Many of you know that we moved from Kansas to Tampa in January, which has been the biggest source for my absence.  Additionally, I have had quite a few issues with my computer.  All should have been well in March when I got my laptop back, but within a couple of weeks, I had somehow corrupted my Windows so I then began working on getting the backup I had made the first time around back off my computer and onto my external hard drive.  Of course, after retrieving the back up the first time, I wanted to organize my files and wipe the external drive clean to start over.  Wouldn’t you know it that the external drive then decided to go kaput on me!  So, as I am typing this, things are moving a bit slow, because I now have the back up working on the external drive that Best Buy replaced the kaput drive with!  I have about 42 GB backed up out of a total 50+ GB, so hopefully by morning I can get back to repairing my Windows so I can install my genealogy software and start to get busy!

In addition to all of these computer issues, I have started a wonderful new job that I absolutely LOVE.  The one thing that I miss about my last job, though, is that I don’t have any time for personal research or a quick blog post while I am at work!  Not to mention that I am now working 2-3 hours longer than I did while working in Kansas, so by the time I get home, I’m pretty drained.  If I didn’t have this long weekend, I probably wouldn’t have tried to see if this time I could get the back up going right!!

Now for a few brief details about the stuff you all really care about - Corel Genealogy!

• In January I was contacted by a Salathiel descendant!  He is descended through John Morgan Salathiel’s sister and technically not a Corel Cousin, but it was so exciting anyways!
• In early May/late April, I was contacted by a McGee and imagine my surprise to learn that he is descended through Henry Highland’s daughter Louisa who married Tom McGee!!  Thankfully I did have cousin Diane’s email address in my phone and I was able to hook the two of them up.  I haven’t been able to dig into the attachments yet, but I am pretty sure from the emails I’ve read, Diane has pretty much figured out the entire connection!  Now for why I am so very, very excited about this development: While working on the pages for Henry Highland’s children, I spent a week or two digging through every database I could think of to find where Lousia and Tom had gone after their marriage!  I had even tried following some of the details that Agnes Salathiel had left in her manuscript on the family history.
• Now for the sad news - I’m pretty sure that those of you who haven’t heard for sure have figured out that the Corel-McGee family reunion has been canceled for this year.  :(  We were planning on still going through with it, but as most of the actual work would have fallen on my Grandma, and since she and Grandpa have had a pretty trying year, it was decided to wait until next year.  Plus, by then, all of us who have moved to Florida will have some vacation time so we will be able to be up there for more than a few hours before having to head South once again.

This is about all I have for now, but I should have more to share soon!  I’m hoping to have my computer all fixed up and loaded with my genealogy files by the time I go back to work on Tuesday, so I can get back to researching as my after work relaxation!!

As you go about your Memorial Day celebrations tomorrow, please take a moment to not only remember our ancestors who served our country, but also remember those who are valiantly fighting to protect our way of life today.  God Bless them all and keep them safe.

In November we learned that Mom had sold her house and she would be moving to the Tampa area to be closer to Michelle and her family.  After some discussion, it was decided that Rick and I would join her!  The next two months were quite hectic, but on January 13 (a day later than planned!) the three of us drove out of Kansas and headed to the Sunshine State!

We arrived at our new apartment on January 15 and have managed to get settled in these last two weeks.  I have discovered that my laptop is a bit ill, so I am in the process of getting my valuable info off my hard drive before giving it to Toshiba to fix.  I am so happy that the hard drive problem is covered under the warranty!!  I am happy to report that I have managed to save my genealogy files, but I am still struggling getting some photos in between the crashes.

It may remain a bit quiet here on Corel Cousins until I manage to get my laptop back, find a job, and get those trips to the beach out of my system!!  Don’t give up on me, though… I did manage to renew the site just before we moved, so I will definitely be back! 

Another issue has been my inability to concentrate much as well.  I have gotten some emails from my husband’s line and some new photos of his great grandparents!  It is so very exciting to be able to give this to my husband, who didn’t even know the names of his grandparents when I started researching!

Since I haven’t been able to get much up on the website in general, I will be participating in this month’s Smile for the Camera, so be looking for that post this week!

