What's in a name? Who really cares? Well...me.

My favorite espresso drink is a 2-shot espresso with half-and-half. I prefer it with a couple pumps of coconut syrup, and was the only drink I had in Alaska; I always bought my coffee at a corner coffee stand, never, ever at that monster "S" corporation's very-few coffee stores in Anchorage. In fact, as I recall, back then, they only had one; their marketing department found no support, even though their home base, Seattle, is the closest "big city" to Alaska. Things might have changed, but they are still Corporate Coffee.

Alaskans drink a lot of coffee, and they like it done personally by an entrepreneur who rents a small space on the corner and whips up the delish all by him or herself, not by some well-trained corporate cog barista in a fancy, major bricks-and-mortar store.

But for the life of me, today I could not remember what it was called. So I made myself one, started sipping, and looked it up. I like knowing things. I like remembering things even more. So...

Café breve.

That is what it is called. Knowing its name does not change the cost of the drink I am sipping, but remembering the name? Priceless.

What this is and probably what this is not

Today is Thursday, June 21, 2018.

It is the day after the current occupant of the Oval Office has canceled his ill-advised, totally-inhumane policy of arresting "illegal" border crossers and remanding them to federal prison to await their hearing and eventual sentence for the federal "crime" of crossing a border without permission. At the same time, any non-adult - meaning children - were separated from their adults, sometimes forcefully, always without a hint of caring for their tender youth, and either stuck in a chain-link cage or shuttled off to some "foster home" near or very far, to await the outcome of their parent's legal battle.

There are so many horrors involved here and it is far too uncomfortable for me to relate any of them here; this is included in my blog merely as a future reference point. It might not be one of those "I remember where I was at that exact moment" moments, but I also sure this misery will be well-remembered for a long time.

Regurgitating unpleasant partisan political behavior is not what this is about, anyway. For a long time, I have used this blog as a one-way outlet for my desire to write. I wrote, not really caring if anyone read anything - though I do have a few regular readers. Thank you! - and continued merely to write. I also found myself doing much the same thing on my own Facebook account. I would write a few paragraphs on any topic of interest that popped into my brain and that needed to be released onto a "written" page somewhere. I realized I was 1) overusing Facebook, and 2) underusing this blog.

I questioned 'why?' and could not come up with any kind of answer, so I have changed my mind.

From now on, this blog will be the place I put those random thoughts that cry out to be written down, not Facebook. Even though I use the same laptop to write and the words will be the same, there seems to be a difference in my mind between that and this. And I like this better! I will not use it to complain or whine (well, maybe I will whine a bit) or carry on a conversation with myself. I will not use it for my genealogy study; I already have a blog for that.

I will use it to improve my own ability to write and communicate. Hopefully, that also means reading more to strengthen a point, since I do not want this just to be a blog about my own opinions. Anyway, any kind of writing, especially good writing, demands lots of reading.

If you, dear reader, have a comment, feel free to add it. Constructive criticism (I have been accused of rambling; do you sense any?) and reading suggestions are always welcome. And, of course, if you want to refer this blog to others that might be interested, I will never turn down that offer!

Then. Now. Not much changed

Two years ago, almost to the day, long before the chaotic reality in which we now find ourselves was evident, I wrote these words:

How does one detach from the negatives in this life? Lord knows we are tested and given many opportunities, but what about the next step? What does 'success' at detachment look like? I do not know.

I still do not have answers. I have even less insight. I still have the questions.

Moving on

As I sit here writing, I think about things in my own past and how they relate to my present.

A daughter and her career-Army husband have relocated from a wonderful house and home in Severna Park, Maryland, for a new duty assignment in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Visiting them is more challenging because there are no direct flights between where I live and where she lives, even though the two places are physically closer.

One of my younger brothers has lived in Columbia, Maryland, for the past 27 years. I have only seen him once, on my last visit to my daughter. Columbia is an easy 30-minute drive from Severna Park. Why did I not visit him more often in the past three years that I have visited my daughter and grandchildren?

