Update on oggbashan's health

[NaokoSmith]

That is another thing that makes me sad. When I have gone, no family member will have personal memories of my grandfathers, great-aunts and others of that generation born in the 19th century.

You've shared those memories and stories wittily and generously. People might not remember the specifics, but they have a tradition you are creating that they - and we on here - belong to. A rich, inclusive, diverse and fascinating tradition of humanity; a living tradition rather than one that was only written down and that preserved the letter but perhaps not always the spirit?

 

[jehoram]

That is another thing that makes me sad. When I have gone, no family member will have personal memories of my grandfathers, great-aunts and others of that generation born in the 19th century. I have put information about them on Ancestry but it isn't the same.

And for the rest of us, those are marching orders. When my mother died, she left behind boxes and boxes of photographs, very few of them labeled. So all the context of the photos ... locations, names, dates ... died with her. So let's not repeat that mistake. Everybody, get out your pens and pencils and make enough notes on the back of each picture to let your descendants know what the hell they're looking at.

Another thing you can do is write down as much of your family's history as you can, like KiethD did. Genealogy can only give so much information, but family history is far more than "begats." There is, buried under the tarmac of some airport's runway, the remains of my great-grandfather's farm. My family only knows that because somebody remembered it and wrote down before he died.

 

[oggbashan]

And for the rest of us, those are marching orders. When my mother died, she left behind boxes and boxes of photographs, very few of them labeled. So all the context of the photos ... locations, names, dates ... died with her. So let's not repeat that mistake. Everybody, get out your pens and pencils and make enough notes on the back of each picture to let your descendants know what the hell they're looking at.

Another thing you can do is write down as much of your family's history as you can, like KiethD did. Genealogy can only give so much information, but family history is far more than "begats." There is, buried under the tarmac of some airport's runway, the remains of my great-grandfather's farm. My family only knows that because somebody remembered it and wrote down before he died.

I always thought that the family tradition that my paternal grandparents and the family lost their home to a zeppelin bomb in 1915 was just one of those stories, but a 2007 book on the zeppelin raids on London confirmed that where they lived had to be demolished after the bomb blast. The 1911 census shows their address but after 1915 that address ceases to exist.

 

[SolarRay]

I published a "memory book" (vignettes rather than a try at a comprehensive memoir) that as much captured what I could from the two generations before me as it did about the highlights (and low points) of my own life. That, at least, literature helps with. It doesn't all have to be locked away in personal memory.

I know a few individuals who, in the last stages of their lives, wrote the complete story of their family's history and offered it as a book to the subsequent generations of their family.

 

[KeithD]

I know a few individuals who, in the last stages of their lives, wrote the complete story of their family's history and offered it as a book to the subsequent generations of their family.

I teach workshops in essentially that and find that folks see it as a less daunting task if they approach it as vignettes from their lives (and/or their parents/grandparents' lives) rather than a comprehensive chronology. I've done that (to use in the workshops). It turned out to have been done before what I might have thought was a last chance and that there probably will be a follow-on. In addition to that I've written some thirty-five novels/novellas and short story anthologies in the mainstream and my wife has commented that anyone in my family can see the family vignettes in those.

 

[SolarRay]

I teach workshops in essentially that and find that folks see it as a less daunting task if they approach it as vignettes from their lives (and/or their parents/grandparents' lives) rather than a comprehensive chronology. I've done that (to use in the workshops). It turned out to have been done before what I might have thought was a last chance and that there probably will be a follow-on. In addition to that I've written some thirty-five novels/novellas and short story anthologies in the mainstream and my wife has commented that anyone in my family can see the family vignettes in those.

I can imagine that makes more sense for a workshop. (The folks I'm thinking of were particularly determined individuals.) It's also interesting to think of group participation in adding vignettes -- maybe organically working toward something more comprehensive that way. Group family history storytelling would be a fascinating approach to genealogy beyond the basic family tree building.

