Let's say your dad's sibling marries your mom's sibling. Any children from this union share grandparents with you, so they are your cousins. But they share all four grandparents, not unlike your own siblings, so they are closer to you than mere cousins. Cousins such as these, are double cousins, or more precisely, double first cousins. My own great grandfather Carson married a Goodson, whose brother married a Carson--my great grandfather's sister. As a consequences, double cousins run down the line. My papa Carson had double cousins. Their offspring are double second cousins with each other. And so on. Statistically, your double cousins are at least the DNA-equivalent of half-siblings. But depending on which genes are shared, they get closer than that. Imagine identical twins marrying identical twins. I found out on wikipedia that this is called a quaternary union, the second generation of which are indistinguishable from full siblings, DNA-wise.
The Carsons and Goodsons came from North Carolina. I wonder why and how they ended up in Idaho.
I found out that my paternal grandfather was not as German as I thought. Only his dad's family was German, and his mom's family was Dutch and English, it would seem. I am four last names short of my 16 GGGrandparents: Becker, ______, Albright, Richardson, Douglass, Fairbanks, Brook, Parker, Carson, Hodges, Goodson, ________, Ignacio Candido, de Acis Neves, includes Texeira-_______, ________.
I am pretty much done with genealogy for now though. This is my work week, since Bonnie and the kiddos are in Houma for Spring Break. I would be working hard right now, but I had a night of food poisoning last night, so it was a slow morning. I am feeling sturdier now, though, so off I go.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
I have been alive for....
Annie is going through that stage where in no time at all she began: holding her head up, looking here and there, concentrating, smiling and laughing, cooing. And also she thickened up and her eye color darkened and she started pooping more all at once instead of two dozen times a day. She is a little angel baby most all of the time. Oh, also she began regularly skipping a feeding in the middle of the night, so Bonnie gets more sleep these days.
I am pretty sure about teaching English in Houston in May. That gives me just over a month to finish up some projects here and get lined up for Summer. I don't know exactly we will do, but there's an opportunity for me to teach at a language school in Houston for May and June and longer if we choose. We are tossing over a bunch of scenarios which include Houston, Idaho, Korea again, and elsewhere. Also in our life sketch ideas we are considering Japan.
Let me tell you a little about more ancestors of my children. The names in their closest Japanese heritage are Koike, Akiyama, Iida, and Shima. Bonnie's maternal grandparents were born on Oahu and Hawaii to Japanese immigrants. The immigrants came from Osaka and near Hiroshima. Oh wait, I don't know for sure now. It looks like I need to learn more. At one point, I heard that there was a family mushroom farm in Japan. I am curious. Bonnie's middle name, Nobu, is the name of her grandmother's mother, born in Japan as Nobu Shima. Nobu stands for trust. Shima means island. Becker means baker, or an egg-stand.
So a hundredish years ago, these Japanese folks were adventuring further out to the Pacific. Meanwhile, the Azoreans I mentioned in a recent post were loading up on a boat to cross the Atlantic. My German ancestors in Iowa were setting off to work on land in Idaho, being developed by pioneers using Chinese labor. My Mormon ancestors, on the run from Missouri, were about to settle on some land there. I don't know what my mom's paternal branch was doing; I will have to investigate the Carsons some time. Nor do I know about Bonnie's dad's branch, but something tells me they were all collected already in southern Louisiana.
All three of our little tots were born in the same hospital here in Baton Rouge. Isaac has still lived most of his life overseas, but Annie has never even crossed a state line. Orry, bless his heart, has lived in five homes in his 45 months of life.
Tonight, we had some tortellinis in some spinach and artichoke cream sauce. With veggies on the side. I keep saying, if it weren't for the cheese, cream, and other animal based foodstuffs we eat here and there, we'd be 100% vegan. As it is, we're 100% vegan only some of the time.
And speaking of time, it is time to end this discourse.
P.S. I have been alive for almost 386 months.
I am pretty sure about teaching English in Houston in May. That gives me just over a month to finish up some projects here and get lined up for Summer. I don't know exactly we will do, but there's an opportunity for me to teach at a language school in Houston for May and June and longer if we choose. We are tossing over a bunch of scenarios which include Houston, Idaho, Korea again, and elsewhere. Also in our life sketch ideas we are considering Japan.
Let me tell you a little about more ancestors of my children. The names in their closest Japanese heritage are Koike, Akiyama, Iida, and Shima. Bonnie's maternal grandparents were born on Oahu and Hawaii to Japanese immigrants. The immigrants came from Osaka and near Hiroshima. Oh wait, I don't know for sure now. It looks like I need to learn more. At one point, I heard that there was a family mushroom farm in Japan. I am curious. Bonnie's middle name, Nobu, is the name of her grandmother's mother, born in Japan as Nobu Shima. Nobu stands for trust. Shima means island. Becker means baker, or an egg-stand.
