Me, In Elementary School

    I haven't been participating in the 52 weeks of personal genealogy this year, but thought I'd participate this week - mainly because I wanted to post some photos. This week's theme is Elementary School.

     I attended Kindergarten through second grade at Rebecca Minor Elementary in Lilburn, Gwinnett, Georgia. Some of my earliest memories are of kindergarten in Mrs. Wight's class. I was sooo scared to start school and stuck near the teacher and para-pro the first week.  I was partly scared because I was separated from my twin sister for the first time. She was in the classroom next door, but it seemed hundreds of miles away. Eventually I got into it though. I loved to read and do arts and crafts. Here's the class photo, I'm in the middle row, third from the right. I wonder if I'd even brushed my hair that day?

Here's my report card from that year, pretty good overall:

(A=Apply Concepts/Skills, E= Exploring Concepts/Skills)

I'm Oldest!

     My mom likes to tell a story about how my twin sister and I once came home from daycare asking to see our birth certificates. She didn't know what had prompted this, but pulled out our birth certificates to show us. She was very surprised when suddenly I cried "I'm oldest!" Apparently, the daycare teachers had asked us who was oldest, which we didn't know. They told us to look at our birth certificates for the time listed there. I was born at 10:04 AM, while Sarah was born at 10:05 AM (c-section).

     Some years later we all needed birth certificates to take a cruise. We ordered them from the Vital Records Department. Having heard the "who's oldest" story so many times - but not remembering the actual event - I was confused as to why we didn't already have them. I just assumed that they had been lost and didn't think about it.

     A few more years later, I realized that I had been looking at two different birth certificates. The first was a commemorative hospital certificate, while the second was a legal birth certificate. I recently remembered to ask my mom if she still had the hospital certificate (yes, reminded by recent current events).  She pulled mine and my sister's out, as well as my brother Bicentennial Baby certificate. Here are some images from the certificates:

Happy Birthday

To me and my sister.... and my Great-Grandfather!

Happy Birthday!

Wordless Wednesday

I'm a "Case Study"

In the August 2009 edition of the BBC magazine, 'Who Do You Think You Are,' I'm a "Case Study." The article is '3 Easy Ways to Share Research Online', starting on page 56.

The first tip is to share photos online, and flickr is recommended as the website to do it with. I'm on the bottom right of the page, along with a screenshot of one of my photos on flickr and a description of some of my "success stories," like this one.

Also mentioned in tip 3 (Blogging) as a case study is Tomas MacEntee and GeneaBloggers.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day to my Daddy. You've been a great dad and did what you could to spoil me, but to also raise me well.

Wordless Wednesday

a favorite photo

I really love this photo.  There are so many memories that it brings back.  It was taken in my grandmother's back yard and includes most all of my cousins on my mom's side of the family.  I'm either the little girl sitting on the ground or the one being held by my brother (mom, if you read this let me know).  

When I was a little girl, we went over to my maternal grandparent's house every Sunday.  Just about everyone was there.  We would eat dinner around 3pm and stay until dusk.  My cousins and I played in one of the bedrooms or outside.  The backyard was large and there were a variety of toys to play with.  I was very close to some of my cousins and regret that we have grown apart.

snippet

I had a short snippet printed in the March 2009 edition of Family Tree Magazine in the "Hard Times" article.  I'd posted my response to a discussion on their message boards about Great Depression stories and they published it, along with other comments.

Prior to this, I've had bits printed in the Nov '08 FTM and a question (but no answer!) published in the Sep/Oct '08 issue of Ancestry(.com) Magazine.