Is Hope Real . . . This Time?

Adults told us to dive under our desks, grab the metal legs, and keep our heads down. This action was to protect us from The Bomb. On another occasion we were let out of school early and were told to go directly home. The object was to time our trip home so our teachers would know exactly how long it took to get home in case of a bombing.

Then . . .

We were told Cuba had missiles aimed at us and ready to fire. Where was Cuba? Why did they want to hurt my friends and family? I didn’t even know what a missile was, but I could tell it scared all the adults.

This president would frequently come on the black & white television and make us feel like everything was safe and going to be okay. His speaking taught me a new word, inspired. He had a way of speaking that caused you to well-up inside with hope.

At a different time he encouraged the whole country with his confidence that we could send a person to the moon. To the moon! What an incredible thought. He also called on everyone to give their time and talent to help others. He started a group called the Peace Corps to reach out to help those in need. His sincerity took the fear out of diving under my desk and made me believe the world was full of possibilities.

Then . . .

My principal came into my classroom, whispered into my teacher’s ear, and she started to cry. Was it the bomb? No. It was my president. Someone had killed him and we were sent home. Children and adults across the land went home and sat in front of their television for days.

Darkness spread over the landscape. Sadness and grief was the norm for a long time. I’m not sure it ever really went away, just settled deep inside.

Life moved on, but slowly.

Years later, the president’s brother, Robert, decided to run for president. There was a memory of the inspiration we had once known, the hope, and the challenge to be more. Robert came through my hometown on a train. The train stopped and as he spoke from the back of it the mood of the crowd was electric, his speech was rousing, and our enthusiasm and hope for the future was high.

Then . . .

Two days later, after his acceptance speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angles, he was shot while leaving the building through the kitchen area.

This series of events spanned the time from my second grade class to high school and set in place my lack of hope in all things political. This lack has only been reinforced over the years with Watergate, Iran -Contra, White House intern scandals, Iraq war, and on and on. Whatever party is in office seems to become haughty and makes stupid mistakes while the other party only points fingers and declares this is the worst leader ever. My conclusion is they are both wrong and much more alike than different perhaps just two sides of the same coin. I have become a member of the disillusioned majority. You don’t hear from us very often because we are busy going about our jobs, raising our families, taking care of parents that are aging, and just living.

And Now . . .

We are facing a new presidential season. Hope is in the air. Will this time be different? My hope is it’s just more words from adults telling us to dive under our desks for safety. I want real hope to be demonstrated. May it be so.

Pallin is not Teddy Roosevelt

To all of you who are sending or have received the email “Who Am I?” that goes as follows:
I'm under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
I have many children,
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office.

Who am I?"
If you said Teddy Roosevelt you are right !Teddy Roosevelt in 1900.

Here are my comments to this email:

Teddy Roosevelt is a personal hero of mine. I have read his writings and several books about his life. Governor Pallin maybe a lovely human being and wonderful Governor of Alaska, but she is in not even in Teddy Roosevelt’s league. Let’s keep things in perceptive:
Before he was vice President:
He struggled as a sickly asthmatic child and overcame it
He was proficient in French, German, Latin and Greek
He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard
He was a New York Assemblyman served 3 terms
President of the Board of New York City Police Commissioners
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Instrumental in the Spanish-American War
Won the Medal of Honor
Colonel of the Rough Riders
Wrote the History of the Naval War of 1812 set the standard for studies on naval strategy and was required reading at the Naval Academy in Annapolis for many years.
Established two cattle ranches in Dakota Territory
Lost both his beloved mother and wife on the same day
Published the Life of Thomas Hart Benton
Published Life of Governor Morris
Published Ranch Life and Hunting Trail
Published Essays in Practical Politics
Four volume history of the frontier The Winning of the West published
U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Washington
Published History of New York
Published The wilderness Hunter
Published Hero Tales from American History in collaboration with Henry Cabot Lodge
Published American Ideals
Published The Rough Riders
All before becoming vice president in March 1901.

