Harpursville update

Dear blog, I have not abandoned you though I don't blame you for thinking so.  I haven't done much genealogy recently and my creativity seems to have run dry.  I think there's a connection there :)

I guess the best thing to do is offer an update on what's going on around here and what's on my mind.  I have fretted quite a bit about the blog wondering about potential topics, but to no avail.  So I guess this will be a bit like a Facebook Newsfeed to update you. 

First of all, our little Shea went missing over a month ago and we now believe she's using the Litter Box in the Sky.  She was Jim's cat and was especially fond of him.  She would be very antsy when he was gone and quite contented in his lap every night.  She was a birthday gift to Jim and he named her appropriately.  Now both his favorite Sheas are gone.

She was a very good kitty -- the other two seem to miss her as she was the most submissive and now they only have each other to tease. 

Amy and Michael came for a short visit and Amy agreed to try on bridal dresses locally.  I'm pretty sure she was only doing this to make me feel part of the process but I didn't particularly care why we got to go--I was just happy that we did.  Though we didn't "Say Yes to the Dress", we did find a style that seems to suit her and realized there's a wide price variation between Erie and Binghamton!  So, of course I had to post that picture Pat took of Amy in 1993 in a wedding dress.  I like the idea someone had to use it on the shower invitation.  It looks like I'll be heading out to Erie again soon for more dresses.  Honestly, I'm just grateful she's interested in a traditional bridal dress and isn't planning to wear a football uniform or some such.

I also had a couple of interesting "Pay it Forward" experiences in the last few weeks.  There's a Facebook initiative to Pay it Forward that I decided to try and it was an interesting exercise.  You promise to send off a little token of remembrance to the Facebook friends that agree to give it a try.  Some of my Facebook friends that agreed are people I know well and see often.  A couple are not and those were the ones I found to be intriguing.  I took the opportunity to stop and think of these people carefully in ways I don't generally.  I found little tokens to send off that I think will appeal to their interests and personalities.  No pressure (like with Christmas) and no timeline (ditto).  I liked taking time to think of those that don't often come right to mind.  Then these friends are supposed to offer the same out to their Facebook friends.  It's a neat way to spread a little kindness.

The other experience took a bit longer to come to fruition.  Quite a while ago, I bought a small bunch of ephemera  at an auction that included personal items like letters and pictures.  I had promised myself that someday I would reunite such memorabilia to remaining family members, and these items seemed to be good candidates.  I carefully reviewed the items, taking note of names and dates then did some research to see if I could find this family online.  It seemed there were 2-3 potential family members with tress on Ancestry.com for whom this might be valuable material.  I wasn't sure how to proceed picking the family to whom I would offer these items first so I responded in the time honored tradition of putting it away to think about later.

Several months later ( and within the time since the last blog post), I renewed these efforts and decided to select the family tree that seemed to be best documented.  I contacted the tree owner to offer to send the items along and apparently picked absolutely the correct person.  The items seem to belong to her grandfather.  This woman believes she is the only living descendant of this man and she was very pleased to agree to accept the items.  So off they went!  I know how happy I would be and was glad to be able to bring that joy to someone else. 

Perhaps the good karma will open the creative gates for me in the near future.  Thanks for hanging in here with the blog.