16 April

Saturday morning and it's pouring outside. The weather station says it's going to rain all weekend so I plan on using the time to work on the websites and do some light housecleaning.  Problem is I think I sprained my thumb yesterday somehow so it's difficult to really do as much as I would like.

Italian Surname Database

The Italian Surname Database is almost recovered.  Somehow the database crashed last month and in spite of my back up it was impossible to recover without re entering all the information again.  It should be up again this weekend after I add some new controls to keep the spammers from sending me a lot of garbage. I also hope to do some baking this week as it wouldn't be Easter without the traditional Italian 'Braided Easter Egg Cookies and Taralli'.

Pisa at Night

Number 1 son made it home from his trip to Italy and has finally sent me a copy of all the pictures he took.  He took several of the tourist sites and quite a few of my family in the cemetery in Locri which I am grateful for.  It helped with some missing dates and will allow me to go back another generation. I hope to have those up shortly as well.  He enjoyed his trip so much that he's already talking about going back again soon - too soon.  He's also decided that he wants to take his brother with him which I think will be wonderful.  I think he loved Rome the best but also enjoyed Pisa (although he saw it at night as the picture on the right shows) as well as spending time with is cousins in Calabria.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - You Might be a Genealogist if ...

This is a fun blog post this week! It is based on Katie O's post You Might Be a Genealogist If ... on the You Are Where You Came from blog.


"You might be a genealogist if . . . you know exactly what you want to get with your tax refund, and it's your great-great-great-grandmother's death certificate."

Here are the directions:

1)  Make up your own "You Might be a Genealogist if..." sayings.  One or more.  Lots.  The more the merrier.  You can use Katie's tax theme, or any other theme - you're completely free to make up anything you want!
2)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a Twitter feed, or in a Facebook status line or comment.

Here are mine:

1. You might be a genealogist if ... you send SASE and blank Family Group sheets to your family with your Christmas cards.
2. You might be a genealogist if ... the first thing you ask someone new you meet is where their ancestors come from and then offer to look it up for them if they don't know. 
3.  You might be a genealogist if ... a bill collector calls about a late payment and she ends up telling you how her family was on the ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic. Of course you encourage the conversation because it buys you some extra time to pay that late payment!