Friends Who Died Today, Annette Funicello. !

 

TMZ pictures

     I remember watching the Mickey Mouse Club with Annette Funicello, then the beach party movies. It's like an end to an era.  She was such a brave person dealing with MS. You can go here to read some of her struggles. 

Best Friends and Stuff Like That!

Kitty, Judy, Poochie and Larry 1952

     Some people find it difficult to believe that I'm a shy person and at one time stuttered when I had to say something in class, cute guys and strangers. I would turn red and stammer as well. The reason for saying this is that when I was in the tenth grade, we moved from the Big Woods of Georgia (New Home Community on the mountain above Trenton, Georgia) to Henagar, Alabama. I remember arriving for the first day of school, after finishing registering for classes. My first class was English with Miss Blansit. 

     The bell had already rung, so the halls were empty and I had to search for her room since there was no one around to ask for directions. Opening the closed door to her room, or what I thought was her room I walked into the front of the class, a class full of nothing but teenage guys and a female teacher sitting at her desk. I stopped, backed out into the hall, closed the door and looked at the number, yes, I had the right room. The teacher opened the door and said, "This is English, is that what you're looking for?" I nodded my head as she took my class assignment card. 

     This very dignified lady guided me into her class and introduced me to everyone. It seems that the first English class was for the schools varsity football players as they were in practice her last class and couldn't attend then. So I was the only girl in first period English. Talk about a dream come true! 

    

Ancestry.Com and Linking Ancestors?

     I have this question that I can't come up with an answer, "Do I link ancestors on my Family Tree while I determine if they're really related"?

     I have a second cousin that began researching our family last year. She invited me to look at her tree, so I did. I immediately found that she was adding people that I knew weren't from our DNA testing and belonged to another group, no way related to us. When I pointed this out her reply was that they have members named the same as some of ours. Which was true, so I pointed her to our DNA member page so that she was able to see all 144 names from testing that our administrators have divided into groups. Each group is related. William is a popular name in my family, yet if you look in the other groups, you'll see it was a popular name all the way back to the 1500's. 

     This brings me to my original question, do you use your Ancestry.com tree to work from, knowing others link to that tree? I bought the 2012 Family Tree Maker, but it's not as easy to use as the online tree linking. Bottom line is to ask for backup  from those you're linking with and to come back and verify the information you copied hasn't changed. Paper trails are very important. 

     I'm very excited at the moment, as I've been trying to track how some of our closest relatives moved from England/Ireland to South Carolina to Mississippi. It was in trying to prove this link that I hit on an answer. Edmund Harper came from England/Ireland to South Carolina, where he had sons/grandsons Edward Sr who for some reason moved to Mississippi, while others moved to Georgia. The chase is on!

Larry, Susan and Judy 1954

"I'm proud of that missing tooth!"

How Does Your Mind Work?

     What's the difference between the brain working and the mind working? Is there a difference? 

     My brain isn't a smooth working one. Sometimes it spurts along, sometimes it's at a standstill, what I call vegging out. At other times it's at a clickity, click pace. I hate this pace because my thoughts are all over the place. I also notice at this pace my thoughts and emotions tend to empathize rather than sympathize, which is very draining emotionally. Example, have you ever been around people you feel as though their energy drains you? Their thoughts invade yours and they try to control you. I just reread what I wrote and it makes me sound weird, are there any others who feel this way? I guess another way to say this is being introverted and extroverted. Introverted you have a list of what you need to do; you follow through in an orderly fashion and check off when completed. Extroverted is hopping, when you see this crisis you handle, then there might be an interruption, so you switch. Rather than following a course, it's go here, go there, very tiring. It's allowing someone else to control you. Though that still doesn't explain the energy drain. 

What About Stereotyping People?

 Colonel Mustard

     Today on Huffpost Celebrity, there was an article about the young man Shain Gandee from MTV's "Buckwild", being found dead out in the woods with his uncle and another person. From reading the article, it stated that the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin had tried to get the show cancelled due to "it's ugly, inaccurate stereotyping of the people of West Virginia".

