Sunday Search: Planning For 2020

Five years seems a long way off but if it goes by as fast as the last half decade (and especially the last six months) it won’t be long before we are all, once again, heading down to Virginia for another reunion. Over the last couple of months (yes, it has been that long already) I have been thinking about different things to include the next time around and what I would like to see organized by the next time we get together. Some of these things are general ideas while others are specific items I want to finally check off my list (a number of these things I have been meaning to get done for some time now).

Bear in mind, these are things that I hope to do in order to enhance or build upon the fantastic work that has already been done in previous years. We are a big family and it is similar to herding chickens when it comes to getting us all together. Each reunion, from what I have heard since I have only been to two, has been a great experience for all in attendance and a tremendous success overall. Like putting the pieces together in the family tree, I hope to build upon what has already been done.

So, let’s start with the general, yet specific, things that I hope we are able to arrange. The first big one is a project that I am not spearheading (but I will be happy to assist) which is getting the family tree (all branches) loaded onto a website where all family members will have access and can notify us of any updates. This will also be a great place where documents and pictures can be shared and enjoyed by all. I really hope to see this up and running well before the next reunion.   

Personally, I hope to coordinate tours of some of the towns and places where our family once (and still does in certain instances) lived. This was a great experience when we walked around these places over the summer and I hope to have a larger group next time around. Additionally, I hope to have a listing of the local cemeteries where we can find our cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. Hopefully, we can add a few names to this list as well before the next reunion. Lastly, it would be nice to have access to the local records offices so that we can have basically a group research project. It should be a lot fast with each of us searching for pieces and putting them together at the end of the day.

Of course, there are also numerous goals that I hope to reach by the time we meet again. First and foremost are the applications to the Sons of the American Revolution and the Monacan Indian Nation. The former is purely a formality as we have more than enough documentation to satisfy the membership requirements. The latter is proving to be more difficult as specific documents need to be found in order to prove lineage. It is not an impossible task just a tedious one. However, it will all be worth it in the end.

In addition to the above, I hope to secure some donations for the raffle and coordinate what I hope will be some fun activities. As I think about it, Genealogy Jeopardy or Six degrees of family history could be interesting games to play. Pursuing raffle items could be interesting as well given that there are a variety of books that pertain to our family history, memberships and application fees that would be great auction items, as well as prints and other items that would be great to create (although I don’t think we could do better than the quilt that was raffled off this time around).

I am also curious to pursue various possible partnerships. It would be great to partner with a site like ancestry.com to add another dimension to the gathering. I hope to have mutually beneficial things like this coordinated so that we get some great insights into the family research while they (ancestry or some other site/group) have a perfect opportunity for a case study. After all, many of us are on ancestry already and can tell our family story through the leaves on the trees and the items that we have personally uploaded.

In the end, the most important thing for me to do personally is to keep working on the family history. Not just searching for and collecting the facts, documents, and photos but telling the stories of the family on this blog. Who knows, maybe I can pull enough stories together over the next few years to publish a book. The stories are certainly plentiful, it is just a matter of sitting down and recording the family history.

So Long Precious Hour Of Sleep

This weekend our alarms went off a little sooner, our eyes were a little heavier, and our son woke up a little later. The last one was welcomed but the first two we could have done without. With all the changes that have happened recently, daylight saving time was more of a shock to the system than it had been in the past.

One thing that has become precious to us (in addition to our son) is sleep. It is something that we enjoy while it lasts and are still not getting enough of which is why we have been dreading this weekend for months. A single hour may not seem like much to some, there is a good article in Time Magazine about the minimal impact of this time shift, but for us it makes a huge difference in our own sleep pattern and our son’s schedule. With that said, it is nice to wake up to a room filled with sunlight and hopefully the loss of time will mean the rapid arrival of warm weather and a release from the four walls of which we have grown rather tired.

While the momentary loss of sleep is something that we are not fond of, the approach of spring is something that we are both looking forward to. The weather combined with the birth of our son has kept us confined to our house more than usual this year and the ability to go outside and simply walk is something for which we have been longing. Not to mention that the bitter frigidity of the winter has wreaked havoc on the temperature inside our home. And this last note was really the driving force behind the adoption of daylight saving time.

