Blog Talk Radio - Geneabloggers

Blog Talk Radio is a new online radio show that began when Thomas MacEntee decided to cover the TV show “Who Do You Think You Are” live, when it started two months ago. It just finished it’s six episodes. So actually I guess it’s not that new, but I missed getting on the band wagon to listen to it earlier because of my travels to India, etc. Now I’m leaving for Panama on a regular tour, but have managed to listen to all his 2 hour shows which have been archived and are downloadable to my iPod at iTunes.com. I love listening to Thomas and his interaction with guest callers. The show lasts two hours, but the time flies by, especially when I’m on my fitness walk, or driving.

I have to make a new posting to my blog, as I haven’t gotten to it for awhile, you see it has now been mentioned on the internet radio!!   I finally got to listen to the LIVE radio show at www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers/  today (Friday April 15th) (which airs at 4 pm Hawaii Time, or 9 pm his Chicago time) – and I decided to call in and mention my great-grandfather, William Dowell Wallace. The reason being that the radio show is about the Civil War and Family History …. Thomas has a theme for each show, now that the WDYTYA series is over….. anyway he had some excellent guests tonight, but still solicits telephone calls from listeners or those lurking in the radio show “Chat Room.” So I actually telephoned in to Thomas and got on the air to mention that my great-grandfather enlisted from Madison Co., Iowa and that he got sick in early 1862. He was hospitalized in Corinth, Mississippi and remained to become a “nurse” in that hospital and in other places his company traveled. I told Thomas that in the two years I had traveled around the USA, I tried to visit as many Civil War sites as possible, and one of the most interesting and chilling times was to stand at the site of the Corinth, Mississippi hospital where my Civil War ancestor had been. He said he hoped that I took lots of photos. So then I had to mention my other blog at http://www.ancestortrackingdreamroadtrip.blogspot.com/  in which I am putting my two year travel journal onto the blog, slowly, one day at a time. It’s from 2001 and 2002. I’ve yet to blog about an actual ancestral site, but I will get there eventually. I have made posts about visiting Antietam and passed by one near Staunton, VA in the Shenandoah Valley.

In the past two weeks, I’ve been crazily busy doing online research about my Phineas Stevens ancestral line. I have three Phineas Stevens in a row: Capt Phineas Stevens in the French and Indian wars; his son Dr. Phineas Stevens – a Loyalist in the Revolution, and the grandson Phineas Stevens (III) a tanner in Jamestown, NY. Phineas III, had a daughter (my direct ancestor, Lucinda Stevens) and a son he named Phineas.  So it was this Phineas IV who DID enlist in the Civil War and I’ve been tracking down his life.  Phineas Stevens (IV) started out as a Lt from Westfield, NY and ended as a Capt after he moved to Fredonia, NY. I’d like to write more about this Civil War g-g-grand-uncle in another blog.

Thanks, Thomas MacEntee, for all the work you put into your free Webinars (see listings at http://www.geneawebinars.com/) and the free BlogTalkRadio, in addition to your devotion to the geneablogging community. Congratulations for getting the position as speaker on the upcoming Legacy Cruise off of New England this coming September. See http://www.geneabloggers.com/ for a glimpse into the world of genealogy blogging.

Greeting the New Year

2010 is here and I am back at home after a month away.  I was visiting my daughter and famiy in Arizona for three weeks, south of Tucson, and my nephews in Las Vegas for a week.  Christmas and New Year's passed and shortly after I returned to Honolulu the Haiti Earthquake happened.  The tradgedy sparked a inquiry from Operation Smile to me to see if I could rush to Haiti to work on the USNS Hospital Ship Comfort.  I was asked because I'm an operating room nurse that has recently worked on a surgical mission on the Comfort (offshore Nicaragua last July).  As it turned out the plans for Operation Smile shifted gears from doing life saving surgeries on the ship, to sending a small team in to do surgeries on land.  Perhaps more assistance will be needed down the line.  I've been riveted to the news programs about the situation in Haiti, and now with rescue and recovery teams leaving, I hope that the survivors will treated and sustained.

