MORE TROUBLES

 

 

Really? Really? Haven't I been through enough in the past year and a half? The first - and worst - that happened was that Dan was diagnosed with cancer. He went into remission a year ago April and we had a not-too-bad summer. Then, in the fall, I started having problems with my "lady parts" and had tests for uterine cancer, cervical cancer and ovarian cancer. I sweated through the results, which all turned out to be negative. I ended up having surgery and thought all was well.

 

I started having abdominal/pelvic pain and nausea around Christmas time but didn't tell anyone. Then, at the end of January Dan went instantly and profoundly deaf. Shortly afterward, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

 

As regular readers know, Dan's condition deteriorated swiftly. He was put under hospice care and passed away on March 23.

 

What I hadn't written in my blog is that I was having a terrible time at work and suffered extreme emotional distress over it.

 

Finally, the work problems got better about the end of April. Although I was fighting all kinds of red tape to try to get Dan's Social Security and other monthly income transferred to me, I was slowly recovering from his death.  I took time to go to my family doctor for my tummy problems and after a CT scan it was determined that I had a hernia - caused by my prior surgery.

 

I make an appointment to see a surgeon. He's a great guy - I like him and trust him and we decide I should have surgery May 17.  Okay, fine, just another thing to get through. I booked two weeks off at work and arranged for Gracie's care during my overnight stay.

 

So there I was Friday morning. My sister had picked me up at o'dark thirty. I had been poked for labs and was sitting in my (not) pretty hospital gown, already getting fluids via IV. That's when the bomb dropped. They said they had to cancel the surgery because my blood platelets were so low. My surgeon admitted me to the hospital and called in a medical doctor to run a bunch of tests.

 

Your blood platelet count should be no lower than 150,000. Mine was at 49,000. The doctors were concerned that my count had fallen so low so quickly because they were at low normal when I saw my doctor in April.

 

They took enough blood to satisfy a vampire for six months. They decided I didn't need to sit around in the hospital waiting for results so they sent me home at 5:00. I will be seeing a hematologist in about a week.

 

There could be a lot of reasons for low blood platelets - or the official term, thrombocytopenia. It could be as simple and fixable as a vitamin deficiency. Or, it could be worse. So here I sit, playing the waiting game yet again.

 

Really? Really? Haven't I been though enough lately?



CONGRATULATIONS, MINNESOTA!

 

 

 

Congratulations to my cousin, Kevin (white shirt,) and his husband, Will (behind him to the right) on the marriage equality bill being signed in Minnesota.

 

Kevin and Will have been through a civil ceremony in Iowa and a religious (Lutheran) ceremony in Minnesota, and they say two ceremonies are enough, but congratulations to all the other gay Minnesotans who can now marry and have equal rights under the law with any other couple.

 

A comment posted on Kevin's Facebook page:

Christopher Hoven: And if Hubert H. Humphrey were alive today, he'd probably say, "My fellow Minnesotans, today we have stepped out of the dark shadows of state's rights and have walked into the bright sunshine of human rights, of civil rights!"

 

I have power over comments and will not allow any gay-bashing ones on this post. It's time to come out of the Dark Ages, people. Please don't tell me God loves the sinners but hates the sin. God doesn't think homosexuality is a sin. And guess what, that guy in the red and white striped shirt? He's a pastor. 'Nuff said.



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 

"THE LANTERNS"

Charles Courtney Curran

 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate it on this day. Happy Mother's Day especially to my sister, Glori, and to my sisters-in-law who read my blog, Bonny in Idaho and Dana in Virginia. Also Happy Mother's Day to my Mom in heaven.

 

I was dreading Mother's Day this year, because it is the first Mother's Day without Dan. Of course, Mother's Day is for children to honor their mothers, but Dan always got me a present too. The very first time, I was still pregnant, 7 months along. He gave me a floral arrangement in a blue, white and green large ceramic cup. A month later our home was destroyed by a fire, but I still have that cup, because I had had it at work. It was among the first things I brought into our new home.

 

For the past 25 years or more, Dan had bought me a hanging fuchsia basket to hang on the deck. It has become a family tradition. I was sad this year that I wouldn't be getting a fuchsia.

