I had an appointment with a girl that I met in the Library to help her with her family history. I was a little bit late due to lots of people using Visitor Parking, but arrived and started working. Got a few basic generations down that she already had, and then got to work. She has Italian immigrant ancestry. Emigrated to the United States around 1929. Good era for Ships Passenger Rolls. We found the family all there excepting the oldest kid. She had none of this info. Add to that, we found an obituary for a great or grand uncle that outlined all of the kids, including married names of sisters. They were all Americanized, but getting the surnames of the married sisters, we were able to find their SSDI records and get exact dates and places for births and deaths, in addition to locations. The girl walked out with passenger lists, SSDI records, a WWI Draft Registration, the obit, and a few other documents. Things worked out really well.
It was four hours, and neither of us noticed how much time had gone by until then. We were both starved. So, I went to Taco Bell and she got some granola stuff. I can tell that she has healthier instincts than I do, but c'est la vie. She had paid me around $1.50 for copies. We weren't doing this as a client thing, but I just wanted to help. We got her started and I trained her on using new.familysearch.org, and we got some really good work done. In addition, I think that I got a friend. I don't do those things for charity, so to speak, I just felt like it was a good thing to do. Didn't expect the time commitment, but I was able to figure out a part of my tomorrow and things seemed to work out with it. And I will see her again on Monday. And then she leaves for New Jersey on Tuesday. She just came back from two years in Japan, so ...wow, yeah, I think I probably should ask her about the tsunami and earthquake stuff, but in the meantime, I haven't felt exhausted like that after doing family history work in a long time and it felt GREAT!
We were talking during the snack, and she asked me if I had ever heard of the 100 Hour Board. I used to be a writer, and told her that. She looked astounded and told me that she was the editor right now. I will not say my pseudonyms while writing. That's against Writer Policy, but she invited me to a shindig get-together thing happening tonight a ton of times and even though I said that I wouldn't go, I thought, "Why not?" and I wondered if she needed a ride. So, I showed up. Had a good chicken sandwich and some so-so chili and a drink.
But I also met a reader who was interesting. Finishing up his Masters in Comp Engineering, he seemed like a good guy. We had a conversation where we kind of forgot everyone else was around, and when we were done, there were only a few writers left. We left at the same time, and I got his email. Yeah, not my norm, but he's moving in two months and I'm moving in three weeks and I thought, in the words of Armande from Chocolat, "Live a little." And it made me grin afterwards. He got my email, too. It was sweet. So, yeah, no guarantees of anything, but it was fun and I felt great.
As I was driving away, I thought about how Chicago may be different just because I am not minding taking a chance as much as I used to. Made me happy, and he was grinning as he left. It was nice.
Rented True Grit the new version, and thought there were a lot of spare body parts in the film. It was unexpected and really emotionally gritty, so to speak. I could see that being a true story for someone's family at some point, but in the end I was glad that I had been knitting through it. Got an inch done on the second fingerless glove. No, I can't knit without looking yet, but I can look up and down pretty quickly. Never would be able to knit in an actual theater, though.
Oh, and awesome news! A girl from knitting group's son has the last episode for this section of Dr. Who. Totally stoked for watching it!
That's all for now.
The Genealogy Doctor
It was four hours, and neither of us noticed how much time had gone by until then. We were both starved. So, I went to Taco Bell and she got some granola stuff. I can tell that she has healthier instincts than I do, but c'est la vie. She had paid me around $1.50 for copies. We weren't doing this as a client thing, but I just wanted to help. We got her started and I trained her on using new.familysearch.org, and we got some really good work done. In addition, I think that I got a friend. I don't do those things for charity, so to speak, I just felt like it was a good thing to do. Didn't expect the time commitment, but I was able to figure out a part of my tomorrow and things seemed to work out with it. And I will see her again on Monday. And then she leaves for New Jersey on Tuesday. She just came back from two years in Japan, so ...wow, yeah, I think I probably should ask her about the tsunami and earthquake stuff, but in the meantime, I haven't felt exhausted like that after doing family history work in a long time and it felt GREAT!
We were talking during the snack, and she asked me if I had ever heard of the 100 Hour Board. I used to be a writer, and told her that. She looked astounded and told me that she was the editor right now. I will not say my pseudonyms while writing. That's against Writer Policy, but she invited me to a shindig get-together thing happening tonight a ton of times and even though I said that I wouldn't go, I thought, "Why not?" and I wondered if she needed a ride. So, I showed up. Had a good chicken sandwich and some so-so chili and a drink.
But I also met a reader who was interesting. Finishing up his Masters in Comp Engineering, he seemed like a good guy. We had a conversation where we kind of forgot everyone else was around, and when we were done, there were only a few writers left. We left at the same time, and I got his email. Yeah, not my norm, but he's moving in two months and I'm moving in three weeks and I thought, in the words of Armande from Chocolat, "Live a little." And it made me grin afterwards. He got my email, too. It was sweet. So, yeah, no guarantees of anything, but it was fun and I felt great.
As I was driving away, I thought about how Chicago may be different just because I am not minding taking a chance as much as I used to. Made me happy, and he was grinning as he left. It was nice.
Rented True Grit the new version, and thought there were a lot of spare body parts in the film. It was unexpected and really emotionally gritty, so to speak. I could see that being a true story for someone's family at some point, but in the end I was glad that I had been knitting through it. Got an inch done on the second fingerless glove. No, I can't knit without looking yet, but I can look up and down pretty quickly. Never would be able to knit in an actual theater, though.
Oh, and awesome news! A girl from knitting group's son has the last episode for this section of Dr. Who. Totally stoked for watching it!
That's all for now.
The Genealogy Doctor
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