Linda Z

I have a cute story about my son and tomatoes. One year when he was little, I was on an organic gardening kick. I was out in the garden putting manure on the tomato plants when he strolled over, looked at me, looked at the bucket of manure, sniffed the air, made a face, and asked, "Mommy. Is that poop you're putting on those plants?" "Why yes, it is, sweetie. It's called manure, and it makes the plants grow big and healthy." He looked disgusted, and said, "Well, I'll never be eating tomoatoes again!" He had the same reaction when he saw me making homemade sausage in the canning room at Rome City. Today he eats both tomatoes and sausage.

Holy salsa, Cowgirl! If all 136 of your tomato plants had survived, they would have yielded roughly 750 pounds of tomatoes!!! I hope you thanked your kids rather than punishing them. I like Ken's Sweet Vidalia Dressing, too. Never thought of putting it in pasta salad. Thanks for the tip, coolchef. Edited to remove extra zero. 7,500 pounds would have been really impressive!

simonzee, first let me say I've been remiss in not saying it's sure good to "see" you around here. I always enjoy your posts. After reading your latest offerings on the Politics 'n Tacks and the Playing (with your) Balls forums, I gotta ask: Have you ever thought of writing for a living? Because I have known many, many writers in my (lo these many) years who are much less talented and articulate and imaginative than you. You could, y'know. And good morning to all the rest of you 9th Corps folks. I'm off to the mall to try to find some of that spackle makeup.

Johniam: Yes, that's correct. The main nationally distributed ones were the Berkeley Barb, the LA Free Press, the Village Voice, and I guess you could add the SF Oracle, although it was a little more psychedelic and a little less newsy, as I recall.

Jard, here's a link that has links to several resources for researching the genealogy of people from Mexicio. You might have already checked this out, but if not, it might be helpful: http://genealogy.about.com/od/mexico/ Don't be discouraged about a common name. I have Smiths on both sides of my family, and I've had more success finding out about them than I would have imagined. One thing I love about genealogy is the great networking! Just yesterday I got a big surprise from my cousin's daughter, who also has the genealogy bug. She found 1841 and 1851 census records in England for my Smith great-great-grandparents on my dad's side of the family and e-mailed them to me. They were here waiting for me after a looooooooooooong week at work. I'd tried to find them before and failed. You'd be amazed what clues can help with a common name. In this case, there were two. One was that my Smiths, on one census, were living with my relatives with a not-so-common name--my great-grandfather and his mom and dad and all his siblings except the youngest, who wasn't born yet. The second clue was that they were living in the tiny mining town where my great-grandfather was born. One of the records also solved another mystery: Dad had tried to find this place in England called "Twizell" for years, because it's on my great-grandfather's birth certificate. He had checked old maps and atlases of Durham County, England, and had asked English researchers--nada. Lo and behold, on the 1851 census, we discovered that the family lived at "50 Twizell Cottage" in a township by another name that wasn't even on the birth certificate. All the men in the family were coal miners, so I wouldn't be surprised if these cottages were owned by the mining company. So that's the way genealogy goes. You might search for months and keep hitting brick walls. Then, out of the blue, another piece of the puzzle falls into your lap. Dr. OilField: If you were born in 1832, may I pleeeeeease interview you when you get back to the USA?

Happy, happy birthday to our favorite GREEN farm dude!!

Apparently not enough.

Sister exsie, happiest of birthdays to you. I could have done this in the open b'day thread, but I like this one. Some of us are sorta in the same boat. Actually, some of us are in the boat that floated around with Noah's family and a bunch of critters...but we're still floatin'! Enjoy your day, my friennd. Love you lots and lots, Linda WayferNot, if you liked the Goldie photo, you'll probably like this site. It has photos of quite a few celebs sans makeup: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/celeb.html Once when I saw Goldie accepting an award, looking so young and gorgeous, and I thought, damn, how can she look that good? Then I pictured her without a wig, with no makeup, and without her boobs held up with tape and her tummy tucked in with whatever they tuck tummies in with. It made me feel better. :D

Here ya go!

Too funny!!

Foggie, I'm so sorry this has happened in Sidney and to someone close to your daughter. I liked visiting Sidney when I lived in NK. Sad to think of all these crimes happening there. Praying for your safety, for you and your daughter and the good folks of Sidney to find peace, and that the authorities find the murderer quickly.

