Assyrian clay tablet of proverbs from the Library of Ashurbanipal, Kouyunjik, Iraq. The British Museum, London. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 After watching the final episode of " A Brief History of the Future " on PBS, I recommend everyone watch it. We are surrounded by rapid change, and it can get scary sometimes. This long-form documentary is full of inspiring or even fun examples of people working together to create the world they want to see, in their own corner of the world.  It is an extended look at what It means to be human, which is to say to work in community, thinking together, figuring out how to make change work for all of us. PBS.org  says, “A Brief History of the Future,” [is] a unique PBS documentary series hosted by renowned futurist Ari Wallach. Ari unites perspectives from different fields, professions, geographic locations and walks of life to explore “being human.” From art to architecture, there are plenty of ways to think about our shared humanity and what that

Research Workshop We had a full house at Friday's Research Workshop, which is what our superstar SKCGS Member Winona calls our Members-only monthly hours at the Kent FamilySearch Center.  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED by David Gurteen: "Research Workshop" Every person with whom I had time to talk, whether new to research or life-long genealogists, talked about the stories they have uncovered and their inner pressure to tell them. Some feel most comfortable telling them only to family members who are interested; others want to put those stories in our Auburn Library Vertical Files, and/or in the files at the White River Museum or other local archives.   Ideas which came up in our conversations included adding those memories, stories, photos and record images to profiles in the FamilySearch Family Tree, on Wikitree  profiles  and even in Ancestry, MyHeritage or other public (or private, but shared with family) trees. Not everyone is comfortable sharing their research online, of cour

Generated by AI May 12, 2024 I had to take my car in for routine service this week, a task that always takes a few hours of my day. I took the morning paper and my iPad to do some reading while I sat in the waiting room. I settled down next to another lady near my age who greeted me with a pleasant "Good morning", and of course I responded the same. We got started talking, comparing our aches and pains or something, just normal conversation between two strangers.  But somehow we began "swapping stories." She has always raised a few chickens in her yard and still does. She told me about her grandmother, Angie, who had a rooster that she loved very much.   Angie's Rooster Generated by AI May 12, 2024 Angie had trained the rooster to walk on a leash and go for walks with her. If she went to the local grocery store she would tie the rooster up outside; everybody knew that it was Angie's rooster.   In the summer when it was too hot to sleep in the house, Angie wo

Image from page 86 of "The diary of a birthday doll" (1908); Internet Archive Book Images; public domain Lies my Grandmother told me My Grandmother Billie was a character. She spoke her mind and had a Scot-Irish brogue and heritage. Born Wilhelmina Marian Gamble, after her father William. She always went by Billie. The following statements were not necessarily made directly to me. Some I found while researching our family tree. Though not surprised that stories are not altogether truthful, I was really surprised that some were made to government officials. Graduated from High School. In our family, it was understood that Grandma Billie “finished” high school. Though she lost a year to illness, she graduated early. She did have a severe illness at a young age, which may have led to her missing school and resulted in a mitral valve problem later in life. 1 However, it looks like her “graduating early” was due to marrying Oct 1926 2 , at the age of 17-3⁄4. Her first child arrive