     I wonder if people think all southerners are like the people in "Buckwild", Duck Dynasty, Dallas and Malibu Country? Or even the old Beverly Hillbillies and Gone With The Wind? Surely not. 

     The South has come a long way from "uneducated,chawing tobacca and being barefoot. Well, uneducated and chawing tobacca anyway. I'm afraid I have to confess the first thing I do when I get home every evening after work is take my shoes off and breathe a sign of relief feeling the cool floor against the tired feet. But then, I know other people from all over the world who do the same thing, take off those tiresome shoes!

Desota Falls, Fort Payne, Alabama

  

FIND A GRAVE, contd

     

     You can click on this link to find a cemetery, you will need to know the name or part of a name, state and if possible, county.

Find A Cemetery

     The information about Find A Grave states that "currently contains information for over 400,000 cemeteries in over 200 different countries. Find A Grave has at least a partial listing of graves for over 250,000 of these cemeteries". Use their search form to locate a specific cemetery. If you don't know the name of the cemetery, you can also browse by US state and county, even browse non-US countries.

     Now if you become a creator of a memorial or someone transfers the maintenance to you and you're able to add information to the bio, here's how you add links that aren't father, mother or spouse:
     You will need the memorial number of the grave you're linking. Click on Edit Bio then type in (I've added a space between the < a at the beginning and end otherwise the code won't show but rather the link):
< a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=XXXXXXX">NAME< /a>

     The XXXXXXX is where you list the memorial number and the name is where you list the memorial name.

In the name part you type in the name and you can also type-brother or grandparent or ggrandparent. Be sure to remove the space after < before and at the end <.

   Click on the link below to see how it appears on Find A Grave memorial.

Clifford William Harper

     As far as getting the family links, once you type in the parents name on a child or have someone add the parents name, the child's link will automatically show up on the parents memorial.
     Remember to limit the information you add in the Bio section of living people. It's okay to list the names of the parents, but I don't think I'd add much more on those still alive.

What is "Find A Grave"?

     I have just discovered a fantastic website, "Find A Grave".

FIND A GRAVE

     If you look on my blog page, you will see I have created a widget for you to use to try out to see if someone has placed a memorial for one of your family members or someone you know. Below is my Dad's memorial.

Clifford William Harper 

     The memorial is the result of someone going out and taking pictures or listing names of the people who are buried there, then creating this information on "Find A Grave". When you visit, be sure to thank the person who created the memorial. Because to go out to a cemetery, walk around and list names and/or take pictures is very time consuming, then to come back and create a memorial is someone who cares.

     Should you want to become a member, you can. The first thing you should do though is read the help on Find A Grave to learn the rules on asking to transfer maintenance to you, which you can. A lot of people are happy to do this, especially if it's a close relative. Only the person who maintains or created the memorial can delete, change or add links and bio information. Anyone may add pictures or leave a note and flower for the person.

     The best way to communicate is to click on the edit tab, then click on the link "Suggest a correction or additional information" then go to the message part and write a correction or ask if they're related to this person, if not would they be interested in transferring to you the maintenance for the memorial. BE Sure to click  "Send me a copy of this email"; then at the bottom, click send email. 

     The reason you need to click "send me a copy" is to keep up with your requests so you don't keep sending requests repeatedly. When I first started, I didn't keep up with three of the ones I sent and found out that some people wait till the weekend to make changes and don't appreciate receiving multiple emails to inform them of the correction or request. It comes across pushy and they will, as they should, let you know they can't drop everything at the moment to make the correction or transfer, so wait. 

     You will note that there are additional information in the Bio section. There aren't links for this, but there is a program line you can insert to list as many grave links you want, within reason. Now I see this as an additional research tool for genealogy. So I created a lot of information. It is so helpful to finally find where family members are buried.

     Tomorrow, I'll go over how to find cemeteries and how add links in the Bio section.

Macedonia Cemetery

Haigwood Cemetery