Mo, that's so true about the documents. I don't remember if I mentioned it earlier in this thread or in an e-mail to laleo, but I have marriage license applications signed by my great-great-grandmother for her two underage daughters, and on each she spelled her last name differently. Either that or one (or both) girls forged her signature. But different members of the family, who lived at the same time, used the two different spellings, so maybe no one was sure which was the right spelling! On a related note, I was telling laleo the other night that another confounding factor is that people would lie to hide scandals. My dad's paternal aunts always told him he had a great-aunt who died in childhood. It turned out that she actually committed suicide when she was about 19, but apparently Dad's aunts wanted to keep that skeleton in the closet. That's a great tip, Mo, about getting someone to pronounce foreign names to figure out how they might have been spelled phonetically. I found some of my Thoburn ancestors on one census spelled Phorburn! I never would have looked under that name in a million years. I think my cousin stumbled across it because someone in the family with a different last name was living in the household and she searched that name. I'm going to try that trick Mo mentioned about searching a town for just a first name. I have one great-grandmother whose maiden name turns up nothing, no matter how many ways I can try the spelling. HAP, loved your stories, too. I always thought it would be nearly impossible to search for ancestors in non-English sources, but you've proven me wrong. Almost all my folks were English or Scottish or Irish, so at least I don't have a big language barrier. laleo, what I did was so minimal that it's almost embarrassing to be thanked, but I'm glad your dad's enjoying the find. That's how genealogy works sometimes. You can search for months or years for something, and then someone comes along and gives you a little boost that sends you in the right direction...one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. If anyone else reading this thread is interested in genealogy but inexperienced, please jump in. As you can see, people are more than happy to share!

Hi kyhills...welcome to GS! That's a cool site. Unfortunately it's only helpful if your ancestors arrived here in 1892 or later, but it's really an interesting resource.

mstar, what a treasure has been passed down to you! I have lots of notes from my GG-grandmother and her father, but the info from the early 19th-century and before is highly suspect, having been meddled with by some unscrupulous "professionals" who tried to squeeze one line of the family into someone's royal Dutch lineage, to try to lay claim to a huge inheritance and vast land holdings in Manhattan. It was all BS. laleo, I knew with your inquiring mind you'd get hooked. Enjoy! And please tell your father the pleasure was all mine. The only thing I enjoy more than the "thrill of the chase" is knowing that what I've found brings a smile to someone.

The definition of morocco in Merriam-Websters is "a fine leather from goatskin tanned with sumac." A "dresser" of leather was one who prepared it for use, best I can tell. Since your ancestor lived in the same household with a shoe manufacturer, that fits perfectly. Fun, isn't it?

Hey! Noticed something already. Living with your grandmother and her mother was (can I hear a "Bingo!") her mothner's mother. Definitely a German name. If this is the right record, which I surmise it is since your grandmother's month and year of birth are correct and this is the record you told me about. I'll e-mail you the name and keep poking.

Hi laleo: Yes, dealing with gov't bureaucracies isn't for sissies, for sure. That's why I recommended the Philadelphia Historical Society. And in the process of noodling around with this a little bit on my lunch hour, I discovered that the president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (another resource) is named Mooney! That and $5 will get you a cup of coffee and a donut at Starbucks, but I found it an interesting coincidence. Maybe an omen...chuckle...just kidding. BUT if he or she (only saw initials, so I don't know the gender) happens to be a genealogy buff, maybe he/she has already uncovered the info you need and it's sitting on a shelf in the society's library. Stranger things have happened. I'll poke around a bit and see if I uncover any clues. I love a good mystery.

Or perhaps he thought he was getting a legit degree, just like we thought we might at the various Way campuses. I knew they were in the process of trying to get accreditation when I went into the Family Corps, but I didn't care about the piece of paper. I just wanted to learn. I have no idea what VP's mindset was--whether he was duped into thinking the program at Pike's Peak was worthwhile or if he was intentionally "buying" an advanced degree. It would seem we can only speculate.

I imagine it's the Social Security Death Index bowtwi's friend is referring to. The index is one of the things that comes up on an Ancestry.com search. The copy of the SS application form I got for my mother's stepfather didn't have any info we didn't already know, unfortunately--nothing about his parents. But the requirements for the form might have varied from year to year or decade to decade and some forms might have more info. However, if your grandmother was born in 1897, being a woman it's possible she never got a Social Security number, since Social Security didn't start till 1935, I believe it was, off the top of my head. Sometimes churches have baptismal records. If she was a churchgoer, and your dad knows what denomination, you could direct the search there. I haven't used the local LDS Family History Library yet, but they have tons of records on microfilm. Here's another possibility: You can try putting in fewer search terms (e.g., just her surname if it's not a super common name) and see who pops up in Philadelphia with that name around the time she lived there. Then search the men of that line backwards and forward without limiting the search to Pennsylvania. I know this is a hit-and-miss method, but sometimes you get lucky. And back to her mother's illegible name: Unless it's completely obliterated, you'd be amazed at what an experienced researcher can see in that old-style writing. There might be someone at your local historical society who's adept at that.

Sudo said: "It's the not 'F' word so much as it is the vile references to women by crude names for their genitals. Its disgusting." I've never watched it, but the first time I heard the C-word, I'd be outa there! I can cuss like a sailor, but I have my limits. Sensibilities about language are a funny thing. There are some words I hate to hear (chalk-on-a-blackboard hate) and would never, never say. I suppose the frequent use of the F word could be justified by saying that the swear words they actually used wouldn't have the same impact on or would be unfamiliar to a modern audience. "Kiss my backside, you whited sepulcher" might lose the average 21st-century viewer. But as for the series, I don't have HBO. Maybe I'll rent a DVD to see what all the furor is about and plug my ears when the offensive names for women's body parts are uttered.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, TempleLady is a genealogy buff, too. I hope she and HAP will chime in here, too, because I'd love to hear what they have to say!

