Genealogy: Storing Negatives

For the past several years I've been sifting through old family photos and trying to make some sense of them. I've scanned them into the computer, labelled them, and made a spreadsheet of information. For the most part, I've tried to keep them in the books in which I found them. In most cases, I have duplicates spread across three books, but I know from experience with my own photos that my descendants are going to be having the same problem as they sift through my boxes.

In the digital age, negatives are no longer an issue. Film is no longer an issue. Anyone can print a photo  on their home printer, or they can share it through any number of social networking sites. When dealing with pictures from the 1920s through the 1990s, negatives are just a fact of life.

I was blessed with a grandmother who was meticulous in labeling photographs. Most of the photos have her handwriting on the back, with names, dates, and locations. Duplicates were given the same care. She placed negatives behind the photos in case a copy was ever needed, and most of these negatives were the same size as the picture.

In an effort to preserve some of the pictures, I've moved them to better albums with acid-free paper. The negatives I've moved as well, labeling them with the number and placing them in special, archival-safe plastic sleeves.

Much better! (The label colors have no meaning.) I found the negative sleeves on Amazon.com. They come in different sizes for differing types of negatives. 

Genealogy: What Not to Do When Making a Photo Book

About two Christmases ago I received a promotion from Shutterfly for a free Photo Book, 8X8, hardcover. These can generally run $29 for a basic book, so of course I took advantage of the opportunity. The first one I made for my dad included pictures from his family. Appropriately, I named it "Cook Family Album." 

Except in one place. Do you notice it? 

That's right. THE SPINE. According to the spine, we're part of the Johnson family. I didn't notice this until I had placed an order for the third copy of the book.

So, word to the wise, when you go to make your album on any site, make sure to check the spine.

The USS Yorktown and My Family Tree

A few weeks ago, I went on a field trip with my Advanced Placement US History class to the Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum, which has a pretty awesome website. If I'm not mistaken, it's playing the theme to The Pacific, which makes sense considering the USS Yorktown was in the Pacific Front during WW2. I've been watching a lot of WW2 documentaries (to the chagrin of my friends, who worry about my mental health watching all this war stuff), and seeing the Yorktown in action is pretty awesome. 

The field trip was cool, and the pictures in this post are from that trip. The students enjoyed themselves,  which is what matters. But I'm going to move on from that trip (because I don't want to violate privacy of the youngsters, they do well enough on Facebook on their own) and talk about my family tree and my first trip to the Yorktown. 

When I was fifteen or thereabouts, my parents took the family to Charleston. I think it was December, and it was very rainy. That is what I remember apart from the fact that my parents took us to Patriot's Point. The only thing I remember is going about the USS Clamagore, a WW2-era submarine, and being petrified of the enclosed space. 

I didn't like it. I don't like sleeping bags because my legs get tangled up, and I can't get out. I don't like submarines. I don't know how anyone on a submarine manages it, and I totally understand why they have to go through psych tests to determine if they're fit enough. That would be one test I wouldn't mind failing. 

Now, this was before the age of the internet, and my parents were intent on figuring out which submarine my great-uncle Ned Charles Cook was on when he went down in WW2. In the middle of the sub is a great room with plaques of the fallen submarines. My memory of the time thinks there was ten, but when I went a few weeks ago. I was wrong. There were at least thirty. This would explain why it took so long to find his name. I just wanted out. OUT! OUT! The sub was closing in, my brother was running around, my sister was probably trying to find a hiding place, and I couldn't breath. But no, I had to stay inside that tin can while my parents systematically looked for his name on thirty different plaques. 

And they finally found it. 

USS Barbel 

Cook, Ned C. 

I was so happy. We could leave now. I could breath sweet, fresh air, and harbor a grudge against my parents for the rest of the weekend and generally act like an ungrateful 15-year old.

Having been back on the sub, it is very much every nightmare I have in reliving my first experience. But, being an adult, I suck it up, quickly move through the ship, and ask everyone else for their photos.

