TSGS Cruiser Blog

Saturday, March 20, 2010

"Ahhhh! Its Spring Time!"

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First Day of Spring!


- Daffodil photo submitted by Linda L. Young-Niemeier


Many of us have been waiting quite some time for this day to come!

MARCH 20th. is the first day of spring, or vernal equinox as astronomers would have it. "Vernal" means "of or pertaining to spring." "Equinox" means "equal night." As the angle of the earth's inclination toward the sun changes throughout the year, lengthening or shortening the days according to season and hemisphere, there are two times annually when day and night are of more-or-less equal length: the spring and autumnal equinoxes. These celestial tipping points have been recognized for thousands of years... [Quoted from About.com: Urban Legends Can You Balance Eggs on End During the Spring Equinox?
By , About.com Guide]

- Photo taken & submitted by JGWest

Friday, March 19, 2010

"Family Relationship Chart"

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This past Tuesday 16 March, I posted a blog about "Shirt-Tail Kin"
http://tsgsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/shirt-tail-kin.html

Don Counts found this great chart that helps you determine how you are related to someone in your family. I think I might have given this to Don many years ago... or he might have given a copy to me! Click on the chart to make it larger - you should be able to print it out and save it for use again and again.


NOTE: At bottom of chart reads, "Copyed by C.E. Mitcham" who happens to be one of my Shirt-Tail Kin!!!
- Chart submitted by Donald R. Counts.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tombstone Thursday - Trovillion

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Trovillion Cemetery
T13S R6E Sec 29N 37* W088*
(Pope County, Illinois)
The cemetery is about a mile east of Old Brownfield on Deputy Tower Road, then about 2000' north of the road.
Penn V. Trovillion
07 Apr 1855 - 30 June 1934




- Photo taken & submitted by Judy Foreman Lee

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

"Happy St. Patrick's Day!"

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HAPPY

From TSGS


Images from http://www.designedtoat.com/stpatricksday.shtml

I got this in my email box from my friend Judy Lee:
Trovillion Cemetery T13S R6E Sec 29N 37* W088* (Pope County, Illinois) Enumerated March 11, 2009. This cemetery has suffered the forces of nature and man. If the cemetery were cleaned more monuments might be found. Invasive species along with fallen limbs from an ice storm make it difficult to maneuver through the cemetery. The blue blooms of the vinca groundcover though offer brightness and hope. The cemetery is about a mile east of Old Brownfield on Deputy Tower Road, then about 2000' north of the road. A field surrounds the cemetery; a farm road passes beside it on the west. Enumeration starts closest to the farm road, beginning at the northwest side of the cemetery.

Judy Foreman Lee UdyDee43@aol.com

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

"Shirt-Tail Kin"

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Shirt-Tail Kin?

What in the world is "shirt-tail kin?" I "Googled" this term to see what I might learn about it. If your family had close friends for many years & especially over a couple generations, these friends might be dubbed as shirt-tail kin. Maybe it is a distant relative like a fifth or sixth cousin... you just barely know that they are blood relatives. Another example would be those who married into your family (the "in-laws"). We have heard of cousins that were "once-removed" or even "twice-removed" -- these would possibly qualify as shirt-tail cousins.

Speaking of these "removed" cousins, just exactly why were they removed and removed from what? I remember someone telling me about a fourth cousin three times removed! People get removed from voter lists, church rolls, honor groups or the team; but, what are we talking about when we say a "fourth cousin three times removed?" To explain this we have to go back to a common progenitor (the person two people share as the closest related ancestor). Lets use my third great grandfather, Charles H. West who was born in 1775 Chatham County, North Carolina and died in 1845 Christian County, Kentucky. He had at least five sons and several daughters. Two sons were Jesse West (my second great grandfather) & a William Ellis West. Charles H. West is in the first generation in this example with the sons in the second generation as siblings (brothers, in this case). Jesse West named a son William Ellis West after Jesse's brother (the younger William's uncle). Jesse's brother, the "Uncle" William, had a son, James Harlan West. Now, this William Ellis West, the younger and James Harlan West are in the same generation (the third) from Charles H. West and they are first cousins to one another. William Ellis West (the younger) and James Harlan West had sons: John William West & James H. W. West, respectively... that make up the fourth generation from Charles H. West and the two are second cousins with their children being third cousins. Ok, but how does the removed business work? Well, John William West & James Harlan West are in different generations from the common progenitor, Charles H. West. They would be one generation removed from each other. Making John William West & James Harlan West first cousins once removed, since John William's father William Ellis West & James Harlan West are first cousins.

Charles H. West (Common Progenitor)
[First Generation]
_____________________
Jesse West {Brothers} William Ellis West
[Second Generation]
William Ellis West {1st. Cousins} James Harlan West
[Third Generation]
John William West {2nd. Cousins} James H. W. West
[Fourth Generation]
James Harlan West & John William West are 1st. Cousins, Once Removed
We use the closest "cousinship" to the common progenitor... in this case First Cousin.

Hope this makes sense!
- Submitted by JGWest

Monday, March 15, 2010

"Family Dance"

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Family Dance...
...Dance Recital, that is.

TSGS Board Member, Becky West, with her grand daughter in the Cincinnati area (Kings School). Seven year old Halle West was in her school's Dance Recital in one of about 20 acts featuring over 100 kids from kindergarten to the 12th. grade. She got four bouquets of flowers from admirers! This is her second year participating and she loves it!!!

- Photo taken & submitted by JGWest