As far as genealogy goes, I have begun getting clients through Ancestry.com for conducting research.  But of real enjoyment was talking to a cousin on my Joshua Wallace side and catching up with the family.  It is so nice to have a not too distant cousin who enjoys doing genealogy and is interested in sharing information.   I have Family Tree Maker and was going to print out an Outline Descendant Tree for her, but since I haven't used the 2010 version much, I had to "re-find" where this version has hidden that chart (it's under "Relationship Charts" on the Publish Tab).  Then I figured I'd print off a few "Individual Reports", but discovered that these reports have headers that take up a lot of space, and I would have to use too many pages to print them out.  So I copied the Person's Notes and pasted them to a Word document which seemed to be able to condense the information into far fewer pages than if I'd used Family Tree Maker (FTM) 2010.  I feel like I am missing many of the FTM 2010 options, and I've signed on to a blog or two about using FTM 2010.  Now I need time to get back genealogy!

In the meantime I have been busy getting quartzite natural stone squares laid in my small patio area, and also tracking down a mouse (a big one) that seems to like the powdered dehydration salts in foil packets that I brought back from Bangkok when I left the hospital there last May.

I'm looking forward to the visit of my Welsh "Rees" family cousins, Jan and Russ, coming this March and am really happy that I'll be able to show them around Hawaii.  I originally met this line of my Rees-Pearce family through the internet about ten years ago and since then we've had visits back and forth.  Several of the family are interested in the family history and of our common ancestors, Elias & Jennet Rees, of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales. 

Coming up, I hope to catch up with some of the genealogy blogs I subscribe to.  I feel kind of cut off from the genealogy world when I don't read them.    Thanks to all that made comments on my Pearce Genealogy Photo Book.  I have plans to make other similar books.

2008 Wrap Up

To wrap up the year 2008 I see lots of accomplishments, activities and achievements, but I also see lots more to do. I especially wanted to visit some Spanish speaking countries this year – which I did, going to San Salvador, Guatemala, a bit of Honduras and Belize, following the route of the Maya. I also wanted to spend lots of time with my daughter’s and grandchildren, which I also did – a month in July/August and now 3 weeks over Christmas 2008-New Year’s 2009. In the meantime I was able to qualify for Operation Smile and have a medical mission, lined up for Managua, Nicaragua for Feb 4th 2009, for plastic surgery of cleft lip/palate children.

This Christmas, in Sierra Vista, Arizona has been very festive and full of kids and families. We traveled up to Phoenix for two days to visit my son-in-law’s family. While the Pacific Northwest was struggling under snow, and Hawaii was struggling without power and enjoying Obama's visit, I had a holiday with good weather and snow on the mountain peaks.


Now I'm learning about “Geocaching” with my grandson, Braden. We followed the latitude and longitude clues found at http://www.geocaching.com/ for around this zip code area, and used my old GPS to zero in on the hidden cache around the Sierra Vista, AZ, and outlying areas. We found three “caches” and a couple of the bigger ones had little trinket treasures that the finder could chose from and take, and leave one of your own, if you want. While looking for the geocache we discovered that there is a nice nature path along a dry wash, and even stumbled on














a burned out trestle that once crossed the creek. Then we found a little park by the Whetstone Fire Station and discovered a hidden cache nearby. Finally we followed a clue coordinates to “A Starry Night” and discovered that there is an observatory on the campus of the Univ of Arizona, South. I didn’t even know there was a University campus there. So it looks like my fondness for “volksmarching” long ago in Germany is now becoming a fondness for geocaching in the USA.

On Christmas Eve, Scott, my son-in-law who is in the Army, rode his motorcycle in the escort of the 11th Signal Brigade's arrival from their deployment to Iraq, from the Ft Huachuca airport to their big family home-comings. There were 50-60 motorcyclists, many veterans with flags fllying, escorting the 5 busload of soldiers and another bus of airmen. Very nice to see them come home without any injuries or losses. The picture here shows Scott on the far right.