My beloved younger sister apparently remarried many years ago and lives near Charlotte, North Carolina. Why am I not in touch with her?

I do not know where my youngest brother is or even if he is alive. I am, however, in touch with his children on Facebook. Why does that even happen?

It is all about music

As the news gets worse and worse - and it truly does - I have two places of refuge...the written word (in paper form, not on a device) and music.

The tune can transport me instantly to another time and place. Lyrics can touch that place deep in my soul that seems to have been shut off from the world because of the aforementioned bad news. So...

...don't try to change her, just leave it.
Get out quick 'cuz seeing is believing.
It's the only way you'll ever know...

...don't try to change her. Just leave it. Just leave it.

Good advice from lyrics.

Welcome back...I hope!

It has been a year since I posted an entry to this blog. What I was doing is not relevant to my genealogical search, but it did take me away from it. I am now back and hope to rekindle the readers I have. Let's get started.

Here is what excites me about #genealogy and working on my family tree.

As you might recall from earlier posts, I knew very little about my grandparents' emigration into this country in the early 1920's and some of what I thought I "knew" turned out to be completely wrong. For example, I always thought my maternal grandfather, JOHN FRANCIS BURKE, was an Irish immigrant who was married to my maternal grandmother, NINA THOMPSON BURKE, an immigrant from Scotland.

I do not remember why I thought that, but oh, how wrong that memory is.

My Grampy John was a born-and-raised U.S. citizen from New Hampshire with a New England lineage going back two generations, so far. Likewise, my Nana was not from Scotland at all; I have no idea how that "knowledge" came to me, but it was as wrong as it could have been. She was born and raised in Quebec, Canada, and her lineage is Canadian going back a couple of generations, too. Those misunderstandings kind of confused me and misdirected my attention a bit; instead of focusing on one person at a time, I started skipping around trying to make sense of things. For people who are beginning to work on their own family tree, that is an inefficient way to operate and might populate your tree with erroneous information because you skipped something.

So I reoriented my thoughts and actions and began looking at one person or family unit (husband and wife, for example) at a time. Doing so has been productive for me. I also expanded my sources; I have been a long-time subscriber to the big genealogy site, Ancestry.com, but doing so has limited me in some ways. Recently, I reactivated a 'free' membership to Family Search, another large genealogy repository based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) and has given me some data points, including documents, that I did not have from Ancestry.com.

While I was looking for birth documents from my maternal great-grandmother - finding birth certificates has been Challenge #1 for me - I discovered something I had not found on Ancestry.com. (By the way, as I mentioned above, the maternal side of my family hails from the United States, so finding information about them is much easier.) A quick trip to the Family Search data immediately pointed to a birth certificate for my Great-gramma Burke, BERTHA JULIA RAYMOND, who I knew as an 8-year old boy before father and my family left the United States for his original posting in Jordan. (I never saw her alive again until we returned for the only burial I have ever attended...hers.)

The birth certificate I found was not hers; I am still searching for that. It was for a stillborn baby boy she had on August 12, 1905, in Wilton, New Hampshire. But that is not even the 'ah hah!' moment for me - stillborn children were very common in the early 1900's in a very small town in rural New Hampshire. The eye-opener was the entry on the line marked "No. of children, 1st, 2d, 3d..."

8th. Yes, eighth.

My great-grandmother had at least 8 children. Up to this point, I know of only four (now five) ancestors ... my grandfather and three of his brothers plus the one stillborn boy. Who and where are the other three? The only relatives I have identified are males; did my great-grandmother give birth to any girls? Where did this stillborn baby boy fall in the lineage? Are there more than eight? Large families are common in my past - my maternal lineage is Roman Catholic.

I now have other questions to answer in the search for branches and leaves on my family tree! As I have said before, finding these exciting clues to previously unknown people is what makes my climb up my family tree so exciting and rewarding.