52 Ancestors, Week 1: I'd Like to Meet...

For the past few years, my friend Amy Johnson Crow has featured a writing prompt called "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks." I've been bad about writing and blogging regularly (all you have to do is look at the dates of my previous posts, LOL!). This is the year I actually stick to it. I'm not getting off to a promising start, though - Amy's already posted prompts for Week 3, and here I am, blogging for Week 1. Oh well!

Week 1's prompt is "I'd like to meet..."  I’d like to have met my great-grandmother, Margaret Donley Herrick McCabe. Born in England, she and her family came to the US in the early 1880s.  She died in 1950, six years before I was born. So, I think I'll ask Maggie as if she were still here.

Margaret Donley
Herrick McCabe

• Did your family all immigrate to the U.S. together? Or did some of you arrive first, and the others followed? When and from where did you arrive in the U.S.?
• It appears that your family lived in Iowa in 1885. How did you wind up in PA in 1893? Where did the other family members go?
• How did you meet Harry Herrick? He had been in Texas, and returned to Washington, Pennsylvania sometime around the death of his grandmother Jane. Was it a love match? A one-night stand? 
• When and why did you and Harry split? Did you formally divorce? (I hope so, because you later married Robert McCabe, so...) When and where did you and Harry divorce? Did you ever have contact with him again? When did you divorce McCabe (or did you)?
• Was Julia Donley a sister of yours? If so, why do I not find any connection between her and her siblings?
• Most importantly, who were your parents — John Donley and Katherine Kelley? Or Patrick Donley and Margaret Kelley?

So many questions; so few answers. Maggie, why did you use Donley, but your eldest brother Robert used Donlon? Speaking of Robert, why did my dad hear from his dad — your son — about various family members, but not a peep did Dad mention a Robert? Heck, Maggie, Robert even lived in East Palestine, Ohio, the town in which Dad was born. 

I'd love to know the answers to the most mundane questions. Did you speak with a British accent? What were your favorite foods? What kind of mother were you: the soft, nurturing kind? A hard-as-nails badass? What made you decide to leave Iowa behind and come to Chicago? What (or who) was here for you?

DNA and genealogical research will help answer some questions, but there will be others that go unanswered forever, and that's a shame.

The Blog Name Speaks for Itself

Well, here it is, late January 2012. (Happy New Year, by the way.) At least I'm better blogging than journaling, where I hadn't gotten a round tuit in more than a year.

A few weeks ago, everyone was posting about their resolutions. Mine were:

• to blog more often (believe me, this IS more often!); 
• to eat healthier (I'm a junk food junkie who has singlehandedly been keeping fast food and vending machine franchises in business)
• to save more money (following resolution #2 will automatically result in a successful resolution #3)
• to get organized, and clear some clutter.

I know these are vague goals; I wrote them down for myself in much more managable bites. But that would bore you, because — let's face it, you've got your own stuff to deal with.

So. How's it going, you may ask? (Well, even if you didn't.) So far:

• I've avoided the vending machine and drive-thru; 
• I've actually cooked some meals for myself (to those who know me, that is almost a miracle)
• I'm working with my financial planner on some long-range stuff
• I've kept the kitchen sink empty and the counter cleaned up after I eat, so stuff isn't scattered all over
• I'm eating healthier (Whoa! A refrigerator with food in it!)
• I'm taking calcium (those little caramel chewies are DELISH!)

So what does this have to do with genealogy? Nothing at all. They say that, to make a permanent change, you have to do something for about three weeks before it becomes habit. Once I tackle these for a few weeks, I'll be "programmed" and I'll add a few more things. By next December, I should have a bunch of new behaviors, so by the law of averages, a few of them ought to be genealogy-related. 

Oh yeah, genealogy events are on the list too: NGS, some area conferences and seminars, and a planned Midwest GeneaBloggers meetup. Not this time for RT, Jamboree and FGS. Yes to a few webinars, and to my Friday night date, GeneaBloggers Radio.

I also resolved to spend less time on Facebook, and more time checking out Google circles, Pinterest and some other things. If I get a Round Tuit, that is.