Pets, Photography

Six Months

Shelly

Thomas

I adopted Thomas six months ago. I wouldn’t normally make a big deal of a half anniversary, but this seemed important. He’s such a sweet boy.

On our walk this morning, it struck me that he’s sometimes like a little kid. He’ll be intent on his own pursuits (usually sniffing out bunnies), and then suddenly turn around, with a huge smile, and bump my hand with his nose. And then he’s back to his bunnies again. He has all the single-minded focus and scatter-shot impulses of a toddler breaking away from a game to quickly hug his favorite person. It doesn’t get any sweeter than that.

Genealogy

Slow Progress

Shelly

File Properties

I started a total do-over for my genealogy database last January. And by total, I mean total. I switched from using Family Tree Maker to Legacy Family Tree, and instead of importing my old tree from FTM, I opted to start fresh. I’m re-entering every single item by hand, and re-researching everyone and everything as I go.

This is not a sprint race. I occasionally look at my file properties, to see what sort of progress I’m making. It seems like the number of individuals only barely creeps upward, but on the other hand, everything is well researched. I have an average of 4.8 citations for each person, so what I’ve got is solid. That makes me happy.

Genealogy, Ladybusiness

Margaret Basquill: Housewife

Shelly

Certificate of Death
Ohio Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, death certificate 14238 (1948), Margaret B. Moorman; digital image, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 26 Jan 2017). Rec. Date: 15 Oct 2016. Cit. Date: 26 Jan 2017.

I’m still working on the families of Nicholas and John Basquill, who settled in Jackson County, Ohio. Margaret is the daughter of John Basquill and Margaret Daughan. She married Elmer J. Moorman in 1869. As far as I can tell, they had no children.

I consider myself an unapologetic feminist, but today I had another reminder of just how insidious the patriarchy really is. We’re soaking in it, and it informs everything we do, whether we like it or not. We don’t have a choice in the matter.

As I was entering information from Margaret’s death certificate, I saw that her occupation was listed as “housewife.” I am ashamed to admit that, until today, I’d been neglecting to add that information to women in my database. It’s not a real job, right? Only I know it is a real job. I truly do. I can’t explain why I haven’t been giving these women credit for their work, but that’s going to change NOW.

Margaret B. Moorman
screenshot from Legacy Family Tree

I rather like the way the default occupation sentence reads, at the bottom of the screen: She worked as a housewife in 1948 in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, United States.