While Ben Franklin is commonly considered the first to propose such an adjustment, the recent history of the adoption has a similar rational. Franklin’s proposal as well as the modern ones were a means of saving energy… candles in the beginning and fuel as the most recent rational. A more detailed look into the modern history can be found on Wikipedia. If you are interested in acquiring some more random knowledge (just in case you are even on Jeopardy) it is definitely worth reading.

So, what it comes down to is that in an effort to save some energy we are going to lose some energy for a day or two. Sometimes that seems like a fair trade but that has to be reserved to hindsight. However, having seen our recent PECO bills this winter I think I am okay with that even if we are a little grumpier than usual this weekend.

A Long Baby Appointment

Here is your obligatory baby photo for this post (old picture from 20 weeks).

For the past several months we have been seeing the doctor every four weeks to check in and make sure our son is on schedule. Last night was the last appointment in that particular schedule as we will now be heading to the doctor every two or three weeks until our son’s birthday. Thankfully, everything has checked out so far and he is developing close to what the doctor expects (he is actually a week ahead of schedule at this point).

However, while the baby is progressing as planned, the doctor was running late last night… very late. We both made our way to the office a little quicker than expected and checked in at the front desk about twenty five minutes early. Once a couple of seats opened up in the waiting room we settled in for the duration as given the mass of people in the office we knew there was no way that they would be running on time. Our appointment time came and went with little expectation as to when we would be seen.

Jeopardy kept us occupied for a little while but our patience began slowly degrading as Wheel of Fortune gradually killed our brain cells. By the time that show ended there were still a few of us fidgeting in the waiting room and what little patience was left quickly vanished once Dancing With The Stars came on. Honestly, I don’t know how people can watch that show. Fortunately, it wasn’t long after the dancing started when we heard my wife’s name being called and we moved as fast as we could to the examining room.

This change in scenery was met with more waiting as we could hear the doctor and nurses scurrying up and down the hallways like mice trying to escape from a trash can. This was accompanied by the sounds of heartbeats from the adjacent rooms. It was nearly 8:30 when the doctor finally opened the door, listened to the heart rate, took the usual measurements, and answered the couple of questions that we had for her. We discussed the net appointment and were on our way out having waited over two hours for a ten minute appointment.

It was a long night that followed a long day but it was well worth the wait as we were able to once again hear our son and watch him as he kicked wondering why he was being poked and prodded. Like many nights, that is what grounds us. But we also learned the important lesson to never again make a doctor appointment the week of Thanksgiving… I think even the baby was not happy about having to sit in the waiting room so long.

Commonality

I have never really given too much thought to my birthday in my adult life. It’s one of those things that, when you think about it, you are celebrating being another day older. I guess the only thing that comes about more often regarding this day is when someone has a similar birthday or some event happens to fall on this day. Other than that, it is an excuse to be with family and friends and to enjoy the fact that I have experienced a lot in the last year and however hard it may have been at times I have made it through.

Something fun to do this time of year is to find out what happened on this day and discover the people that I share this birthday with. This year, I share this Wikipedia list with you and I encourage you to do the same on your birthday as it is one of the ways to accumulate random Jeopardy knowledge. Enjoy!

Events:

• 355 – Roman Emperor Constantius II promotes his cousin Julian to the rank of Caesar, entrusting him with the government of the Prefecture of the Gauls.
• 1528 – Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot in the area that would become Texas.
• 1632 – Thirty years war: Battle of Lützen is fought, the Swedes are victorious but the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus dies in the battle.
• 1789 – Pope Pius VI appoints Father John Carroll as the first Catholic bishop in the United States.
• 1844 – The first constitution of the Dominican Republic is adopted.
• 1856 – Scenes of Clerical Life, the first work of fiction by the author later known as George Eliot, is submitted for publication.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.
• 1865 – American Civil War: CSS Shenandoah is the last Confederate combat unit to surrender after circumnavigating the globe on a cruise on which it sank or captured 37 unarmed merchant vessels.
• 1869 – In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.
• 1913 – Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
• 1917 – World War I: Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Passchendaele in Belgium.
• 1918 – The Second Polish Republic is proclaimed.
• 1934 – Memphis, Tennessee becomes the first major city to join the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• 1935 – Edwin Armstrong presents his paper "A Method of Reducing Disturbances in Radio Signaling by a System of Frequency Modulation" to the New York section of the Institute of Radio Engineers.
• 1935 – First flight of the Hawker Hurricane, with its K5083 first prototype.
• 1935 – Parker Brothers acquires the forerunner patents for MONOPOLY from Elizabeth Magie.
• 1939 – World War II: Sonderaktion Krakau takes place.
• 1941 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his 27-year rule. He falsely states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, the Germans had lost 4.5 million soldiers and that Soviet victory was near.
• 1942 – World War II: Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign begins.
• 1943 – World War II: the Soviet Red Army recaptures Kiev. Before withdrawing, the Germans destroy most of the city's ancient buildings.
• 1944 – Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
• 1947 – Meet the Press makes its television debut (the show went to a weekly schedule on September 12, 1948).
• 1948 – Deputy commander-in-chief of the Eastern China Field Army General Su Yu launches a massive offensive toward Xuzhou, defended by seven different armies under the Suppression General Headquarter of Xuzhou Garrison, the Huaihai Campaign. The largest operational campaign of the Chinese Civil War begins.
• 1962 – Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.
• 1963 – Vietnam War: Following the November 1 coup and execution of President Ngo Dinh Diem, coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over leadership of South Vietnam.
• 1965 – Cuba and the United States formally agree to begin an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States. By 1971, 250,000 Cubans had made use of this program.
• 1971 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.
• 1975 – Green March begins: 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara.
• 1977 – The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39.
• 1985 – In Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the 19th of April Movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, eventually killing 115 people, 11 of them Supreme Court justices.
• 1986 – Sumburgh disaster – A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes 2.5 !2¹⁄₂ miles east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people. It is the deadliest civilian helicopter crash on record.
• 1991 – The last Kuwaiti oil field fire is extinguished.
• 1995 – The Rova of Antananarivo, home of the sovereigns of Madagascar from the 16th to 19th centuries, is destroyed by fire.
• 1995 – Cleveland Browns relocation controversy: Art Modell announces that he signed a deal that would relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Ravens, the first time the city had a football team since 1983 when they were the Baltimore Colts.
• 1999 – Australians vote to keep the Head of the Commonwealth as their head of state in the Australian republic referendum.
• 2004 – An express train collides with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England, killing seven and injuring 150.

Births:

