Sunday, July 18, 2010

Jane Scriven & Sentimental Sunday

.
.
I was thinking some more after yesterdays post. Of speaking about dead relatives.

You know when you miss or want to see someone today, all you have to do is phone or email or go visit. I like writing paper letters so I do that too. & most cell phones now & computers you can see your person when you talk to them ( I confess I am not that advanced, Ahem! ) You can call and hang up - call again a second later when you remember something - and call again - again - again...

I visit with people all over the world and we are really seconds away from each other this way.

When someone dies, all you can do to visit is go to the grave. At home you can pull out their pictures or letters & momentos.

You don't have to bury them away from your life. Talk about them to family & friends. Quote things they said or did, to others. Tell stories about them. You don't have to get long winded and get boring or turn others off. But injecting funny things about people or

"my Grandma Alma once did that too, she ....."
"I heard my Uncle Douglas was there, he......"
" I got this ........ from my Granny (my great grandmother Alla) "

It's like spending time with them, if you can say their names and remember them.

I've wondered how Jane must have been sadly heartsick to live so far away, from her old family back in Ireland. And then as the years go by that she was the last one of them all alive. Even with her own many children around her and their families. Her own children were under 10 years of age when they left Ireland. My Great Grandfather EWM Evans was 9 years old when they left in in 1869. When she became an old lady here, was it easier to put the old family back in Ireland away in a box of photos & letters. Who could she talk to about them? How many of them did her own children remember from so long ago?

Think about your own family now
How many branches you have & last names

Jane had the same back in Ireland, & relatives I'm sure her own children never met. As we do here now. So don't put your people away in a box in the closet. Talk about them when you can. Genealogy and family history are made for this. You don't have to make the kids sit down for a class about the old people ( tho wouldn't you love to have a captive audience) . Just be sneaky and inject little stories about them whenever & wherever you can. One day you'll be amazed at how much they soaked up from you.

Happy Trails, Katiebird

Saturday, July 17, 2010

1st Name Saturday - Surname Saturday

.
.
. Boo-Hoo! "The Ide's of July" took Most WONDERFUL youngest daughter back to Washington, D.C. to get ready for University again in August. Pretty sure I got in enough hugging & new pictures to last until Christmas time. I know Erma Bombeck used to write in a crazy busy house, while cooking dinner in the kitchen and holding the paper in one hand and doing spaghetti with the other. My brain goes blank when it's on a countdown to the Most WONDERFUL daughters departure to fly back. The thoughts are there but the brain just doesn't connect with the typing fingers.

You know you go along and all your people are named in your mind, as you live and grow you know them as Grandma this, Grandpa that, Uncle so & so, Aunt zu zu, cousin blankety blank and whoever address's anyone by first saying, "Hi Cousin Zelda". We never say that to their face. Only when we're speaking about them with someone else. Personally, I like saying "Hi Cuz", but that's just me.

When my Mother was a toddler, she couldn't say her name, but she could almost pronounce "shisher", for sister.
That stuck and everyone forever called her 'Sis'. Her own parents & siblings always called her, Sis. All my cousins called her, Aunt Sis.
Good thing everybody always called me Katie, tho my given name is Kay. Having 2 Kay's in one house would get confusing. As I'm sure a lot of families experience when they have the same thing, with same names in one house.

Couple of years ago I was finding some information to give my Aunt Rose. She lives a good distance away and we weren't able to get our families together much thru the years. I was talking to the guy and he commented how odd it was to hear me say 'Aunt Rose'. Me someone he never met or knew. A complete stranger using a family salutation. You could get possessive.
You could almost feel like,
"Hey, who does this person think they are? This is MY Aunt. Only I can call her Aunt. You can't!"

I heard the most wonderful expression a little while ago. My dearest Grandma Alma was called Auntie Alma. I have NEVER heard her called Aunt before. Of course she was an Aunt to a LOT of people, but I have not visited with those cousins before and it took me by surprise. I wanted to hear her say it over and over it sounded so amazing to me.

One of the things I knew a long time ago, is that one of the saddest parts of someone dying, is that their name isn't spoken much anymore. People skirt around saying it so people don't what? Take on and start crying or something, trying to be kind. I think, that thinking is really a cruelty. When someone is gone, that is when you should be saying their name the most. Talking about them, reliving memories of them.
When my cousin said "Auntie Alma", I had a flash of actually seeing her like it was today, not 36 years ago & that felt great. For the time of a brief phone conversation and now a little later, it felt great.

Happy Trails, Katiebird

Saturday, July 3, 2010

SCRIVEN surname Saturday

.
.
JANE BURY SCRIVEN EVANS


It's all in the name isn't it. Some of my greatest help has come from using the old formula for naming. This has given me tremendous breakthru's in working on people, especially in the UK, Ireland, Europe and beyond.
Wish it had entered my mind when I had my own girls 30+ years ago. I might have named them a schoosh differently. Either of them would have got an Alice or a Kay or Katie.

I am Kay "Katie" Alice Cox- Morris.
My mother was Martha "Kay" Alice Cluver -Cox.
Her grandmother was Alice "Alla" Hinkston- Cluver.
Her mother-in-law was Catherina Margarethe Cluver- Cluver.
Her mother was Catherina, and so on, and so on .....

Jane was named for her mother, Jane Medlicott ( aka Mrs. Captain John Scriven )
Bury comes down from the Barclay, Robert Barclay " The Apologist" Quaker, on Captain John's side ( & also the line of Jane's husband, Edward ).
Scriven also comes down on the line of Jane's husband, Edward.
Jane & Edward were 2nd cousins.

I have used the old naming formula as a great aid in helping me work on names. This chart has given me tremendous help in finding information on names. Look at your people, see what names are in the middle - search those middle names - you'll come up some great information you didn't even think of looking for.

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

.Irish Naming Patterns


1st son was usually named after the father's father
2nd son was usually named after the mother's father
3rd son was usually named after the father
4th son was usually named after the father's eldest brother
5th son was usually named after the mother's eldest brother

1st daughter was usually named after the mother's mother
2nd daughter was usually named after the father's mother
3rd daughter was usually named after the mother
4th daughter was usually named after the mother's eldest sister
5th daughter was usually named after the father's eldest sister

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


Copy this, use it. I've kept a copy in front of my eyes - on the cork board I have on the wall, at the back of my desk. I do the same thing with the 'days of the week' for this Blog, Monday Madness ... Tuesday Tombstone ... ...... a note tacked on the board where I can see it and not have to look it up all the time.

Have a Great 4th of July, Happy Trails Katiebird