Philgrim’s Blogress

It’s already been almost four weeks since I mentioned the plans for Janet to take Jenn and Fiona to England, so I suppose I should give an update.

Yes they made it safely, albeit with some hassles from both US (at the Minneapolis transfer) and UK (at London Heathrow) authorities.

The girls have been enjoying their time in England.  They’ve stayed with Auntie Anne and Uncle Stephen at St. Austell, and with Uncle Nigel and Auntie Kate at Falmouth, with cousins at both places to play board games and Wii with.  Auntie Gillian has also been down from South Wales, and Grandpa was at St. Austell for them to nick chocolate from.

Grandma’s surgery went well, by all accounts.  Family members are somewhat frustrated by the fact that they can’t visit her because the hospital has a no-visitor policy due to a virus outbreak.

A few days ago they flew across to the Isles of Scilly, where they are settling in at Pelistry and getting reacquainted with Uncle Mervyn and Auntie Stephanie and three more cousins.  Today was the first day of school.

But why am I giving all these details?  You can read a first-hand account at Fiona’s new blog.

Luke has a new video up on YouTube, with some nice clips he’s taken while on the Isles of Scilly.

A couple of years ago my nephew Jeremy had his high school grad.  I thought he looked very sharp in the red and blue duct tape suit his sister had made for him.

This year my nephew Larsson graduated.  I think his suit is as classy as Jeremy’s.  The wig was a nice touch.

I know it’s kind of lame to take almost a week to mention it in this space, but yes, Charlotte did graduate last Friday.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Then on Saturday, she flew to England to join her brother Luke on the Isles of Scilly.  They’ll both be working there for at least the summer.  Their plans for winter 2009-2010 are flexible – maybe somewhere else in Europe, maybe another part of England …

Oh to be young again.

It’s different around here, but I’m sure we’ll get used to having an average-sized family.

I think most people have some curiosity about their family history.  However most of us, including myself, are reluctant or unable to spend a lot of time researching previous generations.

So I really appreciate coming across people like my 4th Cousin Terry, of the St. Louis area of Missouri.

Terry is the most dedicated (fanatical?) genealogist that I have ever met.  I first bumped into Terry a couple of years ago when a random Google search turned up a reference to my father, Clifford.  I emailed the website’s contact person, volunteering some extra information such as Dad’s death date and more.  Terry emailed back with reams of interesting information, including the fact that he had spent time in the Rindal area of Norway where he had visited some relatives that I’d met on my 1984 trip and subsequently.  Since then we have from time to time emailed back and forth, and this week the time was right for Terry and his wife Barbara to visit our area, timing it to coincide with a visit to my Shell Lake relatives from Norwegian relatives  Jon, Liv and Gunnvor.

I now have a new genealogy software package installed on my computer, and have imported Terry’s GEDCOM, containing data on my family tree back to the early 1600s.  If I were starting from scratch, I would need to devote countless days to accumulate the data that I’m starting out with.  I don’t expect to do a lot of original genealogical research until I’m retired, but I hope to find some time for it.

On a personal note, it was fun getting acquainted with Terry and Barb these last few days.  Here are a couple of pics.

Supper with Terry and Barb at the Yellow Fender Eatery, Christopher Lake

Gunnvor, Barb, Janet, Jon, Terry, Liv

Garage sale.  Tomorrow.  Our place.  Excited?  No.