Surnames A-Z: E Names

This idea of listing surnames over the coming weeks comes from The Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.  I think this will be fun.

Some of my surnames I have already posted information on . . . others I'm still working on.

Continuing the blog list of surnames for both mine and my husband's family that I'm doing genealogical research.  Maybe we connect, maybe not.

So . . . here are the E's:

Ehrb - Pennsylvania
Erb - Switzerland and maybe Pennsylvania

At the moment, these two families are not linked.  

New Year's Eve

What are your traditions?  How did you celebrate in the past?  What are your plans for this year?  So many questions and not many answers.

When I was growing up, New Year's Eve was just another night.  A couple of times I remember celebrating .. . one time with banging of pots & pans with our cousins from Tumwater.  We would grab some and go outside and make noise.  Another time, I was babysitting the neighbor's daughter.  I would watch the ball drop on TV.  Then fell asleep on the living room floor.

As an adult, my husband & I would go out dancing (most of the time at the Eagle's either in Olympia or in Centralia).  Usually my parents would take our son as we would be having a family gathering on New Year's Day to celebrate my aunt's birthday.

Sometimes, we just stayed home and celebrated the new year.

This year my husband wanted us to go out dancing as we hadn't done that in a while.  However, I came down with a really bad cold the other day and am now staying home and sleeping.

2009 at Eagles in Centralia

2009 - Backfire Band performing

2009 - our son ringing in the new year

Surnames A-Z: D Names

This idea of listing surnames over the coming weeks comes from The Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.  I think this will be fun.

Some of my surnames I have already posted information on . . . others I'm still working on.

Continuing the blog list of surnames for both mine and my husband's family that I'm doing genealogical research.  Maybe we connect, maybe not.

So . . . here are the D's:

Dambrill

D'Arcy - Ireland

Darnell

Davis - Idaho, Wyoming, California, Illinois, Michigan, New York

De Bohun - England

De Contenent - France

De Elleigh

De Fourgeard - France

De La Chiere

de Monthermer

De Moru - France

De Noblet

De Plais

De Shelton

Deelwood - Virginia

Dennis - Virginia

Denny - Virginia

DeWitt - New York, Holland

Drury - Virginia

Surnames A-Z: C Names

This idea of listing surnames over the coming weeks comes from The Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.  I think this will be fun.

Some of my surnames I have already posted information on . . . others I'm still working on.

Continuing the blog list of surnames for both mine and my husband's family that I'm doing genealogical research.  Maybe we connect, maybe not.

So . . . here are the C's:

Cain/Cains/Caines - Pennsylvania, Kentucky

Calthorpe - England

Campbell - Virginia

Carlton - England

Chapel - England, Virginia

Christian - Virginia, Kentucky

Clay - Virginia, Wales, England, West Virginia

Clere -

Combs - Virginia

Conquest - 

Crawford - Indiana, Ohio

Crispen - Virginia

Surnames A-Z: B Names

Continuing the blog list of surnames for both mine and my husband's family that I'm doing genealogical research.  Maybe we connect, maybe not.  If some of the names look like royalty, they are.

Here are the B's:

Bailiffe - 
Barclay - 
Barge - England, New Jersey
Barnes - 
Bartlett - 
Bathurst - England
Belcher - England, Virginia, Kentucky
Belles, Bellesfelt, Bellowsfelt - Washington, Kansas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Germany
Belson - 
Bender -
Benett - 
Bertrand - 
Beuford - Virginia
Bevins - Kentucky, Virginia, Ireland
Blair - Maryland
Blevins - Virginia, Kentucky
Boleyn - England
Borders - Virginia
Boteler, Butler - Ireland, England
Brereton - Pennsylvania
Brooke - 
Brown - Illinois, New Jersey, England, Indiana
Burton - Virginia

Surnames A-Z: A Names

This idea of listing surnames over the coming weeks comes from The Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.  I think this will be fun.

Some of my surnames I have already posted information on . . . others I'm still working on.

This is both my family & my husband's family.

So . . . here are the A's:

Ahrendt - Germany, Wisconsin

Allebach - Pennsylvania, Germany

Allein - England

Alleine - England

Allens - Iowa

Alley - Virginia

Andriessen - Holland, New York

Antrim - Ohio

Ariens - Holland

Summer Vacations

Having family reunions the past few weekends brings back memories of other times when I was growing up.  Summer break was when Dad didn't work so we were always taking off and doing camping, hiking & fishing.  Sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, and sometimes with family.

Camping always started out Memorial Day Weekend and usually ended with Labor Day Weekend.  July was hay season so we didn't go on any trips then until the last bale of hay went into the barn.  There was always one weekend that was the Keesee Family Camping trip.  We would practically take over the campground.  Hmmm . . . we seem to still do that.  Mom came from a large family - 8 siblings.  Some of them had large families and others small.  It doesn't matter where we camped, we didn't arrive at the same time.  One family would invariably show up in the middle of the night (the same family) and would actually locate us. It's interesting that most of the family still camp - most have RVs now instead of tents.

One summer (1976) we took a really long road trip starting out on US Highway 2 out of Spokane WA - we went to Glacier National Park in Montana.  We camped just outside of the park at Hungry Horse.  When we entered the park, we discovered that we were just a couple of inches too long.  Ended up leaving our camp trailer at the entrance.  We drove up to the top then turned around to get our trailer.  Then we drove around the park to get back on track.  Next visit was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We continued on to Herriod SD where we stayed with one of my Mom's best friends from high school.  They had a huge ranch.  We spent a week there before continuing on south.  We went through the Badlands National Park and went to Mount Rushmore.  Then we headed for Yellowstone National Park.  We spent several days there exploring the geysers.  From there we went into Idaho then on to Oregon.  Stopped in Prineville to visit another one of Mom's classmates.  Then went on home.

Most of our camping trips were taken with the Sandell family (my Mom's sister).  Lots of hiking, fishing and picking blueberries.  We had a couple of areas that were recurring trips - Mahood Lake in British Columbia with a day hike to Whale Lake for fishing and Council Lake for the blueberries.

One summer I picked strawberries.  My brother & I also had swim lessons at the local swimming pool.  We always joined the summer reading program at the local library.

Memories . . . fun times, free times, family times.