Small Talk: We'll Be Right Back

[friendperidot]

From the Commercials that Annoy, the discussion on DNA and Ancestry.com, my 2 cents worth.

As someone who has never had a DNA test, only done a little searching on Ancestry, grew up as one of the oldest grandchildren so I spent long hours listening to the elders talk, then used that as my natural inclination and love of history, got my Bachelor's Degree in History, and just this week spoke to a long lost cousin for the very first time this week, I think all of those things help. My new/lost cousin was born to teenage minor parents, her mother was shipped off to a home for unwed mothers, her father was basically persona non-grata, most of us had always known about her, her mother looked for her always. Her mother went on married, had 3 more children, they grew up knowing about an older sister, their mom died a couple of years ago. Because the state of Arkansas opened adoption records and I'm still not clear how that helped except the birth parents were born, raised and birth father is now retired there, this cousin was born in a different state, adopted from a third state that we had never considered in our searches, it's a couple of states away. But, she found us, she's spent time with her sister and one brother, her father and many of his family (there are many, many, many of them). Her brother suggested I contact her, I did, we had a delightful conversation after which, I wrote her a 20 page history of who was who and how they were all related. Being a lot of them are from very small town Arkansas and large extended families, there is a lot of intermarriages, blended families. She had a lot of names, but it was all so confusing, she didn't know how to put it together. I guess I should join Ancestry and put that information in because I am one of the last who has it. All of the siblings in the original families are gone, only a couple of spouses left and the grandchildren are aging and many of us are gone. I did find out from one of my surviving widowed aunts, that my Grandmother was a divorced woman in the early 1930s, basically unheard of, but my aunt has her marriage licenses and her divorce papers. Now I need to find out where my bio-grandfather was born and where he was in prison and how long his sentence for horse theft was and when and where he died. I have approximate dates of his birth and I know when my father last saw him, so I have some starting clues. I have a cousin who is doing a lot of very long term research, but we have different grandfathers, so he's not searching for the info I want. 

Edited December 11, 2018 by friendperidot
minor correction

[Tom Holmberg]

19 minutes ago, friendperidot said:

I have a cousin who is doing a lot of very long term research, but we have different grandfathers, so he's not searching for the info I want. 

Actually, doing genealogy is the real way to get all this information, but it's a lot of work and takes some know-how.  The U.S. isn't the only country in the world with immigrants, so while your DNA says Spanish or Italian or Polish or German, your ancestors could culturally be French, having lived there for generations.  DNA isn't necessarily going to tell you that.  I knew someone named Martinez, who was French, despite the name (his family pronounced the name "Martin-ay". 

[friendperidot]

Tom, I think the only real DNA surprise I might get is confirmation or disproving a rumored Native American Great Grandmother on my Mother's side of my family. For my bio Grandfather's family, there is a town named for the family and a very large data bank of info. It is only for him and several of his descendants that I am lacking information on. He was rather a black sheep, he had 3 families in 3 different states, my Dad is from family #3. I live in the area of family #2 now. I have an unusual last name, I meet people who say they know someone with the same last name, am I related? And I say, probability is good, my Grandfather got around! My Dad did meet with some of his older than him, nieces and nephews before he died, but he didn't leave that information anywhere for me. And then there was the whole imprisonment for horse theft thing. I feel no connection to it, he died when my Dad was a small child. And then the divorce thing from my Grandmother. I am going to ask my Aunt, that the next time she has a chance to go through her bank safe deposit box, if she would copy those marriage and divorce papers and send them to me. I'm quite ok with her son keeping those records, even though it's my Grandfather, not his. He's from my Grandmother's second marriage. I would like to see the papers to get names and dates and places, that could help my search. I'm several states away from this Aunt, but I do talk to her on FB almost daily.

[janie jones]

3 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

  The U.S. isn't the only country in the world with immigrants, so while your DNA says Spanish or Italian or Polish or German, your ancestors could culturally be French, having lived there for generations.  DNA isn't necessarily going to tell you that.  I knew someone named Martinez, who was French, despite the name (his family pronounced the name "Martin-ay". 

