Slainte!

A whole month since the last post.  Holy Cow!  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I feel as though I've just gotten our return from Ireland complete and now I can turn my attention to our upcoming time in Gloucester!  The weather has been so magnificent that it's hard to concentrate on other things like blogging and sorting Ireland pictures!!  Many of you have seen several of them already but here are some you may not have seen.  They tell the story a little differently :) 




As you know, we stayed one night in Gloucester on both ends of this trip, which worked out really well for us.  We got to spend some time with Uncle Tim and it felt a little bit like we were making up for not having him on the trip with us.  In his defense, we were only on the ground in Ireland for a few hours before it was very clear to me what Tim's hesitations were about coming along.  For one thing, we kept up a pretty good clip the entire time and he felt he would drag us down.  I don't believe that to be true, but the pace was pretty consuming and I can see where that might be hard for him.  We did miss him while we were there but it felt great to have some one-on-one time with him at both ends.

Frankly I was dreading the whole airport, security and flight experience but, surprisingly, it was actually very smooth and not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated.  We departed around 9 PM and I did not find it difficult to sleep most of the flight time.  Aer Lingus was great though and opened my eyes to the fact that air travel does NOT have to be unpleasant.  We got a quick introduction to the culture of Ireland while we were waiting in the Dublin airport for our bus and there was a group of 4-5 guys drinking beer out the bottle at the check in area!  The ride to Galway was about 2 hours perhaps and I was still kind of sleepy though it was 8 AM there.  My body was still on EST (about 4 AM).  I did take note that the scenery along the way looked nothing like I had pictured ---in fact, it looked a whole lot like home!  I was feeling disappointed but that did not last long once we got to Galway. 

As you may have seen in the pictures, we were greeted to Galway with a rainbow.  That felt like a very appropriate welcome on Mom's birthday!  We stayed in Salthill, an area of Galway city, which very much reminded me of Gloucester.  Water views, huge rocks everywhere, a boulevard for walking along the water's edge--one thing missing was the distinct seaside smell I associate with such towns.  We were in a bed and breakfast--a very common sight there and across Ireland.  It was very comfortable there, made more so by the HUGE breakfast each morning. 

We found a pub to our liking:  O'Connor's.  It was within easy walking distance and we went there each night we were in Galway.  They burned peat in the fireplace, had a older man entertaining on the piano and had some locals at the bar.  Kevin won himself a miniature shillelagh for participating in the trivia contest.

From Galway we traveled by bus to Cork which was very similar in many ways.  Our B & B there was next door to University College Cork so we found ourselves walking back and forth to town with the college students.  Oddly enough, we found a pub there also to our liking!  Reedy's--Emmy had visited there on a previous trip and she did not steer us wrong to go there to relax on the way back for the night.  While in Cork, we went to a show held in an old (OLD--built on that site by the Vikings) church.  Here's one of the numbers:

We are really glad we went to this show!

From Cork we went to Dublin by train for 2 nights.  Dublin was definitely very different from the other places we visited.  Our hotel was smack in the center of the bar scene downtown and you felt all that city energy.  We got a great deal of history explained to us here as we visited Jamesons, Guinness, the old jail, Trinity College for the Book of Kells, and Christchurch (one of the filming locations for "The Tudors").  We jammed a great deal into those couple of days.

The weather was good: "for Ireland" as we were told again and again.  It was mild but we didn't see much sun.  There was some drizzle and only one day did we get wet while out and about.  The food was also great--much better than we'd expected.  When you think if Irish food, it's not at the top of the list of "mmm-mmm-good" reactions.  But we had no trouble finding good food to eat.

I found myself taking that "long view" that I mentioned earlier.  I was looking over the landscape and thinking of our fishermen and our farmer ancestors.  The land is a treat for the eyes.  The grass is truly a different shade of green from what we are used to.  But our ancestors did not have easy lives and I respect them even more now than before.  Our heritage has served us all well over the years and I expect that to continue into the future. 


