Memorial Day Memories - Genebloggers Military Monday

Today in honor of Memorial Day I am publishing, with permission, the thoughts of my son-in-law currently a member of the US Army Band. His job is to play taps for the fallen soldiers among other things.  

I got to know a lot of soldiers on the ride down Route Irish. Their buddies always told stories about them after they picked me up. They were usually funny stories, or stories about what a great soldier their friend was. As we got closer to the FOB they would tell me how he died, there was an element of anger and frustration, but mostly in their voices I heard sadness at his loss and their respect for him. It took me a few trips to get over my selfishness of not wanting to know about the Soldier I was going to play taps for. It was like they needed someone from the outside to know their buddy, they needed the release of telling these stories to someone who hadn't heard them already. After the memorial I was kind of an afterthought, there were usually more important missions than getting me back to BIAP. This is when I would hear about their families and where they were from and who they left behind. I saw the guys who brought me gear back up and go out to patrol the same streets where they lost their buddy. Eventually I would get back to base and try to put it all in the back of my mind. Today, as I grill some burgers and dogs and enjoy time with my family these are the men that I will be remembering.


Thanks Scott for a new perspective of this day.


(Route Irish is the name given to the main road from Baghdad to the airport)

Norwegian Porridge - Geneabloggers Family Recipe Friday

Norwegian food - it's not just Lobscouse and Salmon!

In the tradition of Family Food Friday, I am writing about a meal I recently experienced that could have easily been a family tradition.  If my grandfather had not left Norway in 1892, this meal would probably have been a part of my routine.  My daughter Laura and I were fortunate to visit the home of a cousin whose grandfather did not leave Norway and she prepared a traditional Norwegian meal for my daughter and I.  The meal consisted of Norwegian porridge, salt ham, salt sausage, a very thin version of wassa brodt, and potato salad.

The potato salad appeared to use a mixture of sour cream and mayonnaise for the dressing and consisted mainly of potatoes and onions.  The porridge was also made of sour cream and I found a similar recipe on-line that I am including here.  Even the condiments, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, are the same.  I used all of them on my portion and Laura used only the sugar and cinnamon.  I would have to agree with her that the sugar and cinnamon only would be my favorite combination.  Here is the recipe I found on-line at http://www.desktopcookbook.com/images-recipe/54856

ROMMEGROT (SOUR CREAM PORRIDGE)


Ingredients

2 cups sour cream 1/2 cup flour 1-1//2 cups milk 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 1/2 teaspoon salt butter sugar cinnamon Instructions Bring sour cream and cream to a soft boil for 5 minutes. Sift and stir in 3  tablespoons flour - one spoon at a time. Keep at low heat while adding the  remainder of the flour and milk intermittently. After all is added, bring up to a  boil on low heat and cook for an additional 5 minutes while stirring. This  porridge/pudding is thin and light. Ladle rommegrot onto individual dinner  plates or bowls. If you want to eat like a real Norwegian Viking, you have  to sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top of the pudding. Wait, don't forget  the smørøye (eye of butter - exact translation) - that is a dab of butter.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Kathleen Connery

These are the rules for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.


1)  Write a story using the phrase "ancestor I most admire" in 100 words.  [Hint:  If you write it in a word processor, you can use Tools > Word Count (or similar) to count words]

2)  Share the story with all of us by writing your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Google Plus Stream or Facebook Status or Note.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

The ancestor I most admire is my aunt Kathleen Connery.  Kathleen was one of my mother’s older sisters and I think was probably more of a mother than a big sister.  Kathleen was born April 10, 1895 in Chicago, IL.  After finishing school she went to work in her father’s Real Estate, Travel, and Insurance office.  Kathleen never married and cared for her parents until their deaths.  Kathleen was an avid traveler and often escorted her mother and sisters to Rome and Ireland where Kathleen’s parents were born.   Kathleen was very religious and belonged to the third order of St Dominic.  Selfless and generous to a fault, Kathleen died in Florida on Aug 12, 1986.  

The word count is 115 words and I didn't begin to fully describe Kathleen Frances Connery.

Chuckles - Geneabloggers Sentimental Sunday

 5 Chuckles, 5 Flavors, 5 Cents

I don't remember when he would do it, but on a regular basis my dad would buy a package of "Chuckles" candy and bring it home as a special treat.  We each had our own color.  Mine was red (cherry) and my brother Tom had black (licorice).  Paul, Suzy, and Michael  were orange, green, and yellow.  I'm not sure who had which color.  We each got our chuckle and that was that.  The custom probably ended around 1952 when Mary was old enough to want one too.  They only came in packages of 5!  The slogan I remember was "5 Chuckles, 5 Flavors, 5 Cents".

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Wordle Cloud Picture

Randy Seaver's challenge this week is to find something you have written and past the text into wordle.com to create a word cloud.  Then post a screen print on facebook, a blog post or on google+.  My attempts at a screen print did not work at all so I used my cell phone camera and uploaded these.

I used the words from yesterday's blog to create this wordle.

For this wordle I used the surnames from a 6 generation ancestry chart.

Soon I will be able to take a good screen shot.  I hope!

Making Genealogy Memories

I haven't been blogging often for the past month or so because I have been participating in the genealogy of the future.  By being part of my grandchildren's lives and activities, I am helping to create the memories I hope they will record in the future.

When they remember the years that they were in band contest, I want them to remember I was there helping whether by providing moral support or by working in the hospitality room serving lunch to the contest judges.
They will hopefully remember that I was there for Scouting events and as they received their sacraments.

I also want to be an example of volunteerism continuing the legacy of volunteering in our families.  There are many ways to serve the community we live in and I want them to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Latin / Norwegian Sayings

It's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun!!!

by Randy Seaver
Your mission, should you decide to accept it 

(come on, it's easy this week, and you'll laugh) is to:

1)  Find some of your favorite sayings, aphorisms,

 jokes, etc. They can be genealogy-related, or not.

2)  Translate them into Latin using Google Translate 

(http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT).

3)  Share them with us in your own blog post, in a

 comment to this post, or  in a Facebook status line 

or Google Plus Stream post (impress your non-genealogy

 friends with your Latin skills!).

4)  Of course, you could translate the Latin you read 

back (on my blog, or the blogs of others) into English 

(or your native language) using Google Translate too

 to see who was really funny, or mean, or romantic  

If you want to be really fancy, you could translate your 

sayings into any other language that uses Google Translate

 and really confuse all of us.  

I decided to take Randy's sayings and translate them into
Norwegian and back to English.


Venit mi, ut i tibi mea genealogia spelunca
     Han kom til meg, som jeg registrert med dere min hule
            He came to me, as I registered with you my cave


Ostende mihi si tibi ostendam tibi ahnentafel
      Vis meg, hvis du vil vise deg Generasjonsliste
         Show me, if you will show you the ahnentafel


 Genealogia est non amat, suus an nimiam
       Slekten er ikke kjærlighet, det er en overdreven
          The genealogy is not love, it's an excessive


Communio domus mea tergo insignia - quod rectum
      Nattverd på baksiden av huset mitt - hva er rett
            Communion on the back of my house - what is right


Ego non adhæsit, sum antecessor provocatus
      Jeg ble ikke sittende fast, utfordret jeg forgjengeren
            I was not stuck, I challenged the predecessor


I am not sure how accurate the Norwegian translations are, 
but the English appears to leave something to be desired.
I think the first one might refer to Randy's genea-cave.  Thanks 
for the fun Randy.