In the weeds

My genealogical project is going well.  Maybe too well ...

In less than a month I have filled three binders with ancestor records, bought two new ink cartridges, developed a pain in my right wrist, and found ancestors back to my 17th great-grandparents.

And those 17th great-grandparents are the problem.

Here's how it works:

I enter the information that I know into my Family Tree on the Ancestry.co.uk website.  The program then reviews all the data it has in its database and gives me Hints.  These Hints can be census records; birth, baptismal, marriage and death records; and other members' Family Trees. These Family Trees are a compilation of other people's research and can be a wealth of information. 

So I put my grandfather's name, which I know, into my Family Tree, and the program refers me to, among other things, another Family Tree.  This Family Tree also knows my grandfather's name, and my great-grandfather's name, which is new to me.  Hooray!!  So I enter my great-grandfather's name into my Family Tree; the program churns for a bit, and out pops another Hint.  I follow that to another Family Tree and, lo and behold, they have my great-great grandfather's name!  And so it goes.  Before you know it, I've traced my ancestry back to my 17th great grandfather, Sir William Somebody, married to Lady Catherine Whomever, in Dorset!

Except that I come from a background of bricklayers and clerks in Staffordshire. 

And, any one of those earlier ancestor Hints may be just someone's best guess.

Time to regroup ...

5 bucks

Funny, the silly little things we deny ourselves.

When Tom and I moved to Victoria, we bought new dishes.  They are lovely: white on white, with a fine silver edging.  What we didn't take onto account is that the pretty silver edging means they can't go in the microwave.

So, in the intervening years, we have had to be quite inventive on how to warm up Tom's favourite leftovers: paper towels, Tupperware, casserole dishes; the lids of said casserole dishes.

Finally, yesterday, after 12 years (12 years!), I went to London Drugs and bought two microwavable plates.

They cost me 5 bucks.

Sheesh.