The Perfect Pedigree

 

Image courtesy of Among My Branches blog

No, I am not talking about any sort of aristocracy or purebred animal species.  I am talking about pedigrees as pertains to genealogy.  I know, I know...you're all getting sick of hearing about my ancestry adventures, but it's my blog so I can do what I want.  <<insert snarky smiley face>>

Several years ago I paid an obscene amount of money to build all of my and Captain's family trees.  The obscene cost allows unlimited entries onto the tree, and between the two of us, we have thousands of entries!  

I happily spent hours adding names and dates here, there, and everywhere.  However, I didn't pay a lot of attention to where the information was coming from.  Thus, I ended up with a lot of disinformation on my trees that I am now going back and trying to correct.

In adding all these names and dates, I have connected with heretofore unknown cousins across the United States which has been fun.  Last summer I invited as many of the Prokasky cousins as I could track down, and we had a fabulous afternoon of acquainting ourselves.  It was so much fun that we are going to do it again this year...bigger and better!  

After spending that lovely afternoon hearing stories from these newfound cousins, I realized that just having names and dates in my genealogy data wasn't enough.  It's like that poem about The Dash...what matters is what happens between the start date and the end date.  It dawned on me I had no DashData to record, and I decided I wanted to change that.  

In fact, I wanted to change it enough that I could write a family history book going back to my four-times great-grandfather, Henry Prokasky.  

I'm going to remind you all that I am neurodivergent with ADD, so when I have AN IDEA, I jump in feet first with no personal floatation device to keep me from sinking.  I'm talking whole-hog-investment of time and energy.  

Acknowledging the neurodivergent thing, I knew I needed to get organized about the data that I do have, so I ordered a genealogy research starter kit on Amazon.  Me...I love paper.  If I could fill out forms in triplicate all day long, I'd be happy.  Call me crazy.  

I was super excited this morning when I went to get yesterday's mail and the forms had arrived!  I opened them up and looked at the five different forms and immediately had an anxiety attack because it was too much organization at one time for my poor feeble brain.  

There is a 5-generation pedigree chart (hence the title of this post) that has in the header spaces to note the Surname being recorded, who it is compiled by, and the Chart No.  I understand the surname and researcher name fields, but that chart number thing is giving me fits.  How do I note that people in Chart No. 1 (my chart with spouse, children, and parents listed) are also listed in the charts of the preceding four generations?  Again, my feeble neurodivergent mind is curled up in the corner sobbing hysterically. 

Beyond figuring out what to put where on the forms, the next problem I am running into is that my writing is such that the information doesn't fit in the tiny little spaces allowed on these forms.  Sorry, Charlie, I have fairly large handwriting because I have been bat-blind since I was 5 years old and that's the only way I can see what the hey-hey I'm writing.  So I will have to ponder that and see what's to be done about it.  

That is all the easiest part of the genealogy research, actually.  Next comes online searches via Google, FindAGrave.com (which isn't as creepy as it sounds), FamilySearch, and the National Archives website.  Then I could branch out (see what I did there?) into local historical records found at the Olmsted County Historical Society, the Rochester Public Library, and the Minnesota History Center Research Library.  

If I wanted to get really I-N-T-O it all, I could go to state and national genealogy conferences, but that costs more than what I can possibly afford at this stage.  

Plus, all of the data that I would find in any of those places would be cold facts; nothing personal or heart-warming that would truly show the life of any person I might be researching.  

So you see my dilemma!

But still, the data is the foundation, and it needs to be correct and organized in a logical fashion for whatever final result you wish for.  

In my case, the final project will be a book detailing Henry and Margaret (Tomangh) Prokasky and their descendants through six generations to Cubby and Nugget (this is what Molly calls the baby bump).

Therefore, my plan is to leave what's out there on my public family tree site as it is.  On an interoperable web site, I will start the tree from scratch, paying much closer attention to who, what, when, where, why, and how.  I will write down what I do, when I do it, where I found it, and who it's about.  

It will be long journey, most likely years in the making, but it will be worth it when the final product is in my hands and I can share it with my family.  Luckily I find myself with more 'spare' time now that I am done with school, so what better what to spend that time than climbing the family tree?!

And guess what, pals of mine?  I'm going to drag you along on the ride!!  

Hugs, my friends!

Hiking Club Adventures

 When Captain and I stayed at the yurt in Afton State Park this winter, we spent quite a bit of time chatting with the ranger in the office when we were checking out.  I wandered around the little gift shop because I like to have a memento from each state park we stay in.  

This time I didn't purchase a memento but the Minnesota State Park Hiking Club log book and the Minnesota State Park Passport log book.   My theory was that the hiking club log book would provide me with dozens of trips with Cubby.  

The object of the hiking club is to get people out exploring the state parks and the incentive to do so is a find and record a password that is posted at about the halfway point of the dedicated hiking club trail. 

For our first foray into this adventure, I took Cubby with me back to Afton State Park because we needed to pick up the jacket that Captain left in the yurt when we stayed there.  Cubby wasn't thrilled with it being a 90-minute drive so I bribed her with the promise of lunch at McDonalds on the way there and a stop at Thelma's Treats in Afton on the way home.  

On the way to Afton, I really hyped up how much fun it was going to be to do a treasure hunt type search for the password, thinking there would be some sleuthing skill required.  When we discovered that the password is plastered in great big letters on a sign that says PASSWORD, it was a little anticlimactic.  Thus Cubby's crabby face.  

Still, I convinced her it was still a fun activity and we kept on hiking.  Lucky for me, we found  a stream she could play in for a good 15 minutes!

Of course, when we finished the hike and were heading home, I took her to Thelma's Treats in Afton--the oldest ice cream shop in Minnesota!  She had a cherry shake and I had a salted caramel ice cream cone...both were scrumpdillyicious, to borrow a word from a competing ice cream franchise.  

Fast forward several weeks and we had our second adventure to Carley State Park in Plainview.  We were a little early for the bluebells, although we did see a couple of tiny ones.  Cubby found a teepee type structure that fascinated her, but her biggest enjoyment were the concrete blocks that needed to be traversed to cross the stream.  

Me...not so much.  The first set of concrete "stepping stones" wasn't bad but the second set had a 3-foot gap between the bank and the first block.  Of course little Miss Nimble On Her Feet skipped right across and then looked back at her grandma.  

"C'mon Grandma, just step quick on the rock, the log, and then the block."  Uh-huh, sure.  Listen, child of my child, my center of gravity is WAY different than yours so just let me do this myself.  Yeah...it took me a good 60 seconds to accomplish what she did in a nanosecond.  But I did it!

And then...

From the last block to the other bank there is, again, a 3-foot span of water but this time there are no handy objects to step on to get from here to there.  Nope, I was going to have to launch myself and hope like heck I didn't face plant in the mud.  

I even had my own little cheerleader for this as I was sort of bouncing to really spring through the air.  Just as I was crouched and ready to leap, there was a voice behind me from a group of people I had no idea were there.  Ermagerd....I flailed around mid leap and landed back on the block facing back at a woman and two men.  The poor women who had spoke and robbed me of the last two years of my life looked as shocked as I felt and was apologizing up and down.  

The guy behind her?  Hmmmmm...he was laughing so hard I thought he was going to wet himself.

So was Cubby, for that matter.  

With wounded pride and all, I managed to jump across far enough to (1) stay out of the stream and (2) not face plant in the mud.  All good things in my world.  

After THAT ordeal, the last leg of the hike was a set of steps that looked pretty daunting, but we powered through it and made it back to the van in one piece.  

Next up in the Hiking Club adventure I believe will be Big Woods State Park in Nerstrand!