Spring!!

Spring, glorious spring! It may, finally, be here. Today was warm and sunny and brilliant! It's the kind of day that makes me wish I still smoked so I'd have an excuse to go outside more often. Not that I can afford to start that again. It never ceases to amaze me how many of co-workers love that nicotine (which I dearly miss, lo these last nine years ~ never start, quitting is too horrid). The "healthcare system" for which I work strictly forbids smoking on company property. There is a gathering of people at the property line several times a day.

After the last snow, I entertained fears that this would be a year without summer. Today, though, ooh la la. I revel in days like this, when it gets above 50°. And it's Friday!!!! And I have a three-day weekend!!! And, best of all, this is the day we remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us. This is a truly beautiful day.

Good Friday, sad though it is, always makes me rejoice. As a child, I confess, it was mostly in anticipation of the Easter basket. As an adult, it blows me away. I have no doubt I could take a bullet for my husband or any of my children ~ but crucifixion? Followed by three days in hell gathering the no longer damned? Oy vey! How can we not rejoice that He loves us that much?

Today's genealogy tip: Try misspelling. Lots of immigrants are illiterate, as their literacy improves they may change the spelling. Some folks Anglicize their names (Grandpa Jäger became Jaeger then Yaeger in just a decade). Some folks never change the spelling, they get lost because the government employee can't spell. Bureaucrats never ask, "How do you spell that?" They just guess wrong. I knew which my Maurer ancestors lived in in 1860 but could not for anything find them on the census, even with Soundex. They lived near Great-great-grandma Maurer's sister, Mrs. Gasow. I finally searched for Gasow. Nothing. Then I tried a Soundex search for Gasow and found Gausau. The next farm over was Maier. The names & dates matched those I knew and I found some children I never knew of before! Jackpot. Had I tried a Soundex search misspelling Maurer, using Mauer, a common variant, I'd found them five years earlier.