Chinese flu: say what you want, but this doesn't give me a lot of positive vibes about the Pfizer vaccine. From "90% effective" to "maybe" a reduction of 50% transmission between humans. Link here. Yes, I understand "effectiveness" vs "transmission" is measuring two different things, comparing apples with oranges, but the American public and the editors of The New York Times won't be able to sort t out. At the end of the day: two weeks ago, we had a vaccine that was 90% effective; yesterday, we are being told, loudly and clearly, "maybe 50%."
On another note: The creepiest commercial ever? This is exactly what the Germans did when Hitler was gassing people in concentration camps: the Germans ignored it, sat at home, on their couches. Link here. Maybe I'm missing something.
On another note: I might have mentioned earlier on the blog that I recently brought home the largest Apple desktop iMac currently available. Wow, impressed. I'm sitting here typing on my workhorse, an old MacBook Air, with an iPhone monitoring our oldest granddaughter's water polo tournament, while watching the Masters on a huge Apple screen.
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A Musical Bio
Link here: Hedy West. From the bio:
In the autumn of 1970, she moved from Great Britain to Stony Brook. She picked her elderly grandparents' brains for scraps of musical memory.
From The WSJ, yesterday, by Ann Podd: "My Family Tree -- and How I Found The Stories Behind the Names."
Interesting to read but not particularly noteworthy.
The three steps when compiling the family story:
- establish the scaffolding: the family tree itself;
- map geographic locations;
- capture interesting stories.
That was the takeaway from the article.
This was perhaps the most helpful advice Ms Podd provided:
I stopped and gave myself a two-year deadline and two goals. First, I would preserve and share the most important documents and photos so they weren’t lost with me. And second, I would limit my research to direct ancestry lines starting with our four sets of grandparents, determining: where their original hometowns were, and in what countries; why the original immigrants left; and what happened to them and their children when they got to the U.S.
It seems so obvious now: Once you focus on a smaller number of names, and know what you’re looking for, you have a task you can get your arms around. You can see the beginning, middle and end.
Most interesting: what Ms Podd did not tell us (unless I missed it or it was implied): how she presented her finished project. I had the impression her final project consisted of the following:
- numerous Rubbermaid bins with archival material that she did not catalogue;
- numerous 3-ring binders with document-protected memorabilia;
- a single 3-ring binder with the various family trees
If so, they Rubbermaid bins will end up in her attic or basement; her 3-ring binders will end up on shelves in her house. To which no one will have easy access.
Maybe she did this but simply did not tell us: use the web. Blogs or websites are perfect for family genealogy projects. Send the links to family and friends and invariably you get corrections and additions.
The second thing: scan / photograph everything. The more you have, the more challenging it is, but in the end it is well worth the effort.
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Another Musical Interlude and Bio
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