That's probably exactly what happened with the family of the guy who switched from lederhosen to kilts or whatever it was. 

[Tom Holmberg]

14 hours ago, friendperidot said:

I'm several states away from this Aunt, but I do talk to her on FB almost daily.

That's the real way to do genealogy.  People think you can just go to some website, put in your name and you'll get your genealogy going back to Adam and Eve (and showing all the kings and queens and famous people who you are related to).  In reality, as your family shows, things are more complicated than that.

[mmecorday]

I just hope I'm not related to Kelly Ripa! *shudder*

[Moose135]

3 hours ago, mmecorday said:

I just hope I'm not related to Kelly Ripa! *shudder*

My grandparents were from further north in Italy, so I should be OK.

[Browncoat]

One of the biggest problems with the websites is that they rely on an existing database.  As more people participate, the database increases (duh), and the genealogy gets better.  However, if some groups choose not to participate (such as most Native Americans), then the information will be lacking, or possibly even incorrect.  Based on birth certificates, marriage certificates, death records, and oral history, I know for a fact that there is Cherokee in my heritage.  There are no Cherokees in ancestry.com (or there weren't when I sent in my sample), so it didn't show up in my profile. 

Another problem, at least for me, is that if you want more information than just your percentage profile, you have to pay more than the initial fee to spit in the vial.

[Suzn]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

One of the biggest problems with the websites is that they rely on an existing database.  As more people participate, the database increases (duh), and the genealogy gets better. 

There two sides to that - more information available is wonderful; the other side is perpetuating errors.  If it's published on the internet, it must be "true" - but sometimes not.  I always tell people to use the information they find as a starting point and to try to document and verify as much as they can.

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

On 12/11/2018 at 3:07 PM, friendperidot said:

 I am one of the last who has it. All of the siblings in the original families are gone, only a couple of spouses left and the grandchildren are aging and many of us are gone.

 

 

I hope you put that tree on Ancestry.  The things that exists only in people memories will get lost beyond retrieval.

[Jamoche]

On 12/12/2018 at 5:01 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

That's the real way to do genealogy.  People think you can just go to some website, put in your name and you'll get your genealogy going back to Adam and Eve (and showing all the kings and queens and famous people who you are related to).  In reality, as your family shows, things are more complicated than that.

All the real data Ancestry.com has on my family comes from my mom doing the boots-on-ground research; the site she was contributing to fell for early Ancestry's "hey, use us for hosting your data". Now I'd have to pay to see what they'd all done for free.

 

My cousin, OTOH, ignored all that and fell for one of those "kings, queens, and Adam and Eve" things, and sent it to my mom. It detoured in the late 1890s, which seems pretty far back until you realize my grandmother is 95 and still remembers the people involved, so coz didn't do even the smallest bit of verification . We had a good laugh.

[walnutqueen]

My great grandparents lived with me.

[Tom Holmberg]

I hope everyone has a very snarky Christmas.

[peacheslatour]

19 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I hope everyone has a very snarky Christmas.

The Hallmark channel makes it sooo easy. My husband loves that shit and I have to keep my snark to myself. :(

[chessiegal]

15 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

The Hallmark channel makes it sooo easy. My husband loves that shit and I have to keep my snark to myself. :(

I'm so sorry. Snark away here. If it was up to my husband, the Military Channel would be on 24/7. Thank goodness for TVs in separate rooms. I know Golden Girls fans are not happy with the Hallmark channel sappy movies this time of year, but from what I can tell, between TVLand, Logo, and other Retro channels, Golden Girls is on for hours every day.

[peacheslatour]

2 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I'm so sorry. Snark away here. If it was up to my husband, the Military Channel would be on 24/7. Thank goodness for TVs in separate rooms. I know Golden Girls fans are not happy with the Hallmark channel sappy movies this time of year, but from what I can tell, between TVLand, Logo, and other Retro channels, Golden Girls is on for hours every day.