I can’t wait to get my computer all hooked up and set up so I can sit and do some serious work. I’ve truly missed working on our family. Unfortunately, I don’t have some of the software I need here at work to be able to do what I need to complete Rebecca Ann Corel McGlothlin’s photo archive pages. Soon, I hope…

Mom (Connie), Michelle, and I are preparing for the Relay for Life on June 22. The following weekend we are all going to the Lake of the Ozarks with family friends. The next week will be the 4th of July! Hard to believe how fast time is moving, isn’t it??

Following the 4th, is something else that is important to me…

Now is the time where Michelle will roll her eyes!!

This past fall, I became addicted to an awesome new television show, Jericho. It is set in a fictional town named Jericho, Kansas and is about a town surviving the aftereffects of a nuclear “attack” on the United States. The show was on Wednesday nights at 7PM central on CBS. It apparently did not do too well in this timeslot, so the show was canceled. This upset an enormous group of viewers, which led to what was known as a ‘Nuts’ campaign against CBS. More than 40 thousand pounds of peanuts were sent to CBS through one supplier alone! Yes, I know that is a bit strange, but there is meaning behind the message.

Some may recall that during WWII’s Battle of the Bulge General McAuliffe responded to Germany’s offer to surrender by saying “Nuts!” During the season finale, this story is told, and when Jericho is offered to surrender to a neighboring town wanting to take over their farms, the star responds with “Nuts!”

By the end of the day that CBS announced that Jericho was canceled (May 16), some of the fans thought of an idea to send nuts to CBS in protest. Within a week, an online supplier was found who helped with the cause. Oh yes, for anyone concerned about the misuse of so much food, CBS is donating the nuts to our troops overseas, homeless shelters, and the Bronx Zoo. On June 6, the president of CBS announced that Jericho would return during the next season and that the first season will be shown in reruns during the summer. The first episode can be seen on CBS on Friday, July 6th at 9PM eastern, between Numb3rs and Ghost Whisperer.

I enjoyed this show because it makes you think. It is something that is completely plausible in today’s world. There is no sex, no excessive language, and no graphic violence. Yes, there is a war, but I’ve seen much more graphic violence watching old ‘war’ movies. The true theme for the show is community, and how in times of crisis we can come together as a community. I have not seen a show showing Americans coming together to help each other in a very long time. This show even reminded me of the America I was brought up to believe in. Please do not misunderstand me, I love our country, and I always will, but there is no denying that many things have happened over the past ten years and that this country is not the same place it was 15 - 20 years ago.

OK, I’m done with my preaching. Hope to make it back soon with new genealogy pages and questions…. Remember, if you get an opportunity on a Friday night, please watch Jericho!

We have been so busy planning and preparing for this move, that genealogy and this website has become a very low priority. Mom keeps telling me that it’s OK to have a life besides working on this website, but I still feel bad about it! Surely by now you all realize how much of a perfectionist I am, and when I can’t juggle it all, I am the hardest critic of all! I know that you are all understanding, and if there is someone out there who isn’t, well, all I can say is, too bad (well, Mom and Michelle know what I would really say, but I do try to keep this site clean and unoffensive!!)!!

I am still checking my email several times a day if there is anything anyone wants to ask or share, please feel free. If it’s a question that requires much thought, I may forward it on to Bobby or Diane, hoping that they will have time to answer it for you!

I have the photo page for Rebecca Ann Corel McGlothlin half done, but there is a problem with the layout. I don’t know what happened, but I will try to get that up by the end of the month. May not be the finished page, but at least you will get to see the photos!

Well, our big move is the first weekend in June. I already have the cable guy scheduled for that Saturday between 11 & 2, so I will not go very long without having a connection to the internet!!

I am taking a vacation the week after we move, and Michelle and Abby will help me unpack and get everything settled. With Michelle’s help, I figure we might actually get it done in hours, not days! If it works out that way, I am already excited about how much space I will have to spread everything out and really get into documenting and creating this site! So, at the earliest, major updates will not be returning until probably about June 5.

A few blogs ago I indicated that we were having some struggles in the Hawk household. I would like to thank all of you who offered me so much support. It is all looking much better now and I am very excited about the future. I keep harping at Rick that this move is the start of a new lifestyle as we are ’simplifying’ our lives.

