Memorial Day

        Every year we go to the Memorial Day parade in our town.  Usually because our children are in it in some capacity or another.  This year was no different.  There is always a gentleman in every parade no matter what and I have always felt it was kind of neat but never really gave too much thought to it.  But in the last few years I have been even more awed at his presence.  What is amazing about this man is that he is a Pearl Harbor Survivor.  There are very few still living and each year the number drops. 
        So on this Memorial Day please take a moment to remember those that gave their lives for this
country.

Who do you think you are?

      I love this show and would love to be on it, the only problem is that I am not famous.  Much to my dismay, and I have yet to be given the royal title that I feel should be bestowed upon me.  But rest assured I keep looking and waiting for that to happen.  Anyway, I do find genealogy to be a very fascinating thing.  In my many hours, too many to count, of searching through information to gather the names and stories of all the people that ultimately make up who I think I am, I was able to discover that I had an ancestor that fought in the American Revolution.  Yes, that means that I became a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, pearls and all.
       This was something that I thought would be one of the most fabulous things ever.  I mean really, not many people can be a member and I never thought that I would be able to, so of course I wanted to be a member. I had always thought that my "people" were far too new to this country. My great grandparents on my dad's side were either born in England or were first generation from Ireland.  On my mother's side my grandmother's parents were born in Canada and my grandfather's mother came from Sweden at the age of 7, and his father's family had been here a while but we really didn't think that there was anything there and were sure that there wouldn't be any good records to track that side down.  Oh was I wrong!  Not only was I able to find records but they went on forever, literally, I think forever, I have more to look at but have looked as far back as 1045 (and I'm not done).
        I was able to find not only one American Revolution ancestor but three.  My mother and I joined under the one that shares her maiden name and are working on the other two as (what we in the DAR call) supplemental ancestors.   Recently I have found a direct link to the Mayflower and will work on getting that proven but that will take a great deal of time and will deal with that later. 

This is my great-grandfather Edward Lufkin, it is his line that I have been able to trace so far

       So for my birthday my parents got me the DNA kit that Ancestry.com has.  I was so very excited!  I was fairly certain I knew what it would show but wondered what it would show.  I had always thought that I was primarily Irish but who really knows.  Well I do now.  34% from Ireland, it may not seem like a lot but that's the largest percentage from one single country.  I'm 38% Western Europe which is many countries together, some of which is also England and Ireland.  So it came as no surprise to me that I am 100% European.  There were some interesting things like Poland and Belarus but still all European.  I still find it all fascinating.  So who do you think you are?

What size?

         
       I am not sure why it is that women, thousands or probably millions, of women wear clothes that are at least 1 to 2 sizes too small!  Now I'm not a size 2 by any means but I try to wear pants in my correct size.  I look at these women and all I can think is "that can't be comfortable" but for some reason they continue to wear these things.  I figure that when they get home they must pop that top button and just breath a sigh of relief.  I would hate that!
       The moral of this story is: just because it zips doesn't mean it fits.