 

[Polyacrylate]

I know a few individuals who, in the last stages of their lives, wrote the complete story of their family's history and offered it as a book to the subsequent generations of their family.

I had a project in school - 5th or 6th grade, maybe - where we were required to talk to older families members about their lives as children and young adults, and gather stories. There was then a story telling contest in the classroom. I don't think I won that contest, but was fascinated by the personal stories my grandparents told about their own parents and grandparents migrating to the states, stories that had brought from their homelands, stories of war, of loss, of hope, of joy. I still have the report with all my notes and stories from the original project, and add to it when I think to.

My own children are indifferent to it, but I keep hoping they will come around as they get older.

 

[TE999]

What a shock!

Hey Ogg! TE999 here. So very sorry for your diagnosis and current condition. My heart goes out to you. old friend. My hopes and prayers are flying your way and I humbly hope they help in some small way. Take care and I'll check back. Hang in there.

 

[oggbashan]

Latest pre-chemotherapy check, yesterday, shows I am still fit and active with stupidly good figures for blood pressure etc for my age. My blood/oxygen level remains at 100% which is almost unbelievable for someone with lung cancer.

However the medical professionals had advice for Christmas etc. - Although I have Type II diabetes I can eat and drink whatever I want. The diabetes isn't going to affect my quality of life before I die and I am unlikely to be around for another Christmas after this one.

 

[_Lynn_]

 

[bucksumgal]

I started doing genealogy because I wanted to know how we were related to families my dad grew up with. I specifically was looking for cousins. Maybe one of your cousins is looking for you and will love to find your ancestors too.

Along the way I have discovered some interesting people, made more real by the stories I find about them. I've also had fun researching people with my surname that don't fit in my tree. It starts off as hoping to find a link and ends up not caring about the link but just enjoying the story. You start to feel like you know the person (maybe more like a celebrity than a close friend). If Ancestry lets you put in occupation with notes or residence with notes you'll have a new place to put the stories you wrote here. If not, there should be a general notes where you can put the stories. These will help genealogists bond with and remember your ancestors better.

Online genealogy is something where I don't know the ins and outs. I started with a genealogy software called Legacy Family Tree (now it's free). You might be able to either work with your grandchildren or pass on the information to them. Then it's ready when they are. And you might make some memories with them in the process. Not that you don't already have enough to do If you decide to just stay with the online information at Ancestry, ensure your descendants and other relatives know where to find their ancestors.

 

[oggbashan]

My wife has been active on Ancestry for over a decade.

Her family tree had a block that she sorted out. Her great-grandfather joined the army in 1905 and was advised to change his Polish surname if he wanted to progress in the army. He took his wife's surname and changed his first name as well. My wife knew that from her mother and knew both his new name and his old.

When she put that on Ancestry, she enabled other people descended from him and his three wives, to get past the block. They hadn't been able to find his birth or anything before when he joined the army because that name had no antecedents.

My paternal family tree is easy. I have an unusual surname and almost all people with that name, living or dead, are related. For hundreds of years they had been Parish Clerks in the City of London and their names appear in the Parish records of many city churches. One of my cousins found an interesting note for the year 1666 - The Great Fire of London. That Parish clerk recorded his wife's displeasure. He had acquired a cart to move the parish records away from the fire. He did that BEFORE removing his furniture and belongings from the family home. His wife thought his priorities were wrong. His retort was that his furniture and possessions could be replaced if he still had a job but if he had lost the Parish records, he would be unemployed. Most Ciy of London Parish clerks did the same for which current researchers of family history owe a debt.

 

[oggbashan]

My maternal family tree is complex. I and many others are descended from a late 18th century woman called Lettice Pryke. Her grandfather and earlier men were called John Prick - because they were cattle herders using a goad or prick.

She married, had twelve children, all of whom married and had similar numbers of children that all survived to marry...

Another ancestor is John Smith, the village blacksmith, son of John Smith, grandson and great-grandson of a John Smith. Tracing them was only possible because they lived in a very small village.

