Currach - Discovering my ancestry before the canvas frays.

May13

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The Poor Ancient Indians

Posted in: Ruminations

This is not genealogy in any way, but is a bedtime conversation I had with our 4 year old daughter tonight as she fell asleep.

I don’t want to forget it, so posting it here for posterity – my apologies to the 4.5 readers of my blog for going off track for a minute.
Lily: Daddy, are you rich?
Me: Not with money, honey, but I am rich with Love.
*Quiet*
Lily: Oh, I get it! You have lots of Love! Everybody is rich with Love!
Me: Well, I don’t know if everyone is, but I know I am because of you, Miles, & Mommy.
*Extended Quiet*
Lily: Well, I’ll tell you who’s not rich with Love. The ancient Indians – they’re dead.
May4

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App Permission Craziness

Posted in: Fun, Technology

This is by no means a genealogy specific item, but as someone who works in information systems and security I am amazed at the breadth of permissions some convenience apps ask for online.

DO: Weigh the benefit you receive for the app in question. While it is nice to have an automatic connection from the Flickr to the Facebook, is it really worth access to ALL of my profile and my friends’ information? Or access to my chat?

DON’T: Deny all apps – some are quite useful. Common sense rules the day here.

You do realize this permission graphic is a joke I made, right? (Although the only things I added were the last 3 items.)
May2

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FDA May Limit Access To Your Genome

Posted in: DNA

As a consumer and genealogist, I submitted the following comment regarding the possible strict regulation of Direct to Consumer (DTC) genetic testing at Regulations.gov.

For more information on the issues surrounding this testing, see the post “A Sad Day for Personal Genomics” at Genomes Unzipped and Daniel MacArthur’s informative blog, including this post in particular: “Last chance: let the FDA know why you want direct access to your own genome”

My own comment submission is below – today is the last day to submit! Read More
Apr27

10 Comments

St. Gabriel Has Left The Building

Posted in: Ireland, New York

Actually, the building has left Saint Gabriel.

According to the book of Daniel (and Wikipedia) a being resembling a man and identified as Gabriel appears to the prophet Daniel to give him “skill and understanding” regarding his visions. I’m fairly sure my genealogy research does not rate as “having visions”, although I’ll gladly take some skill and understanding.

As of late I have been tracking down various documents for my Tierney family in New York, all the while hoping that one might offer a clue to their origin in Ireland. I am happy to say that each new document I find has offered at least some tiny tidbit of information or led me further down the path to the next record.

However, my Tierneys seem intent on stringing us along when it comes to where they came from in Ireland. My list of records to find in New York has included my great-grandparent’s marriage certificate, their death certificates, plus the birth and baptism certificates for my grandfather and his siblings.

Using the Catholic Church Registers list at rootsweb and a few other pages that have now succumbed to the Internet abyss I began to inquire at various churches near East 35th Street to see if any of these records might be extant.

View Genealogy Family Sites in a larger map

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Apr15

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Letter: Kares & Stocky, Bremen

Posted in: Czech, New York

In May, 1907 my grandfather Josef Vanac, all of 15 years old began his emigration from Zamlyni in what is now the Czech Republic to New York.

He traveled alone and was to meet his sister Marie, who was already here for about a year. He took the ship SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse via the Kares & Stocky company in Bremen. The cost was 236 Kroner – about $50 I think.

When I think of myself at 15 years old and the enormous trip that must have been for someone from a small farming village in Bohemia in 1907, I am unceasingly amazed at the strength of my ancestors.

We have quite a few documents from my Czech grandparents’ immigration, but one the letter that goes along with this particular trip is quite interesting.

I am unsure what this completely filled, 2 sided document says – but it is signed with the name of the company “Kares & Stocky” at the end, not a person.

I found a message on an old CZECH-L mailing list, where someone asked for a translation of a document from the company. It did not contain an image of the original, but the small amount of translation had to do with travel options and trains.

Did they write a long hand-written travel document for everyone? If so, amazing! Now, I need to try and translate… See you in a few months.