CLEAN OFF YOUR DESK! - Done.

Today was a day to clear off every piece of paper on my desk.  I'd show you a photograph but I lent my digital camera to a friend for a few days.  But you can imagine.  You know exactly what I mean ... all those little tiny pieces of paper and big pieces, files, photographs...

That teeny-tiny purple post-it note with a marriage date and place for paternal greatgrandparents on a page with the source details.

That list of books on New England early settlers that I want to dig into; all new-to-me books.  WorldCat tells me they are all in libraries close enough to go and read, research, and lose myself in for at least a day or three.  One in Seattle which I can check out the next time I visit my son's family and play with my 6th grandchild;  5 in Vancouver out at the University of BC - who knew?!

The notes I made from two different webinars as well as from online tips & tricks, about simple search tricks on Google e.g., using  :, ~, and more.  Wasn't I going to write that up as a possible handout for my students, with links for more tips they can find themselves at the library or online?

That partial pedigree of the GRAVES family (I'm in the line from #166 John) I printed off with specific names I particularly want to continue searching for better/more details, such as newspaper accounts.

That file of photos and letters from my second cousin once-removed that I'm supposed to be scanning and returning - in order to keep trust high in that side of the family.  She may have more treasure in her boxes.

Those scribbled notes on various scrap paper - big and small - with names, dates, places, sources, and more, reminding me to change the details on my computer tree software as well as my online tree: ORMSBEE/ORMSBY, HAYNES, JOYNER, WALTERS, HOARE, EVELETH, BUCK, HUNT, ORCUTT, among a few others.

Oh, that idea for Christmas presents - how did that get in here too?!  Hmmm, looks good.

Those jotted notes for a future history of two groups in my mother's father's family - KUHN;  plus all those GROVER BUEL/BUELL men in a row.

The email addresses of those two 2nd cousins-twice-removed in Ireland who just might be able to help me find more information on my dad's dad's dad... GILLESPIE & MORRISON.

The partial list of unique or odd or interesting given names and surnames to use in a blog post one day - ZERUBBABEL JEROME (3 of them), Elizabeth CLEVERLY, TERWILLIGER & variants, HOTCHKISS (where and how did that surname develop?),  FREELOVE MITCHELL, and a few more that catch my eye or make me smile.

And more.

Today, my desk became totally clean - I even scrubbed it after I could find the surface.  And I filed the files, scanned and filed the photographs, made a couple of files (neatly labelled) for the oddities I found that need a file of their own.  

I was on such a roll that I replaced my Black & Colour printer ink cartridges for my multi-function printer (don't you think all printers should be free? - they make enough money in ink!).  Then I finally printed off all those sheets I need for a mini-workshop I'm doing on Saturday at my writers' group.

Three cups of coffee later, a dinner of curried lentils & rice with my own home-grown string beans and tomato slices, and I'm definitely done for the day.  I think this productivity deserves a glass of wine - a bottle of which I happen to have cooling in the frig.

I'm definitely done.  I think this needs to be a weekly task.  It was a bit mind-boggling to find so many items in messy piles literally all over my desk.

- Cheers!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Isaac Charles LEWIS

Gravestone of my kids' greatgrandfather (on their father's side), in Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

This LEWIS family started in Ontario, moved to Manitoba, then to British Columbia by 1911.

Love the clue of his birthplace.  Bath, ON, was settled by United Empire Loyalists from the States, although I have yet to discover if there is a UEL ancestor in this family.  Rumour says, yes, but no details to date.