Happy Year of the Dragon!

Happy Chinese New Year!  

In our house, we're happy that it's the Year of the Dragon.  According to the Chinese zodiac, hubby is a dragon.  So it's kind of like a mid-year birthday celebration for him.  Fortunately, hubby does not have a dragon-like personality in real life!

Image from Char4U.com.

We mark Chinese New Year in an odd, kind of funny way.  We might order Chinese food for dinner.  That's about it.  But hubby also likes this holiday for another reason.

Here's our new tradition.  A few years ago hubby just couldn't get it together in time to send Christmas cards to all his friends who live around the world.  So instead, he took his time, and wrote our family letter and mailed them in beautiful Chinese New Year cards.  He orders them direct from China, and they are little works of art.  People loved them! 

USPS 2012 Lunar New Year stamp.

 Friends now tell us that they (like all of us) are overwhelmed with holiday activities, but when the Chinese New Year card arrives a month after the the hubbub of year-end holidays has subsided, they really enjoy it.  The cards even spurred a visit from an old girlfriend and her family.  (It's OK, they were boyfriend-girlfriend when they were about 14!)    

The ever-politically-correct US Post Office even issues stamps specifically for the Chinese New Year.  Lovely colorful artwork of a dragon's head, another in silhouette in the upper left corner.

 

He Hua Chinese Buddhist Temple.
My photos, March 2011.

Last year we were in Amsterdam around the time of Chinese New Year.  We were quite surprised to walk down a busy city street and see this ornate Chinese Buddist temple.  Known as He Hua, which means lotus flower, it was built in 2000.  

Inside is a large space, sparingly filled with shrines, several oversized statues of the gods, musical instruments, and other traditional cultural items.  Unfortunately, photos were prohibited when we were there.  That was my first time in a temple, it was silent and serene. 

  

Goodbye Year of the Cat,
Hello Year of the Rabbit!

But only a few doors down from the temple on this bustling street was a women's clothing shop, with this Chinese cat, known as a Maneki Nako, in the window.  The mannequin behind the cat makes for an unusual sight, and unfortunately the building across the street is reflected in the photo as well, but I think you get the idea. 

Quite a clever adaptation to the traditional, to welcome in 2011's Year of the Rabbit!

However you celebrate The Year of the Dragon and Chinese New Year, enjoy!

Abundant Genealogy, Week 2 - Paid Genealogy Tools

Following along on Amy Coffin's Abundant Genealogy series, this week is all about paid genealogy tools.  Well, I have limited experience here.  I've referred here previously to my free genealogy "basic training" class, provided by Ann Winkler at the Harford County Public Libary.  Like Ann herself, the training was wonderful, fun, informative.  I'd even say it was all-encompassing, as Ann gave me a thick packet of resources and forms to utilize in my search.  And she stressed the many resources that are available at no cost.  Gotta love that! 

But, as I have also mentioned here, I got started in genealogy because of a paid research tool--a gift subscription to Ancestry.com.  Hence the limited experience.  So far, Ancestry.com is one of two paid research tools I have utilized.  Because it's so comprehensive, I'm sure Ancestry.com will be a favorite among genealogists.  It's kind of like one-stop shopping, and who doesn't appreciate that.  I certainly do. 

But for all that it shares, and for all it's limitations, I like Ancestry.com because it has gotten the family talking.  Yes.  Now I ask questions that go beyond the old "Seen any good movies lately?" 

A brief example:  in talking with my uncle, I learned my grandmother's wedding anniversary (March 2, same as his!).  He told me where and how my grandparents met (around 1918, at a dance in the Baltimore City Recreation Pier, a building that later served as the police station on the award-winning television drama Homicide: Life on the Streets) and about their life together as newlyweds (stories too numerous for here and now).  As a kid, I would never have thought to ask Grandma those questions; once I did, it was too late. 

An old photo of Baltimore City Recreation Pier,
where it all began for my paternal grandparents!
Photo from Kilduffs.com.

The same holds true for my hubby.  He got into searching his roots after witnessing my immediate, though introductory, results on Ancestry.  Those dancing green leaves amazed him.  His work goes back several generations.  He's discovered that the roots are not as deep in Wales as was believed; a grandfather many generations back is from, ...gasp..Ireland!  We smile at that revelation!  But it's gotten his family talking as well.  He and his Dad now converse about much more than the latest Premier League scores. 

For example, during our 2011 visit to World War One sites, his Dad shared important family memories. We are looking forward to talking more, learning more, going to family cemeteries and other places when we visit Wales in the spring.

The other paid research tool I've used (and this was also a gift, now that I think about it) is DNA testing, though I don't know how much that will help in my research.  I'm still waiting for my results from the Genographic Project. 

So, there we have it, these are my paid research tools.  That is, of course, if you don't include paying for copies at the Archives or historical society!  I do drop a lot of coin there!

Wordless Wednesday - Mitzie the Dancing Dog



About 1967.
Hubby with big sister Beth and grandmother's dog Mitzie.
Probably in Swansea, Wales.

Christmas is Coming, the Goose is Getting Fat!

