September 29 - Catching up and planning for Ottawa

I have been very busy with the geneology searches this past week. With regard to the Atherton side,  I have:
* connected with Liisa Taverner who is related to Willard Tovell, married to Margaret 'Teenie' Atherton, JJ's sister. She will pass on my information to another cousin who may know more about this interesting couple
* connected with Pat Atherton (Brother Gregory) about Teenie and Willard. Pat remembers that they travelled around a lot in their motor home and this does ring a bell although I also have travellers on the Kelly/O'Toole side, the Myers from Camrose.
* sent email to Pat's niece Nancy Moore who  lives in Ontario I believe and who may be the link to the great photo book I saw on 'promum's' website. There is also another sister Judy Baldwin who lives in Bolton and if I don't hear from Nancy, I will write to Judy or call her.
* visited the LAC site at the national archives and have rec'd my user card number (1751674) that we will use when visiting Ottawa in October.
* re-checked Murray's descendant list and added information to the Atherton tree on ancestry.ca. Will send him more info re. our family (birthdates etc.) when I return from Ottawa
* started a list  for Tony and Jay's visit

September 19 - Lost pics, good news and weekend family time

I heard from a geneology correspondent last week with a pic that I have seen numerous times but never in an electronic format.

It is the family photo of my mother's mother's family and includes:
Bottom row: Thomas O'Toole and Ann Langley
Top row: from Left to right - Peter, Margaret, Simon, Julia (my grandmother), Patrick, Mary and Thomas.

Will follow up with the correspondent (distant cousin?) and share with other O'Tooles.

Good news re. J. She is much better - new medical assessment, new meds - looks like she will be able to go home after all - amazing!

We spent Friday with family . Chris, Danielle & Harry,

Peter, Mary & Molly then dinner with Alice and Henry and Molly, Kate and Mary and Aaron. Love the kid time.

Great dinner with the Fran Sanagan's last evening - as always the food was terrific - and Paul baked his first pie.

September 15 - Time flying by

Camping with old friends last week then reminiscing with more old friends on the weekend. The past geneology seems to be giving way to the present family and friends.

But it's all good!

J. still not better and a diagnosis of irreversible dementia has been made. Very sad for all concerned.

Keep everyone close.

September 7 - Weekend with Molls - more current family stuff

Update on J. Still in hospital. Waiting on an MRI which scares the crap out of her and for which they continue to avoid talk of anesthetizing her - not sure why.

Weekend with M. a great success. Weather not so wonderful but we had a good time - and Bapa is definitely the top dog in her books (although Bamma sometimes gets the nod).

She is a beautiful little girl. I think I'll try to knit her a sweater for Christmas - she's still young enough to NOT be disappointed with clothing.

Started walk/running again last week, yesterday and today - going 4-5 K in about 37-52 minutes depending on how quickly I'm moving. Sore but feels good to move again.

Today we leave for a short camping trip with D&T to Tobermory area - celebrating our forty years as couples and 30 years as friends.

But back to the geneology journey. Over the next few weeks I hope to complete the family tree on ancestry then export it as a GEDCOM. I'm paying for ancestry.ca till September 14 so will get it done before then I hope.

Then I'll upgrade the Tribal Pages website which is a lot cheaper but which will hopefully link me with others doing the research.

In October I'll start to sort through photos for the family calendar plus meet up with T and hopefully J in Ottawa to look at Atherton pics. Hopefully get names for people in pics like this one.

September 1 - Closer family needs

While it is so much fun to find out about far flung family, closer family needs press on. J. was admitted to hospital yesterday with several physical and cognitive issues. No diagnosis yet but she is very confused and speaks mostly in a word salad.

She has always had many chronic illnesses but she has been a fun and loving sister for the most part. Right now she is frightened and so gets angry and lashes out at J. who is pretty exhausted.

Here's the sister that I want to remember right now.

J. I hope you get well!