I super pissed because ION usually has a lot of Law and Order SVU but now it's nothing but Christmas on Holly Lane and A Boyfriend for Christmas and other hokey titles on the weekends. And on UpTv where they usually have The Gilmore Girls is all the same schmaltz. Bah!

[chessiegal]

14 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I super pissed because ION usually has a lot of Law and Order SVU but now it's nothing but Christmas on Holly Lane and A Boyfriend for Christmas and other hokey titles on the weekends. And on UpTv where they usually have The Gilmore Girls is all the same schmaltz. Bah!

What? No Gilmore Girls? Sacrilege! Bah humbug indeed.

[Tom Holmberg]

18 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I super pissed because ION usually has a lot of Law and Order SVU but now it's nothing but Christmas on Holly Lane and A Boyfriend for Christmas and other hokey titles on the weekends.

I haven't seen "Scrooged" yet this season (my annual Christmas guilty pleasure).  I missed one showing and haven't seen it again.

But I'll be watching "Kelly Ripa Got Run Over by a Reindeer" in my dreams.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I haven't seen "Scrooged" yet this season (my annual Christmas guilty pleasure).  I missed one showing and haven't seen it again.

But I'll be watching "Kelly Ripa Got Run Over by a Reindeer" in my dreams.

Scrooged has been on one or the other of the Starz channels every day for the last two weeks. So has another goody, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and of course Home Alone.

[zillabreeze]

"know Golden Girls fans are not happy with the Hallmark channel sappy movies this time of year, "

I'm losing my mind over the late night Frasier's being bumped.  A show I can watch over and over!  RIP, John Mahoney, you are seriously missed.

Edited December 22, 2018 by zillabreeze

[chessiegal]

9 minutes ago, zillabreeze said:

"know Golden Girls fans are not happy with the Hallmark channel sappy movies this time of year, "

I'm losing my mind over the late night Frasier's being bumped.  A show I can watch over and over!  RIP, John Mahoney, you are seriously missed.

 

Agree on Frasier. So well written, and David Hyde Pierce is a treasure along with the rest of the cast. Cozi shows Frasier from 8 - 10 pm weeknights in my market. They just started back on Season 1.

Edited December 22, 2018 by chessiegal

[peacheslatour]

18 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Agree on Frasier. So well written, and David Hyde Pierce is a treasure along with the rest of the cast. Cozi shows Frasier from 8 - 10 pm weeknights in my market. They just started back on Season 1.

We used to watch Frasier on Cozi but it suddenly disappeared.

[chessiegal]

4 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

We used to watch Frasier on Cozi but it suddenly disappeared.

Cozi or Frazier? I lost the Decades channel this year, and Newhart along with it.

[peacheslatour]

8 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Cozi or Frazier? I lost the Decades channel this year, and Newhart along with it.

Cozi. We also lost Decades and they replaced it with a thing called Start. Suppose to be women centric but it's just old cop shows.

[chessiegal]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

Cozi. We also lost Decades and they replaced it with a thing called Start. Suppose to be women centric but it's just old cop shows.

Yeah, Decades was replaced by Start in my market too. Useless. So sorry about Cozi. Frasier is a treasure.

[mmecorday]

Quote

But I'll be watching "Kelly Ripa Got Run Over by a Reindeer" in my dreams.

Can Candace Cameron Bure and her stupid brother Kirk also be in the path of the reindeer's rampage?

[Moose135]

On 12/22/2018 at 4:20 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

I haven't seen "Scrooged" yet this season (my annual Christmas guilty pleasure).  I missed one showing and haven't seen it again.

I love that movie!  We watched the DVD last night.

 

On 12/22/2018 at 4:20 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

But I'll be watching "Kelly Ripa Got Run Over by a Reindeer" in my dreams.

You and me both!

[friendperidot]

I'm thinking of signing up for Sling tonight just so I can watch TBS and A Christmas Story. 