As for the family tree, the internet has afforded a lot more information on Ned Charles Cook, MoMM, and the USS Barbel. I know that if my grandfather had the internet at his disposal while he was working on the family history, my grandmother would have been hard pressed to pull him away from the computer. It is a true labor of love.

Welsh Guard FO

I've gotten a lot of small cross-stich projects out of the way this spring. Some were smaller than others, but I got tired of seeing kits lying around. I don't know why, because I always have a pile of them, but since they were so simple, it was an easy jump to working on them in order to segue from knitting (a winter project) into stitching (a summer project).

This is one of them. I love the Welsh guards--who doesn't see one and doesn't want to make them crack a smile? And the amazing thing is that they don't--even when they're throwing up they still keep marching.



That's dedication that I know I don't have. If I were on the job and needed to throw up, I'm gone. I'm going home and eating toast and drinking tea.

And for those who know me well, no, that is not Dr. Who's TARDIS in the background. It's the wrong color, and there's no door. It's just the little house that they keep their keys in. (I think that's why it's there, I honestly have no idea.)

As for the frame, that's from Hobby Lobby, procured during one of their frame sales, and the matt as well.

Things I Learned From the Movies: Pearl Harbor

I remember when this movie first came out and I was SO EXCITED. I thought this was going to be the Pacific theater's version of Saving Private Ryan. Man, was I wrong. SPR was an Historical Epic; Pearl Harbor is a Historical Action movie.

Lesson #6: Southern Accents are not difficult to master.

From the kids at the beginning of the movie to the less-than-stellar acting of Hartnett and Affleck, the accents are horrible in this movie. Hollywood underestimates the difficulty of both the Southern American and English accents. Drew Barrymore in Everafter? Not an English accent. It was just an accent. Affleck manages to speak in the hickest, dumbest redneck accent of no particular area in the land. This goes for Scottish accents as well--as long as their unintelligible and unlike Mel Gibson's, then they must be fine. Right?

And where is Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s accent? His character was from Texas.

Lesson #7: Nothing emphasizes the tragedy of war like some slapstick comedy.

Affleck's character, Rafe, is a mess. He somehow manages to get Evelyn through a comedy of errors while getting inoculated. Their first date is also a mess, with his nose getting broken (again), and then nearly plunges the two of them into an icy ocean. This is highlighted by some of his pilot buddies using all kinds of means to get a girl, like stuttering and tears. And the sad thing? It works.

Lesson #8: Revolving doors are dangerous.

Did you see how fast that door was moving when Rafe was saying good-bye to Evelyn? I can't see how anyone could leave that building without losing a limb.

Lesson #9: Want to elevate your film to be art-house worthy? Put in subtitles!

Bonus points if it's in a non-European language. Double bonus points if it's a little known dialect. Points will be taken away if it's Affleck's southern accent.

Lesson # 10: When you are being chased by the enemy, have a video camera handy.

You'll get money for it later on--that is, if you survive.

Lesson # 11: When attempting to run from one air field to another, wait until the planes are not about to attack you.

Overall, apart from fifteen minutes at the middle which should be the heart of the movie, Pearl Harbor was a dud. Instead of focusing on the attack of Pearl Harbor, the movie veers into Titanic territory, with the tragedy sandwiched in between the love triangle of the main characters. The best part of the movie was the section of the attack. The movie would have been more powerful had they focused on the build-up to the attack from the point of view of the military alongside the Japanese preparations. Everything got lost on the focus of the love story.

It could have been so much better.

New Dollar Bill Coins, Yo

Okay, I've been receiving this e-mail from a bunch of upset people:

This new coin came out this month

The U.S. Mint hopes the redesigned $1 coin will win acceptance with consumers.

It does not have In God We Trust on it. Another way of leaving God out.

Send this on and let consumers decide if it will win acceptance or not.

This reminds me of the e-mail I received when I was working at the Disney Store. Apparently Walt Disney, Jr. and Microsoft were giving out free trips to Disney World. Free trips! Do you know how expensive a trip to the World is? It's crazy expensive, so who isn't going to send this on?


