Wow I really fail at this lately... hah!
Some updates... I've been to about a bagillion cemeteries and just returned from vacation on Monday. Met my aunt, hung out with my dad and new grandma, and met some kind of cousin... that part was fun. He and his wife were looking at me like ummm why did we not know about you before. But they didn't say anything.
I don't think I've mentioned surnames from my dad's side of the family yet. Maybe I did. I don't know. Those are the cemeteries I visited.
Also... 23andme. Awesome. I took a test, my dad took a test, and my mom's results should be in any day now.
I'm going to try and be motivated to write more... try being the key word.
Oh and WDYTYA is back on! and I'm still the drinking game MC on the twitter!
not that anyone told me I was but hey.
What else what else... That's all I can think of for now. Next up... surnames and cemeteries!
Showing posts with label WDYTYA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WDYTYA. Show all posts
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Friday, May 18, 2012
The end of Who Do You Think You Are
First, I would like everyone to know that yes I am alive after tonight's episode. Twitter just cut me off from tweeting. In the last bit of the show too!! How dare they! I had some witty comments and at least 8 more drinks to report on. I can't even view my drafts now because twitter is retarded on my phone and I can't figure out where it is on my iPad. Le sigh.
I forget what I was going to say. That's what happens when you actually participate in the drinking game I guess. Especially when the last segment had 4 yalls and we drank to those too.
Oh yes last wdytya. Apparently NBC doesn't follow us on the twitter. Otherwise they would know how important wdytya is to us. I mean sure PBS has finding your roots. It's not as fun. There's no drinking game (that I know of). Will they put the show on another channel? Can I view episodes online if I don't get that channel?
I mean, it's nice to see that we're not just a lone batch of crazy people stuck on the branches of our family tree. To have celebs be interested in genealogy... It makes it "cool" or something. I mean I'd still do it anyway but hey.
I like being able to talk about the show with people too. I mean I can't just hop on a plane and meet people at a genealogy conference. I have no money and plenty of social anxiety. So. Tv and twitter are perfect for me. But noooo. Let's cancel the show.
And another thing. It's not common for websites to work together. Especially when both are looking for the same clients. The same paying clients. Wdytya kind of brought two together. Not that ancestry.com was saying hay everyone go to geni! Or geni saying hey go to ancestry! It's more of a pro for geni.com if you think of it. Notice that every Friday or nearly every time wdytya is on they post the celebrity profile so you can see how you are related. Kicker? You need to be a member to see the path. But it shows their support for a show sponsored by ancestry.com. And of course geni probably thinks hey maybe I can get more members if I try to get in with the ancestry.com crew. Face it ancestry.com has more commercials and probably more popularity.
But I digress. They still shouldn't cancel the show. Twitter shouldn't block people from over tweeting. Even if they're rambling alcohol induced tweets. Well I should be able to tweet now so I will end this here and pray I made some sort of sense in this blog.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The Other Half
This is called the Persing & Bieda family history for a reason. Up until about a week ago, I had no idea about the other half of my tree. My dad's side. Never met the guy. It awkwardly came up in conversation last week (how would that conversation not be awkward?) but I'm glad I know now. Besides. Every tree has some interesting tidbits in it. Some good some bad. But it is what it is.
I usually don't include names of living people in my blog, but I think I'll make an exception. Maybe I want him to randomly google something and find out that I exist, or to remind him that I exist. Maybe because they'res a teeny part of me that's angry and hurt and wants other people to know he's a jerk (maybe not 100% jerk. perhaps coward is a better word?)
So who is this man and his family and how much do I know? And how did I get past the little info I was given initially? Sit back and I'll tell you.
His name is Darrin Kay Snyder. He has a sister named Donna. His parents are Donald and Elaine K Snyder. The names of his parents I actually found on mylife.com. You know, that creepy website where you can find terrifying amounts of information. Hah. I have a free account but it didn't really help. I found more by not signing in. Anyway the names were confirmed by my mom so I know I have the right people. Another good tip for finding living relatives? Check the white pages online. If I wanted to I could call Darrin or send him a letter. Doesn't mean I'm going to.
