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“Ancestrous” Relationships

There was strong interest in starting a genealogy category on WGOM, and I've been sitting on this until I had my surgery to have something to work on while recovering. Since there are a plethora of genealogy related topics, I'm going to make this a stream-of-consciousness introductory post to touch on a lot of things, and entertain ideas for future posts to tackle specifics.

Genealogy is is possibly the second most searched topic on the web (behind pr0n, obviously) and as the years have gone on there has been a flood of data made available online.

There are many aspects of genealogy that intrigue people and get them fired up research their own families, but one of the biggest drives is also one of the most misguided: everyone wants to discover that they're related to George Washington, Charlemagne, or any number of famous figures in history. My recommendation is not to get caught up name-grabbing -- the further back you go with your research, the more chances that mistakes are made. Much more meaningful is to gather the stories and data of your more recent ancestors.

First rule of starting your genealogy research: begin with what you know. Begin with your parents, and their parents, etc, as far back as people can provide. This is your base. Using US census data (now public up to 1940) you will be able to flesh out their families and track their movements. In addition, several states had rudimentary state census "on the 5's" between the US census decades between the later 1800's and the early 1900's. Obviously the further back you go, the more people you will be tracking. I found it most convenient to limit to your direct ancestors and their children, although I would take some side branches down if there were relatives I was close to in those branches.

Second rule of your genealogy research: if you don't already have one, get a library card! There are multiple pay sites which have genealogy data, but most all of them provide free access (some limited, some complete) through your local library. In addition, most library systems have helpful resident genealogy assistants available to answer questions. There is no reason to throw money at Ancestry.com or other pay sites, at least not until your tree has expanded enough to need help.

Third rule of your genealogy research: gather source information. These could be primary sources (birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates) or secondary sources (letters, family stories, military service, passengers lists, church records, cemetery markers, etc). In all cases, document where your data comes from! And for crying out loud, get copies of photographs -- it's wonderful to have faces to go with the names. (In the photo above, those are my great grandparents in front, and my mother's father second from the right in the middle row.)

You'll find that your families congregated in certain locations, and it is valuable to get to know the various Historical Societies in those cities / counties. My mother's side spent years in Douglas County MN, and the folks at Alexandria have been very helpful in getting family info, property data, etc. Mrs. Runner had ancestors in Rutland County VT, and helpful researchers there as well as a third cousin of hers had a lot of useful help.

You will want to find a website or software to record what you find. I use an older versions of Family Tree Maker, but if I were to start now, I think I'd create a tree at FamilySearch and have it on the cloud -- the Mormons are leaders in genealogy research. In all cases, be sure to enter your sources when recording each piece of data -- this will help in eliminating questionable entries.

If you are up to it, it's also valuable to have online visibility. I used genealogy as an excuse to learn HTML, and used free RootsWeb (which has been sucked up by Ancestry.com) to host my webpages. I have had countless contacts by relatives (and non-relatives) of me or my wife over the years who have stumbled onto my website via some search engine. It also makes for a nice repository to share info with others in your family who might be doing research as well.

Here are some example sources I have used in doing research on my side of the family and my wife's side of the family.

One thing you should definitely do is set some goals. One goal I had was to take each branch of my family and my wife's family back across the ocean. I've been mostly successful -- my side is pretty much right off the boat, but that includes ancestors from northern Germany 1860-1870 with the difficult-to-search surname Will which has been a tough nut to crack. My wife's side has some fairly longtime US residents in it including Civil War vets from both sides, but she has an Irishman with a fairly common name (James Morgan 1860s) and a Prussian with an uncommon name (Grzmocinsky 1880s). I've been sitting on them, knowing that someday some group's effort to digitize data that will include the smoking gun I've been looking for.

A few useful terms:
GEDCOM -- the standard file extension/format for disseminating a family tree
ahnentafel -- ("name table" in German) this is a numbering scheme for identifying direct-line ancestors and descendants. If you are person #2 in your file, for instance, your father would be #4 (2 * 2) and your mother would be #5 (2 * 2 +1); your father's parents would be #8 and #9.
soundex -- this is a system for organizing names by phonetics to better find matches on names which are difficult to spell consistently. Format is a first letter followed by three numbers; here is a converter to play with. You will find many lists indexed by Soundex for convenient searching
patronymic surname -- think Scandinavian, where the child's surname is based on the father's given name. Torsten's children would be Torstensson or Torstensdatter, for instance. btw, generally you'll find Norwegian and Danish surnames ending with ...SEN, and Swedish with ...SSON. Patronymic naming ended by national decree throughout the 1800s to early 1900s.
Cyndi's List -- Cyndi Ingle started a list of genealogical websites grouped and categorized, and it's pretty much grand central station for finding specific information by location or whatever.

Sorry this has rambled so much, but I wanted to get some groundwork out there to spur discussion. I'd be happy to answer any questions or take suggestions for more specific help.

Your 2017 Twins Are…

Forking off the discussion to here...

Here's my barely half baked attempt at a 2017 lineup.

Listing it out...

Catcher: ???
First: Mauer.
Second: Dozier.
Third: Sano. UZR had him as a plus fielder there this year and last.
Shortstop: Polanco? UZR did not like his fielding at short.
Right: Kepler.
Center: Buxton.
Left: ???

Suzuki's option did not vest so I think that makes him a free agent. That leaves Murphy as the catcher to start the season. Grossman is the obvious one to put in left but, well, gross. Maybe Rosario instead? Scouts never liked Polanco's fielding at short and the metrics agree with them. Escobar would then be the shortstop but he needs to bring back the 2015 version.