We found ourselves making plans for a return trip --when I intend to do some serious family research.   It was great to spend time with Emmy and Kevin sharing this adventure.  But I did realize that my body needs liquids other than caffeine and alcohol!  It was well worth it.  Anyone want to join us when we return?

Here's a bit of what the average landscape looked like.  Taken from our bus ride through The Ring of Kerry (the most beautiful scenery ever--made me cry!)

I love listening to the driver's voice.  We miss hearing the brogue.  I even watched "Historic Pubs of Dublin" on Netflix so I could hear it again!  Til next time:  Slainte!

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Today we took a trip to Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, a place I've wanted to take Jim for a long time now.  Their hiking trails are associated with the Cornell Ornithology Lab and I thought Jim would enjoy looking for the birds.  For myself, I've been working on getting back some of the "photography mojo" I seem to have misplaced recently and this seemed a good opportunity to practice.

As you probably know, I took a couple of photography courses recently.  I believe these are how my photo-mojo seemed to go missing.  I understand that learning new techniques for anything will naturally result in a learning curve, so I wasn't too surprised that I didn't feel like these courses helped my photography very much.  I understand my camera a little better and I appreciated the overview of the technical aspects like ISO, aperture and f stops.  But my pictures suffered!

One of the courses was called "Landscape Photography" and I was so stupid as to believe this referred to taking pictures of nature and the like.  I like taking pictures of flowers and animals so "landscape" seemed close enough.  The very first thing I learned in this course is that landscape photographers take pictures of ...(wait for it)....landscapes.  Huh. 

This got me thinking about "my" photography.  How would I describe what I like to do with my camera?  Here are some pictures from this week as I've been working on regaining a personal comfort level with my pictures and camera:

These are from Sapsucker Woods today:

 (You'll notice there are no birds here)

And my personal favorite from this week from the weeds in my front yard:

It occurs to me that I like to take pictures of the smaller pieces of the big puzzle to bring some attention to the beauty of the parts of the whole. 

You know that phrase "He can't see the forest for the trees"?  I think it's the opposite of that.  I like the trees in the forest and sometimes ignore the bigger picture (haha) while I focus on the details.  Like my personality, but that's for another blog post on another day.

I badly want my photo-mojo back before we go to Ireland.  I do not expect to experience the details of our family history while there especially since I have no idea where any living relatives might even be.  But I am hoping to get an idea of the big picture about our Irish heritage:  the lay of the land, the culture, the history.  I will carry with me the list of our Irish ancestors and their Irish roots.  On the Ryan side:  Timothy (maybe from Tipperary); Capt. John Bentley and his father in law Martin Costello (Galway); Conlons (Sligo); James Handran (Kilkenny).  On the Flynn side:  Ellen Breen Flynn (Clare) and Julia Fisher Nevins (Meath).

See you on the other side.  Of the Atlantic Ocean!

We'll Be Back

Our recent trip to Ellicottville prompted me to take another look at our connections there.  This is where our Nevins family in America took root.  I can say this with fair confidence now that I have some new information about John Nevins, Mom's great grandfather.  I don't think it's a small coincidence in the cosmic genealogy world that Dad took a job in Ellicottville and lived there himself for a while but that's already been covered!

When I undertook a review of the Nevins/Ellicottville research, I found a document that shed new light and re-invigorated by research efforts. 

This is a copy of a page from the Cattaragus County/Ellicottville Draft Registration for the US Civil War as of July 1 1863.  You will see a John Nevins listed at the very top of the page as a 30 year old single farmer born in Canada.  This may seem like a small piece of information, but for my research, it broke through a bit of a brick wall that I'd been banging my head against for several years.  I feel quite certain this is "our" John and it places him in Ellicottville in 1863.  I knew he married Julia Fisher in 1866 somewhere in New York, and now I feel quite certain they married in Cattaraugus County.  Placing a person in a location within a time period is a very critical piece of genealogical information.  I am quite thrilled.  You may stop yawning now.

