Ah......DREAMS OF SUMMER!

Snow and cold go away...The You Go Genealogy Girls are more than ready to go out and play!

The Dukes of Hazzard...and "Boss Hogg" too!

Not the HOGG lineage of Virginia, South Carolina and Texas!

Screaming down the road, bustin’ through the fences, flying over the hills…The General Lee is trying to save the court house treasures, and of course "Roscoe" and "Boss Hogg" are in full chase! 

There is nothing like a late night re-run to kick start two days of fun genealogy research. Do you remember the great old popular television series: The Dukes of Hazzard? I am sure most of you do and who could forget all those lovable characters? My now adult sons were crazy about “Dukes” and of course the “General Lee”. We owned all the associated toys and never missed an episode some 30 plus years ago but little did I know that as I was channel surfing a couple evenings ago in the late hours of the night time that the old re-run of the kid’s favorite program would draw me into my next fun genealogy search.

The “Duke boys” and “Boss Hogg” were at it again and after all these past years, they were still adversaries. “Boss Hogg”—well, the old guy who I had not thought about for years,  got me to thinking that HOGG is an old name in my husband’s lineage that I have all but ignored. Somehow the names of Hogg, Horsey, Buck and Bull have seemed to be happy living in the file cabinet and back pages of my books. Good old “Boss Hogg”, he was just begging me the other night to go ancestor hunting for our HOGG relatives and ancestors and I was sure that my family would just love to claim him as their very own relative! I have been very busy finding names, war records, marriages and even following all these new found ancestors as they traveled south out of Virginia. I thought for sure they would end up in good ol’ Hazzard County, Georgia with “Boss Hogg” standing at the county line to greet them.

Not so, however, as our HOGG families made the journey from old Virginny to South Carolina and some then went on to Texas. Hubby can be proud of his HOGG ancestors as all of his direct line men served in the military in one capacity or another. Starting with Lewis Hogg in the early 1700’s who served in the French and Indian Wars, others in the Revolutionary War and later generations who served in the Civil War. Many of the HOGG men attained officer status and his cousin ties lead to James Stephen Hogg who was the nineteenth Governor of Texas.

Poor old “Boss Hogg” just doesn’t seem to fit into our family tree so for now he will just have to keep his residence in Hazzard County late night TV land being ornery and deceiving but he should be proud and happy that at least some who have managed to elevate the proud HOGG name have now found a new home.

You Go Genealogy Girl #2--Cheri  (Why am I always number 2?)

What Kids Don't Say and Do

A little bit ago, YGGG #2 (Cheri) called with a computing question. I didn't have the answer, but told her I would have to ask my twelve year old granddaughter. She's actually twelve going on sixteen and somewhat of a whiz at the computer. That seems to fit most of today's children. If I can't remember how to change the ringtone on my cell phone, I hand it to her. she usually will tell me to do it with her prompts, which I seem to forget a few weeks later. In fact, I have had long-distance genealogy friends who e-mail me asking for the twelve year old's assistance.

She's also a whiz at witching in graveyards. Holding those coat hanger rods, she finds graves where there are no markers, smiles and moves on to another part of the cemetery. Last fall she tried to instruct four of my genealogy pals on how to witch graves. Relax and clear your mind seems to work, but maybe youth plays a part also. Need to locate a grave? I'll loan her to you!

The other day she was patiently waiting to use my computer while I entered some genealogical information. Question granny! Do you ever finish a genealogy? She knew the answer and just grinned when I firmly said NO. So get your own computer kid, I'm busy with mine.

Yesterday she asked how many people were in her genealogy file. Fortunately I could find the answer as my software has that information. There were so many people and so many families listed for each file. She was somewhat shocked at my answer and probably that she would have thousands of relatives. Then she asked what I was entering into her genealogy file. My response was John Brown, the abolitionist. Obviously John Brown is for another history lesson in school, with a follow up at Granny's house.

My great grandson is nine days old. I am a typical grandparent ... he's so cute! His grandparents and I spent an afternoon last week admiring him, handing him back and forth to each other and examining him all over. I think he looks like his father, maybe has his mother's eyes, his aunt's nose and somewhere down the line on his mother's side has pinky fingers that belonged to some ancestor who may have lived in Ireland. Bless those genes! They are so special, but I think he should have his own identity.

Do you ever wonder why you look the way you do? Maybe I should ask the twelve year old. She may have an answer!

YGGG #1 --- Ruby

Not Worthy of a Title

It was Saturday morning and a beautiful winter day in western Nebraska, Hubby was home and we  made plans to just relax, watch a little TV, read a bit and maybe even get some much needed time to work on the computer. I had been doing some work for our local museum so have not had much time just to myself for several days. Yesterday was the day-Yeh!

Three o’clock rolled around and it was time to open up Legacy and get to work, I’d be adding some more information which I had found and maybe a few new photos. I even have a little table by my easy chair in the living room with all the comforts that any genealogist would want at my finger tips. Computing and researching is so much fun.

Where is that “John” that I had been working on? He isn’t there, is he hiding with his wife possibly? Oops, his wife is gone too and all their kids. Can a family just disappear or were they kidnapped? The dilemma of the day had started. So far, the situation had been calm but panic had started to set in. Losing a whole family is not fun and soon I discovered that not only was the family gone but also many of their friends and other relatives had also jumped ship. Those darn ancestors just didn’t want to live at my house any more. I was so sad, the tears almost started to flow, then the real anger set in...I even tried to blame poor hubby for my family running away. Supper wasn’t to be had at my house until they were returned. Hubby was mad at me and said he was going to leave too and didn’t blame “the relatives” for leaving. Him I could send out the door with his luggage but those other relatives didn’t even bother to take some of their baggage, a little of it had been left behind i.e. a few photos and miscellaneous papers. What was the deal, did they just come to get acquainted, visit for awhile, waste my precious time and then have the nerve to just get up and leave while only leaving behind a few photos to make me think that they loved me? I was just so sad.

