Trotter
Str-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-tch
Sleepyhead
Unpacked
I finally got everything unpacked and arranged. I think this is what real estate agents call “cozy.” I don’t even have enough room to turn around in my chair. I have to back straight out if I want to stand up. A friend suggested I fit my chair with a reversing signal, so that it beep-beep-beeps when I back up.
Rockets and Planets and Stars, Oh My!
My fairy godmother in Canadia sent me these. They are fabulous! They’re also the perfect thing to cheer me up after my godawful crappy week in sardine hell.
O Gross
I noticed yesterday that this is stuck to the glass partition of my cubicle. Right above my computer monitor. Every time I look at it, I think of Ted Nugent. I need to find something to cover it up with, before the urge to stab out my eyeballs becomes totally overwhelming.
The New Digs
I have less space than the half time person in our department. You can imagine how that makes me feel.
When Sofas Attack!
Morning Light
It’s hard to look dignified while being attacked by the couch. I don’t know how that can be comfortable, but it must be, because she sleeps like that all the time. Sometimes I come home from work and find the couch cushions on the floor, with Harriet sleeping on the bare seat support. I wouldn’t think that would be comfortable, either!
Au revoir
Yesterday was our last day at the library. Monday morning we begin working at the temporary location. We’ll be there for about five months, and when we return to the library our department will be completely renovated. With cubicles. Blessed, blessed, sound dampening cubicles.
Condensation
I made pasta today (yum!), and between the damp air from the rainy weather and the extra moisture from the boiling water, the windows fogged up.
Adventures in Genealogy: John Basquill Edition
More Adventures in Genealogy: Don’t Trust Other People’s Work Edition.
I don’t know if I can explain the problem so that it makes sense, but I’m going to try.
John Number 1 was born in Sraheen, County Mayo, Ireland in 1860. His parents were John Basquill and Bridget Kelly.
John Number 2 was born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1876. His parents were Nicholas Basquill and Ellen O’Brien. He emigrated to the US and settled in Scranton PA.
Two Johns, with two different sets of parents and two different birth dates. Not so easy to keep straight, apparently.
Somebody else attached Mary McGing and her children to John Number 2, and I blindly followed suit. Bad idea! The result was that when I discovered a John Joseph Baskwell born in Ireland 1876 and living in Scranton PA, there was no place to put him. It looked like he was a THIRD John. AIEEE! It was like the worst genealogical tetris problem ever, and I nearly had a brain hemorrhage.
I got out all my records for the three Johns and went back over them again with a fine-toothed comb. What I discovered is that Mary McGing and her children belonged with John Number 1. Further, Census records showed they were all still in Sraheen in 1901 and 1911, and as far as I can tell they never left there. That left John Number 2 without a wife and kids, which meant that he WAS the John Joseph Baskwell who married Anne Simerson. YAY! This is backed up by the fact that old city directories show him living at 611 West Market Street, Scranton PA, with his brothers, Patrick John Baskwell and William Joseph Baskerville. So my hunch that John Number 2 was actually one of “mine,” was correct.
(And yes, all this is further complicated by the varied and creative spellings of the Basquille name. Good times!)
Adventures in Genealogy: Margaret Basquill Edition
I\’m sure this is boring to anyone who is not me, but I’m going to share, anyway. I mentioned that I’d located my great-great-great aunt Margaret Basquill? Today I found her death certificate. Yay! But the name listed for her father is wrongity-wrong-wrong-wrong. Boo! On the death certificate her father is identified as William. His name was Michael Basquill. Oops. Well, there are three possible explanations.
1. Michael’s first or middle name is actually William. I have nothing whatsoever to support that theory, so I’m discarding it. (Making note of it in case evidence appears in the future, but it’s just not likely.)
2. I have the wrong Margaret. I do not. More on that later.
3. The information on the death certificate is simply incorrect. I’m going with this one, because the information was obviously supplied by someone who was not Margaret (most likely her son, Michael), so it’s possible that they made a mistake.
Now, why do I know I have the right Margaret, out of the twelfty Margaret Basquills to choose from? Letters! I have a letter written by my great-great uncle William to my great grandma Nell, in which he states that Margaret “lived in Boston & was married to a man named Bourke.”
Ta-da!
red paper boat 