Genealogy Websites

Here are the list of sites I've discovered and found to be helpful. There is a LOT of stuff online now. This is just my suggestions.

Here you go:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp The LDS site. The best!
http://dir.genealogytoday.com/index.html Free general site good.
http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/ Olivetree is good for other things beside ship lists, but that’s the link I saved
http://www.cyndislist.com/census.htm I’m sure you already know about Cyndi’s List. Tons of information. The site for lists of other sites.
http://www.immigrantships.net/ Great source for passenger lists
http://www.idreamof.com/newdata.html okay, but not the best site
http://www.us-census.org/inventory/ Need to know what specific state and county you are looking for to really use this one.

One tip too is to put information in the search site www.Dogpile.com. You can write in things like “Samuel Locker 1736 Virginia” and you will get information that way too. You will need to do a lot more stiffing though. Best of luck.
I traced a friends mother’s side of the family back to England as far as 1302 by just using the FamilySearch.org site. What was even more amazing it that it only took about three minutes. That isn’t normal. Like I said in the other blog, I’ve been working on Locker for years and still haven’t gotten them off the East coast to England.

I'm thinking about putting together easy search steps to follow. Maybe in the near future.

Where Are You From?

When I lived in Southern California I had the opportunity to have a young teacher as a roommate. She decided that during her summer break from teaching she wanted to travel to the homeland of her parents. She was just about as Irish as one can be. Her name is Kelly Ann Hoolihan, a name which kind of rolls off your tongue with an Irish accent without even trying. Before she left she wanted to do a wee bit of research to discover what part of Ireland her family was from. I thought it might be a hoot to look into my family roots, too, so she and I visited the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles to utilize their Family History Library.

It took her about ten minutes to figure out where her family had originated. Well, maybe a little longer than that, but very quickly. I found myself traveling back again and again, spending many long hours in the dark microfiche room, scrolling through page after page of old United States census records. While I did discover some information, it was only satisfying in spits and spurts.

After I moved back to Northern California, it wasn’t until a friend here became interested in tracing her genealogy that I again pulled out my binders (yes, binders) and started searching again. My friend Pam and I took a trip over the Northern California Mormon Temple in Oakland to their Family History Library and, of course, Pam had great luck and even found photos, stories, and more. I even found one more link in the chain of my family history.

In 2000 I stumbled onto Ancesty.com and thought I had hit the Mother load. I didn’t need to travel to a Family History Library; I could spend endless hours online searching. I’m happy to report I did locate my mother’s father’s connection to their homeland. Not too hard to figure out they are from Ireland. Next I discovered my 3 times great grandfather was from Antrim, Ireland, just north of Belfast. The photo at the top is from there. But then the path grew cold; it had been just a wee moment of glee.


Fast forward eight years and I happened on a new genealogy website and was overwhelmed at what can be found online now; photos of gravestones, ship passenger records, history of little known people, maps, and tons more. This time I knew I would reach my goal of tracing all my grandparents back to their homeland. After two weeks of intensive searching I have located my mother’s mom's family back to about 1208 in Tideswell, Derbyshire, England. The last name was changed in about 1635.

On my father’s mother’s side, I was able to trace the family back to 1674 to Saint Ninians, Stirling, Scotland. You remember the movie Brave Heart about William Wallace? He lived a few miles from Saint Ninians, Stirling. This is a photo of the Wallace Monument in his honor.



My father’s father was the hardest of all. I just can’t get the family out of the colonies. The line is stuck in Mississippi in 1849. I’m still searching, but that is for another time.

If you are interested in starting your own search, I have a list of great websites I’ve found extremely helpful. (Becasue of the overwhelming amount of interest I have posted the websites on this blog for all to enjoy and benefit from.)

I guess in a way if you’re a Christian you already have the source book to know exactly where you are from. We just need to return to a very familiar verse in John 6:9, Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Yes, our heritage is much greater than Ireland, South American, Africa, New Zealand, etc. Our homeland is heaven and our Father lives there.

Let me end with a passage from Galatians 4:4-7 that explains our ultimate heritage much better than I ever could. But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.