Me. Issue #1: There's no way to track who sent the e-mail on or who were the first 1,000 to do so. Issue #2: There's no Walt Disney, Jr.! Walt Disney had two daughters, but no sons.


See the little bits of wisdom I learned?


So, when I received the above e-mail about the new coins, I knew it had to be wrong. Mostly because I had the Martin Van Buren coin (yay! Van Buren, the successor to Andrew Jackson and that may be about it) and looked at the coin when my eyes lit on this:


Cool! It's on the side! And heck, yeah, I'm going to accept it, it's legal tender. It's backed by the government (and not much else). And they're really cool.

So, I did some research, trying to figure out the change. And I came up with this:

(10) In order to revitalize the design of United States coinage and return circulating coinage to its position as not only a necessary means of exchange in commerce, but also as an object of aesthetic beauty in its own right, it is appropriate to move many of the mottos and emblems, the inscription of the year, and the so-called "mint marks" that currently appear on the 2 faces of each circulating coin to the edge of the coin, which would allow larger and more dramatic artwork on the coins reminiscent of the so-called "Golden Age of Coinage" in the United States...

So there we go. Problem solved. Though I do carry around my John Quincy Adams (who shined better after his presidency, like the Jimmy Carter of the 19th century) coin to show my students. It's still there.

Rest in Peace, Socks

News today that the Clinton's pet cat from Bill Clinton's presidency has passed away at the advanced age of 18 due to cancer. Lest we think that the Obama search for a mythical hypo-allergenic dog (they don't really exist!) is the first instance of a presidential pet, Socks reminds us that the president has a family side as well. Pets show us a facet of the highest public official in the land that is not usually seen at press conferences or in controlled interviews. 

And who couldn't love that sweet face? He reminds me of my own cat, Gemma. 

This picture is absolutely adorable. A Presidential Cat--can't do worse than their human counterparts, I'm thinking. It's a tough job. 

So, Rest In Peace, Socks. 

Constantine, Christianity, and "That Dude's Movie Code"

I've been reading Mysteries of the Middle Ages And the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill. I picked it up because I very much enjoyed his book How the Irish Saved Civilization. I picked this book up because I've frequently thought of the Middle Ages as a backward era lacking in education and intelligence. Despite the legends of knights and castles, it's not one of my favorite time periods to read about or to teach. 

My students, however, disagree. They love it. This is the one time period where they are enraptured by everything. So, I try to oblige. Hopefully this book will help open my eyes to some of the more interesting topics that I've skipped in my dislike. 

So far I've found the book interesting, though I still have not progressed past the Roman Empire. Official tolerance of Christianity was brought by the emperor Constantine. I did read an interesting footnote that I couldn't pass up without a mention: 

The depiction of Christianity in the popular thriller The Da Vinci Code as a fraud perpetrated by Constantine not only is preposterous to any reader with a modicum of historical knowledge but rests on melodramatically anti-Christian assumptions. The book's further premise that the Catholic Church sends out Opus Dei hit men to murder anyone who has stumbled on the truth is a straight-forward anti-Catholic libel. And its notion that Jesus fathered progeny by Mary Magdalene is a fantasy lacking the least historical support.

Wow, Mr. Cahill! Showing our bias, are we? Not that I disagree with him, but I haven't come across such vehement rhetoric in a history book before. Someone didn't like Dan Brown's bestseller, which I find refreshing. I haven't read it myself, but I've had enough of people insisting that it's real, with one acquaintance swearing that it opened their eyes to the truth behind the Catholic Church. 

Like I didn't have enough questions to answer about my faith in Baptist Land, Dan Brown had to go and open up the floodgates. That and the questions during my Renaissance unit if that's Mary Magdalene in the painting by "that dude with the movie code." This has made any urgency I felt to read the blasted thing go out the window. 

I did, however, watch the National Geographic special. I am so glad that I kept my subscription.