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I've finished the first pass of the John Lain (Lane, Layne) Sr. tree and there are over 900 Layne's in the database now. Next up, I'll finish up my first pass of the Robert Tate Sr. tree. The database has really grown lately. There are around 2700 people in the database and nearly 500 surnames! Please, if you have any corrections, please let me know.
I didn't find the old cemetery, but I did finally go down into the "Bullet Hole". The "Bullet Hole" is an area at the base of the Grassy Ridge trail along the Big Creek in the South Cumberland Recreation Area. About 100 yards northeast of these coordinates, the Big Creek completely dissapears underground behind a huge boulder. You have to see this to appreciate it. I'll have to hike this old trail soon.
A fine book, but not the subject of this post. Tomorrow, I'm planning on going for a walk/hike in Tarlton, aka Collins River, Valley near Beersheba Springs. I'm trying to find an old cemetery down there in an area known as the "Bullet Hole". I might also try and find an old cabin that belonged to my Great-Uncle Joe Tate. Anyone interested in going (or giving me clues on it's location) let me know. I'll be starting wherever the road gets too nasty somewhere around here. I hope to be in the woods by 10:00AM.
In other news, I added several pictures as well as a bunch of new people to the genealogy section. Check out the what's new page for more details.
Yesterday, I drove back home after visiting family in Chattanooga. I had to stop by Dunlop to drop off my niece at my sister's house. Instead of coming back home the usual way, which is up Highway 8 to McMinnville, I decided to turn west on Highway 399 then on to Highway 108, which would take me through Gruetli-Laager and the old house where my grandparents lived. I don't have much cause to drive this road these days. My grandmother sold the old house after my grandfather died, but seeing the house and all of the familiar locations only reinforced the nostalgic feeling I've been having lately.
I thought about Christmastime 25 or so years ago on "The Mountain". Now, my memories are probably colored by all the time that has passed by, but it seems like the world actually took that single day to catch it's breath. You had to plan ahead if there was something you were going to need on Christmas day, because everything was going to be closed and the day was set aside to be with family and friends. There didn't seem to be such a mad rush. And not just Christmastime, but all the time. Can't we do without the availability of Coca-Cola and Twinkies and whatever else they have down at the Golden Gallon for one lousy day. A side note: Can we not do without a cell-freakin'-phone for two hours at the movie theater! Not too long ago people suffered without these conveniences and yet the Earth still spins.
And where are people running so fast to get to? We all seem to work or travel more and people seem more concerned with the acquisition of things rather than the acquisition of experiences. Yeah I'm guilty of these things too. But I hope tomorrow, at least, I can slow down and enjoy my family. If I'm lucky my children will someday remember fondly the Christmas's of their childhood and wonder when and how things all got so hectic. And hopefully we've remembered all of the items that we'll need tomorrow so that I won't be giving those convenience store and fast food restaurant owners a reason to prevent their employees from doing the same.
Have a Merry Christmas everyone!
I've finally finished entering all of the written information I have on the Johann Leonard Flš§er (Fleser) line. Any additions, corrections, or comments are very welcome, requested even.
I've begun filling in the next line that I'll be tracking, John Lane (Layne) Sr.. Mr. Lane, my great-great-great-great-grandfather, moved to the Sequatchie Valley area of Tennessee around 1790-1800. The spelling changed to Layne shortly thereafter. If anyone has any information about this line, I would certainly appreciate it.
FYI The database now has roughly 1500 individuals and 340 surnames!
Put six geeks in a van and head to lunch and the conversation generally turns, er, geeky. Here's a sampling of the sort of questions raised on the way to, during, and on the way back from a birthday lunch for Mark (Happy Birthday Mark) at Baja Burrito:
- How much cheaper is it to be cremated than buried?
- Can you be buried in your back yard and if so what regulations must you follow?
- Why do wounds heal, but only up to a point, ie how come we don't regrow limbs.
- How far down do property lines extend? How far up?
- Why did 2 sexes evolve? Why not 1? Why not N?
- Why didn't more creatures evolve with omni-vision (360 degree, eye/s in the back of the head)? Seems so handy.
- How come so few animals with infra-red detection? Or sonar?
- Why do so few creatures have glow-in-the-dark mating rituals?
- How come no seat belts on school buses?
- Would David Dunlap's head supply enough resistance to keep me from flying through the windshield if he wrecked his van?
- How can the government make illegal the sacrifice of a goat in your back yard when it is for religious purposes?
- Which showing of The Two Towers are we going to?
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Bonus question: This came up a few days ago, and I never found the answer:
- Why is there gravel on top of some flat roofs?
If anyone has the answer to any or all of these questions, please comment.
Several credit card applications came in the mail today, but one in particular caught my wife's eye:
A Discover card application.
Addressed to my daughter Alexandria.
She's 5.
I recently received a picture of my great-great-great grandfather and was struck by the similarities between him (Jacob Fleser) and my Dad, Bill Fleser. Check it out.
5 generations later and the only differences are a beard and color photography. Mind boggling.