Based on the birth dates of my grandparents, Ancestry.com couldn't help me with what I had. Well, not until the 1940 census comes out anyway. But I was googling here and there. And I found a Gedcom file online. I've never seen one or used one or anything before so the code took some getting used to. I think I could be a pro now. Here is the link that I found: http://www.colcohist-gensoc.org/gedcoms/melich.ged
It shows all of them. I learned that Donald passed away in 1999 and he was a Korean War vet. It even said an occupation for prison guard. The file shows that Elaine's maiden name was Turner. Her mother's maiden name was Melick. The file has the Melick/Moelich family going back to the 1500s in Germany. So last week I had no idea.... and now I'm in the 1500s? In WDYTYA drinking game talk... thats like 10 shots right there.
Does it end there? Of course not! I plug everything into Ancestry.com... all generations from that page. No hints for Donald, except a ss. death record and military record. I was able to find my great grandparents, Minnie Melick and Ellis Turner. And guess what? THERE WERE PICTURES! You all know how I am with pictures. Heck how all of us are with pictures. There was even a picture for Elaine's sister. Apparently they were twins! I found more twins further back. Anyway long story short I found a crap ton of people back there. Mostly German ancestry. But all of them were in America since the 16-1700s. Another branch I found, now this is exciting, goes to England. I love the UK and Ireland. You have no idea. When I saw England on the ancestry tree I was about as excited as Amy Farrah Fowler on Big Bang Theory when Sheldon gave her a tiara. At this point I'm in the 12-1300s in England. And there's a castle.
I think I'm starting to ramble a little bit so this is where I'll end it. As always leave me comments. Please? Or if you are related to me don't hesitate to let me know :)
I usually don't include names of living people in my blog, but I think I'll make an exception. Maybe I want him to randomly google something and find out that I exist, or to remind him that I exist. Maybe because they'res a teeny part of me that's angry and hurt and wants other people to know he's a jerk (maybe not 100% jerk. perhaps coward is a better word?)
So who is this man and his family and how much do I know? And how did I get past the little info I was given initially? Sit back and I'll tell you.
His name is Darrin Kay Snyder. He has a sister named Donna. His parents are Donald and Elaine K Snyder. The names of his parents I actually found on mylife.com. You know, that creepy website where you can find terrifying amounts of information. Hah. I have a free account but it didn't really help. I found more by not signing in. Anyway the names were confirmed by my mom so I know I have the right people. Another good tip for finding living relatives? Check the white pages online. If I wanted to I could call Darrin or send him a letter. Doesn't mean I'm going to.
Based on the birth dates of my grandparents, Ancestry.com couldn't help me with what I had. Well, not until the 1940 census comes out anyway. But I was googling here and there. And I found a Gedcom file online. I've never seen one or used one or anything before so the code took some getting used to. I think I could be a pro now. Here is the link that I found: http://www.colcohist-gensoc.org/gedcoms/melich.ged
It shows all of them. I learned that Donald passed away in 1999 and he was a Korean War vet. It even said an occupation for prison guard. The file shows that Elaine's maiden name was Turner. Her mother's maiden name was Melick. The file has the Melick/Moelich family going back to the 1500s in Germany. So last week I had no idea.... and now I'm in the 1500s? In WDYTYA drinking game talk... thats like 10 shots right there.
Does it end there? Of course not! I plug everything into Ancestry.com... all generations from that page. No hints for Donald, except a ss. death record and military record. I was able to find my great grandparents, Minnie Melick and Ellis Turner. And guess what? THERE WERE PICTURES! You all know how I am with pictures. Heck how all of us are with pictures. There was even a picture for Elaine's sister. Apparently they were twins! I found more twins further back. Anyway long story short I found a crap ton of people back there. Mostly German ancestry. But all of them were in America since the 16-1700s. Another branch I found, now this is exciting, goes to England. I love the UK and Ireland. You have no idea. When I saw England on the ancestry tree I was about as excited as Amy Farrah Fowler on Big Bang Theory when Sheldon gave her a tiara. At this point I'm in the 12-1300s in England. And there's a castle.
I think I'm starting to ramble a little bit so this is where I'll end it. As always leave me comments. Please? Or if you are related to me don't hesitate to let me know :)
Friday, March 2, 2012
WDYTYA Workout
Right now I'm watching Reba on Who do You Think You Are. Apparently she's my 19th cousin. In the drinking game that means I should take a drink. But if I was going to follow that I would be completely smashed right now. (Actually I'm cheating on the exercise version only b/c i have a headache and jumping jacks don't help with that).
Like I said last post, I'm modeling this after the drinking game (link in last post too) so if some of the things are similar well, you know why.
