I think I’m ADD…

I don’t remember how it started… but I have given rebirth to the geneology thing I started a couple of years ago. And, when I should be writing my lessons for the fall, I’m doing everything BUT writing lessons. Well, this is the story of my life.

:Belated Happy 4th of July–May Independence Reign!:

Ok, so Friday… of ALL days… two days before people were coming to see my house (I’ll get to that in a moment) and a day before my friend’s 4th of July party at her new digs, *I* get the freaking ingenius idea to research my family.

And… not just ONE part, but ALL four. (What? Are you crazy? Yes, yes I am.)

So, now I’m in a pile of papers, pictures, and free database listings of dead people… because I REFUSE to pay ancestry.com or a plethora of other pay-as-you-go geneology websites. $25 here, $10 there… it all adds up and it may not even ensure an accurate family tree.

So, I called my mother. After my Italan grandmother’s death a few years ago, and even for the last few years of her life where she was trapped in an alien bubble and held hostage (i.e. dementsia), we lost our family historian. However, proudly my mother steps up… and after her, will be ME!

Anyway… so I gathered as much from her and my dad as I could. Then, I emailed my father’s older cousin (she’s the firstborn)… and asked her a bunch of questions… and she directed me to my 2nd cousin, who is a couple of years older than me (I haven’t seen her in a long time)… and come to find out, she’s been looking for me, too.

NOW… I have someone to help me with one of the four branches on my family tree. Wonderful! However, I think by doing MY searching, I’ve uncovered more than she has (hahaha..er… hm). For FREE, too! (YEY ME)

Needless to say, I will have NO help with my father’s paternal family as they only had one kid each (my grandfather was an only child, his father an only child) and it makes it more difficult to search.. however, I probably have the most info about that part… tracing back to my great-great-grandfather’s wedding in NYC in 1865 (yes, I’ve searched the Civil War soldiers and sailors website… but if you knew his name and how common it was, you’d believe me when I say… there are 250 men with the SAME name… and there are no other clues to help me figure out which one is which).

Whew… what a hole I’ve dug myself into. I, on the other hand, have the most pictures.. of my great-grandmother on the Eastern European Jewish side… of my great-grandfather on the Irish side… of my great-grandparents (one set) on the Italian side. So, from my position, I’m goddamn golden.

We’ll see what the cousin tells me… I’ve seen her family site, and I have to say, I have MORE info than she does. So far.

——
I have a picture for Harper, my new visitor & fellow Ellis Island enthusiast:

(Harper, there’s also a train forum with further pics and commentary about this train station.)

I would’ve included more, however, the other pictures have my kids in them (and I don’t put personal pictures on my blog for safety reasons).  Last summer was the FIRST time I had ever gone into the CNJ terminal in the three or four times I’ve been to Liberty park (I don’t live very close… actually, I’m over an hour away, so going there is few and far between).

I find it FASCINATING… old buildings and such.  THIS area (outside of the fence) I could touch.  It’s a HERSTORY’s paradse when she can go into a historic place and touch history.  (One time, at a museum in NYC, I went to touch the WRONG thing, set off an alarm, and ran for my life with my kids, who were small at the time, in tow… hehe!)

I can’t HELP it… I’m totally tactile.  It’s a part of who I am.  When I used to work at a living history museum (where I evolved into a festivals supervisor and loved it)… I was ALLOWED to touch the historic items.  Since I left about 8 years ago, the museum was shut down because of POOR LEADERSHIP (bastards) and EVERY piece of antiquity, every collection that was rare, and every piece of anything worth anything to anyone was auctioned off to people who probably don’t give a shit, because the state refused to take over this location and run it properly.  My friend and myself both requisitioned the state to allow us to run it (we didn’t realize we both did this at the same time)… he a revolutionary & Civil War reenactor and former NPS employee and ME, a historian who logged in thousands of hours working at the place (I know every nook and cranny)… and they said screamed at us “NEIN!”

I used to have a t-shirt that read, “Welcome to New Jersey, now go home.”  I think the NJ Historical Society has the same shirt, but on the back it must read, “AND DON’T FORGET TO PAY THE TOLL!”

Bastages, all of them.

Needless to say… eventually, I want to take part in a restoration undertaking… to evolve into a true research-based historian (who teaches SOMETIMES)… or who visits schools and gives presentations.  Whichever pays the least, since I’m on this “nah, you don’t HAVE to pay me… just give me a box of chalk or a black dry-erase marker and we’ll call it even!”

Needless to say… I do have OTHER pics of Ellis and the NY Skyline (the year before the towers came down), of which the NY Skyline pic is framed and in my livingroom as a grim reminder of how quickly things can change.

I’ll see what I can find (those are on the OLD 3.5″ diskettes, which I need to convert before the downstairs desktop dies COMPLETELY… I must have… oh… about 150 to convert.  That’ll be August, once I successfully lose interest in the geneology thing… moreso due to a lack of information than interest.)

Anyway… I should go.  My ears have been clogged since Friday night (after 5 hours of off-and-on conversations with people regarding my family) and are bothering me.  I’m going to the doctor so he can give me drugs that’ll (hopefully) clear this up… BEFORE I have to fly… because then it will hurt like nobody’s business.

 

OK… I’m officially bummed for not posting something about the 4th of July, but I was at a friend’s new house (new-to-her) for the 4th and watched grown men, for HOURS, stomping ground-dweller bees that invaded her little yard and stung some little kid on the hand.  I just wish they had decent beer… then I could’ve enjoyed the show in style.

Until later… *shazam!*