[Brattinella]

It will also be on TNT at staggered times.  We'll leave it on one of those all day tomorrow. :)

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, Brattinella said:

It will also be on TNT at staggered times.  We'll leave it on one of those all day tomorrow. :)

Same here unless National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is on. Then we alternate.

Edited December 24, 2018 by peacheslatour

[smittykins]

Merry Christmas to my fellow PTVers who celebrate! 🎄

[Annber03]

Merry Christmas! Hope all who are celebrating have a lovely holiday :). 

[Prevailing Wind]

My cats have had a good day - gave 'em breakfast before they even asked and then they got to go outside for about a half hour until they got too cold. Amazingly, Bosco was the first in, followed shortly by Stella.  Now it's nap time and later, when the sun moves past the trees, there will be sun puddles in the living room to nap in. PLUS there's primo nip for them. 

I, on the other hand, am parking my tuchis in the recliner and binge-watching The West Wing, wishing we could have a *real* candidate like Bartlet.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

[chessiegal]

Just made myself a Screwdriver. Still in my jammies with my kitty Jinglebelle napping beside me (she showed up on our deck just before Christmas 4 years ago). She looked at me like I was crazy when I sang Jingle Bells to her this morning. We're eating at Chart House on Spa Creek in Annapolis this afternoon. We are so blessed. Merry Christmas.

[Brattinella]

Merry Christmas to all my loved ones!

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Just made myself a Screwdriver. Still in my jammies with my kitty Jinglebelle napping beside me (she showed up on our deck just before Christmas 4 years ago).

Bloody Mary here and the cat napping by the fire with his head on my thigh is Bandit (one of my parents' cats), but same lazy day still in pajamas.  In a bit, I'll get up and make peanut butter cookies.

[Ashforth]

I got a surprise Christmas present of an adult onesie, complete with a unicorn horn and tail. To my shock, it is THE BEST! It's like wearing a hug! Merry Christmas or whatever holy/holiday you celebrate, friends! 

[Tom Holmberg]

9 hours ago, Ashforth said:

I got a surprise Christmas present of an adult onesie, complete with a unicorn horn and tail.

Thank God it wasn't a pink bunny onesie!

On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 3:37 PM, friendperidot said:

I'm thinking of signing up for Sling tonight just so I can watch TBS and A Christmas Story. 

Over the long weekend I watched 4 of my favorite Christmas classics, Alastair Sim's "A Christmas Carol" (AKA, "Scrooge"), "Scrooged", "A Christmas Story" and "Die Hard."

[Moose135]

15 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

Over the long weekend I watched 4 of my favorite Christmas classics, Alastair Sim's "A Christmas Carol" (AKA, "Scrooge"), "Scrooged", "A Christmas Story" and "Die Hard."

We watched the first three - not really a "Die Hard" fan, and I never considered it a Christmas movie...sacrilege, I know!

[Tom Holmberg]

8 hours ago, Moose135 said:

not really a "Die Hard" fan, and I never considered it a Christmas movie...sacrilege, I know!

I watched it on IFC, and they dealt with this, giving all the reasons it should be considered a Christmas movie, including one I hadn't thought of, that McClane's wife is named Holly. Besides that, the movie holds up.  It still works.

https://www.joe.ie/movies-tv/10-reasons-why-die-hard-is-the-greatest-christmas-film-of-all-time-479242

[Bort]

All my favorite Christmas movies are non-traditional. Die Hard, Batman Returns, Long Kiss Goodnight, Trading Places, Gremlins...

[Tom Holmberg]

2 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Die Hard, Batman Returns, Long Kiss Goodnight, Trading Places, Gremlins...

Not "Lethal Weapon"? :)

[Bort]

2 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

Not "Lethal Weapon"? :)

Nah, I don't like the Lethal Weapon movies. Mel Gibson is too irritating.

[mmecorday]

I have never seen "Die Hard." I hope that doesn't get me voted out of the club.