 

Imagine my surprise and delight when I got home from work Friday afternoon and there was a giant fuchsia-and-white colored fuchsia on my dining room table. When Kristen was home for Dan's funeral she had given Glori the money to get me one for Mother's Day. Talk about a thoughtful daughter!

 

Of course, my best Mother's Day present has always been Kristen. I had trouble with carrying babies and lost two before her and two after her. She was the only little soul to survive to birth.

 

And I am so glad she was the one. She's always been such a good kid. I remember one time when she was little the house got very quiet and I decided I'd better go see what she was doing. I found her sitting on the kitchen counter, the lid off the sugar canister and mountains of sugar all over the counter. I didn't get mad - I was too shocked.

 

In that way, she was very unlike her dad when he was growing up. His mom, Lillian, told the story of how she was always having to tell his older brothers to "Go find Danny and tell him to stop it."

 

Kristen, you are so smart, funny, sensitive and caring. You're so beautiful too - and your beauty is on the inside as well as the outside. Thank you for being my daughter.

 

As for myself, I continue to recover from Dan's illness and death. Work is going much better now, but I am still trying to fight with pension fund holders and oil well companies to get the income Dan was receiving each month. One happy surprise was how easy and pleasant it was to set the wheels in motion to get his Social Security.

 

Another pleasant surprise was how swiftly the life insurance was handled by the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System. Now that I have insurance, I am busy arranging for a new roof and a new deck, without which I will never be able to sell the house, should I ever decide to sell.

 

And also, I am getting a new front door. The door we have is original to our 1929 stucco bungalow, and the inside door knob fell off so many times we started using a needle-nose pliers to open the door (Necessity is the Mother of Invention). My brother-in-law, Dick, had been worried for my safety so Dick, you will be glad to know, yes, I have set up an appointment for someone to come by and measure for a new door.

 

Glori and I treated ourselves to a modest Mother's Day lunch at Fried's German Restaurant in Mandan yesterday. We were happy to note that the forsythia is in bloom, and I saw a few yellow tulips, though most were still only in bud.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The painting above is featured in a gift book called "My Wish For You". The wish that accompanies this painting is "Many Lovely Evenings". I wish many lovely evenings for all of you this summer.





POEMS FOR DAN

 

STOP ALL THE CLOCKS

W. H. Auden

 

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

 

 

Kristen and I are having this read at Dan's funeral. (And when the time comes, ours.) We know we won't be able to read it ourselves on Thursday so the chaplain will probably read it.

 

I am still thinking of writing a eulogy. If I do, part of this poem will be included in it:

 

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO

THAT GOOD NIGHT

by Dylan Thomas

 

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

 





DANIEL BRUCE FREDERICKSEN, BELOVED HUSBAND AND FATHER

HAPPIER DAYS

"Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea."

On March 23, 2013, Dan Fredericksen slipped away without pain and crossed over to a place where the October skies are always bluebird blue, the game is always plentiful and the hunting dogs always behave.

Daniel Bruce Fredericksen was born in Williston, ND, on Aug. 5, 1948, to Earl and Lillian Fredericksen. He fell in love with the great outdoors at an early age, while on pheasant hunts with his father and older brothers, and camping trips with the Boy Scouts. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in high school. He was also introduced to the joys of fishing on family trips to Lac La Ronge, Sask. In later years he loved to fish for walleye on Lake Sakakawea and Lake Oahe.

He graduated from Williston High School in 1966 and entered the Navy that summer. He joked that he joined the Navy to see the world, but all he saw was California and Vietnam.

After receiving medical training at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital in Oceanside, CA, he spent a year in Vietnam during 1968-1969, serving as a Navy medical corpsman attached to the 3rd Marine Battalion. He was known as "Doc Fred" by his comrades. He saw action during the famous New Year's Tet offensive. He was wounded in action and received the Purple Heart.

After leaving the Navy he attended Minot State College and worked as an ambulance driver. In 1970 he was selected from among thousands of applicants to be a member of the University of North Dakota's first-ever physician's assistant or - as it was known then - MEDEX program. At that time, only medics and corpsmen were selected for training as PAs. He trained at UND and in Langdon, ND, working with Dr. Bill Goodall and Dr. Nick Kaluzniak and the staff of Langdon Hospital and Langdon Clinic He spent five years as a physician's assistant in Langdon, and was known affectionately by all as "Doc." He was initiated in the art of goose hunting while living in Langdon.

