Or Woolly Worms as they are also known. In googling them, they’re also referenced as Wooly Bear/Woollybear, but that name was never mentioned when I was growing up. My Father referred to them as Woolly Caterpillars.
He was always quite interested in studying them in the Autumn to determine what sort of winter we would have. As a child I assumed they were only in the Snow Belt. And frankly haven’t paid much attention to them as an adult until the last few years.
Folklore of the eastern United States and Canada holds that the relative amounts of brown and black on the skin of a Woolly Bear caterpillar (commonly abundant in the fall) are an indication of the severity of the coming winter. It is believed that if a Woolly Bear caterpillar’s brown stripe is thick, the winter weather will be mild and if the brown stripe is narrow, the winter will be severe.
The reason I bring this all up is because I found one this morning, all curled up, near my front porch. Which got me to thinking about all my ancestors who didn’t have instant weather on their smart phone or tv, or even radio. Watching the sky and learning the clues it gave was the only way they could predict their weather.
My Grandfather would religiously order the Farmer’s Almanac, and even my Father would consult it before planting his small garden. I remember he paid particular attention to the moon phases before he planted his various vegetables.
As a child that made no sense to me – how could an object so many miles away make any difference to the little seeds or seedlings planted here on earth?! That’s how far removed I was from my ancestors who planned their lives and farming around the almanac.
I believe I probably held a Farmers Almanac in my hands at Grandpa and Grandma’s house. Grandpa consulted it much more frequently than my Father. But as an adult? I nearly believed it had went out of existence.
Research brought up this amazing fact however: The Farmers Almanac has been in continuous publication over three centuries: since 1818! For those of you not in North America, it’s a American/Canadian softcover book containing weather and astronomy information, gardening guidelines, jokes, recipes, fishing advice, and probably just about anything else you need to know for everyday life.
So as I stand here with a cold Woolly Caterpillar in my hand, I am briefly transported back through all my farming ancestors who used various signs in nature and consulted the Farmers Almanac to run their lives. And I am grateful for all their hard work in their tilling and planting to take care of their families.
About a year ago, “The Genealogy Girl” posted “What Are We?”, a post about ethnic make-up, and whether you knew the percentages of where you came from. She had calculated her percentages and those numbers represented the people who came before her.
A simple math problem, right? Well, not exactly. It also represents where you got your DNA from, and you owe your very existence to these people. That makes them very near and dear to your heart.
Her post last year inspired me so I figured out my heritage and added to my blog “Do The Math!” At that time, I knew I was part Scottish, Irish, English, Swiss and German. You can go back and read my post if you’re interested in the percentages.
In grade school we studied Holland (which is an inaccurate name, but more on that later), of course our book pages contained little Dutch girls with hair in braids running around through fields of tulips with windmills in the background! I’m not sure if it was the flowers that intrigued me, or those big windmills slowly pumping water away so the fields didn’t flood.
But enchanted I was. And now I find I may carry Dutch DNA from a 4x g-grandfather. Hopefully I can extend the line back to his birthplace. Right now all I have is a death certificate saying my 3x g-grandfather’s dad was born in the Netherlands.
So the exciting discovery is I’m part Dutch!
Or rather I might be.
Now let’s go back to Holland vs. The Netherlands. Do you know which is the proper name? I did not, so I searched and found this video. It explains why the correct name is The Netherlands and not Holland (and a whole bunch of other related facts).
There will be nothing new and earth shattering in this post! Simply trying to reduce my ignorance about DNA by researching DNA testing and results, along with reviewing my notes on DNA webinars I attended.
DNA is an abbreviation for Deoxyribonucleic acid.(1) You’ll probably never need to know that unless it comes up in a trivia game, or you want to impress someone!
We were all born with 46 chromosones, well, most of us anyhow. People with Down’s Syndrome were born with a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21.
Our mother gave us our X chromosome, and our father contributed our X or Y chromosome. Our sex is also determined by our father: X = female. Y = male.
That’s the basics — most likely learned in your junior high science class. Pretty simple to follow.
My first exposure to DNA education occurred in 2013 when I attended a Legacy Family Tree webinar by Ugo Perego entitled “The New Frontier in Genetic Genealogy: Autosomal DNA Testing.” Since it was listed as an Intermediate/ Advanced Level webinar, a lot went over my head. I am reviewing my notes from his webinar to try and decide which test and/or company to choose for my DNA testing.
Ugo explained the major autosomal DNA tests available to genealogists, how they work and what to expect from them in order to reconstruct our genetic family history.(2) He emphasized that DNA testing is to support what we’ve discovered in our genealogical research, not to replace it.
Figure out who needs to be tested. If you want verification of your paternal side of the family, have a male get the Y-DNA test. It can help you find people in your direct line of your father’s side of the family. That’s Dad, grandfather, g-grandfather and so on.