So here we go. The WDYTYA Workout:
5 crunches if...
-we go back 3+ generations in several seconds
-celeb travels to another state in the U.S
-they look at an old document
-the celeb compares their life with their ancestor's life
10 crunches if...
-there are no gloves used on an old document and it bothers you
-celebs travel overseas
-name change
-impossibly quick "finding" of documents in the library.
5 push ups if...
-ancestry.com mentioned in the show
-photograph found in a library
-emotional moment
10 jumping jacks if...
-they are shown a nice family tree
-wow!/ gasp/ shock/ surprise
-they go to a census
20 jumping jacks if...
-you are related to the celeb
-you've been to the city/town that they travel to
-they go to the 1600s or earlier
This is just a rough draft of course. I'm making it up as I go.
Suggestions are welcome!
(Also, I'm not proofreading any of this. Long day at work plus distracted by the show. So if something doesn't make sense... just go with it. LOL)
Friday, February 24, 2012
The Lapinsky Curse
Let me just get this out there... the curse isn't any spooky voodoo stuff. Nothing paranormal. Just genetics.
The Lapinsky women all have one thing in common (excluding maybe 1-2 females per generation). We used to all joke about it. But now I'm determined to beat it. Lets look at a photo to see if you all can guess what the common feature is.
These are the Lapinsky women (and Stanley in the middle). My great grandmother Mildred Bieda (Lapinsky) is in the greenish brown dress.
Now I'm going to go out on a limb and say potato pancakes, pierogies and kluskies and bacon *might* have been a contributing factor. Perhaps. Milly is the smallest of the others but she's not a skinny minny either. *pauses, waits for lightning strike or similar sign....*
In any case, most of the women on the Polish side of the family have a little extra weight particularly around the mid section or that little pooch. Annoying as hell.
Obviously I'm not going to show photo proof that we all have it. I value my life too much.
Anyway I've been working on that and so far so good. Lapinsky curse is slowly disappearing. But it got me thinking about family genetics and similarities. There may be a genetic tendency but thats no excuse. I'm going to kick the Lapinsky curse in the bum.
That's all for now folks. I'm toying with an idea for the next post. If you watch Who do You Think You Are on NBC you may or may not know there is a drinking game. For all interested you can go here. On a separate note, last week I was watching Harry Potter 3 and found a Harry Potter workout. Example: Harry faints from a dementor- 20 jumping jacks. And for everyone who has seen #3.... thats quite a bit. So I was toying with that and WDYTYA... What about a WDYTYA workout? Take some of the ideas from there and just switch out drinking for crunches or something (yes not as fun as alcohol... but healthier!) I'll work on the idea a bit more and hopefully post it before next week. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If no one's interested then hey I'll do it for me.
Until next time
The Lapinsky women all have one thing in common (excluding maybe 1-2 females per generation). We used to all joke about it. But now I'm determined to beat it. Lets look at a photo to see if you all can guess what the common feature is.
These are the Lapinsky women (and Stanley in the middle). My great grandmother Mildred Bieda (Lapinsky) is in the greenish brown dress.
Now I'm going to go out on a limb and say potato pancakes, pierogies and kluskies and bacon *might* have been a contributing factor. Perhaps. Milly is the smallest of the others but she's not a skinny minny either. *pauses, waits for lightning strike or similar sign....*
In any case, most of the women on the Polish side of the family have a little extra weight particularly around the mid section or that little pooch. Annoying as hell.
Obviously I'm not going to show photo proof that we all have it. I value my life too much.
Anyway I've been working on that and so far so good. Lapinsky curse is slowly disappearing. But it got me thinking about family genetics and similarities. There may be a genetic tendency but thats no excuse. I'm going to kick the Lapinsky curse in the bum.
That's all for now folks. I'm toying with an idea for the next post. If you watch Who do You Think You Are on NBC you may or may not know there is a drinking game. For all interested you can go here. On a separate note, last week I was watching Harry Potter 3 and found a Harry Potter workout. Example: Harry faints from a dementor- 20 jumping jacks. And for everyone who has seen #3.... thats quite a bit. So I was toying with that and WDYTYA... What about a WDYTYA workout? Take some of the ideas from there and just switch out drinking for crunches or something (yes not as fun as alcohol... but healthier!) I'll work on the idea a bit more and hopefully post it before next week. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If no one's interested then hey I'll do it for me.
Until next time
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