On June 29, 1974, he was married to Julie Johnson in Langdon. The next year they left Langdon so that Dan could pursue a four-year degree at the University of North Dakota. He loved getting together with his friends from the UND Vets' Club to trade war stories. He also formed hunting friendships that lasted all his life.

In 1981 Dan accepted a position with Syntex Pharmaceuticals in Bismarck. This was the beginning of a long pharmaceutical sales career. He also worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Innovex. In later years he worked for Eide Ford in Bismarck.

Dan and Julie's daughter, Kristen Anne, was born on July 9, 1982. She was the light of his life and he was a terrific dad. He was extremely proud of her academic record and her accomplishments. He was also "Dad" to Val, our foreign exchange student.

Again in Bismarck Dan formed lifelong hunting bonds with new friends, and re-connected with old Williston pals for fun trips back to that area for yearly pheasant hunts. He also hunted grouse, ducks, deer and antelope in North Dakota, and deer and elk in Montana. He was so excited to bag an elk that he called Julie with his news from the side of a mountain.

He was a good golfer, an avid reader and a great amateur gourmet cook until his illness kept him from enjoying these hobbies. He loved to sit out on the deck of a long summer evening and he liked watching the History Channel, the Hunting Channel, and any sporting event on TV. He stayed loyal to the Vikings in good times and bad, and never missed, if he could help it, a televised game featuring his beloved UND Sioux Hockey Team. He was teased for watching his "redneck" shows, like Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and Moonshiners.

He was a kind, caring and generous husband. He always did sweet little things like starting Julie's car for her on cold winter mornings, even after he became ill. He was proud of his long marriage and had wanted to make it to his 39th wedding anniversary in June. One of his favorite leisure activities after retiring was to hang out with his pals at Sidelines in Bismarck.

He almost always had a canine companion or two by his side, starting with his boyhood dog, Copper, and later Jacques, Beau, Lady, Brandy, Penny and Gracie.

He was diagnosed with Stage IV gastroesophageal cancer in December 2011. After chemotherapy, he went into remission in April 2012 and remained in remission for 10 months. In February, he was diagnosed with leptomeningeal disease, a rare cancer of the lining of the brain.

He is survived by his wife, Julie, Bismarck; daughter, Kristen, Alexandria, VA; brothers Gordon (Sue), Oroville, CA, Dick (Bonny), Meridian, ID, and Scott (Dana), Great Falls, VA; sister-in-law Glori Fagerland, Lincoln; 10 nieces and nephews; numerous great-nieces and -nephews; and "adopted" second daughter Valentina Casas, Caracas, Venezuela. He was preceded in death by his grandparents and parents.

UPDATE ON DAN

I know some people are wanting to hear news about Dan so I will write a short post. Dan's condition continues to deteriorate. He cannot eat and takes in very little fluids either. He is extremely thin and his balance is very poor. He spends most of the time lying on the couch. Though deaf, he can watch close-captioned TV, but is no longer able to concentrate on books or newspapers.

He is now under hospice care and the nurses and the social worker have been, for the most part, wonderful. I truly believe they are guardian angels in human form. Hospice is all about the patient's choice. Dan  is a very stubborn man and is at the point where he is refusing to be shaved, bathed, have his teeth brushed or his clothes changed. But that is HIS CHOICE. He also refuses the hospital bed we had brought in, plus the walker, plus the commode. He gets very angry when we try to offer him help of any sort. This is hurtful to me, but Kristen keeps reminding me that it is the brain tumor talking, not him.

By choosing hospice care he is able to have his main end-of-life wish fulfilled, which is not to be hospitalized, and to have only palliative care.

He is not in pain but has meds available for pain, anxiety and nausea. My sister is watching him for 10 hours a day so I can continue to work as long as I can because I have very little vacation time and even less sick leave. I spent most of last week at home and was able to use family sick leave for that.

My biggest frustration is trying to get some respite care arranged for me to have a few free hours on the weekend, but so far it has been a battle of agency red tape.

I wouldn't wish this situation on my worst enemy. More than anything it is mentally exhausting, but I feel physically drained as well. I am sure that the support of my family and my friends in blogland has helped keep me sane and putting one foot in front of the other for this long. Thank you so much.

