Living in the Past: A Family History

jiggety jig.  I have to confess that I ducked out early today.  There's a point at which you just feel done, and I was there this morning. So, after some stupid trouble getting out of the parking lot and trying to communicate with someone at the other end of a very bad intercom thing ("Press the button.  Listen for the tones.  When the tones finish, talk.  Then let go of the button" -- this whole thing didn't work very well), I finally escaped the Marriott and started on my way. I was upset that my computer power cord wasn't working, so I went to Fry's, right by the hotel, to see if I could get an adapter for the power cord that I thought was probably the problem. Nope.  The tech guy at Fry's tried another power cord and told me the problem is in the socket in the computer, not the power cord.  Bummer.  I'm hoping someone in Santa Cruz can fix it, so I don't have to send the (almost brand new) computer away somewhere. I headed up I-5, stopped in ...

I have to be quick because I'm having another power cord problem, this time on my laptop.  Gakkh!  I'm going to be out of power any minute. I really enjoyed myself today.  I went to a great presentation by Lisa Alzo on finding ancestors with ethnic resources, such as lodges, foreign language newspapers, and so on.  She brought up many possibilities of places to look for information, and I was very happy I went to her presentation. Later I went to a talk by Paula Stewart Warren on researching poor ancestors.  This was really fascinating, and for those of us who are definitely not tracing our lineage back to Charlemagne it was extremely helpful.  She suggested many different avenues for tracing ancestors who might have received financial help from various agencies, places we might look for records, including, for example, minutes of governing boards of places like orphanages or poor farms.  It was an excellent presentation.  I'm really impressed wit...

Here's the problem with genealogy conferences:  you go to these presentations and you get so much information and so many ideas that you want to run back to your room to try them out, but then you'd be missing more information in another presentation.  My favorite presentation today was on "Methods for Identifying the German Origins of American Immigrants," by Dr. Michael Lecopo. This presentation was so chock full of information, I was typing as fast as I could to capture as much as I could into my iPad.  While I was familiar with some of his resources, others were new to me and look promising.  So I was longing to get back to my room to try them out . . . The day started a little slowly; the main events didn't really start until the afternoon, so I hung out in my room and worked on my e-book (which I am not yet ready to reveal).  I did go down early in the morning to get coffee and to say hi to Thomas MacEntee and to get from him my beautiful blogger beads -- ...

Yesterday I began the long trek down Interstate 5 to Burbank for the SoCal Genealogical Society Jamboree.  Today is "DNA Day," and tomorrow thousands more people will pour in as the Jamboree begins in earnest. I have a love/hate relationship with Interstate 5.  It's the fastest way to get to L.A., but it's a straight shot for hours and hours -- if not for changing lanes to go around trucks, you'd hardly need to touch the steering wheel.  It's pretty boring, and sometimes it's hard to keep your eyes open. But, two things make it bearable:  1)  Andersen's Pea Soup.  The road from the coast comes out just 3 miles south of Andersen's Pea Soup's Santa Nella restaurant, which I love.  I don't think I've ever ordered anything but the "Traveler's Special" -- a bottomless bowl of pea soup, delicious onion cheese rolls, and ice tea.  It was scrumptious.  2)  A good audio book, and boy, did I have a good one -- Kate Atkinson's la...

So, tomorrow morning I'm leaving for the Southern California Genealogy Society Jamboree !  I'm very excited, because I enjoyed it greatly last year and am looking forward to going again.  I will be meeting up with some as-yet-unmet friends, and with Geneabloggers, and so on, so it promises to be a very fun and productive four days. I have a lot to still do, but I hope to be leaving by about 10:30 AM so that I can enjoy my traditional lunch at Anderson's Pea Soup  in Buellton.  I love the "Travelers' Special," with pea soup and onion cheese bread.  Yummy.  That will fortify me for the rest of the boring ride down Interstate 5.   They also have nice cheese in a crock that I might get to keep in my room fridge.  I do have audiobooks on my iPod, so that always makes the time go faster. Thursday is DNA day -- looking forward to that, very much.  Then the Jamboree itself starts on Friday.  I was delighted to learn today that we're going t...