So Much to Be Thankful For

I have so much to be thankful for, and as I have often said, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  This week has given me several opportunities to remember how fortunate I am:

• Oregon Society of Mayflower Descendants (OSMD) held a holiday feast on Saturday, November 19. The event was originally scheduled for 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's arrival in Plymouth.  Members and their families were so excited to be able to meet in person that we had a over 80 people attending.  The meal was cooked by various members (I cooked ALL of the cornbread!), and the event was a huge success.
  
• My walking buddy, Jana, and I walked the annual 5k at 8:30 in the morning.  The temperature was 36 degrees at the start - very cold!  We had a good time, and coming home to a warm drink was the best!
  
• Two friends came for Thanksgiving dinner.  We enjoyed turkey and all the trimmings, but MOSTLY we enjoyed the company of wonderful friends!
• The Oregon Ducks played Oregon State Beavers in the annual football game (formerly known as the Civil War, but no longer as some folks are offended by that term).  OSU won, which was a disappointment for us. We watched the game with our good friends Rick and Cynthia, which was much fun!

Along with being thankful, I'm focusing on some areas of family history where I want to improve:

• Organize and better care for family photos, including labeling photos, making notes, transcribing memoirs, reviewing charts and similar "housekeeping" tasks
  
• Become a good ancestor by making notes on events and stories of things happening in my family, at the time it is happening or shortly after

Doing some of these things will really help my descendants and are especially important since I don't know WHO will want to take over "the family box" when I'm not able to care for it any longer.

Best wishes for continued joy in this holiday season, dear readers!

Fall in Oregon!

 Fall has arrived and it is beautiful here in Western Oregon!  After a very dry summer, we've had quite a bit of rain, which is refreshing.  I have not written for quite awhile, and I have many updates to share.

My sweet husband and I have done some travelling this year, with our first trip to NYC in June and our second trip to Italy in late September (last there in 2015).  Both were wonderful trips, educational and well-organized by two different travel groups (Road Scholar and Smartours).  We also visited family in Nebraska, Washington, and Indiana.  

On the NYC trip we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary with a concert of the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall - an excellent concert!  

On our first afternoon in NYC, we took a walk along a pedestrian and cycling trail on the Hudson River.  Our walk was not far from where Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger managed to safely land a plane with more than 150 passengers on the water in January 2009, known as “miracle on the Hudson.”  At Pier 76 we noticed a very large ship's propellor and discovered, after reading the plaque, that it was the ship my mom and I took to Germany in 1954.  The SS United States.  Mom was 18 and I was 6-weeks old, and we were on our way to join my father who was in the USAF stationed at Hahn AFB. After doing some research on the history of the ship, I wrote an article for the Oregon Genealogical Society's Fall Journal.  It's a great story!

My research work this year has included several projects I will be documenting in stories over the winter, including these two:

• Three people who are connected by DNA, each not knowing their father.  Two live in the Pacific Northwest, while one lives on the East Coast.
• A massacre in September 1812 in Ohio - two of the four people killed are my 6th great-grandparents.

I am also working on a book about a young woman in Montana who was forced to give up her babies during the years when being an unwed mother was unacceptable.  (I am fascinated by this topic and the problems it created for both the young women AND their children.)

Lastly, as the "pedaling genealogist" I have managed to get some bike riding done this year!  The numbers so far are 1104 miles during 2022, and 5169 miles since the pandemic lockdown in March of 2020.   

Enjoy the upcoming holiday season, dear readers!