**********************

ADDED LATER:

The hospice nurse was able to bathe Dan this afternoon, get him into a gown and get him into the hospital bed. He looks very warm and comfortable now. Some say there are no coincidences. A co-worker of Amy, one of our hospice nurses, grew up in Langdon, ND, where Dan was a physician's assistant for five years. Dan used to work with this lady's mother at the Langdon Clinic and the daughter remembers him too (from the 1970s!). Yesterday Amy brought over a beautiful quilt given to Dan by these two long-ago friends.

VALERIE HARPER HAS SAME CANCER AS DAN

I just read that Valerie Harper (TV's Rhoda) has the same rare cancer as Dan does. Click on this link:

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/valerie-harper--tv-icon--diagnosed-with-terminal-brain-cancer-130901236.html

DAN

Around the end of January or the beginning of February, Dan went profoundly deaf literally overnight. An MRI test at the Fargo VA and a consult with a neurologist revealed a brain tumor. At the time, we were not sure if the tumor was cancerous or benign, new or metastasized.

Dan visited his oncologist in Fargo last Wednesday and the news was grim.  She told him he is out of remission and the cancer has spread to the lining  of his brain, taking the form of leptomeningeal brain disease, a fancy way of saying cancerous meningitis. Needless to say, as a deaf patient he had a difficult time getting information about his condition, but I was able to speak to her by phone on Monday.

What is so ironic is that the original tumor at the juncture of the esophagus and stomach, after being shrunk by chemo, has not grown. It did not spread to the liver or lungs or anywhere in the chest or abdomen. Instead, in a very, very rare occurrence, a few cancer cells escaped into his bloodstream, went into his spinal column, and traveled to his brain. If this had not happened, he might have enjoyed the 4 or 5 years of remission that his oncologist had suggested might happen.

In addition to being deaf, he now experiences trouble with his gait. He shuffles when he walks and needs to grab onto things for support. All kinds of other neurological symptoms may develop. He is not, however, in any pain.

It is very likely we will not see our 39th wedding anniversary at the end of June. We have done a lot of crying, and then we went on to taking care of finances, getting paper work drawn up, talking about palliative care and hospice, etc.

All through this time (he was diagnosed on Dec. 9, 2011, five days after I started), work has been a respite for me, a chance to forget things for a while. But now things are horrid at work so there is no release for me, anywhere.

Life is hell for us and our daughter. Kristen is coming home on Thursday. She had plans to come home at Easter but the oncologist advised her to come now, because, she said,  with a brain tumor, "there's no telling when."

Please keeps us in your prayers, not for a miracle, but for the most pain free, easy passage we can give this dear husband and father.
---------------------

PS - I'd better not hear from anyone accusing me of feeling sorry for myself. You will get an earful, and your sorry comments will not be printed.

A GREATER MEANING TO THANKSGIVING

"The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor", William Halsall, 1882

I have always loved Thanksgiving for its delicious food and autumn-hued decorations. My first - very fond - memories of Thanksgiving are of creating Thanksgiving turkeys in art class, the more colorful their feathers, the better. Like all grade schoolers across the country, we learned about the First Thanksgiving on American shores.

It is a holiday that I keep separate from Christmas madness, believing it should be given the complete attention it deserves as a secular holiday enjoyed by all Americans, without the frenzy of gift giving, and with an emphasis on family and friends.

This year, Thanksgiving is even more special to me because of my discoveries through ancestry.com. At present, I know of at least two ancestors who came to the New World  for religious freedom. I'm not saying they came over on the Mayflower, the first ship that landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. No, I have no claims to being a Mayflower descendant -  not yet, anyway!

Records show that my ancestor John Churchill from England arrived in Plymouth in 1643, 23 years after the first settlers. His wife was Hannah Pontus, from Leiden, Holland. I'm thinking that John probably met Hannah after he left England for the more religiously tolerant Holland.

I also have a bunch of ancestors who settled Jamestown Colony, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. Again, I'm not saying that they came over on the first ships - Discovery, Godspeed and the Susan Constant - in 1607.



 

Lt. Col. Henry Meese

An interesting ancestor of mine making his name in the Jamestown area was Lt. Col. Henry Meese. Born in 1600 in Oxfordshire, England, he was a one-time London merchant who immigrated to America but made many trips between his home country and the New World. He owned land in Virginia, served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and earned his military title from the Indian-fighting militia. He died not long after making a last trip back to England.