I do not believe John actually enlisted.  There were a number of draft registrations for Union soldiers--1863 was the first.  John appears to be a Class 1 which makes it seem as though he could have enlisted and served.  Each county had a quota of men to provide for service but it appears he was not called to enlist nor did he choose to enlist.  I may yet find that he did indeed serve but perhaps from another location.  We saw this with Grampie Brown (he enlisted from Wisconsin when his home was in Buffalo NY) and presume it is related to the enlistment bounties paid.  Counties or regions tried to "up the ante" with their required numbers by offering a bounty for enlistment and it was not uncommon for potential soldiers to shop around their services to obtain the better bounty money.  Substitutes could also be "bought" for a drafted solider so this is another possibility for John though I believe it unlikely that a farmer would be able to pay for a substitute.  OK, done with the history lesson for this post.

On to the Fishers.  My attention to Ellicottville Nevins must also include the Fishers.  Julia Fisher Nevins had a brother Christopher who also lived in the Ellicottville area.  I was reviewing holes in my research and noticed that his family needed some attention from me.  Christopher had 6 children and I decided to concentrate on the males since it's a little easier to track them down.  This decision led me to a very odd, sad story that I thought you'd like to hear.

Christopher's oldest son Mathew married Catherine Simons and had a child Eveline May born April 22 1896 in Ellicottville according to church records.  This family lived in Ohio in the 1900 census and I was unable to find them after that which was weird because of the young child and their fairly easy names.  I couldn't let that go and kept looking finally finding the following:

Evelyn Mae Fisher, 7 years old, died of cold and exposure on a street corner in Spokane Washington in 1904.  Her last residence was listed as Elk British Columbia.  This haunts me.  How did this happen?  I've gotten no further in this story line but it feels a little bit liking I'm taking a commercial break on the Who Do You Think You Are? show.  We'll be back after the following messages from our sponsors.

Congratulations Chris and Lori!

I've said it before and I'll say it again--Facebook is an amazing phenomenon!  Thanks to FB, I can share this GREAT wedding photo of Chris and Lori.  I love the flowers on Lori's bike.  This is maybe the best wedding photo in my collection.  Congratulations to you both and welcome to the family Lori!

Huge AWW factor too honoring Lori's mother on her birthday with such a happy event.  Stay safe.  Can't wait to see you both.

So, that's another August date to add to all our family weddings.  Nice.  To celebrate our anniversary this year, Jim and I went to Letchworth State Park.  I was hoping to practice some new photography skills and I remembered this was a beautiful place especially for waterfalls.  This is the closest to the effect I was aiming for:

I wanted to get that silky flow look to the waterfalls.  In general, that did not happen.  In fact I feel as though I haven't taken a really decent picture since I've tried to improve my skills with courses and such!  I think I'm trying too hard to create picture taking opportunities. 

Anyhow,  Letchworth is very beautiful and I was reminded of an earlier trip from my Geneseo years.

1976

I think the picture above may have been taken from the bridge you can see at the top of this picture.  We couldn't get back up there this time. 

1976 with pocket camera

2013 with DSLR

I do not recall taking these other Letchworth pictures but we did hike up about 4286 rickety stone steps  to try to get up to the bridge to take a replica picture there too.  The air was thin, I swear.  Anyhow, maybe Chris remembers this trip better than I do. 

August 3 1985

Twenty eight years have gone by since this day.  Half my life ago--I was 28 that day.  I enjoyed looking at the pictures again, especially the backgrounds.  So many of these people are gone from our lives but I'm very grateful for the time we had together.  I hope you enjoy this little trip back to a hot August afternoon.

 I notice Dad's eyes are closed here but I still like the picture.  I think I had to slow him down--I didn't want to race down the aisle since the day was so long in coming.

 Great shot of Jean and Burt.  God Bless them.

 I see Paula, Kathy, Nanny, Burt, Judy, Mary Jane hugging. Nice memory.