• 745 – Musa al-Kadhim, Imam (d. 799)
• 1391 – Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, English politician (d. 1425)
• 1479 – Joanna of Castile (d. 1555)
• 1494 – Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman sultan (d. 1566)
• 1550 – Karin Månsdotter, Swedish wife of Eric XIV of Sweden (d. 1612)
• 1607 – Sigmund Theophil Staden, German composer (d. 1655)
• 1661 – Charles II of Spain (d. 1700)
• 1692 – Louis Racine, French poet (d. 1763)
• 1753 – Jean-Baptiste Breval, French composer (d. 1823)
• 1753 – Mikhail Kozlovsky, Russian sculptor (d. 1802)
• 1814 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian musician, invented the saxophone (d. 1894)
• 1833 – Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (d. 1908)
• 1835 – Cesare Lombroso, Italian psychiatrist (d. 1909)
• 1841 – Nelson W. Aldrich, American politician (d. 1915)
• 1841 – Armand Fallières, French politician, President of France (d. 1931)
• 1851 – Charles Dow, American journalist and economist (d. 1902)
• 1854 – John Philip Sousa, American composer (d. 1932)
• 1855 – E. S. Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist, founded the Human Betterment Foundation (d. 1942)
• 1861 – James Naismith, Canadian-American inventor of basketball (d. 1939)
• 1880 – Robert Musil, Austrian author (d. 1942)
• 1880 – George Poage, American hurdler (d. 1962)
• 1880 – Chris van Abkoude, Dutch-American author (d. 1959)
• 1882 – Thomas H. Ince, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1924)
• 1884 – Mohammad-Taqi Bahar, Iranian poet, journalist, historian and professor of literature (d. 1951)
• 1887 – Walter Johnson, American baseball player (d. 1946)
• 1892 – Harold Ross, American journalist, co-founded The New Yorker (d. 1951)
• 1893 – Edsel Ford, American businessman (d. 1943)
• 1894 – Opal Kunz, early American aviator and feminist (d. 1967)
• 1903 – June Marlowe, American actress (d. 1984)
• 1906 – James D. Norris, American businessman (d. 1966)
• 1912 – N. Shanmugarajah, Ceylon Tamil engineer
• 1914 – Jonathan Harris, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1916 – Ray Conniff, American composer and conductor (d. 2002)
• 1921 – Eric Day, English footballer (d. 2012)
• 1921 – James Jones, American author (d. 1977)
• 1922 – Frank J. Lynch, American judge and politician (d. 1987)
• 1923 – Ray B. Sitton, American pilot and general (d. 2013)
• 1924 – Jeanette Schmid, Austrian whistler (d. 2005)
• 1925 – Michel Bouquet, French actor
• 1926 – Haradhan Bandopadhyay, Bengali-Indian actor (d. 2013)
• 1926 – Frank Carson, Irish comedian and actor (d. 2012)
• 1926 – Zig Ziglar, American author (d. 2012)
• 1930 – Tom Hornbein, American mountaineer
• 1931 – Peter Collins, English race car driver (d. 1958)
• 1931 – Mike Nichols, German-American director, screenwriter, and producer
• 1932 – Stonewall Jackson, American singer-songwriter
• 1932 – Francois Englert, Belgian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1937 – Leo Goeke, American tenor (d. 2012)
• 1937 – Garry Gross, American photographer (d. 2010)
• 1937 – Eugene Pitt, American singer (The Jive Five)
• 1937 – Marco Vassi, American author (d. 1989)
• 1937 – Joe Warfield, American actor and director
• 1938 – Mack Jones, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1938 – Branko Mikasinovich, Serbian journalist and scholar
• 1938 – P.J. Proby, American singer-songwriter and actor
• 1938 – Diana E. H. Russell, South African activist and author
• 1939 – Michael Schwerner, American activist (d. 1964)
• 1939 – Leonardo Quisumbing, Filipino jurist
• 1940 – Johnny Giles, Irish footballer
• 1940 – Ruth Messinger, American politician
• 1940 – Dieter F. Uchtdorf, American pilot and religious leader
• 1941 – Guy Clark, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1946 – Sally Field, American actress
• 1946 – Viivi Luik, Estonian poet and author
• 1946 – Fred Penner, Canadian singer and guitarist
• 1947 – Jim Rosenthal, English sportscaster
• 1947 – Edward Yang, Taiwanese director (d. 2007)
• 1947 – George Young, Scottish guitarist, songwriter, and producer (Easybeats and Flash and the Pan)
• 1947 – Carolyn Seymour, English actress
• 1948 – Sidney Blumenthal, American journalist
• 1948 – Glenn Frey, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Eagles)
• 1949 – Brad Davis, American actor (d. 1991)
• 1949 – Nigel Havers, English actor
• 1949 – Arturo Sandoval, Cuban trumpet player, pianist, and composer
• 1949 – Joseph C. Wilson, American diplomat
• 1950 – Amir Aczel, Israeli historian
• 1950 – Chris Glen, Scottish bass player (The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Michael Schenker Group)
• 1950 – Nimalan Soundaranayagam, Sri Lankan Tamil teacher and politician (d. 2000)