Watch out, laleo. This is how it starts. You'll be hooked before you know it. There are tons of genealogy Web sites, and given Philadelphia's long history, I'll bet it has a robust historical society. Some such societies have pretty extensive records to search. Philadelphia's most likely has a Web site and if it does, it might have a genealogy section. The main site I use is Ancestry.com, but I also use genealogy.com, rootsweb.com, and familysearch.org, which is affiliated with the LDS church/libraries. A couple caveats about familysearch: Its search engine is rather cumbersome to use, and it contains tons of undocumented data from lots and lots of amateur genealogists. However, I have found clues there that I've in turn been able to use in searching some of the better sites. Another great source is the National Archives in D.C. Before Ancestry.com had passenger lists online, I found my father's maternal great-grandfather's family on a passenger list after searching through lots of (unfortunately unindexed, in this case) microfilms (warning: they have the clunkiest old microfilm readers you'll ever encounter). They also have volunteer genealogists (at least they did the first time I went there) who are happy to offer suggestions on where/how to search. I can't think of any shortcuts, per se. You need persistence, creative thinking, patience, and sometimes luck. A fun example of the latter: My dad, who worked for years on our family history and then passed the mantle to me, always suspected one of his great-grandfathers was a bigamist, because when Dad had written to the National Archives in the 70s for the man's Civil War pension records, he discovered that two women had filed for his widow's pension and that there was a dispute. He had never sent for the full record (probably because of the rather hefty cost--the price for a record is the same whether the document has 1 page or 500, and you don't know how much is there until you fork over the cash unless you're searching in person), so bigamy was just an educated guess. Lo and behold, a couple years ago, my cousin (also a genealogy buff) came across a newspaper clipping that some kind soul had transcribed and posted on one of the genealogy Web site's message boards (more on this in a minute). The article, from a newspaper in some dinky little town in Iowa where this ancestor had settled with his second wife, outlined the whole scandal, which unfolded after his death when the two wives discovered each other's existence. I've since obtained, through a distant cousin who sent for it before I had a chance, the entire 200+-page file on the pension dispute, including written depositions from my great-great-grandmother, my great-great-grandfather's siblings, my great-grandmother, and others. A goldmine of clues. Back to the message boards: Even if your "brick wall" relative, in this case your grandmother, has no other surviving descendants and you and your dad are the only ones searching for info about her, someone, somewhere might have already come across her info in the course of their own research and posted it on a genealogy Web site's message board. Ancestry.com has such a board (under "Ancestry Community"), as does genealogy.com. Genealogists, generally speaking, are extremely generous when it comes to sharing information. Of course you have to sift the wheat from the chaff, because not all researchers are careful about documenting said info. I have another cousin (whom I've never met and haven't yet corresponded with) who has a whole Web site mostly devoted to a bogus genealogy that my mother's Great-Great-Great-Aunt paid to have done back in the 20s by an unscrupulous company that was trying to convince anyone by the name of Webber that they were the rightful heirs of a big chunk of Manhattan! Back to your grandmother: Another thing that's helped me when I'm stuck (which is often) is to search names of family members who aren't in my direct line. You'd be surprised who shows up living with whom on the census records and what rich clues you can find that way. Did your grandmother have any siblings? Does your father remember any of his cousins' names? Clues, you're always looking for clues. Which brings me to rule number 1 of genealogic research: Start with your oldest living relatives (which, unfortunately for you, might be just your father) and ask them questions. I put together a questionnaire for my parents (which I really really wish I'd done for my grandparents and other old folks while they were alive!!). I included all sorts of questions totally unrelated to genealogy (e.g., "Did your grandmother play a musical instrument?") in hopes that they would stir a memory that just might nudge another memory, and so on. One more thing and then I'll shut up: Get creative with Google. I've found newspaper clippings and other solid info by searching various family members' names, the names of their small towns, in as many combinations as I can think of. It's probably not the most efficient approach, but I have found some great stuff and had fun in the process, reading other people's family history Web sites and such. OK, I lied...one more thing, which you might already know but I'll mention it anyway. Census enumerators were not always sure how to spell people's names so they took their best guesses (especially if the person giving the info was illiterate--not at all uncommon in the 19th century). Check all variant spellings you can think of. In our family we have found our ancestors on the census as Britton, Brittain, and Britten. I have copies of documents signed by another great-grandmother who signed her own name with two different spellings! It's an adventure, I tell ya. You'll be hooked! E-mail me if you like, and I can help search if you want me to try. I enjoy the challenge like crazy, even when not researching my own family. I have two families I've researched after buying their 19th-century journals at an estate auction--no success in finding any living (or interested) descendants so far, but it was fun anyway. Really shutting up now.

Raf, I discovered the answer with the help of my good friend Google. OilFieldMedic, are you really coming home today??? I guess if you are, you're probably not online. But let us know when you're back home safe and sound!

Tom Cruise Top Gun Val Kilmer

i was tryin' to be good and keep my lips zipped, but since Geo spilled the beans.... CONGRATS!!