WGOM SUMMER MIX 2016

Well, here we go folks. Was hoping to get this out by the 21st, but a busy schedule, houseguests, and travel put it on the back burner. That said, I've gone through this a number of times, and I think it's a pretty good mix, y'all. As with last time, "flow" was taken into account (with a tiny bit of theme thrown in), so management recommends you listen in order. Thanks to everyone for your input, and we'll see you back here next year.

01PrinceLet's Go Crazy
02Hop AlongSister Cities
03Khun NarinLong Wat
04Sturgill SimpsonKeep It Between The Lines
05BeruitGibraltar
06David BowieHeroes
07OperatorsControl
08Tom PettyAmerican Girl
09The MonkeesYou Bring The Summer
10Car Seat HeadrestVincent
11Horse LordsTruthers
12Thao & The Get Down Stay DownNobody Dies
13The Explorers ClubSummer Days Summer Nights
14DieselSausalito Summernight
15Girl BandI Love You
16PubertyParties
17Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night SweatsI Need Never Get Old
18Alabama ShakesThe Greatest
19Massive AttackVoodoo In My Blood
20New KingdomAnimal
21Julien BakerEverybody Does
22William TylerSunken Garden
23PrinceIt's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

Tracks #10 and #20 are a teensy bit NSFW, but it's more the blink and you miss it variety.

If anyone should want the access a folder with all of the songs, just send me an email at my user name (no spaces) [at] this here website's domain.

2 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 102 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10 (2 votes, average: 9.50 out of 10)
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Half-Baked Hall: 1945 Results

Sorry we're moving at a snail's pace here. My hours at work should abate sometime around July which will help. Also, maybe hungryjoe will have a computer by then.  I'm not bothering to create crappy plaques this time around. Maybe they'll get made later.

I also have to mention I completed spaced the pitchers who retired in 1943. Carl Hubbell sent me an angry tweet. That will be rectified on the next ballot.

Continue reading Half-Baked Hall: 1945 Results

What’s Your Pie Chart?

No, I’m not going to do the same pie chart survey that nibs did for FMD a bit ago, as enjoyable as it was. I’m thinking more about the range of books we each read as individuals.

For those who contribute to the First(ish) Monday Book Day discussions, I see what you’re reading at any given moment. But how would you characterize your reading? Mostly fiction? Split between fiction and nonfiction? What type of fiction? Do you gravitate toward classics or do you seek out what’s new? Now, “all of them” is of course an acceptable answer to this question.

I’m doing a bit of traveling this month, and the other day I was telling a coworker about what books I'm taking with me. In case I finish need a break from Infinite Jest, I picked up a couple of books from the library. One is a work of young adult nonfiction about Shostakovich and the other is a non-young adult nonfiction book about the origins of the Civil Rights movement in Minnesota (non-young is totally a term, right?). My coworker commented that I seem to read a lot of nonfiction.

The conversation got me thinking about what my own reading looks like from the outside. The current batch of books is perhaps not especially representative of how I see my own reading. I found nibs’s comment in the most recent FMD about not seeking out much new music interesting--I don’t recall seeking out much in the way of reading material after the jalapeño was born, excepting books about babies, breastfeeding, sleep, and all that good stuff. My brain was just so overloaded trying to make the transition to being a parent that I couldn’t take in anything else. Meanwhile, one of my great memories of my maternity leave with the peperoncino is tearing through book after book, many of them young adult fiction.

I’m an inconsistent reader. I get ambitious, I take breaks. I get books from the library only to end up returning them on their due date not having gotten through a single page. But I also adore the experience of reading, and I get nearly as excited about talking about books as I do about reading them. (Which you can probably tell right now, as you’re silently saying, “Pepper, just wrap this damn thing up already, would you?")

The featured image for this post is a pie chart of my current reading habits. Feel free to share a pie chart of your own along with whatever it is you've been reading lately.

Fun fact: my first attempt at the pie chart added up to a total of 130%. Perhaps I need to read more books about math?

Half-Baked Hall: 1944-1945

1944 and 1945 were different years for MLB, with most of the stars joining the service. However, a lot of old stars with decrepit bodies were retiring at the same time.

See below for your write-up assignments. Random.org once again believes only Scot should write about the Senators. I gave some of you two assignments. If you feel you can't do them, let me know as soon as possible.

Blurb Date: March 7th

Final Ballot

Red Faber: 71%
Wally Schang: 41%
Joe Sewell: 47%

New Hitters

Dolph Camilli (yickit)
Harlond Clift (bhiggum)
Joe Cronin (Scot)
Tony Cuccinello (DPWY)
Jimmie Foxx (CanofCorn)
Babe Herman (daneekasghost)
Bob Johnson (Beau)
Chuck Klein (philosofer)
Al Simmons (New Britain Bo)
Lloyd Waner (nibbish)
Paul Waner (nibbish)

New Pitchers

Paul Derringer (bhiggum)
Willis Hudlin (DPWY)
Van Mungo (Beau)
Lon Warneke (yickit)

Stats

Half-Baked Hall: 1943 Results

So yeah, that was a long break. Part of that is I got a promotion that makes me a lot busier. Part of that is hungry joe is no longer able to help with plaques. If anyone else wants to take that on, let me know. Meanwhile, you get horrendous, barely able to read plaques made in Microsoft Paint.

We had a record low 17 voters this time around. But we managed to get a few people into the Hall, including one player who was on his 6th ballot.

Continue reading Half-Baked Hall: 1943 Results