- I upgraded the genealogy section to the new version of Darrin Lythgoe's TNG software. There are several cool new features, in particular the What's New page.
- Got my copy of Beersheba Springs: A History that I purchased off ebay. Thank you Julie!. I'll be scanning Mr. Armfield tonight or tomorrow Paula. :)
- A couple of other items; a Marion Co. book and a Sequatchie Co. book, I won from the same seller (research-seller) two days ago, and I haven't heard from them yet despite 3 emails. Man that aggrivates me.
- Something else... oh, I took a break from typing Flesers and focused on my pedigree only for a bit. This means there are lots of Tates, Laynes, and Coppingers in the database now.
I've got over 500 entries in my little genealogy database now. There are 116 surnames so far. I have a long way to go yet though
I noticed that A&E has this show which debuts tomorrow night... "But honey it's educational. It's on A&E after all..."
Rotten Tomatoes is having a Monty Python and the Holy Grail Sweepstakes. These are great! Check 'em out:
Patsy, Prince Herbert, The Black Knight, The Bridgekeeper, The Dead Collector, The French Taunter, The King of Swamp Castle, The Knights - Muddy Edition, The Knights - Series 1, Tim the Enchanter
I finally got the gallery moved to the new site. It's located in the images section. This time around however, it's password protected. I emailed the password to everyone I could think of, but I might have forgotten someone. If I did, just give me a holler. I have a backlog of new pictures to get to, look for that to happen over the next few days. Also, the last remnants of the old site have been swept away (a nickle for whoever gets the movie reference) and any attempt to access www.glw.com/casey redirects here. Let me know if I forgot anything in the move.
So my 5 year old girl, Alexandria, is in kindergarten and was tasked with practicing writing her capital I's. Now instead of drawing I over and over, she did a bunch |'s then she drew one long line across the top all of the |'s then another along the bottom. I thought it was clever but Sue thinks it was just lazy. Curious, should we praise her for working smarter, or reprimand her for taking shortcuts... hmm.
Just a thought. I didn't see any comments about bringing back the Geekcam. Hmm... I wonder what the response were I an attractive 20-something female exhibitionist...
The genealogy section that I added just a few days ago has undergone some changes and will probably get some more tweaking as I continue to integrate Darrin Lythgoe's killer Next Generation genealogy php/MySQL tools into the site. I only have a few entries in the database, but check it out if you get a chance and let me know what you think. Try the surname list.
I added a new genealogy section to the site and christened it with a descendency of Johann Leonhard Fleser (Flš§er). I started to make a list of all of the surnames in this list and got this far:
Bauer, Beck, Bellgraph, Berens, Beyer, Bileth, Bogart, Boerson, Bosch, Bowerman, Boyles, Brower, Buchner, Burt, Clemenshaw, Coffey, Compton, Creameans, Collins, DeKlyne, Delp, DeVries, Drury, Duenas, Ebmeyer, Eslinger, Fessenden, Fleser (Flš§er), Gensler, Gerkin, Goff, Goodman, Gordon, Herp, Hinman, Hoffmeyer, Hufstedler, Jager, Johnson, Klamer, Knoblock, Koops, Layne, Lake, Matthil, Miller, Meyers, Moll, Murphy, Neinas, Osborn, Pyrz, Raab, Redder, Reuschel, Richardson, Rodanhisler, Rolando, Rowan, Sanders, Savage, Schneider, Shaffer, Shoemaker, Selby, Skyles, Slagel, Smith, Snow, Staut, Strasser, Strickfaden, Sutter, Sweetland, Taylor, VanDam, VanHill, Watkins, Weller, Wieren
before deciding that I really need to move all of this stuff into a database and automate this sort of thing. After typing all of these names in, I get the feeling I'm related to pretty much everyone.
There's a discussion on Slashdot about the new Lord of the Rings movie, The Two Towers, and the first reviews that are beginning to trickle in. The reviews are positive which is a relief but not a big surprise. Some samples of the Slashdot discussion:
I really wish the media would stop trying to cash in on the events of 9/11. I think this title will upset many people.
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Yeah. Let's name it "Attack of the Orcs".
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Turns out Frodo is Sauron's son.
Another trip around the sun...
I just wanted to say to "Thank You!" for all of those birthday wishes! I really appreciate it. This weekend went really well. Sue and Roxanne prepared an awesome meal Thursday that I got to eat over and over again this weekend. And I got to spend a little time with some family too. Very nice.
I also got a few gifts this weekend, but one of the best, probably wasn't intended as a birthday gift. My long lost cousin Donna mailed me a package chock full o' Fleser genealogy information. There is a ton of info in here and I spent most of the weekend trying to get it typed into the PowerBook. I have over 800 names in the Fleser line alone now and expect that will rise to 1200 before I'm done. This reminds me; the starting point I have for this line is Johann Leonhard Flš§er (Fleser) born in the early 1700s in Griesheim, Germany. If anyone has any info on anyone in this line, please let me know.