Another ancestor married a younger daughter of a noble family who were dispossessed for being on the wrong side of a dispute with the King. Because her father was a nobleman his family tree is known leading back to King Henry II and the Counts of Provence and ultimately to the Norse God Odin (or Woden), Julius Caesar and Cleopatra and through them the Roman Goddess Venus, the Greek Goddess Aphrodite and the Egyptian Goddess Isis. If you believe that? Even Julius Caesar's contemporaries thought his claim to be descended from Venus was spurious.

 

[bucksumgal]

It sounds like you've got a good system set up. Your wife will know where to put the stories you want people to remember.

Unique surnames can be quite fun, can't they? I started off thinking I had to be related to everyone with my surname and another line's surname since I'd never heard of a stranger having it. Still haven't found a stranger with the other surname.

I liked the story of your clerk of 1666. I can just imagine someone doing that and someone not liking their husband doing that. You have some great stories.

 

[oggbashan]

My Paternal family were scriveners - public letter writers until about 100 years after Caxton when they became printers.

Someone in my family, including many of the women, could read and write for nearly 600 years. My grandfather was the last printer and a copperplate engraver. My son-in-law is now a specialist printer.

 

[bucksumgal]

My maternal grandmother wanted me to trace her family's history when I shared information I'd found on her husband's line. My grandmother had quite a common surname and her father had a very common first name and she didn't know the specifics of where he lived before she was born but it was a region where the surname is very common. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. It was like finding a "John Smith from England".

I eventually found a census record that had her older siblings. I had a great-uncle who died as a child. He died when medicine wasn't given the exact way the doctor said it should. It's a story that has been told to every child in my family for generations. When I saw him on the census record, I knew I had the right family. And I got to know more about him than his death.

Actually my maternal grandfather had a common surname too. I think I cobbled together a line back to 1066. Now I question how much fiction is in there. I've shared what I have with close relatives, but it really should be cleaned up with proper documentation before I share it with the world.

The rumour was that we were related to a line of clothing. That was easily disproved after much research when my family was here long before their family was here and we came from different countries. There was another rumour that we were related to a certain politician. The family wasn't very happy when I showed with documentation that we were related to a different politician in a different country (Nth cousin, x times removed). At least we can all laugh about it.

I don't know where the rumours came from since Grandpa must have known that his father came from that other country. The key to my research of his line was the information he had about his grandfather. Your grandkids will get a lot more than that.

 

[NaokoSmith]

My maternal family tree is complex. I and many others are descended from a late 18th century woman called Lettice Pryke. Her grandfather and earlier men were called John Prick - because they were cattle herders using a goad or prick.

In your stories as well, I love your mix of factual history and how you give it a twist with sly understated humour.

 

[fifty5]

 

[oggbashan]

Back from five hours of boring chemotherapy. I don't like sitting in one place for that long. I need to get up and move around, and with a cannula and line to a machine - I can't.

Except for the slight prick when they insert the line I feel nothing and have no side effects except thinning of hair in my beard and my bald spot has grown.

But it is boring...

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Hugs, Ogg.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

 

[KeithD]

Back from five hours of boring chemotherapy. I don't like sitting in one place for that long. I need to get up and move around, and with a cannula and line to a machine - I can't.

Except for the slight prick when they insert the line I feel nothing and have no side effects except thinning of hair in my beard and my bald spot has grown.

But it is boring...

I'll have to applaud anyone who can sit for an hour and a half let alone five without needing to visit the can.

 

[_Lynn_]

Good to hear you aren't having side effects so far.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

Find a way to take advantage of the situation Ogg. You've earned a little latitude.

 

[oggbashan]

Good to hear you aren't having side effects so far.

If the other people having chemotherapy knew? They'll kill me.

I was offered - again - pills for nausea. I still have, unopened, the set of pills I was given after the first session. Today was my fourth.

But I took my wife to a restaurant for her birthday meal. I washed it down with a pint of Stella Artois. Many of my fellow sufferers can barely manage a dry biscuit and sips of water.