum in the town of New Sweden and there are many items and pictures that belonged to our family in it. The community still celebrates Midsommar and other Swedish traditions and I’ve passed that on to my children as well. I just feel very fortunate that we have been able to keep track of our ancestry and continue to honor the traditions.
sister researched fambly tree
everyone seems to have some sort required royalty in there
ours was some earl i think in scotland. last name was orr, was be headed and head kicked thru streets, wonder if we invented soccer
another grandpa from that side fougt in the revlutionry war
mom’s side came from some little town in germany, that grandpa was draft dodger way back in 1700s, the town he left was in germany, but after ww1 and2 and other assorted map redrawings the town is now in poland.
allegedly somewhere way back in the swentzel line there was an native american grandma, but my grandmother who was her grandaughter in law disputed the indian story, said more likely was black
i am currently stuck in wv
My family once paid someone $100 to look in to our past. Then we had to pay him $200 to not tell anyone what he found.
English you say? My mental picture of you has always been Peter Kay’s (google him) twin, so maybe your brother’s right.
English, Scots-Irish, Cherokee, Chickasaw.
My son’s first karate tournament was on Sat. Some of the kids running around there behaved like little idiots. “Slack-jawed, buzz cut hicklets” kept coming to mind. My son left with his first two medals. proud mama here.
Holy shit, I have that same sweater!
I don’t know what I am, On the dads side its Irish & Cherokee, on the moms side everyones from Louisiana & Mississippi, sounds like a Justin WIlson shindig who know what we are on the side,
ooowwweeee! Had a good Mudders Day, the son made me some “Oatmeal” in the microwave, it was actually grits, and yes, I did eat it all.
Oh….my family stories. Almost all involve criminality.
– My grandma’s cousin that killed his wife, then blew his own head off in his backyard.
-My dad’s cousin’s husband who put his motorcycle helmet on, then blew his brains out. I’m assuming the helmet was his attempt to limit the mess, or contain the blast so it caused more damage.
-My grandfather’s uncle who was hung by the Canadian Mounties for horse theivin’.
-My grandmother’s uncle who was hunted for years by the FBI for robbing banks, apparently a lot of them. They never caught him.
-Not criminal related, but my favorite – how my grandmother’s family was coming to America on the Titanic. They were late, and missed the boat.
Maybe the guy who said that to your son in DC had PTSS.
Mr. kenju has done his family geneaology and it turned up a whole branch of the family no one on his side knew about, because two brothers (80 years ago) had an argument and never spoke or saw each other again. Idiots.
My dad’s side is English, plus one traceable ancestor who arrived from Limerick in 1653. My mom’s side is Texas Germans. She claims one of her ancestors was mayor of San Antonio.
Story-wise I got nothing.
Mainly a mixed blood mutt here… Greek Irish on one side… English Czech on the other. Fambly history has been traced back to 1760’s on the English side… And to the mid 1500’s on the Greek side. Pretty boring lot, mostly fishermen on both sides. Dads family has branched out to now be found in two Ohio counties, and are all buried from 1820-present in one of two cemeteries– excepting one cousin who is at Arlington. My parents live next door to my grandparents, who live less than a mile from the old family farm. I live another mile out. 4 generations lived within a 3 mile span. We are movers, I tell ya!
Oh fuck this shit! U gonna bang, Duff or what, bro?
My Great-grandfather was a prophet. My Great-grandmother was a total loss.
My oldest brother is a Mormon, and of course they eat up that geneology shit with a fork and a spoon. Supposedly he’s found some ancestor that was on the Mayflower but I wonder if it was really THAT Mayflower, and which voyage of the Mayflower are we talking about anyway? The one that brought Jeff Kay’s ancestral predecessors to visit DC?
My father’s side of the family landed in Southern Ontario about 200 years ago from England. My mother’s side is a mixed bag of English, Irish and Scottish. They were United Empire Loyalists and came up here (via Quebec) from Virginia following the War of Independence.
I don’t really know a whole lot about my family origin, other than my dads side is Irish and my mom’s side is German. However, I do have a whole buttload of crazies in my family, most of which I’ve met at some point in the 24 years I’ve been alive.
I8
According to extensive research my The Old Man, our family came over back in the 17th and 18th centuries from the British Isles. Apparently they were quite the landowners in Southeastern Massachusetts. Most towns around here still have a street that bears the family name. Of course, none of the extensive land holdings survived to do me any friggin’ good. And, of course, it’s all about me. A few interesting tales:
– We sold guns to the Indians during the King Philip Wars, just to keep our scalps.
– One of our ancestors lost his arm in a battle with a whale. I think his name was Ebenezer or Queequeg or some such.
Ok, I accidently sent that prematurely…
I have one cousin named Jody on my mom’s side, who has always been a nut job. She actually is a writer, Jodee Blanco who wrote the books “Please stop laughing at me” & “Please stop laughing at us” (http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=music&Z=y&WRD=Jodee+Blanco)
I’ve never read the books, but according to my mom and grandma, none of us are mentioned in it. Anyway, my mom told me a story about when they were little and my mom was being attacked a bumble bee, and ultimately stung, while Jodee just sat and watched and laughed and laughed, while my mom was being stung by a giant bee. She also had a ‘Wizard of Oz’ themed wedding, which I was thankfully not invited too. And when I was little, probably about 12, she bought me a stuffed animal of some sort for Christmas, (I wanna say a cat) and bought my slightly older aunt, a purse from a thrift store. This woman was loaded, and she was giving her cousins thrift store gifts…come to think of it, they were probably gifts from her own closet.
My grandma also told me a story about some distant cousins who had a wedding that I would have LOVED to be at. The bride had narcolepsy, fell asleep during the vows and fell over. One of the brides’ maids was a large, hairy man dressed as a woman. They had finger sandwhiches and kool-aid in replace of actual food and wine. Omg, I would have had a blast.
I’ve also got a barrage of hillbilly cousins, lesbians, gays, you name it. I also have a cousin named Louie who we call ‘Pooey Louie” for no apparent reason, a cousin who could blow out a camp fire with his ass, we call ‘Uncle Fart’, and his brother Kurt who we call ‘Coot’ and had gotten polio as a kid and has one small arm. I love them all the same though, they all live in the woods and such and always through a helluva party. These are all on my mom’s side…my dads side doesn’t really have any crazies as far as I know. We went to a family reunion about 10 years ago where I met the lot of them and they were all pretty normal and friendly.
Oh and Jeff…my boyfriend mowed our dandilion patch of a yard too on Thursday…we were pulling out of the driveway Friday afternoon and he pointed into the yard to the left and said, ‘Ha ha, John’s mowing his grass today and I’m already done!”
It must be a guy thing.
Well…I am late to the party…again.
I love the geneology thing. Very interesting. Makes me wish I had paid more attention to my grandparents when they were alive instead of being a snot-nosed brat. But…I did find out years ago through my maternal grandmother that General Custer is my Great Great Great (not sure how many) Grandfather. I have always wanted to research it but never have.
Through some marryin cousins several generations back, our fambly tree splits and then meets up again.
This, oddly enough, causes my siblings to be my 5th cousins – and by extension, makes me my own 5th cousin.
(I know – there’s a song….)
Mom is the genealogist and historian, but is careful what skeletons she’ll document. Adoptions are listed as natural births so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings. It was just recently that I learned that several direct fambly members spent time in institutions for the insane.
…..which made everything so much more understandable.
On the subject of lawn mowing…apparently it is impossible to put a muffler on a lawn mower. That is if my neighbors are any indication.
You should invent one