Salt of the Earth: Of Pioneers and Story-Tellers
My study of genealogy and, in particular, of trying to fill out my family tree became a hobby of sorts in the early 1990s. I was looking at the big 5-0 coming straight at me like a fast-moving freight...
View ArticleWhen I Get To Be President
WHAT I AM GOING TO DO WHEN I GET TO BE PRESIDENT The first thing I do when I get to be President is to cut the salary down to twenty-five thousand dollars; the next thing I am to do is to stop...
View ArticleShow and Tell: GFHC Open Thread (with Poll)
The chaos around me did not appear, I swear, until I saw the Genealogy and Family History Community group blog. Just a few diaries in, though, and I found myself hauling that big box with “Genealogy”...
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GFC Open Thread: Looking for Obituaries and Getting Unexpected History Lessons
It was nothing so exciting as a wild and stormy night on the west coast of Scotland, but instead, it was a lovely Saturday afternoon on a perfect autumn day when I discovered that history can be looked...
View ArticleGFHC Open Thread: Truth and Reconciliation
When I was just a slip of a girl living with my grandparents on their Iowa farm, like many an only child I was possessed of a very active imagination. One particular fantasy, though, remains clear in...
View ArticleGFHC Open Thread: A Rede Peticoate, Boyld Syder & Political Deals
Pretend the Squiggle is a time machine and come with me on a short journey ... First stop is 16th century England at Latton Manor in Wiltshire where the wife of George Prater, Esq., one Jane Plott by...
View ArticleGFHC Open Thread: "I think my wife burnt it."
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension StatementsPension Application of Wooten Harris: W23186 State of Illinois, Montgomery County Court of County Commissioners / Special September term 1832On...
View ArticleGFHC Open Thread: The scourge of "the Milk Sick"
Milk sickness, also known as tremetol vomiting, or in animals as trembles, is characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain that affects individuals who ingest milk or other dairy...
View ArticleGFHC Mid-Week Open Thread Choosing a group avatar
Fired up? Ready to go? As announced in Friday's Open Thread we're going to collectively see if we can choose an ever so grand avatar to accompany our distinguished group's name for diaries/posts...
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Speechless with flabbergastedness
Just kidding......dere's more underneath the Kosquiggle.
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Great Granddad Ashley Makes the News
Genealogy & Family History Community Leave the blood feuds at home
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Mother Nature calls and I answer ... a photo diary
And answer I do by retreating to the far, far northwestern corner of Illinois, which along with southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, and northeast Iowa is known as the Driftless Area.This area...
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Jump right in. Let's take some pics -- A photo post
I am a beginner as far as photography goes. I use a wonderfully compact Fujifilm FinePix -- a PhD (push here, dummy) camera that lives in my handbag so it goes where I go. I've gotten some very nice...
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Chicago Kossacks Have Arrived
Communities have been forming to the right of us, to the left, to the south and north of us. Do you agree that it’s time for the Chicago area to represent?I know some of you do because you sent me a...
View ArticleWe have some celebrating to do, Chicago Kossacks!
I sent out a Group kos-mail to all of you who have accepted as members on Monday but due to my failure to understand the "issues" with how Group kos-mails work (or don't) I 've concluded that most of...
View ArticleChicago Kossacks - Manny's Awaits
The time is passing quickly. In just over 48 hours we will be meeting and eating at Manny's Delicatessen. They are waiting for us and I, for one, can hardly hold my horses... I'm that excited to meet...
View ArticleChicago Kossacks at Manny's - Couldn't have wished for a better group of people!
Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate Chicago, our re-elected President and the simple joy of partaking of way too much food with a fantastic group of like-minded people. Special thanks to broths...
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GFHC Open Thread: Country Roads, Old Bones
"There are two things we should give our children: one is roots and the other is wings." -- Hodding S. Carter (Borrowed from the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher.) Armed with just a few print-outs from...
View ArticleChicago Does The Math: 28 Nov 2012
Bill McKibben @billmckibben Chicago's #dothemath was one of my favorite evenings--a simpatico, warm feeling, and @RevYearwood to rock the house! Inspiring to all who packed the house at the Atheneum...
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GFHC Open Thread: Country Roads, Old Bones, Part 2
Genealogy & Family History Community Leave the blood feuds at home The photo below is of the oldest existing Illinois State Capitol building. Built in 1836 in Vandalia, Illinois, it...