I hope that all of the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day. As just an Auntie, I had a super day spending time with the Mothers in my life and I’m looking forward to doing it again with the Fathers in June!

Once again I am so sorry about having to put things here on hold, but I do promise that it is temporary!

If any of you have seen a river rise from flooding, you may not be very impressed by my photos, but I must admit that seeing how high this River has gotten, was quite a shock!  Especially when you get to the dam, an eastern view from Interstate 435.  On May 2, two or three cranes were removed from the area.  A few years ago, this dam looked as though it was made from a bunch of gravel that had been dumped in the Kansas River to form a road across the River.  This spring they have had the cranes down on the river, I’m guessing to build a better dam.

The creek in the photos is most often just a trickle.  Now it is completely flooded.  The photos from May 8 show the highest the water has gotten that I have photographed.  Unfortunately, the 8th was also the day I forgot my camera and I took the pictures with a cell phone, which is why they are a bit grainy.

The land of our ancestors, in Lawrence, has flooded, but not to the point of getting into houses or trapping anyone in their homes.  The fields are what have flooded.  I was pretty worried about the land in Lawrence, because the news has compared this to the Flood of 1993 more times than I can count!  That flood did cause quite a bit of damage, but I do not understand why they are comparing the two.  In 1993 we had rain nearly every day for over a month.  This experience has been from less than a week of rain, but the news did report that within 12 hours on Saturday, several places around the area had in excess of what the normal total is for the month of May (about 5 inches).

One other thing I’d like to let you all know is that Rick and I will be moving the first weekend in June!  I am quite excited about that!!  It does mean, however, that the site will continue to crawl along, at least until early - mid June.

Hope you are all having a SUPER week and no one is in fear of floating away!!

To see the site that started this idea, you can go here. 

To see what others are saying about this idea and their opinions, you can go here. 

Links

First of all, you will notice on the Home Page that the ‘Interesting Links’ section has disappeared! I have created a new page under the Corel Cousins Info, Links. This page will include not only the ‘Interesting’ links, but also links of pages where I find information on the subject I am researching for any of the updates. As well as the ‘direct’ links that I use for content of the site, I will include the ‘home’ page of the site so users can conduct their own searches of the various sites I find. If you see anything that should be included on the Corel Cousins site that I missed, please let me know! These pages are really put together rather quickly and I may accidentally skip over something equally important that should be put into a different section of the site when I am focused on the section I’m working on.

Corels by Chance

I had struggled with how I would include the Peart family into the site. The Peart children were living with Rebecca Oney and William Corel in Jackson County, Missouri during the 1850 census. In later years, the three children can be found living with different Corel children in the Kansas Territory. I must admit that I do not know a lot about the Peart family, but knowing that they were a part of the Corel family has me wanting to learn more about these three children. I hope that Shawn will help me when I start working on that page!

Matney

Before the ‘crash’ this week, I had completed the Matney page. You can find some great Matney links on the Links page, too! I have found quite a bit of conflicting information, such as when did Brooks Matney die? Also, I have found more than what is posted on the Matney line, but at this time I have decided to leave this page as it is. More is likely to come as I delve into the next generations of Corels!

Dobbins

Although this is not my direct line, I must admit that I am quite thrilled to know that I am related to a family that participated in history the way the Dobbins family did. If you haven’t a great deal of time, please take a moment to read what I have written on the Dobbins family and look at the photo album I have added for them as well. When you do have the time to sit and read a fascinating story, be sure to read Bobby’s essay Four Generations of Dobbinses.

Researchers

Yes, I know, this is not a new section, but I have made a change to this page after a few requests. Now, when you click on the image of the email addresses, your email program will automatically open for you to be able to send an email to the researcher.

Questions & Comments

Not a great deal of questions this time, but I always love to hear how you feel about the changes I make to the site. Do you like them? Does it make it easier to find what you are looking for? Do you have any suggestions on how I can make this site even better?

My own personal comment is on the side menu under ‘Corels by Chance’. I have tried to make the names be in alphabetical order, but that isn’t working so well right now. I know what needs to be done, but I need to have time to just sit and work on that for awhile. Perhaps this weekend I will be able to get that fixed!

Also, Rick (my husband) complained about the coloring on the blog. I finally figured out how to get more options, so I chose this layout.