• 1951 – Peter Althin, Swedish lawyer and politician
• 1951 – John Falsey, American scriptwriter and producer
• 1952 – Michael Cunningham, American author
• 1953 – Frank Hanisch, German footballer
• 1954 – Catherine Crier, American judge, journalist, and author
• 1955 – Alton Coleman, American serial killer (d. 2002)
• 1955 – Maria Shriver, American journalist
• 1957 – Cam Clarke, American voice actor and singer
• 1957 – Klaus Kleinfeld, German businessman
• 1957 – Siobhán McCarthy, Irish actress and singer
• 1957 – Lori Singer, American actress
• 1958 – Trace Beaulieu, American actor
• 1959 – Mare Tommingas, Estonian dancer and choreographer
• 1960 – Michael Cerveris, American actor
• 1961 – Kazuhiko Aoki, Japanese video game designer
• 1961 – Craig Goldy, American guitarist (Dio, Giuffria, and Rough Cutt)
• 1961 – Florent Pagny, French singer-songwriter and actor
• 1962 – Aznil Nawawi, Malaysian actor and singer
• 1962 – Annette Zilinskas, American musician and singer, who was the original bass guitarist for The Bangles then later lead vocalist with Blood on the Saddle
• 1963 – Rozz Williams, American singer-songwriter (Christian Death, Shadow Project, and Premature Ejaculation) (d. 1998)
• 1964 – Kerry Conran, American director and producer
• 1964 – Arne Duncan, American educator, 9th United States Secretary of Education
• 1964 – Corey Glover, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Living Color and Galactic)
• 1964 – Greg Graffin, American singer-songwriter, producer, and author (Bad Religion)
• 1964 – Arkie Whiteley, Australian actress (d. 2001)
• 1965 – René Unglaube, German footballer
• 1966 – Peter DeLuise, American actor and director
• 1966 – Paul Gilbert, American guitarist and singer (Mr. Big, Racer X, and Yellow Matter Custard)
• 1966 – Elizabeth Price, English artist
• 1967 – Rebecca Schaeffer, American actress (d. 1989)
• 1968 – Caesar Meadows, American cartoonist
• 1968 – Kelly Rutherford, American actress
• 1968 – Alfred Williams, American football player
• 1968 – Jerry Yang, Taiwanese-American businessman, co-founded Yahoo!
• 1970 – Ethan Hawke, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1971 – Clonie Gowen, American poker player
• 1972 – Deivi Cruz, Dominican baseball player
• 1972 – Garry Flitcroft, English footballer
• 1972 – Adonis Georgiades, Greek politician and author
• 1972 – Thandie Newton, English actress
• 1972 – Rebecca Romijn, American actress
• 1973 – Nell McAndrew, English model
• 1974 – Zoe McLellan, American actress
• 1974 – Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian cyclist (d. 2009)
• 1975 – Tarmo Saks, Estonian footballer
• 1976 – Catherine Clark, Canadian journalist
• 1976 – Mike Herrera, American singer-songwriter and bass player (MxPx and Mike Herrera's Tumbledown)
• 1976 – Jodi Martin, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1976 – Pat Tillman, American football player (d. 2004)
• 1977 – Patrícia Tavares, Portuguese actress
• 1978 – Sandrine Blancke, Belgian actress
• 1978 – Daniella Cicarelli, Brazilian model and television host
• 1978 – Jolina Magdangal, Filipino singer and actress
• 1978 – Taryn Manning, American singer-songwriter and actress (Boomkat)
• 1978 – Zak Morioka, Brazilian race car driver
• 1979 – Adam LaRoche, American baseball player
• 1979 – Lamar Odom, American basketball player
• 1979 – Gerli Padar, Estonian singer
• 1979 – Brad Stuart, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Myolie Wu, Hong Kong actress
• 1981 – Cassie Bernall, American student, victim of the Columbine High School massacre (d. 1999)
• 1981 – Lee Dong-wook, South Korean actor
• 1981 – Kaspars Gorkšs, Latvian footballer
• 1981 – Andrew Murray, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1982 – Sowelu, Japanese singer
• 1982 – Steve Millar, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1983 – Jon Hume, Australian singer-songwriter and producer (Evermore)
• 1983 – Janette McBride, Filipino-Australian actress
• 1984 – Ricky Romero, American baseball player
• 1984 – Sebastian Schachten, German footballer
• 1985 – Ettore Marchi, Italian footballer
• 1986 – Katie Leclerc, American actress
• 1986 – Conor Sammon, Irish footballer
• 1987 – Ana Ivanovic, Serbian tennis player
• 1988 – Erik Lund, Swedish footballer
• 1988 – Emma Stone, American actress
• 1989 – Jozy Altidore, American soccer player
• 1989 – Shaina Magdayao, Filipino actress, singer, and dancer
• 1990 – André Schürrle, German footballer
• 1990 – Valentina Nappi, Italian pornographic actress and adult model
• 1992 – Paula Kania, Polish tennis player
• 1997 – Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, English actor