 I love the informality of this.

 This might be my all time favorite picture of all of us together. 

Two moms and two mothers-in-law

Peter Buteau, Chris (looking very snappy) and Ron

And the classic post party picture. That's when you knew the night was done.  G'night all.

Keeping Score

The New York Times recently published this article about baseball scorekeeping using pencil and paper.  It expressed many of the (oddly) fond feelings I have for the 25+ softball scorebooks in my archives.  Although I did come to appreciate scorekeeping software for it's mathematical efficiency and record keeping capacities, I still believe the pencil and paper method creates its own story.  Judy also keeps score for her teams and has been seen using something with an on/off switch in that role--as well as a pencil and book.

This is a page from our 1992 scorebook.  You can see it's well worn and a little bit beat up.  It was near the end of the season (game 21 out of 23 and a state championship).  What I've always loved about these is that you can go back and be pretty clear on the game sequence. 

I can remember the day in 1981 when Ron came into the library and asked if I was doing anything that night.  He'd love to teach me to do the softball scorebook.  We played Blue Ridge in my very first game.  Ron taught me to use a green pencil for hits and red for errors.  This made it easy to find them quickly in the book.  I began a tradition of giving away the green pencil at the end of the season to the player with the most hits. The red pencil was awarded to the player with the most errors until it began to be politically incorrect even though it was done with good humor and affection.  Ron taught me to note balls and strikes because it would help to keep me paying attention to the game.  He was right about that but mostly I think it was because he never had any idea of the count from one second to the next.  I cannot tell you how many times I reminded him of the count on a batter.  He never retained it.  Ever.

This particular game was played in Dunkirk as part of the state championship series.  The other team arrived at this field not far from a sewer plant and they were GIANTS.  Jean Valvo came to the game and gave it her best effort to say the appropriate things.  One of the players went down with an injury and Jean was rummaging in her purse for ANYTHING that might be remotely helpful.  We only scored one run in this game but it was enough to win.  On the other side of the book, the Brocton players never got further than second base in this one hitter for our pitcher.And if you look, I think you can see their pitcher was no slouch; eight of our players struck out.

Anyhow, these scorebooks are like old friends.  I attached them to a clipboard, clutched at least 4 pencils and balanced a camera around my neck.  I regularly endured muscle soreness as a result holding tight to the clipboard at the odd angle required to accommodate the physics of scorekeeping.  On at least one occasion, the old scorebooks won over a recalcitrant student who's mother was one of our best hitters.  I dug out the scorebook and used it to help make whatever the point of the lesson was and he was recalcitrant no more.

In the articel, on mand (about my age) noted that "keeping score by hand 'helps fuel my anal retentiveness.'"  Yes--what he said. 

Some experimentation to share with you

Despite the rotten week we've had, we did have a good time for the few hours that we were in the Tampa area with Kathleen and Nick last week.  We flew out on July 4th and the airports were VERY crowded--this surprised me.  But we got to their house in plenty of time to relax in their pool, have some drinks and await the evening's fireworks.  A powerful storm rolled through--they have been getting nearly as much rain as we have had lately--and the power went out for a bit.  We were worried there wouldn't be fireworks due to the weather.

Boy, were there fireworks!  They live right on a little Tampa Bay inlet so they are directly on the water.  Across the water is Sylvester Stallone's house.  Just above his house is where their fireworks go off.  That was the show we were waiting for, but all along the water's edge for about 270 degrees, there were fireworks going off.  These weren't little bottle rocket fireworks.  These were the real deal.  I've never been so close to so many fireworks!

One of my main objective on this trip was to experiment with some of the new photo techniques I've been learning and get some decent fireworks pictures.  I think I did OK for the first time especially considering that it was sprinkling and there were explosions going off on all sides.




There were almost 100 of these, but I pared it down to some of my favorites.  The house lights you can see in some of them are Sylvester's I guess.   Didn't realize my camera was peeping quite so much!  Enjoy.