When I get bored with my e-mail and playing mah-jongg I start doing some research on my ancestors.  I am on several geneaology lists and check out every site they  mention.  

I am a MacDonald/McDonald and want to know which area of Scotland we came from as there are 3 areas that were McDonalds..  And I believe I’m getting close.

I finally received my father’s (Vincent MacDonald) death certificate this last weekend.  Found out he died in New Jersey but was buried in New Hampshire in the city he was born.  His birth certificate came in with the last name McDonald.   My aunt said he didn’t like McDonald so changed it to MacDonald.   

I now am back to my father’s grandfather (Malcolm McDonald) who was born around 1844 in Prince Edward Island.  I feel that I’m probably only a generation or two from Scotland now.  He married Amanda Crockett from Maine.

My grandfather, Arthur W McDonald was born in 1882 in Wakefield NH and I think his wife Leona Mary Hall was born in Sawyers River NH (This was on my fathers birth certif.) but the state has no record of her birth.   I think she ws born around 1884. 

It’s amazing  the difference in the census reports each time.  The 1900 census has the month year and state they were born in.  The 1910 and later just has the state.  The 1910 census says Leona was born in VT but the 1900 and 1920 says NH.

So the quest goes on.  It’s amazing all the lists out there.  ObitsCentral2,   http://cyndislist.com    http://geneaologybuff.com   and of course the fee based  Ancestry.com and Geneaology.com.  More will be coming later.  RootsWeb has specific town and county and state email lists.  They have been great.

This has been an interesting journey.  I’ve learned that my father married a second time and had more children so somewhere out there I have half brothers.    I might have found the marriage date of one of my great grandfather’s daughters and the sister of my grandmother.

Now if I were to further my education and get a degree it would be in Geneaology.

 

 

Back in Aug part of a filling fell out of a back tooth.  I didn’t do anything about it.  Figuring that I couldn’t afford it.   Then last week the rest of the filling fell out while I was brushing my teeth.  All of a sudden I had this rock in my mouth.

So went to the dentist yesterday to have her put in another filling.  Ha!   The tooth was broken into two pieces and had to be pulled.  I did everything I could to get out of it.  Asked her if she couldn’t glue it, what would happen if I did nothing.  After all it wasn’t hurting.  She said I should be in so much pain and she didn’t know why I wasn’t.

So after they put my dental plan (which is not insurance but a discount) in the computer it was very affordable so I told her to go ahead.

My what a difference 10 years makes.   They put a gel on my gums to prenumb the area so they could give me a shot of the new stuff that replaces novocain.  I remember that even tho they did that before the novocain shot hurt really bad.   This didn’t and she put it in 4 places around the tooth.

Then after it numbed enough to where I couldn’t  feel anything she worked on getting the tooth out.  I didn’t even realize when she had it out.  I had to ask her.   And then I looked at it.  Gee, what a mess. Two complete pieces, black in the middle  gray thru the enamel.  Very icky looking.

I remember before that when the novocain wore off the pain was incredible.   This time it wasn’t.  I haven’t been in very much pain at all.  Just more like pressure.  But 800 mg of Motrin is making sure I don’t suffer at all.

Kind of weird to go in expecting a filling and and wind up without a tooth.   Also because of the plan I have, I saved almost $400 over what it would have cost with no plan or insurance. 

So that was good and unexpected. 

 

 

 

I was able to help someone start her own blog in WordPress.  More amazing, we even got it right on the first try.  Of course, it’s a work in progress but keep tuned as she tells about the world of gift baskets and the STate of Minnesota.

I told Tink what I was doing and she said she didn’t know if she should be scared or not!  Looks like she didn’t have to be.

I think I’ve even managed to get the post time right finally. 

Well, I don’t have a technical problem to talk about tonite so thought I’d introduce my family.

I have two daughters, Gentle Hands and Tink.  Gentle Hands is a massage therapist  and is in school until May upgrading her certificate.  She is the mother of my three grandchildren,  PiperDude, 19 and kind of trying to decide what to do with the rest of his life.  He gets his name because he is great on the Scottish Bagpipes and can make almost any song into a pipe tune.

 Dancer  is 10 and after 7 years gave up gymnastics last fall and will be taking TaeKwanDo if she can ever get over the flu in addition to her dance classes.

GymGirl is  almost 9 and a level 4 gymnast in her first year of competition and doing quite well.

My other daughter Tink is an “administrative asst” for a University department, but we all know it’s the admin assts who run the place. She loves Scottish bands, we got her hooked with Seven Nations Celtic Rock band at the Grandfather Mountain Highland games in the late 1990′s.   She’s also going to be starting a crafts business this year I believe.

Gentle Hands hubby is ComputerScout.  IN his job with the University he gets to play with all the toys and volunteers with the Boy Scouts.

As for me, I’m known as Celtic Mamma on Tink’s blog as I’m researching my Scottish heritage.   I’m in Ga right now taking care of my 90 year old aunt, so some posts will be on living with the elderly.   I have several online businesses but more about them another time.

Guess I’ve rambled on enough for tonite.  Oh and the time will probably post wrong.  It’s 1:07 am ET Feb. 15.   I’m waiting for Adaware to finish scanning and then it’s off to bed.

 

I oh so carefully copied a blog link to add to my blogroll.  Well at least I thought I did.   When I pasted it into the URL link line, it was a list-serve that I had joined earlier for genealogy!  

I find this is happening more and more.  I sometimes have to copy several times before it actually copies.  Don’t know if I’m trying to copy to fast or what.  But it does get tiresome to think I’m copying one thing and finding out later it never did copy.

I am in the Small Business Referral Network (SBRN).  The SBRN sponsors a chat room and an ongoing Expo.   We have had people (newbies to chatting) just come in and jump in and start talking about themselves with hardly saying HI to everyone.   I have written this article to help people new to chatting to know there are a few unwritten rules.  Please leave feedback if you can add anything to it.

CHAT ETIQUETTE 
 
Oh boy, you just found a new group to chat with.   You just came in all excited and just started talking but no one is talking to you.  You’re disappointed and don’t know why you’re being ignored.

The right chat group is a wonderful thing.  We make friends, we can get answers to our questions. We get great ideas about business activities and family.   The people in the group can sympathize when something goes wrong, will shout HOORAY when something goes right.  We get business referrals from others in the chats.