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This is why I am a pescetarian (sp?), instead of vegetarian. :D
I hate when I'm writing and I get interpreted. I lose my flow and then my drive to write dies, especially if it's not a long term pursuit but just a short little thing like a one-shot or a drabble.
Aha, went bowling today with some friends. Learned that no, Friend A is not gay, yes, Friend M is insane, and that I'm selectively good at bowling. (I always must alternate hands in order to hit the pins, if not, I'll miss for sure which technically means I actually suck, but yeah...)
Also, I basically ate half a cake.
I have no regrets.
Family history is actually hugely facinating!
Me and mum are tracking back her paternal line - father, grandfather, greatgrandfather etc. We've got to my great-grandfather's great-grandfather, a guy by the name of Daniel, who may have been born in 1804. Several interesting thing have popped up:
- There is no other record thus far (except family history anecdotes) of Daniel.
- Daniel (according to said anecdotes) had three sons. We've definitely pinned down two sons. We can't find the third. He might have stayed in Scotland while the other two shipped out to Aus/NZ
- The brother of many times great grandad (we think), named George, was somewhat prolific - he had twelve kids.
- George's fourth son was apprenticed to his (we think) uncle William (my many times great grandad), before founding his own company along with five of his six sons (he had 5 daughters too).The interesting bit - we didn't know they existed until we started looking - but the family lived about 30mins drive from where I live.
- There is another family, living in the same small town, at the same time, with the same surname, as William. We cannot prove they are related to us. It's REALLY annoying.
I need to chill with my grandmother sometime, as she is in possession of records pertaining to my mom's side of the family.
- In among the Germans (Bavarians mostly) of that side of the family, there is one recent immigrant from a Russian-speaking nation. I don't know who it is.
- My great-(great?)-grandmother was named Mariah or Marie. I believe that she died of the Spanish flu in 1918. My mom's middle name is Marie, and my birth middle name Mariah, after her.
- My grandmother's mother had twelve children (and a stillbirth) ranging from the early 30s to the early 60s. For comparison, my mother's older brother was born in about 1961. One of his aunts/uncles (if they lived) would have been about a year younger than him.
- My biological grandfather was one of ten children. He and his father were both alcoholics, and probably suffered from depression. They're almost certainly where me and my mother get it from.
- The women in my mother's family tend to die of or suffer from "female cancer". This includes my mother, who had cervical cancer in her twenties. I am getting my parts removed asap because of this.
- Other than the unknown Russian speaker, my mother's side of the family had all come to the United States by 1880, and all settled in South Dakota. They all married into the German community there.
I know that everyone in my family comes from various schtetls in Russia. I think we know the name of one of them.
I also know that at least one of my relatives came through Ellis island, as we found the manifest online.
But this all pales in comparison to the weird stuff my family has been involved with regarding the military in the past. My great-grandparents had informants in Russia that let them run before they could be conscripted, my grandmother was a coded signals operator during WWII, and my dad worked for the part of RCA that developed code scramblers and guidance controls for ICBMs.
Whoa.
...my great-grandfather volunteered for WWII even though he was relatively old, and then stayed in Europe for a time after rehabilitating POWs.
The rest of us are incredibly boring, though.
Whoa.
Best I got is a great uncle shot in the arm in WWII.
It's kinda amazing what you can find out. My grandfather's here at the moment, and he knows a whole pile. Me and mum are keeping him talking, and we want to get mum's dictaphone out and record stuff.
I'm largely of Scots descent - Dad's family (and I mean The Family, several cousins and second cousins came over too) emigrated to NZ in the 50's. Mum's family have been in NZ since the 50's as well... the 1850's. Which is only 10 years after NZ actually became a country.
We've got one suspicious death - her name was Joy, and she was my grandad's next oldest brother's wife. Well, his first wife. She died 'officially' of drowning, but there's some question as to whether she was pushed off the cliff beforehand.
Our other possible suspicious death is John Gray - only son of Old William, who died at 38 in a crazyhouse. Cause of death was “General paralysis of the Insane”. He'd managed to have 5 kids before he went nuts and died.
-> So, the only child of a distinguished person of the town (who lived to 102!), dies at a relatively young age, supposedly crazy. Why can we find nothing about this?
My great Uncle (After whom I'm named) was apparently a member of the Freemasons. Concievably, I could thus join their organization, assuming they still only accept relatives of members (Not sure if I'm thinking of the right group...)
Sadly, I'm Jewish, and joining the Freemasons would make me shunned at best and, more likely, excommunicated, which presumably involves being un-circumcised and having my abilities to pronounce the, "Ch," sound and doing that Star Trek hand sign taken away.
Also, my grandcestor was an American who lead a (Failed) revolution against Washington.
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