So a hundredish years ago, these Japanese folks were adventuring further out to the Pacific. Meanwhile, the Azoreans I mentioned in a recent post were loading up on a boat to cross the Atlantic. My German ancestors in Iowa were setting off to work on land in Idaho, being developed by pioneers using Chinese labor. My Mormon ancestors, on the run from Missouri, were about to settle on some land there. I don't know what my mom's paternal branch was doing; I will have to investigate the Carsons some time. Nor do I know about Bonnie's dad's branch, but something tells me they were all collected already in southern Louisiana.
All three of our little tots were born in the same hospital here in Baton Rouge. Isaac has still lived most of his life overseas, but Annie has never even crossed a state line. Orry, bless his heart, has lived in five homes in his 45 months of life.
Tonight, we had some tortellinis in some spinach and artichoke cream sauce. With veggies on the side. I keep saying, if it weren't for the cheese, cream, and other animal based foodstuffs we eat here and there, we'd be 100% vegan. As it is, we're 100% vegan only some of the time.
And speaking of time, it is time to end this discourse.
P.S. I have been alive for almost 386 months.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
On Saturday...
When your uncle is your father, you might find that some of your siblings are also your cousins. As it turns out, my great-great uncle is also my great-great grandfather, in this sense: My great-great grandmother Marian was married to two men, one at a time. They were brothers, and the first was tragically killed at a young age. The brother, Manuel, spawned my Granny and six of her sisters, who were couslings with two from the earlier uncle-father.
Tonight I am relishing in the memories from my granny's early childhood. The childhood was on a farm north of Shoshone, Idaho, where the Ineases came to homestead, all the way from the Azore Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These were the roaring twenties, and then the not-so-roaring thirties when Granny lived her first ten years. Oh, the good old days.
Granny had only two Becker boy grandkids, mostly because she is my maternal grandmother, so the Becker comes from a different family. I am one of those grandsons, and my brother Trent is the other. It doesn't look like we'll be siring each other's kids, since we're both married with spawn of our own, but you never really know what the future has in store for you.
Today, though, my brother and I found ourselves together with a chainsaw each, sawing trunkwood for dollars. It is the last chance we'll have to do that for a while, as Trent and family are trekking back across the USA towards Shoshone, Idaho. Well, they probably won't get as far as Shoshone, but it is a sort of homesteading trip of their own too. I have enjoyed the blessing of living near my broski for over one and a half years, and in that time we've had some good family times. Nicole has shared with Bonnie the ups and downs of Becker life, and we were all tickled to have an intimate part in Little Ila's first four plus months of life, which has brought in this not-so roaring decade. We all ate some Jamabalaya and some homemade apple turnovers, and for now we've bade adieu.
But now you might be wondering about our family future plans as well. They are up in the air. I have forecast another month to finish my most important Baton Rouge project with our Sparrow house. Then we'll have to see what happens after that. Trent was a great help getting done with that, and if money was no issue we would have finished sooner. Of course, if money was no issue I guess I probably wouldn't be working on such a project.
If money was no issue what would I be doing, you ask? Probably setting up an astronomer's delight bed and breakfast observer's ranch in the middle of a lot of land in the middle of nowhere Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, or West Texas. Or Idaho or Oregon or Montana or Colorado. Or I guess Canada or Mexico, or elsewhere, really, if money is no issue. I like the idea of raising our children elsewhere, especially where they may easily become bilingual.
Isaac is working on understanding our English language, and Orry is working out the code we use to read and write it. Annie is working on making sense of an upside-down world where some of the things look familiar and they make lots of coo noises and smiles, but really all that matters is something she'll come to know someday as comfort.
While I'm making up words like couslings, let me also say tha the Japanese Magnolias are wrapping up their lovely Pre-Spring show. I have come to call them Japagnolias. I know, it's only two syllables shorter, but the cadence helps it roll of the tongue smoother.
And, now, I'm another half-day older, not accounting for time-zone changes or that extra second that was sandwiched between 2008 and 2009.
Mmm, those were delicious apple turnovers.
Thank you for reading.
Tonight I am relishing in the memories from my granny's early childhood. The childhood was on a farm north of Shoshone, Idaho, where the Ineases came to homestead, all the way from the Azore Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These were the roaring twenties, and then the not-so-roaring thirties when Granny lived her first ten years. Oh, the good old days.
Granny had only two Becker boy grandkids, mostly because she is my maternal grandmother, so the Becker comes from a different family. I am one of those grandsons, and my brother Trent is the other. It doesn't look like we'll be siring each other's kids, since we're both married with spawn of our own, but you never really know what the future has in store for you.
Today, though, my brother and I found ourselves together with a chainsaw each, sawing trunkwood for dollars. It is the last chance we'll have to do that for a while, as Trent and family are trekking back across the USA towards Shoshone, Idaho. Well, they probably won't get as far as Shoshone, but it is a sort of homesteading trip of their own too. I have enjoyed the blessing of living near my broski for over one and a half years, and in that time we've had some good family times. Nicole has shared with Bonnie the ups and downs of Becker life, and we were all tickled to have an intimate part in Little Ila's first four plus months of life, which has brought in this not-so roaring decade. We all ate some Jamabalaya and some homemade apple turnovers, and for now we've bade adieu.
