Well, I guess you're never too old for a new adventure. We've moved close to the Virginia area from which some of our Kentucky ancestors moved over eight generations ago (counting from my grandkids generation). We're also working on the parents living with their grown kids and their family "thing". Still living in boxes. Still constructing a real kitchen from a basement wet bar (think 8 inch sink or so). Guys standing behind me as I type this, are running wires from one end of the basement to the other end of the house to the breaker box; drilling into concrete to lay a drainage line for my washing machine; Virginia basement bedrooms need windows to the outside so the firefighters can save you; the hills/mountains disrupt cell phone coverage; google maps is my constant companion; finding new doctors, hair stylists, on and on and on. The forest and trails behind our backyard are beautiful. The schools in the neighborhood are great. The kids have made instant friends among the 31(!) kids at their school bus stop. After the current (and more to come) construction is finished and the boxes are unpacked I can enjoy even more the little voices that yell "hello" at the top of our basement stairs and run down for a good night kiss or come down to just talk or help throw leaves off the patio. I have signed up for my first Virginia Genealogy in-person seminar. They'll be discussing local resources at the National Archive, the DAR and the Library of Congress. All just across the Potomac River from us!! What fun, and meeting more "genealogy people" too. More to come and I'll add pictures!

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A followup to the post just before this one. I found another tree owned by someone with the LeGrand name, so I messaged them also. I haven't heard from the first person I messaged, nor from this second person yet. Maybe someday!

Genealogists share. That's why we do what we do. My mother-in-law passed away in March of 2020, at the start of the Covid Pandemic. We had a viewing/family get together at the funeral home, and a burial, but no REAL funeral or celebration of life for her. We planned to have one in the future. Well, the future has arrived and I think we're all getting together to talk about her and celebrate her next month - 3 years later. That's a good thing. I started looking through some of her old pictures. During World War II, she used to meet with the sailors at the USO (or whatever they were called) and dance and party just about every week. I had made a book of her pictures after her niece shared them with me. I pulled those out again, thinking to use them in her celebration. I noticed the name of one of the sailors was Bates LeGrand. The genealogist in me thought about what an unusual name that was and that maybe I could find him or a family member and share the picture. I know that I would love for someone to surprise me with a picture like that. So I started with a Google Search, progressed to an Ancestry Search. I found his mom's obituary, his dad's obituary, his sister's obituary, his daughter's marriage. The USO clubs were in Texas, and he was from Texas. I then found his name in a tree on Ancestry and messaged the person explaining about the picture and asked if he knew a family member who would like to have it. If I hear from them I'll post again, here, along with a copy of the picture. In a different light, I've been asked to do a beginning genealogy class, with a class "activity", for kids age 6 to 10. This is my current challenge. It's a REAL challenge for me. I'm teaching my usual BEGINNING DNA class in two weeks. It's a "what" class, not a "how" class. Strictly discussing which DNA testing site would be the best place for solving your mystery; biology of DNA etc. How to actually solve your problem and understanding your matches is a later class. A full couple of months....

It's been a year and a half since my last post

We downsized our home about 6 years ago when moving from Tennessee to Arkansas. The time has come to complete the job. I've designated one room per month on a schedule posted with a magnet to the side of my refrigerator as the declutter/downsize target!!! I think I'm already overwhelmed and it's January. I planned to do the office first. I'm thinking I should have started with something like the guest room which has nothing but linens in a dresser and a closet full of games to start this process!!! Sigh. I need to take my genealogist hat off and look at things with the following questions in mind: (1) Would anyone else really want or care about this; and (2) where am I going to keep it and why. When we downsized the first time I took those multiple shelves of white three ring notebooks with all the family surnames on the edge of the binder and scanned everything of importance in them. I have those in directories on my computer, backed up online and on external hard drives. That was a big job, and boy did it feel good to finish it! What I came across today was several small boxes of cards from funerals of my parents, grandmother, husband's grandmother and husband's great grandmother. The genealogist says "oooh, I need to figure out who all these people were who sent flowers and signed the visitation book"..... Do I really? I know the important dates involved with each of these people. I generally know the relatives who signed, but not all the friends ..... None of my children has taken up the family history/genealogy mantle...yet... Will they care? I don't believe these are something important to local genealogy societies..... getting rid of stuff is hard. I suppose I could make a spreadsheet with the names from the cards for each of the funerals involved and maybe scan in the signature pages of the funeral books. Maybe I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.......