Absurdities #4

By Eilene Lyon I get tickled every time I read this species description for the Eurasian Collared-Dove in my National Geographic bird guide: "...do not do well in the wild" they claim. From Project FeederWatch: "No species of bird has colonized North America at the speed with which the Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) has marched... Continue Reading →

Research Miracles

Week 11: #52 Ancestors – Luck By Eilene Lyon Given that next week’s theme is “Misfortune,” I take “Luck” to mean Good luck, not Bad luck. I can find innumerable bad luck or misfortune stories in my family history. Finding good luck stories is a real challenge. My ancestors had seriously hard lives. On the... Continue Reading →

Out-of-Mind, Out of Sight

By Eilene Lyon Often the most frustrating people on my family tree to find records for are the mentally ill, developmentally disabled, or physically disabled people. This is true whether they were living in private homes or institutions. Most difficult to find are death records and burials. I’ve discovered that mental illness does tend to... Continue Reading →

Absurdities #3

Given that the Confederacy was antithetical to the entire notion of the United States of America -- they went to war against the U.S., remember? -- how can anyone in their right mind fly both flags on one pole at the same time? This is patently ludicrous. Which side are they on? It can't be... Continue Reading →

Darwin’s Galapagos

"Seeing this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, intimately related group of birds, one might really fancy that from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends." - Charles Darwin Voyage of the Beagle (1839) By Eilene Lyon Just after completing my environmental... Continue Reading →

The Books I Can’t Part With

By Eilene Lyon Earlier, I shared with you some of the books I haven’t purged from my shelves, because I truly intend to read them someday. This is a partial list of books I keep, because I love them. Mostly I read non-fiction, but I’m a serious user of library materials. So, many of these... Continue Reading →

A Resilient Woman

Week 10: #52Ancestors - Strong Woman By Eilene Lyon Abigail Gummersal Bedford, my 3rd-great-grandmother, endured many trials in her long life. Much of what is known about her comes from Quaker records, personal letters written during the California gold rush, and a couple brief biographies about her eldest son, William Zane Jenkins. She was born... Continue Reading →

Absurdities #2

I'm sure the owner considers this a form of "landscape art." How on earth does someone end up with nine identical cars? Especially such ugly ones in relatively pristine condition? If I saw them coming down the road toward me, I would start to get a bit paranoid. Or worse, say they came up from... Continue Reading →

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