Category: Uncategorized

In honor of Earth Day, I’m going to show you a little glimpse into what we worked on recently. Our first vegetable garden. It’s our first try, and we’re still noobies when it comes to things like this, but we’re trying. That’s all that really matters right?

Here’s my parents trying to figure out how the water source is going to work.

Poor dad, he’s stuck with a bunch of girly girls. We do our best though!

Should I have made them sign releases first? Oh well, they’ll yell at me later. Mom is the brains behind this operation.

Looks like it’s working to me!

Look Amanda came to assist! Now I get to keep taking pictures. That’s my job you know. I’m supposed to document everything. It’s an official role in the family.

Without my official role, these pictures would be impossible. So happy Earth Day!

The next “treasure” I will show you is our Grandfather clock. This clock has only been in our house for about 6 years now. Technically we’ve owned it since it was made in 1983. The story goes that my Grandmother and Wayne were visiting us. Wayne was huge into the Civil War. Which is only fitting since he strongly resembled Abe Lincoln… Anyway, they were visiting and going around to all the historical sites. Obviously we are in the perfect spot for that. We are about 2 hours south of Washington D.C. and about 5 minutes from Point Lookout and St. Mary’s City.

They visited Sotterley Plantation one day while Grandma and Wayne were visiting. Sotterley is probably one of my favorite places in my area. I’ve only been twice in my whole life, but I love it all the same. During their visit to Sotterley, my Mom spied a grandfather clock. She fell in love with that clock. She turned to Wayne and told him, “One day I’ll have a clock just like that.”

Wayne went back to Indiana, and he made her that clock she said she wanted. The clock sat at Grandma and Wayne’s house in Dillsboro, IN for 20 years. Until one day, Wayne told us that we were taking it back to Maryland with us or he was putting on the lawn and selling it. We did what anyone would do, we packed up the clock and hightailed it back to Maryland.

This clock is in all my memories of Grandma and Wayne. That’s because it was made the same year I was born. I have such vivid memories of this clock. I can see Wayne now, sitting in his chair in the corner. He’d take his timepiece out and check the clock time. Then he’d sign as only a man with the most gravely voice (that was the emphysema) can do. Then he’d walk over and he’d pull the weights and adjust the time.

I’m pretty sure this picture was taken in front of Sotterley on that fateful visit. The baby would be my sister. I wasn’t born yet. This is probably one of my favorite pictures.

I recently was going through my mountain of pictures and came across a few more from that  visit. These are from D.C. How great are these shots? Even though we live close to D.C. we rarely go into the city. We keep trying to plan a trip but it’s just a little too close to home for it to ever get off it’s feet. Forces have been working against us.

Looking at these pictures makes me want to go real bad though. I better get on the treadmill and work up my walking endurance though. I’m sure it’ll be a lot of walking if we were to go. I’d like to learn more about picture taking too. It’d be great to actually get good pictures.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a Daily Blogging Topic that I got from GeneaBloggers. To participate in Treasure Chest Thursday simply create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an every-day item important to your family.

I have a problem folks. I like to change my mind. Some will say it’s because of my gender, others will say it’s because I lack focus. I’m sure all these things are true. The one thing related to genealogy I can’t seem to make a decision on is Ancestry.com’s Family Tree section.

In the pro column, I love the look of it. I love the feel of it. I love the layout. I even love how having it on site helps you to search Ancestry.com better. It’s so easy to link to Ancestry.com sources and never again wonder if you’ll be able to find William Moore in 1880 again. It won’t matter how much they always seem to shift Brooklyn around, because you’ve linked that record to that guy. It’s a beautiful thing. In fact, I have to restrain myself from once again uploading a GEDCOM.

They make it so easy to be split on this decision. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve uploaded and deleted my GEDCOM from their site about 5 times, I would do it again. Unfortunately there are also things I don’t like about it. Some of the things I don’t like, I also like, so this is why I keep changing my mind.

The most I can really say is that I knew when uploading things to that site and my own, that I was putting it out there for everyone and their brothers. In fact, I love sharing my pictures and stories. It’s the greatest reward that comes from doing this. The only problem is that with that I have a responsibility to only put up things that I’m comfortable sharing. Sometimes I forget that in the heat of the moment. I love to try new things. One day though, I was wondering around the Ancestry.com Family Tree section. I was looking at the few trees that have the Thorward family in them. Then I noticed that a lot of those trees were using my pictures of the Thorwards. Which is totally fine, don’t get me wrong. The only thing I saw a problem with is that this completely cuts out the middle man between my fellow genealogists and those pictures, which is me.

I don’t mind them using the pictures, I gladly welcome it. The only problem I have with it, is that it made me think of that other side of my tree. The one I don’t have all the documentation and pictures for. Can someone just come along and take the information without even having to verify it with me? What happens if something I have is completely wrong and the next day I delete it. Then this person has merged my tree with theirs thinking that it’s proven fact, but it’s not! In fact, I have to hold myself back from deleting the information in my website right now. It really does freak me out that something I entered in error could be floating in someone’s tree for years because they haven’t taken the time to check my sources first.

This is why I’m so split on this subject. I could always make my tree “private”, there is that option. What I realized though is if I have the tree up on Ancestry, I immediately start working there exclusively. I stop working on this site that I’ve had and loved for so long.

It may not be as fancy and glamorous as the Ancestry site. It may not have all the convenience. It’s mine though. I use software called The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding. It gives you full control of your tree. I know a little about coding, someday I’ll learn more, but this program does the hard part. I can customize the layout or download one of the templates. In fact until my current layout I’ve always used one of those templates.

It certainly doesn’t lack anything that I would need. I guess what I’m saying is, I’d probably keep the Ancestry Family Tree section going if I didn’t have this wonderful site and tool at my disposal. Now I just have to work on optimizing why I opened this site in the first place. I’ve finally found the two mediums I want to use on the site. A great genealogy program and a great blogging platform. Now I have to bring them together. Once I do that, I doubt I’ll be flip flopping on the Ancestry Family Tree section anymore.

I will probably spend it on the computer or in front of the TV. It’s a tradition you know. Not to mention we recorded the Ten Commandments in HD last night. Who can beat that?

Another tradition we have is decorating our kitchen table for the changing of seasons and holidays. It’s one of those traditions I count on even in sad times. We were living in a hotel one Easter, our house was being built. That Easter wasn’t our normal Easter but we managed to still make it our own. We need that kind of normalcy to get through tough times.

This is our Easter table. It’s simple and cute, and I love it.

Enjoy your Easter folks. Whether it be with your family, or if you don’t even celebrate it. Just remember what today stands for in America. It’s not just the Easter bunny. 😉 Oh and Happy Birthday to my big brother.

Mine has been filled out for over a week now, but I will be sending it out today (Now that it’s after April 1).