Emptying the Bucket (List)

By Eilene Lyon My brother and I, along with our spouses, were visiting Mom in Oregon last week. Because she has rapidly progressing dementia, she lives in memory care at the retirement community she moved into 12 years ago. She’s doing pretty well physically, for now. I took her to see her regular physician so... Continue Reading →

March 23, 2018 6

How It All Went Wrong

Week 12: #52Ancestors – Misfortune By Eilene Lyon By all measures, my cousin Orville Bodtker was a very unlucky young man in World War II. But I think for sheer, unrelenting misfortune, I have to turn to the story of my great-great-grandparents, Robert Ransom and Emma Jenkins, the parents of Clara Pearl Ransom. Robert was... Continue Reading →

March 22, 2018 17

Supersize…My Bed

By Eilene Lyon I’m not a large person (5’ 4”, medium build), but my husband is 6’ 2” and prefers an extra-long bed to feel comfortable. Hence our California king-size bed, the largest standard-sized bed on the market at 72 x 84 inches (183 x 213 cm). I confess that I like having lots of... Continue Reading →

March 21, 2018 13

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 →

March 20, 2018 5

Don’t Do This…Though Your Descendants Might Wish You Would

By Eilene Lyon One way our ancestors may have left a trace of their passing is by carving their names in stone. You've likely heard how westward pioneers inscribed Independence Rock along the Oregon Trail, for example. Don't do this. First of all, it creates an unsightly mess on our public lands. Secondly, you'd be... Continue Reading →

March 19, 2018 10

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 →

March 15, 2018 3

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 →

March 14, 2018 9

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 →

March 13, 2018 12

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 →

March 9, 2018 32

Myricopia