What makes Henry so interesting to me is his daughter Grace Frizer Meese, and the fact that he had a couple of Native American wives. "Mary" (Christian name) and her sister Keziah were daughters of Wahaganoche, Chief of the Patawomeck Nation (Patawomeck = Potomac). It is very difficult to tell if Grace was the daughter of either woman and therefore half Native American.

Jamestown settlers trading with Virginia Indians
 



Many families with trees on ancestry.com claim that Grace is the daughter of Mary. However, the birth dates for Wahaganchoe, Mary and Grace are so wildly differing in each case that it becomes a tangled mess. I can't believe how many family trees list Grace as born 1627 and her so-called mother Mary as being born in 1640. C'mon people, use your brains!

In the end, Grace may have had a white mother. Therefore, just like I am not claiming to be a Mayflower descendant, I am not claiming to be the descendant of an Indian princess, just of a man who had Indian wives. It would be a matter of great pride for me to claim Native American blood in the people who were contemporaries of the more famous Pocahontas and her father Powhatan.

Pocahontas saving John Smith

It has been a long, long time since I studied Early American history. But upon learning of my heritage, I had a few questions:

What is the difference between Puritans and Pilgrims, if any?

Were there any differences between the settlers of the Plymouth Colony at Plymouth, MA and those from the Massachusetts Bay Colony centered around Boston and Salem, MA?

Were there differences between the New England settlers and the Virginia settlers?

Who celebrated the first Thanksgiving?





 

"The First Thanksgiving", J. L. G. Ferris

The first thing I learned was how important upper-case and lower-case letters were in naming groups of people involved in the making of America. ALL people who make religious trips are pilgrims with a small "p". Therefore both the Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers were pilgrims. But the ones who came to be known as Pilgrims with a capital "P" were the settlers at Plymouth. A small group of English people who arrived in 1620, they were aided by Squanto and his tribe, who, as I remember from picture books, helped the settlers plant maize and fertilize their crops with fish. These Pilgrims are the ones who celebrated what has become known as The First Thanksgiving.

 

Of course, I realize that The First Thanksgiving has become mythologized and the story contains assumptions, half-truths and downright lies. For example, no one knows if they served turkey. The only written report says they had "fowl". But this is the Thanksgiving tale that is ingrained in our American psyche.

(PS - The travelers on the Mayflower in 1620 were headed for the Jamestown, Virginia, colony when fierce storms caused them to turn course and land at Cape Cod, MA. Good luck for them, as it turned out, with both the Pilgrims and the New England Native Americans being of a  more harmonious nature than their Southern counterparts.)

 

 

 

Covering all bases, this caption says "Puritans and Pilgrims

arriving in the New World during the early 1600s"

(Artist Unknown)

Now on to another "small p, large p" definition. The group of people in England known as puritans with a small "p" were those who wanted to purify or reform the Anglican Church (Church of England). Therefore, members of both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies were "small p" puritans.

However, the Pilgrims of Plymouth wanted to break completely away from the Anglicans and consequently were known as Separatists. The Massachusetts Bay settlers, a much larger group who arrived in America about 1630, had no intention of totally breaking away from the Anglicans and became known as Puritans with a capital " P".

The two New England colonies merged in 1691 and the differentiation between the Pilgrims/pilgrims and the puritans/Puritans became lost in the mists of time. (The Puritan witchcraft trials at Salem being a discussion for another time.)

 

 

Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard

I don't think these are Puritans -

he looks like a Cavalier!

But what about the first 100 settlers of the Virginia Company at Jamestown? They were more the entrepreneurial type rather than the religious freedom type. They were aristocrats who were ill prepared for the new life they faced. They arrived during a time of drought and were too late to plant crops the first year. Famine, disease and conflict with the Indian tribes brought them to the brink of failure. They were "rescued" in 1610 by a new group of settlers with a good store of supplies.

But who's to say the Jamestown settlers didn't have "a" first Thanksgiving (as opposed to "The" First Thanksgiving? Coming from England, they were familiar with the harvest home celebrations of their native land. I think that when they finally had a good harvest they did sit down to a good  meal and thank God.

Therefore I salute both my Massachusetts and Virginia settler ancestors on this Thanksgiving Day.