For over two months I had been gathering all those great new ancestors, inviting them into my life and even let them bring all their records and luggage along with them. January 29^th seemed to be the day that they had chosen to begin to leave even though I had given them a new place to live that was called Legacy “7.5”. Since I was busy with other things in life for awhile, they just got up and left and when I decided to spend some time with them yesterday on Feb 5^th, nearly half of them who had resided in ONE family file had all vanished. My Legacy program which has always been so good to me, even to the point of me loving it, had failed to make those darned relatives stay. The latest and greatest upgrade that was supposed to make their life easier and mine too coincidentally, well it had failed miserably. It just told my relatives and many ancestors to get out as they were no longer welcome or loved. I cried.

Hubby finally took pity on me and said he’d try to help IF I would please fix supper. I love sharing! He thought those relatives just had to be somewhere as when they live in a computer, they just don’t disappear. He insisted they were just playing a cruel game of hide and seek. I thought he was trying to make me feel better but maybe he was just lying, after all he had not wanted to go hungry. "People and files just don’t disappear", he said, and being a man I had trouble explaining to him that a Legacy file isn’t your plain old standard file that just any program could find and read. He asked "have you tried the Legacy help area"? Well yes, I had been there many times and nothing was there to help find my loved ones. Now I was stupid. 

One last thing I thought of, check out the Legacy Home tab in my software and where sometimes a new update will appear. There was an off chance that my loved ones may be hiding there anyway. No relatives, just a small update and “bug” fix, I was excited so I downloaded that and had the latest and greatest. Our new address was now “7.5.0.55”. A pretty impressive address, surely those great people would want to come back to live with me now. YEH, WOW, GLORY!...up they popped at the door, showed their faces and wanted back in. I loved my ancestors. Supper would be served.

Hubby and I felt some better after our meal and I even told him that he could stay too since the family appeared to be moving back in. He wasn’t sure that HE wanted to stay as supper wasn’t up to its usual standards. Those damn relatives had spoiled it all.

Now it was time to get busy and introduce all my  relatives who had come back to some new friends and loved ones. I opened the door to let them in again so they could unpack and lo and behold those same “damn” relatives had left again, hats in hand and baggage in tow. You just can’t trust anyone these days.

Sadly, their clones had been living on my external hard drive and on my desktop computer too. The external died a couple weeks ago and the new one isn’t due here until this coming Wednesday. I figured the clones on my desktop loved it here but discovered that they also had flown the coop. I  forgot to mention that ALL my backup files from the last two years had been packed up by those relatives and had been taken along with them. The file for restoration purposes was empty. Now... just who needs two years worth of backup files?  I guess that Legacy 7.5.0.55 had lured those files along with the clones away too. I am also slow, my iPad had not yet been updated with my  latest files as there is so little time and so much to do. I wrote a nasty letter of disgust and will contact Legacy on Monday. I really want the rest of my ancestors and relatives back, I just hope I don’t have to wait until fall and go looking for them again all by myself. Today I am not sure I love them enough to go find them all again. Life was good here—once.

The day was nearly over anyway so why not get on the desktop and do a little work before bedtime as that was always fun and relaxing. I adjusted the font size that my printer was using as my poor old eyes aren’t what they used to be. Hubby went to take a nap and my favorite Chelada drink was settling my nerves from the trying day of fighting with relatives and Legacy 7.5. My partner and loving relative, You Go Girl #1,  had tried to console me over my family’s defection and she sent me an email about some classes she is giving. That email looked interesting so I  decided to print it and see my new larger font on paper. It was awesome when the HP printed it out- only one problem: now the printer language on the display of the printer itself showed up in “Pig Latin” or “ChinoJapaRus”!  I can’t read anything the printer is showing me and can’t change a thing.  It now prints gorgeous “school” lined paper too—who knew? I downloaded the HP printer manual and found the solution as follows:

To set your language and country/region

1. Press Setup.

2. Press to highlight Preferences, and then press OK.

3. Press to highlight Set Language, and then press OK.

4. Press to scroll through the languages. When the language you want to use

appears, press OK.

5. When prompted, press to highlight Yes or No, and then press OK.

6. Press to highlight Set Country/Region, and then press OK.

7. Press to scroll through the countries/regions. When the country/region you want

to use appears, press OK.

8. When prompted, press to highlight Yes or No, and then press OK.

Well, wasn’t that just great and simple! Does anybody know what the word for setup or preferences is in “Pig-ChinoJapanRus” so I can change the language on my printer? Oh my! You Go Genealogy Girl #1  has just emailed me, she is asking if I know how to swear in computer language as “Quicken” deleted all her tax information for seven years. YES I DO!!!!!!!  If in question, use the “Pig-ChinoJapanRus” dictionary. It is a wonderful tool.

What a great Saturday yesterday was. The perfect day in the life of a genealogist. Now it is Sunday---what shall I do today? I wonder if my Kitchen Aid mixer still works? Hubby gave up and left me last night, work sounded more like fun even at 10 O'clock pm. Maybe a grand chocolate cake would be good peace offering. I might need his advice again someday and I certainly will need some sweetening before I tackle Legacy and HP tomorrow!

A Day in the Life of a Genealogist!

You Go Genealogy Girl #2-  Cheri

P.S. Ruby and I, The Girls, laughed until we were silly over all this "stuff" last night. What else can two silly old Grandma's do? We are getting to old to organize a protest or to hit the nightspots  and drown our sorrows....even if we did, we'd be the ones to get arrested on the way home!