Late Night...

It's a late night here, and I've got nothing much to say... Homecoming has gone well here at Dartmouth, I've been out of the apartment with my public face, and I've been talking to a lot of students. Things seem to be going well. I'll head off to bed around 1:30am or so...

NP: Bill Bruford, Sample and Hold

Marion Houston

When I first started doing genealogy, back in late 2001, I collected a lot of old family photos from my Dad. Amongst the photos was this one I hadn't remembered seeing before...


I asked my Dad who this was, and he said, "That's your great-grandmother's mother." My great grandmother was Bessie Nixon, who married Robert Partridge. Bessie's mother was Marion Houston, and I had no idea we even had a photo of her. She died when Bessie was about 4 years old, so she never really knew her mother at all.

When I found the photo, I really knew nothing about the woman. However, through my research, I discovered that the Nixon's were from a town in Scotland called Paisley. That name rang a bell in my mind, so I dug through my photos and files, and found this photo. I realized that the Paisley in the lower right corner signified the location of the photo.

Marion Houston came over to the US on 17 August 1885, and married Robert Nixon on 20 Augutst 1885 in New York City. My guess about this photo is that Marion and Robert knew each other in Paisley, and when he came over in 1884, he either brought the photo with him, or Marion sent it to him in NYC in the year they were apart.

Of course, I have no real proof for these stories, but it makes sense... And my great grandmother had the photo as a memory of a mother that she probably didn't really recall from life that much at all, since she died so early in Bessie's life.

Marion is about 20-23 years old in this photo, from my estimates. I have no photos of she and her husband together, but I do have a photo of someone I think is her husband standing alone. I'll put that up here at some point...

E-mail goodness

Today was a good day for my genealogy research. Part of what I do in order to get in contact with distant branches of the family tree is put out posting on message boards, basically saying "Here's the relevant info on my Lord ancestors, if you're connected, contact me."

I put enough for readers to identify if the information connects to their family, but not enough for someone to try to pull a fast one on me, should they want to. However, I know that's a fairly unlikely circumstance, as there's no real reason to mess with someone like that.

So today, I get an e-mail from someone who is related to Boomer Partridge. Boomer was the brother to William Partridge, my great-great-grandfather. All I knew about Boomer was that he was born in 1873 or so, and had immigrated to the Toronto area of Canada at some point. The woman who e-mailed me is Boomer's granddaughter. I haven't heard back from her yet, but I'll now be able to fill in some of the blanks on that side of the Partridge family.

I hope to do some more work on the genealogy stuff this weekend. I have a genealogy page on my personal home page, so check it out if you wish.

I also heard from a Lord relative today, which is the first time I've heard from him in awhile. I've been bad about keeping in contact with people, I need to do a "How's everyone doing" e-mail sometime soon.

I think that's all for now... Cheers!

NP: Steve Hackett, Carry On Up The Vicarage (Live)

Krakatoa

My new reading is Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester. Again, a book I picked up because it's on a topic that everyone knows a little about (Krakatoa exploded/erupted in the 1880's, and it was big), but that I'd like to know more details about. I'm only 30 pages or so into it right now, and so far there's a lot of background on the history of the area (Portugese/Dutch trading posts, trouble with the locals, all the usual suspects). I'm looking forward to the explosion.

This weekend is Homecoming here at Dartmouth. Big bonfire built in the middle of the Green on Friday night. I end up hanging out in the main lounge of my cluster for Thursday-Friday-Saturday night, just being available and accessible in case there's any issues or emergencies. I'll probably use the time to perhaps do some genealogy work that I've put aside for awhile. The music stuff has taken over for a bit of time as my main hobby, and I'd like to strike more of a balance.

I think that's about all for now. If I think of anything else to write, I'll be sure to update later on...

NP: Rick Wakeman, The Pyramids of Egypt

Flooding!

Here are some photos of flooding by my mom's home in Asbury Park, NJ from this past weekend. The above photo is from her roof, looking towards Loch Arbor, NJ. If the photo continued on the right, you'd see the Atlantic Ocean. The water is Deal Lake, and there's normally a road in front of those homes. My mom told me that she and my dad actually looked at the blueish home in the middle of the photo when they were looking to buy a house back in the late 60's.





The above photo is looking south and slightly west from my mom's roof. Again, there should be a road running in front of those homes...




This last photo is from the Asbury Park side of the Deal Lake bridge. Normally, there's about 5-10 feet of water under that bridge. Thankfully for my mom, the Asbury side of the lake had higher banks.

I know this is only a taste of what the people down in New Orleans and elsewhere have been experiencing, but it's enough, that's for sure...

NP: Out in Brace Commons, and it's pretty quiet...

I Have Returned

Back in NH after a few days in Florida. It was for Sue's sister's wedding that we were down there. Got down on Thursday, back today. A good time was had by all. Or, at least, by Sue and I. Who am I to speak for everyone??? Although, I do believe everyone did have fun.

The band was a wee bit loud though... But, near the end, they turned down their 80's Yamaha drum machine sound, and it became a bit more bearable. Good to see people, we had a fun table, sitting with the bride, groom, and other members of the wedding party. Once I get some photos, I'll post anything that I'm in. Because, it really is all about me.

Speaking of me, the bride and I had a good conversation about blogging while at the rehearsal dinner. It was nice to be encouraged... And I should point out that I'm starting to post music over at my personal home on the range.

Sue and I got to see my friend Brad from high school on Thursday evening, which was good. He's always a good egg to see. And, he's greyer than I am, even though I'm a year older.

I finished two books while down in FL, the Shakespeare book (a good read), and Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America." I enjoyed that also, although I felt the ending was a bit jumbled. I haven't read any Roth previous to this novel, and I'd be willing to seek out some of his other books.

I also, just tonight, revised my lyrics for the song I'm working on. I think I'm getting closer to the final shape of it, and to how the song will be performed. It'll be a fast one, which means I think I'm going to have to chuck the music I've already written for it. I was writing on guitar, and I think I'm going to have to write on bass. That's how I'm hearing it in my head, and then I'll come up with guitar parts afterwards. Once I get the third/final verse into better shape, I'll post the lyrics up here again. Look in the archive for the first draft.

And now, I think travel is catching up with me, so it's time for bed...

NP: Brian Eno, "Stars," from Apollo