 

 

Another vintage Thanksgiving postcard.

 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

OBSESSION



Have you ever been obsessed by someone or some thing? I can't say that I have, until just this past October. I spent nearly the entire month under the spell of searching for my ancestors.

I have been bitten hard by the ancestry bug, and it IS a sickness. It all came about because of two things. Dan's nephew Erik took out a trial membership on ancestry.com this summer and was able to fill in some key information on his tree, which is also in part his Uncle Dan's tree. Then, serendipitously, I heard from a distant relative of Dan's whom I had not been in contact with for years. She and her sisters are the tracers of the Sudie Sheppard line (Dan's paternal grandmother).

Seeing both their trees inspired me to take out a trial membership too. I have mentioned before that I have been lucky in the genealogy department. My cousin Kevin is searching the Norwegian Wangen line of our maternal grandmother. My second cousin Shirley from Scotland is searching the Munro line of Highlanders. I have a second cousin from Iowa who is tracing the Rockney/Cody line of my father.

Although the Rockney line goes way back to the 1600s in Norway, the Cody line stops abruptly with Bridget and John Cody, born in the 1830s in Ireland. But I thought I would try my paternal great-grandmother's line and see if it would take me anywhere.

And has it ever. All through October, I followed links, adding name upon name. Every coffee break and lunch hour at work, I was adding names. Every evening, I was adding names. Every weekend, I was bound to the computer, adding names.

I no longer watched TV (a good thing), didn't follow my friends' blogs (a bad thing), didn't snooze on the couch (a good thing). I didn't even read (a very, very bad thing). Luckily, Dan is low maintenance. He had his TV shows to watch - his sports and his "weird" shows (Swamp People, Storage Wars, American Pickers, Pawn Stars).

It finally got to the point that instead of being extremely excited to see those wavy green leaves (ancestry.com's clues to familial links), I became dismayed. I was actually happy when some lines ended early. Ultimately, I realized  that it would be taking me far, far longer than a month.

I did a little math on my own and then looked up the info online to confirm my calculations. After just 20 generations, we have 1,048,560 ancestors. If you don't believe me, look at this:

1 YOU (1 Generation)
2 parents (2 Generations)
4 grandparents (3 Generations)
8 great grandparents (4 Generations)
16 gg grandparents (5 Generations)
32 ggg grandparents (6 Generations)
64 gggg grandparents (7 Generations)
128 ggggg grandparents (8 Generations)
256 gggggg grandparents (9 Generations)
512 ggggggg grandparents (10 Generations)
1,024 gggggggg grandparents (11 Generations)
2,048 ggggggggg grandparents (12 Generations)
4,096 gggggggggg grandparents (13 Generations)
8,192 ggggggggggg grandparents (14 Generations)
16,384 gggggggggggg grandparents (15 Generations)
32,768 ggggggggggggg grandparents (16 Generations)
65,536 gggggggggggggg grandparents (17 Generations)
131,072 ggggggggggggggg grandparents (18 Generations)
262,144 gggggggggggggggg grandparents (19 Generations)
524,288 ggggggggggggggggg grandparents (20 Generations)
1,048,576 gggggggggggggggggg grandparents (21 Generations

Of course, you don't have that many identifiable ancestors. Thank god. And of course, this number doesn't mean you have that many unique ancestors in.  What is happening is repetition of ancestors, that is, the same ancestors appearing over and over again in a pedigree.  Repetition seldom appears within the first ten generations, but the further back you go, the more repetition you are likely to find.

The same evening I discovered the above chart, I decided the madness had to stop. I had to get my regular life back. I had to start reading again, and I did  (I have another five books under my belt now.)

This is going to be a lifetime job - and too bad I didn't start in on it earlier. Because not only do I have to (NEED to) list all the names I can, I must now go back and fill in the blanks that made these ancestors interesting people.

I have decided that I can afford to purchase 6-month ancestry.com packages at only $12.95 a month. I don't go to movies or rent movies, Dan and I don't dine out, I buy my clothing at thrift shops, I drive an old car. I can justify this one expense, for I believe this will be a satisfying hobby for the rest of my life.

And PS, I have already discovered some very interesting people so far. Know this fella?



If so, you know how shocked and amazed I was to find him at the end (so far) of one of my Great-Grandmother Malinda's lines.