Of course, Genealogy is a prime endeavor, and I do work on that about every day. I’ve just realized, that my distant cousin via the Joshua Wallace family, may also be connected to me by the early Plumb family of Connecticut. Here's the generation where we may connect:

Descendants of John Plumb
1 John Plumb b: 24 Nov 1646 CT, Milford d: Mar 1727/28
.. +Elizabeth* Norton b: Abt. 1645 CT, Bramford m: 24 Nov 1668 d: Father: John* Norton; Mother: Dorothy*
... 2 Elizabeth Plumb b: 01 Nov 1669
....... +Samuel Hickock b: m: 1690;
... 2 John Plumb b: 29 Jul 1671 d: Abt. 17 Aug 1716;
....... +Rachel Bunnel
... 2 Mary Plumb b: 15 May 1673
....... +Joseph Kerby m: 17 Oct 1704
... 2 Sarah* Plumb b: 05 Apr 1675 Of CT, Milford, New Haven Co d: 17 Aug 1712;
....... +Joseph* Kellogg b: Mar 1677/78 CT, Norwalk m: 25 Nov 1702 CT, Norwalk, Fairfield; d: Bef. 21 Jan 1720/21 Father: Daniel* Kellogg Mother: Bridget* Bouton;
.........3 Rachel* Kellogg b: 15 Jul 1710 d: 24 Dec 1793;
............. +William* Reed b: 16 Nov 1708 m: 28 Nov 1729 d: 02 Aug 1793 CT, New Canaan; Father: John2* Reed Mother: Elizabeth* Tuttle
... 2 Hannah Plumb b: 15 Apr 1677
....... +Unknown Bunnel
2 Dorothy Plumb b: 23 Mar 1678/79
....... +Samuel Prindle b: m: 01 Jan 1698/99
... 2 Josiah Plumb b: 06 Feb 1680/81 d: Bef. 1719
... 2 Joseph Plumb b: 1683 d: 27 May 1742
....... +Elizabeth Bailey b: m: 05 Dec 1709 d:
... *2nd Wife of Joseph Plumb:
....... +Thankful Gaylord b: m: Aft. 1709 d:
... 2 Ruth Plumb b: 29 Nov 1685 d:
....... +Hezekiah Bunnell b: m: 03 Jul 1706 d:
... *2nd Husband of Ruth Plumb
....... +John Wheeler b: m: Aft. 1706 d:
... 2 Robert Plumb b: 19 Apr 1691 d: 30 Nov 1699

In 2001 when I was driving around America on my Vagabond “roots discovery” trip, I spent a bit of time in New Haven, Wethersford, Milford, and New Canaan, Connecticut. These were areas that the Plumb and Kellogg families lived after 1635. I think Wethersford , CT is best know now for a witch trial.

A sad note is that my first cousin (on the Hague-Wallace side), Carol's daughter-in-law, Kerry Putman, died Dec 7th, after a Thanksgiving holiday of riding a "quad" in the desert around Las Vegas where she and her husband lived. She was bruised after a collision accident, but no broken bones. She died a week later from a pulmonary embolism. A great loss to the family.

2009 will be here soon, I hope to keep more of a log at this blog. It should be a good year.

20 June 2008

The last week in May, before I left for Central America, I spent a week in Los Angeles and Southern California doing some genealogy. I visited the former homes and schools of mine my parents, my grandparents, great aunts, and great-grandparents. These were from the Hague, Wallace, Blanding and Akins families.

After my first day driving all over L.A, I stayed with long-time school friend Carolyn and her husband (see photo of Carolyn & Leonard at table), in Palm Desert.

Then I drove over through Hemet to Lake Elsinore and stayed with 3rd cousin Joyce Stucky Movius of our Akin lineage. (see photos of her family members).

Donna-Joyce-Georgette with Akin Heritage book I gave Joyce

Joyce in 4-generation photos

.

I was overjoyed when Joyce gave me an old water and mold-damaged tin-type photo album that had belonged to Howard Nelson Akins. (see photo of old tin-type). So I am going to take special care and fix up the scanned old tin-type images . Few have names, I'll try to preserve and identify them all. I had inherited a little box of a few of Howard's papers, etc. when he died in 1954. I was a child, but very impressed with the "old things" including mention of his father, Marshall J. Akins serving in the Civil War -36th Reg, Wis Vol. - I think this is what started my early interest in genealogy. Marshall Akins was born in 1844 at Busti, Chautauqua County, New York.

