Today is Answer Your Cat’s Question Day! Cats, in my experience, always have a question! They are however most definitely in charge!
I have been a cat lover all of my life. I have been lucky enough to have four cats that shared large portions of my life. They are all gone now but I have fond memories of them. I think that the Cat Rules to live by over at WellCat.com is well worth checking out.
Today is Inauguration Day in the United States! Whatever your political views, today is the day that we start a new term of office for our President. We believe in the Constitution of the United States and democratically elected leaders.
The presidency is not just the person who currently occupies the office but the endurance of the democratic process. Just during my lifetime we have peacefully changed our leaders because the majority of the country selected a different person to lead our country. The President is the president of all the people in the United States not just those who elected him.
As Americans it is not only in our best interests to hope that the President and the other elected leaders do well in their jobs and do what is best for our country but it is our duty as citizens to do everything we can to aid in the success of their efforts. Then, those who didn’t like this president will have a chance to elect one they do like! That is the beauty of the American system of Democracy.
May God Bless America and all its leaders!
It has been a busy couple of weeks! I have lots going on at work with the beginning of the year processes and then there has just been a lot going on in my life the past couple of weeks. Things are beginning settling down! My life is beginning to return to its normal routines after the holiday season.
There has also been a lot to do with my genealogy society for the past couple of weeks. I presented the program for the January meeting on beginning genealogy. I had to get some handouts and stuff ready for the meeting. This took much of the time I would have used for my own genealogy research but it paid off when it came time for the meeting. We had several newcomers to genealogy come to the meeting. I hope that they learned something and that their enthusiasm for genealogy continues! I love seeing someone else begin to enjoy genealogy research for the first time!
My research plans for 2013 involve getting organized and getting my family researched and documented through my known ancestors (known at this time). Then, I will proceed by trying to take my known family lines back another generation or two!
To accomplish this goal, I am going to begin by following a new research strategy. I am going to start with my grandparents and thoroughly document their lives. Then, I am going to move on to their siblings and the descendants of their siblings families. This will be a large project!
I want to document their military service (if they served) by documenting the appropriate draft cards, enlistment records, pension records and the other military records available on Ancestry.com. I also want to get obituary records, FindaGrave Memorial pages, and any newspaper articles relating to their lives added to my database. Next, I want to document their marriages through at least marriage indexes but ideally, through an actual marriage document. I want to include birth and death records including birth announcement cards, engagement newspaper announcements, and death notices. Finally, I want to add in any photos I can find of each ancestor. At the very least, I want to know that I have looked for all of these things for each ancestor! I want to have good records for each of my ancestors and for the important events in their lives.
When I have finished the first part of the project (if I finish it this year), I want to move on to the generation of my Great-Grandparents and their siblings and the descendants of their siblings.
Then, my Great-Great-Grandparents and their siblings and the descendants of their siblings. Then, I will move on to my 3rd Great-Grandparents and their siblings and descendants followed by the 4th Great-Grandparents and their siblings and descendants.
Although this is a huge project, it isn’t as huge as it might sound at first. I am not trying to find out who my ancestors are at this point. I have completed much of this research already. I just have spent the last few years switching between software programs and changing my research methods that I don’t have it as organized as I would like and much of it isn’t in my current database! I am going to go through my previous files and my online trees and get my information put into my database. I am also getting my files both digital and paper files organized into a manner in which I can actually find what I want to find when I want it. I am going to be an Organized Genealogist with a documented database through my 4th Great-Grandparents by the end of the year!
I plan to post regularly about my progress on this goal!
Today is Winnie the Pooh Day. I love Winnie the Pooh. I especially love Eeyore. I think I will visit Winnie, Eeyore, and Tigger for at least a few minutes today to celebrate the birth of A.A. Milne, the creator of the world of Winnie the Pooh.
Per Wikipedia, National Nothing Day is a day to not celebrate.
National Nothing Day is an “un-event” proposed in 1972 by columnist Harold Pullman Coffin and observed annually on January 16 since 1973, when it was added to Chase’s Calendar of Events. [1] [2] [3] Its purpose is:
to provide Americans with one National day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honoring anything.
Today is National Clean off your Desk Day. Apparently we now have a holiday devoted to the idea of cleaning off your desk. Who knew! Do we have a day for dirty up your desk or pile everything you can find in your office onto your desk? Well, I don’t think I am going to be able to celebrate this day. I have too much to do on Mondays to be able to take time to clean off my desk. Does it still count if I clean it off on Friday?
Now we have a day for dressing up our pets. I won’t be able to celebrate this day either. My dog doesn’t seem to think he should wear clothes! He looks like he thinks I am crazy when I even try to make him wear a coat!