If you’re more interested in your maternal side of the family, a female should take the mtDNA test. It can help you make connections with the direct line of your mother’s side of the family. Mom, grandma, g-grandma, etc.
He talked about the four DNA testing companies: 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, Ancestry, and Genograhic Project, and their differences. Two points I remember:
- 23andMe is a private company (with money) so tests are generally cheaper.
- Ancestry’s very new to DNA testing. There had only been 120,000 people who tested with them. [Bear in mind, this webinar was presented in May of 2013.] He also expressed his opinion that their testing was not as accurate as 23andMe or FTDNA.
At his company website, you can read more about these testing companies. If you’ve never heard of Dr. Ugo A. Perego, here’s his bio:
- CEO for the Salt Lake City-based Genetic Genealogy Consultant
- Scientist affiliated with the DNA laboratory of Professor Antonio Torroni at the University of Pavia in Italy
- Previously a senior researcher with the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation
- Earned a PhD in Genetic and Biomolecular Sciences(3)
He knows what he’s talking about, I think! He has presented four different webinars at FamilyTreeWebinars. I will be reviewing notes from other webinars and posting more soon.
What about you? Have you had your DNA tested? Are you thinking about having it done?
A lot has been tumbling around in my head lately. Brick walls that keep jumping back into my brain. Wanting to do a DNA test. A couple of webinars. The visit with my cousin where we worked on genealogy and discussed various problems. And my thought of trying one of the apps or online programs to create a genealogy collage.
This morning it all crystalized into using my cousin’s photos (sadly I have very few photos of my ancestors) in her maternal line, kind of like an autosomal DNA test in pictures. OK, so that’s a stretch, but hang with me here: Just trying to explain how those circuits and wires in my brain have been working overtime. Maybe some of them got crossed!
First I asked permission to use her photos. Specifically four generations of females.
In checking the collage layouts in Pixlr Express, I decided to make her mother the largest, and the grandmas smaller. Having the grandmothers in the direction she was looking would be cool. So I chose this layout.
OK, I’ve picked the photos and layout. It’s time to bring them into the online collage editor.
I see multiple challenges with these four photos. First off, they’re different colors. One’s black and white. There’s an odd blue/grey combo. The third is more greyish than black. And the last one is light brown. To me, a collage needs harmony in the color area.
After trying several brown effects in Pixlr’s editor to try and make them look old, I applied a sepia tone. This provided the cohesiveness in color I was looking for.
Next is addressing the various sizes. I wanted the three grandmothers’ faces mostly the same size and centered in the opening. Using Pixlr’s editing tools, I cropped the top two. Nothing I can do about the lower one. If I zoom out, there will be blank space beside the photo.
It’s not perfect, but good enough. The middle grandma could be a little bigger, but much more zooming or cropping and her face details will blur. Sometimes you have to work with what you’re given.
Now that the photos are pretty much the way I’d like them, let’s work on being a little more creative or artistic with the collage itself.
The spacing was increased to 20. I like thick borders! Then I rounded the corners slightly. Gives it a softer look overall. I played around with the proportion but decided it looked better the way it started out.
The last thing available to change here is the border color. White is a little stark for my tastes, I prefer something a little less bright. I switched to a brownish-sepia tone, but then there wasn’t enough contract between the border and the photos. Black seemed to “play better” with the photos. Probably because it reminds me of those old black paged scrapbooks with the little black corner holders my grandma used to get out.
A little typing and I have a finished product I can save to my computer.
It took about a half an hour to import, edit, and finish the collage. However I did play with Pixlr for about 20 minutes before I started the collage to familiarize myself with their buttons and tools. Taking the screen shots and editing them in my graphics program to add to my blog post took another half hour or so.
Pixlr has some good features for a free program online (more than 600 effects, overlays, and borders to personalize any image). It certainly doesn’t compare to PhotoShop or other big graphic programs but for basic editing or making a collage, it does the job.
There is a Pixlr Express phone app available but I didn’t download or try it. Editing photos on the small screen my phone has sounds more like torture than fun! In checking it out in the app store however, it said it was compatible with all my devices, so I may try it on my tablet.
Other than making a card, or perhaps framing it, can you think of other ways to use a generational collage in your genealogy?
Barbara Kagy (aka Barbar Kagey) was born 14 Oct 1788 to Rudolph Kagy, her mother’s name is unknown. Information at Find-A-Grave says she is buried at the Midway Mennonite Church Cemetery in Mahoning County, Ohio.
According to family recollections1, this is not her first burial spot. She was buried on the old family farm but when the farm was sold, the family graves were left in disrepair and eventually moved to the Mennonite Church Cemetery.