I don't have to really tell anyone that Christmas will be here in a few days.  In addition to being busy with Christmas preparations, the number of blog posts appearing on my Reader has decreased a bit in the past few days, so I'm getting caught up!

Hubby gets into the Christmas spirit, as do I, when we spend the day at Festival of Trees every year.  But he doesn't start getting really excited about the holiday until about December 23rd.  So, maybe at breakfast this morning, or later today, or in a day or two, I can expect him to begin singing this nursery rhyme from his childhood...

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,

Please put a penny in the old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do

If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!

Image Courtesy of
http://thedoodleplace.wordpress.com/

What's a Girl to Do?

OK, so last night, hubby tells me, somewhat apologetically, that he has no interest in spending time in the evening reading my blog.  He works all day, he’s tired when he comes home, blah, blah, blah…  His employer’s IT department blocks Blogger and similar sites (the nerve!), so he can’t even read it at lunch time.  That's OK, my feelings are not hurt, he supports me in more than a million other ways, and I do understand, because he does work hard, he is tired in the evening, blah, blah, blah...

But he cannot bear it when I comment that there will be an omission in one of my posts, especially if he thinks it is something that may be available with a bit of research.  

Perhaps as way of apology, today he emailed me at work, regarding today’s earlier Doctor Who? post. 

The email is one line:  “Time and Relative Dimension in Space”  

A Real British Police Box.
Courtesy Wikipedia.

I guess you have to read the earlier post for it to make sense, but all I can say is, that’s why I love the guy!

Doctor Who?

Blue Police Box, or
"What TARDIS Looks Like."

Today is Doctor Who Day.  For those who don't know, (and that includes me), Doctor Who is a British science fiction television show on the BBC (British Broadcasting Company). 

As a boy, this was my Welsh husband's favorite TV show.  That is, even though at times he was so frightened by the concept of what he was watching that he had to shield his eyes and peek between his fingers!



Doctor Who is a time-traveler whose time-travelling machine looks like the blue police box pictured here.  In the show, its name is TARDIS.  Don't ask, because I don't know what TARDIS stands for. 

Hubby says that as a boy, he didn't see many blue police boxes.  They are mostly extinct now.  In reality, one could enter a police box and pick up the telephone inside and get an instant, direct connection to the police station.

These blue police boxes are a kind of cultural icon in Britain, mostly for their representation as TARDIS.   Dorothy's ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz, or Fonzi's leather jacket from Happy Days have a similar cache in the U.S.

The Doctor Who character time-traveled with a group of friends, and also fought enemies to right wrongs.  The show is the longest-running science fiction TV show in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.  It first aired on this date in 1963. 

When hubby tells me stories of watching Doctor Who while visiting his Grandma, I can only laugh.  I recall similar evenings in front of the television, slightly terrorized by episodes of The Twilight Zone.  We children, we're the same all over the world!

My Blog Title Comes to Life...

 
As you probably already know, and may have experienced personally, 

the first snowstorm of the season hit the East Coast during the last weekend of October.

It was cold, icy, snowy and rainy. 

Yet this weekend was a complete turn-around,

with bright sunshine and crisp temperatures in the mid-50s.  So my blog's title of "Raking Through the Leaves" took on a completely different meaning! 

In addition to the big piles of leaves across the front yard, that bank of leaves along the driveway is about 40 feet long.  Thankfully, the leaves are now mulched and feeding the backyard compost. 

I can assure you, there was no genealogy research done that day!

  

 Special thanks

go out to

hubby for

all the hard work!

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Remember, Remember the fifth of November...

So begins a rhyme from the childhood of generations of British people, my husband being one of them.  Something about this little poem always rings in his memory as November 5th rolls around.  And on that day, as we share morning tea or coffee, he realizes the date, and recites the poem...

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

The plot to blow up the British Houses of Parliament  in 1605 was hatched by Guy Fawkes, a gentleman who, it's easy to see, must have been seriously unhappy with the way things were going in Britain at the time.  Perhaps an earlier version of "Occupy Britain."  My husband tells me that today's "Occupy" protesters, not just in Britain, are wearing Guy Fawkes masks!

London protesters wearing
Guy Fawkes masks.
Courtesy Wikipedia.

This date is celebrated now with firework displays and bonfires.  On top of the bonfires is an effigy of Guy Fawkes.  Neighbors gather in the street to warm themselves by the bonfire, drink hot chocolate and enjoy the fireworks.  One of hubby's memories is of eating delicious potatoes that had been baked in the embers of a bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night.  Sounds so quaint, doesn't it?  But I promise you, this happened in the 20th century!

As a kid, when hubby and his friends didn't have money to buy fireworks (and their parents were sensible enough not to give it to them), they would build an effigy and carry it around town, asking people they passed for "a penny for the guy."  And people donated heavily, knowing they'd spend the money on sparklers!

It's kind of amazing that hundreds of years later, Guy Fawkes Day is still celebrated faithfully.  While this event is not a legal holiday, it does mark the survival of the Monarchy, even today held dear in the hearts of most of Britain's subjects. 

Or maybe they just like a good street party?!!