With the holiday season looming, you may want to ask Santa for a DNA test kit or perhaps gift one to a special person. Most people are interested in their family ethnicity even if they aren’t genealogists. Ethnicity tests (autosomal DNA) are offered by a variety of companies.
The first line of well-known poet and author Lewis Carroll’s poem, “The Hunting of the Snark,” reads “Just the place for a Snark!”.
Quand j’ai commencé l’école a Grand Isle, les bonne sœurs on commencer de nous enseigner le chinois. Well, c’tais pas du chinois, c’tais d’l’anglais mais c’aurais pu être du chinois en cause que nous autres on connaisais pas la difference entre le chinois pi l’anglais. C’est deux langues que personne parlais par che’ nous.
They were a sign of hope in spring, a source of shade in summer, a riot of color in autumn. Now they’re on the ground, challenging you to take care of them. Leaves.
Is there a Fille du Roi in your family tree? If you have French-Canadian ancestry, the odds are strong that there is at least one or more of these Daughters of the King in your family.
For decades, the University of Maine System has seriously underinvested in its statewide physical plant. More than half of academic spaces and three-quarters of residence halls have not undergone real renovation since students used slide rules.
Recently several Canopy Crew members assessed what needs to be done to give the landscaping in front of the museum/chamber building on Main Street a facelift.
Le monde change sous nos yeux, tu sais. Quand j’t’ais un jeune homme a Grand Isle j’me r’semble que l’monde étais plusse débrouillard qu’asteur, you know?
In the past I’ve debunked the claim that names were changed at Ellis Island. You still hear this story but it never, ever happened. Whatever name was on the passenger ship list was the name the passenger gave when they embarked.
Recently I chanced upon what I call the Case of the Missing Death Certificate. In Maine it’s not unusual to be unable to find a death record prior to 1892. Town clerks usually recorded marriages, but death records were normally left to family Bibles and tombstones.