A history book of the Kagys in America2 indicates she was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and was married to John Blosser in 1807, who was born 5 Jun 1780, in Page County, Virginia. They had 12 children, altho it looks like only 11 were listed in the book.
It’s been a couple years since I’ve worked on this line, but in checking Ancestry, there is no additional information showing up for her.
Family Search does have a death record for her son, Noah, who died in 1912 at age 91. It lists her and John Blosser as his parents. Their wiki says few Virginia births were recorded by civil authorities before 1853, which is a far piece from when she was born!
Hoping someone out there has found Church or Bible records, or perhaps personal papers I’ve been unable to locate. In the meantime, will have to pursue information other than online sources.
2 “A history of the Kägy relationship in America : from 1715 to 1900” by Franklin Keagy, Chambersburg, PA. Harrisburg Publishing Co., Harrisonburg, PA. 1899. pgs 364-365.
Some people have trouble thinking of a blog post. Hasn’t been my problem yet, but maybe someday! Here’s 5 ways to find that inspirational, illuminating, incentive for your post.
1. Use a quote. Read the text, then read it again. What does it make you think about? Who comes to mind when you read it? Make it into a graphic if you’re artistic. Check out The Genealogy Girl’s quotes. Don’t know where to find quotes? Dictionary.com has a quote section. Try their random button. Keep trying until your blogging wheels start churning!
2. Maybe you’re more graphically oriented. Look at pictures, then ask yourself the same above questions. Or how does it make you feel? Sad? Happy? Angry? And why? Dig through your family photos. Surely there’s someone in there you can talk about. Or maybe you don’t know who they are. Post the pic with as much as you know. Maybe someone will see it and you’ll find your answer.
3. Attend a webinar. There are lots of free genealogy webinars online. Geneabloggers is one of the best places to find them. Yes, my blog is mostly about genealogy and ancestors. But the same principles apply. Choose your passionate interest and do a search – Find some training, watch a webinar. Then tell the world what you learned.
4. Try Plinky – Inspiration delivered daily. It might sound silly, having questions sent to you every day. But it works for some people. The worst that could happen is you find out it doesn’t work for you. Best case scenario: It might just be the magic factor that gets your blogging motor running.
5. Read a book, or peruse other blogs. It’s amazing what can happen when you do this. You’ll have a reaction to what you saw. Then a thought – and another thought! Pretty soon you have enough for a blog post. If nothing happens in your brain but you like a post, reblog it. The author will probably appreciate the extra publicity. Just be sure you use the reblog button in their post, or give them proper credit on your blog.
So there you have it. A few of the things that have worked for me. Mostly you just need an open mind, and don’t get stressed about posting. The next time I can’t think of anything to blog about, I’ll have something to jog my memory!
When you come to a dead end in an ancestor line, explore sideways. There could be clues hidden in the records or sources of those collateral relatives.
Here’s what happened to me. I didn’t know much about a brother of my g-grandpa. But I had noticed there was another Ancestry subscriber who had him in her tree.
So I contacted her through Ancestry’s messaging system. Not only was she able to provide me with more dates, sources, and photos, she pointed me towards a book one of her ancestors had written.
This idea was shelved for a few months, until she wrote me again and said she had located a copy of it for sale online. I snapped it up immediately.
When it arrived I sat down with it, cradling it like a baby. Here were stories of MY relatives, written 30 years ago by the brother-in-law of my Grand Uncle about his early years in the early 20th century. So it covered my Grand Aunt also. How cool was that?
Oh my, not only were there wonderful memories, there were photos. Of people – MY people! There were oodles of drawings he made to accompany his stories: Where they lived. Where the neighbors lived. Where the railroad was. Where relatives were buried. That description saddened and tickled me at the same time: “Graves of grand-parents (buried under the tree where the cow was milked).”
I could see the land taking shape in my mind as I continued to read. I agonized with the family as they encountered various trials and tribulations. I rejoiced with them over the new babies, grieved with them as they lost their elders or their crops were ruined. Their pioneer spirit stood out in every chapter.
I cheered with them after trying various homesteading spots in different States, they came back to where they started. Back to their friends and family. And I felt the warmth and love as they were welcomed back into the fold. I also saw their strong faith in God. They were Dunkards. I did not know that.
This is why I do genealogy. To me, it’s not about collecting names. It’s not even about putting dates with those names, or collecting records and sources, altho those are important.
It’s about getting to know your ancestors. Really getting to know them. That’s called “putting flesh on the bones.” What made them tick? What were their goals? Where did they get their motivation? What made them move west? And then farther West? What made some stay put?
So if you’ve run into a dead-end, don’t give up. That big break-through could be off to the side, in those collateral relatives.
Hunt, search, look – contact others. You never know what you might find until you try.