But now you might be wondering about our family future plans as well. They are up in the air. I have forecast another month to finish my most important Baton Rouge project with our Sparrow house. Then we'll have to see what happens after that. Trent was a great help getting done with that, and if money was no issue we would have finished sooner. Of course, if money was no issue I guess I probably wouldn't be working on such a project.
If money was no issue what would I be doing, you ask? Probably setting up an astronomer's delight bed and breakfast observer's ranch in the middle of a lot of land in the middle of nowhere Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, or West Texas. Or Idaho or Oregon or Montana or Colorado. Or I guess Canada or Mexico, or elsewhere, really, if money is no issue. I like the idea of raising our children elsewhere, especially where they may easily become bilingual.
Isaac is working on understanding our English language, and Orry is working out the code we use to read and write it. Annie is working on making sense of an upside-down world where some of the things look familiar and they make lots of coo noises and smiles, but really all that matters is something she'll come to know someday as comfort.
While I'm making up words like couslings, let me also say tha the Japanese Magnolias are wrapping up their lovely Pre-Spring show. I have come to call them Japagnolias. I know, it's only two syllables shorter, but the cadence helps it roll of the tongue smoother.
And, now, I'm another half-day older, not accounting for time-zone changes or that extra second that was sandwiched between 2008 and 2009.
Mmm, those were delicious apple turnovers.
Thank you for reading.
Monday, March 8, 2010
On, um, Monday...
Well, more teasing, but I really was impressed with this Evan Premo, who is the artist I heard on the radio the other day. You can read a little here, and check out a intro sample here (but you have to look down the list and play the seventh selection). Evan Premo and his wife make up Duo Borealis. Great. Here you can watch Evan Premo participate in the Polar Bear Club. Also, at that link, if you click on "Listen To The Show" I think you can hear the song I have been talking about, "in Just-" (tune in at 37:00).
Let me not hesitate any longer to report the great impetus of this blog, however, which is that Isaac began counting today. No, not abstractly attributing cardinality to sets of things, but, as Orry started years ago, uttering the exciting and anticipatory 1-2-3 before getting thrown in the air, twirled around, dipped to the ground, &c. And let me also say that although little Gonzo's 1-2-3 was not as clear as a bell, it is his first expression of numbers. And you know how that makes a daddy proud.
Let me not hesitate any longer to report the great impetus of this blog, however, which is that Isaac began counting today. No, not abstractly attributing cardinality to sets of things, but, as Orry started years ago, uttering the exciting and anticipatory 1-2-3 before getting thrown in the air, twirled around, dipped to the ground, &c. And let me also say that although little Gonzo's 1-2-3 was not as clear as a bell, it is his first expression of numbers. And you know how that makes a daddy proud.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
On Sunday...
How excited I was to bring together for you the current sunshiny Spring weather, ee cummings, a contrabassist and a soprano, and a little romance, all courtesy of one of my favorite radio programs From The Top. However, they don't seem to have the program online yet so I'll have to settle for cutting and pasting the poem and sharing it with you later.
Oh! But here I found a treasure trove of the song set to music! It doesn't have the particularly likable piece I referenced above, but it should satisfy for you the juxtaposition of sunshiny Just-Spring weather, ee cummings, and music at least. Oh, but it doesn't link you to the music--just teases you by telling you about it. Like I am doing, I guess.
The poem:
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee --
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee
And now, paying a sort of vulgar tribute to cummings, here are some made-up words we use in our house, and you might have too, if you've had babies in your house or not.
snart: to simultaneously sneeze and fart
furp: to simultaneously burp and fart
cfart: to simultaneously, yes, you guessed it, cough and fart. if you say this one just right (that is, explosively enough) it is onomatopoeia.
And now, since you read this far, let me continue on and say on this beautiful day we are going to picnic after church, and hit up the Lousiana Art and Science Museum. The kiddos are still a little sniffly, so we'll probably bring them into church with us instead of letting them infect the other kids at the nursery.
This week some rain is due so I'm looking forward to finishing some inside projects.
Have a wonderful second week of March.
Oh! But here I found a treasure trove of the song set to music! It doesn't have the particularly likable piece I referenced above, but it should satisfy for you the juxtaposition of sunshiny Just-Spring weather, ee cummings, and music at least. Oh, but it doesn't link you to the music--just teases you by telling you about it. Like I am doing, I guess.
The poem:
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee --
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee
And now, paying a sort of vulgar tribute to cummings, here are some made-up words we use in our house, and you might have too, if you've had babies in your house or not.
snart: to simultaneously sneeze and fart
furp: to simultaneously burp and fart
cfart: to simultaneously, yes, you guessed it, cough and fart. if you say this one just right (that is, explosively enough) it is onomatopoeia.
And now, since you read this far, let me continue on and say on this beautiful day we are going to picnic after church, and hit up the Lousiana Art and Science Museum. The kiddos are still a little sniffly, so we'll probably bring them into church with us instead of letting them infect the other kids at the nursery.
This week some rain is due so I'm looking forward to finishing some inside projects.
Have a wonderful second week of March.
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