Last night I watched that most traditional of post-Christmas movies, "Smokey and the Bandit." Not by choice, mind you. I was in a food coma and the remote was on the other sofa. Then I watched an episode of "My Six Hundred Pound Life" and swore to myself I'd spend less time on the sofa and more time in the gym next year. This is the only time of the year that when breakfast is over, I think to myself, "Time for cookies!"

[friendperidot]

from ads that annoy:  

Quote

 

18 HOURS AGO, REALITY POLICE SAID:

Also beware if someone pours a concrete pad randomly in their yard. Yes they say they are going to build a shed or garage on it but they never do. Then they start getting paranoid and put up security cameras everywhere. Then you realize that you haven't seen the wife in a while. When you get up the courage to ask about her, he says she ran off with a long haul trucker. But I digress. It's probably nothing. Forget i said anything. 

 

There actually was a case where the father killed the mother, buried her in the backyard, poured a new slab of concrete for something, said she ran off, many years later, daughter remembered, but only after losing a couple of siblings to a suspicious fire and years of abuse. But I also say beware and test for heavy metals if you start being very sick and throwing up and then the symptoms clear up, then come back then clear up then come back and tests show no problems.

[smittykins]

That’s the case I was thinking of when I read that.

[Moose135]

Also beware if someone pours a concrete pad randomly in their yard.

Last October on Long Island, a body was found by a man digging under the basement of his house.  DNA results show it was his long-lost father, who disappeared in 1961, and examination of the remains show he likely died of blunt force trauma to the head.  The story in the family was that he simply ran off and abandoned the family.  The man's wife, who died about 20 years ago, never said much to her children about their father, and she remarried a year or two after her husband went missing.  Her second husband died a year or so ago, without ever telling what he may have know.  The sons reported that the spoke with a psychic who told them their father was buried under the house, and had been digging on and off for the past couple of years.

The house was under construction at the time of the father's disappearance...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/12/us/long-island-remains-are-missing-father/index.html

[fairffaxx]

In 1910, when friends in England noticed that they hadn't seen Dr. Crippen's wife lately, he said that she had returned to her birthplace in America.  He then sailed to Canada with his mistress (who was disguised as a boy).  Meanwhile, Scotland Yard dug up the cellar floor at his house in London and found a human torso buried there.  Crippen was arrested on board the ship as it arrived in Canada.  He was returned to London, tried, convicted, and hanged.  Some doubt has since been cast on the identity of the corpse but, whoever it was, there has been no innocent explanation for its presence under the floor of Crippen's cellar.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

On 12/23/2018 at 4:44 PM, peacheslatour said:

Cozi. We also lost Decades and they replaced it with a thing called Start. Suppose to be women centric but it's just old cop shows.

Late with this since I haven't been in the Commercial forum since the retooling happened, but we still get Cozi here in NC, though they did move The Rockford Files from its previous slot on the weekends to Monday nights. What cable provider do you use?

[peacheslatour]

Comcast.

[Prevailing Wind]

I don't have cable; I have a Mohu Leaf Antenna pinned to my wall, behind a bookcase. I get Cozi as a sub-channel of the CBS affiliate. When I want to go from, say, CBS to NBC, I have to press not just the channel number, but the sub-number, too. NBC is 11.1; 11.2 is a knock-off weather channel. CBS is 46.1, Cozi is 46.2; Buzzr is 05.3 and there are SO MANY over-the-air channels, it is easier to punch in the channel numbers, including the decimal point, than to surf until you get where you want to be. When I first started watching Cozi, I called it the Jessica Fletcher channel. And in light of the weather the NE is having, I got to thinking - for all the shows with Jessica in Cabot Cove, how come we never saw snow on the ground? Why did no one get murdered during a winter snowstorm in Maine?  (Yeah, I know - it's a little town north of L.A. on the Pacific Coast that stood in for Cabot Cove, but stil...)

I find I'm enjoying the Create TV channel, a sub of PBS. I really like to watch Lidia Bastianich cook her Italian food, even though I'd never cook it myself (She makes too much food for one person.)