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GFHC Open Thread: Country Roads, Old Bones, Part 3
Genealogy & Family History Community Leave the blood feuds at homeI should rather live and love where death is king, than have eternal life where love is not. ~ Jonathan F....
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Forward on Climate - Chicago Represents (Photo Diary)
It was a perfect winter day. The sun was shining brightly in azure skies and although the thermometer said it was only 17 degrees at 7:00, your faithful reporter would not be deterred. My plans for...
View ArticleHey Chicago - Time for a Meet-Up!
I have it from an impeccable source that it will be Spring by Earth Day Weekend and especially on Saturday, April 20th. It just must be because that is when Chicago Kossacks will be getting together...
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Thousands Rally in Protest of Chicago school closings
Yesterday afternoon "thousands" of people representing a wide cross-section of Chicago's communities gathered in Daley Plaza to protest the latest attack on our public school system. The Rally was...
View ArticleGFHC OT: michelewln and figbash - "Let's Play Two"
On Monday one of the great rites of spring will be celebrated. Only apple pie and Chevrolet say America more than what used to be called the National Sport. It's Major League Baseball's Opening...
View ArticleLast Call: Chicago Kossacks Occupy Earth Day
My previously thought to be impeccable source has failed me! Oh, the inhumanity. It has surely not been Spring in Chicago, exactly, and it now appears that part of our Saturday (April 20th) meet-up...
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Chicago Kossacks Meet Up and Do Good - 4/20/13
After a long winter hiatus, a handful of Chicago Kossacks got together and in the spirit of volunteering presented ourselves to the Heller Nature Center on Chicago's North Shore. The lovely broths and...
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Chicago Kossacks and Studs Terkel: Thurs, May 16th
Thursday, May 16th is the 101st anniversary of the birth of iconic Chicagoan Studs Terkel. What better reason for us to get together and celebrate Studs and the work he did in this city in his...
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Chicago Kossacks Say...Winter's Over. Let's get together.
Doesn't that look inviting? The scenery's only a mural on the wall, of course, but the food is great, the service is outstanding and you won't find a more welcoming group than Chicago Kossacks.We will...
View ArticleBuilding Community in Chicago: Kossacks Raise the Bar
Wow! What a great time we had last night at Pegasus. Thanks to everyone who attended for making it such a super event. I wish you all could have been with us to share in the fun and food.Our attendees...
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GFHC Open Thread: History Writ Small
Genealogy & Family History Community Leave the blood feuds at homeThe key to the understanding of any society lies in the observation and analysis of the insignificant and the...
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Chicago Kossacks Go To A Powwow: Sunday, Sept 15 2013
Hope everybody had a great summer... not that it's over yet or anything. Those of you who weren't able to come way out to Kane County for our Kossacks day at the ol' ballgame missed some fun and the...
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On The Trail of Cedars - Glacier National Park and the never-ending meet-up...
Once upon a time, so long ago that it might be said that it has almost been lost in the mists of time, there was an EPIC meet-up of Kossacks in Glacier National Park. There were Kossacks from Delaware,...
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Heads Up Chicago. Our Powwow meet-up is on Sunday
Hope you've been getting excited as the day draws near. The Powwow will be a great place to meet and talk to fellow Chicago and metro area Kossacks.I was very excited to see a notice from the AIC this...
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Chicago Kossacks & The Stanley Cup!! The Cup will be at our Sunday Meet-Up
In case you might have needed another reason, or in some cases some reason, to join fellow Chicago Kossacks at our meet-up on Sunday, Sep 15. This might workCelebrate the Chicago Blackhawks 2013...
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Go Dancing in the Rain With Strangers: When Kossacks Don't Meet Up - A Photo...
"The clouds are on the ground."That was my first thought as I squinted through half-open eyes last Sunday and peered out the skylight over my head. The weather gods were to perform no miracle on this...
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A Civil War Story - GFHC Open Thread
They are together, John Riley and Eliphas, and have been for the last 151 years, separated only by the bones of two other Illinois boys taken, oh too soon, by that brutal war.I wonder if their...
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The Ballad of Zebulon and William D: A Cautionary Tale - GFHC Open Thread
Genealogy & Family History CommunityLeave the blood feuds at home... the moral of this story, the moral of this song is simply that one should never be where one does not belong so when you see...
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The LAST 2013 Glacier Meet-Up Diary: Gone to Kintla Lake
For almost two years this diary has been patiently languishing in a draft diary. You see, it was sort of a joke in the immediate aftermath of that first EPIC event, that I would post the last of the...
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