Sixth Anniversary

Obergefell v. Hodges, June 26, 2015

Happy Ninth Anniversary!

Today is the 9th anniversary for my brother and my sister-in-law, who were married in Elkridge, Maryland.  They chose November 12 as their wedding date as they wanted to honor my deceased mother, whose birthday was November 11, but did not think it appropriate to have the wedding on her actual birthday.  Ergo, it took place the day after.

The traditional gifts for the 9th anniversary, per the lists on Wikipedia, are pottery or leather goods in the United States (or copper in the United Kingdom).  Those sounded kind of blah to me, so I figured a blog post commemorating their special day was a nicer gift.

Happy anniversary!

Fifth Anniversary

Obergefell v. Hodges, June 26, 2015

Wordless Wednesday for Marriage Equality

Obergefell v. Hodges 4-year anniversary

Third Anniversary

Obergefell v. Hodges, June 26, 2015

Celebrate the Anniversary

Obergefell v. Hodges, June 26, 2015

The Traditional Gift for the Fifth Blogiversary Is Cupcakes?

Well, well, well, look what's here.  It's my fifth blogiversary today!  I'm still trucking along, talking about genealogy and having a lot of fun.  This year I"m celebrating with chocolate cake (see it to the left?).  I even had a real chocolate chip-chocolate cupcake today, and boy it tasted good.  Celebrating my blogiversary at SLIG was just an extra bonus.

I passed the 800-post mark in December, which really surprised me.  I have to admit that I am more comfortable writing than when I started, even though I sometimes still need a kick in the pants.  I have lots of stories I'm still working on that I want to share.  I honestly don't know when I'll run out of stories, which is a good thing, right?  Between my own research, working with my extended family members on their research, my volunteer work, and all the other things I do, I'm sure I will always find interesting stories in genealogy.

Thanks again to everyone for reading my blog and being such great supporters.  Genealogy is about sharing, and I appreciate you sharing your time when you stop by.  I hope you enjoy the information and photos I share.

By the way, the real traditional gift for a fifth anniversary is wood.  I don't think that "would" be quite as tasty as a cupcake, though.

Celebrating Two Big Birthdays with a Small Family Reunion

Wow, what a weekend!  I'm still coming down from something I've been planning for a year.  In 2014, I realized that my father would turn 80 in December this year, and his sister would be 90 in October.  In addition, this year is my father's 35th wedding anniversary, and I thought that should be celebrated as well.  I decided that it would be a great idea to have family members meet up in northwest Florida, where both my father and his sister live, to celebrate these milestones.

I set everything up from California, including finding restaurants, a caterer, a bakery, and an event room.  I kept track of all the responses for who was coming, and unfortunately the one last-minute cancellation.  (We missed you, Ruth Anne!)

And somehow it managed to work.  Family members came from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other parts of Florida, and me from California.  In total we had 20 attendees, which was probably about as many as we could handle.  Several of us had not seen each other for many years, and it was great to get together in honor of the "birthday kids."

I encouraged people to bring photos with them so that they could be scanned and then shared among everyone.  I am so happy some of my relatives took me up on that!  I scanned about 100 photos, and almost all of them are already identified!

One of the highlights of the weekend was sharing with everyone the recent discovery that my grandfather's original birth record said he was female.  My father in particular was highly amused to learn this news about his father.

Here are some of the photos from the weekend.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to coordinate one of all of us together, but everyone shows up in at least a few.

We're Havin' a Party!

Okay, it's a small party, but I'm celebrating!  Happy anniversary to me!  This month is the tenth anniversary of when I started my company and began doing genealogy research for others.  I'm so glad I did it, and I love what I'm doing.  It's the most interesting work I've ever done, because no two families are exactly the same.  I learn something new from each client's research.

I was very lucky when I started.  I got a client from the very first ad I placed, and he kept me busy for five years, working on tracing each of his lines back as far as possible.  I learned how to read Hungarian records for his research.  I went back a few hundred years on some family lines.  I found several cousins for him to talk to.  And of course I still wasn't finished when his health had to become a higher priority than family history.

Five years ago I took the leap to making this my full-time job.  It was scary, but it was thrilling to confirm that I can support myself with the work I love.  I'm looking forward to the next ten years!