.
Finally, I drove to Fullerton to visit cousin Patti and her family. We had a big dessert night and her sister Carol and family came over. These are my Dad's nieces and of the Hague / Wallace lineage. See photo of some of the clan around the table.

.
I drove back to Los Angeles and took even more photos of old family homes. Google maps helped out. Here is a photo of a Blanding family home from the 1920's or 1930's on Long Beach Ave. The train tracks are in front of it. It used to be painted white and was called "The White House."

From LAX I flew to Central America with Overseas Adventure Tours. In a group of 16, we visited Mayan ruins in El Salvador, Honduras (Copan), Guatemala (Tikal), and Belize (Lumanai). It was a good experience and all things went very well.

Sep 22, 2007

I've been very busy these last three week since I've been back home in Hawaii, after being on the mainland for two months. What I've HAD to do is organize and pack efficiently for my month-long trip to China/Tibet and Cambodia - I leave tomorrow, Sunday, Sept 23, 2007. But what I try to do whenever I can sneak it in, is to work on genealogy and especially compile, sort, annotate and look at, all the family photos and research I did while I was in Indiana and Iowa. It is so great to see the pieces of the genealogy puzzle fall into place. Also I am trying to get promised pictures back to the family members I met while I was in Iowa. It's quite a job. Here is a photo of Hague descendants: Mary, OralMay Wilson; me; Jim (& Gladys) Wilson; Bill Wilson in Des Moines.

I took probably 3,000 digital photos of my time in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Indiana and Iowa. Many were of the scenery in Arizona and Utah, and many were of my daughter's family and brother's family in the West. But when I arrived at Allen Co. Library in Indiana, I began taking digital photos of the books, pictures and microfilm available for research there - and later at the various libraries and historical societies in Iowa. Then there were the photos of my extended Hague family from Des Moines, farm sites of my Hague, Wallace and Pearce homesteads and especially the big family reunion there. I'm grateful for the hospitality of my Hague cousins, Don and Dorothy Wilson in West Des Moines, and of course, my daughter and family in Sierra Vista, AZ.

I've been going to the 24hr Fitness gym every day for 1.5 hours in an effort to take off some of the extra pounds I gained while living-it-up with family. Last Saturday I was at the gym, upstairs where the weights and machines are. I was happy to see a local celebrity working out - "Dog, The Bounty Hunter" Duane Chapman and his son Duane Lee. They live in the area and are on their third season on TV station A & E with the show. I like it because of all the local shots they do of Hawaii. He and his wife, Beth, are real characters, but I think they do good work. I said "Hi, Dog" to him when he walked by, and he stopped to say thanks, so I told him to "Keep up the good work."

Then after a half hour upstairs I went down to do my 2 miles on the elliptical trainer. Who should come out to work out on the treadmill in front of me, but Daniel Dae Kim (left), the Korean husband character "Jin" on the popular TV series "Lost" which is filmed in Hawaii. He certainly is in good shape! He ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes and while I was at the drinking fountain he came up to take a drink beside me. I didn't talk to him. He lives around here, as does the Josh Holloway (right), the guy who plays "Sawyer" on "Lost." It seems that was THE day to be at the gym.

NOW - I am all packed for China. I managed to get everything in a medium sized roller suitcase, and a wheeled backpack. The luggage limitation for internal China flights are very small - 11 pounds for a carry-on and 44 pounds for one checked suitcase. Lucille James is going to be my travel companion and I'll be very happy to have a friend to travel with. We'll meet at Honolulu Airport tomorrow at about 6:30 a.m. and fly out to Shanghai via Japan tomorrow. Thank heavens the Typhoon Wipha that passed by Shanghai a couple days ago has gone and I guess I'll hear what damage was done to the area west of that Chinese city. We'll be in Shanghai four days on the pre-trip extension and Cambodia for the post-trip extension. If anyone wants to see the itinerary for my trip you can go to www.oattravel.com and click on Imperial China, Tibet & the Yangtze River then "View & Print Itinerary."

So, until next month --- aloha!