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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Saturday Stumble-upon

The last few weeks I have stumbled upon some new information.

Early in July I went out to cousin Vida's and scanned a bunch of Workman family pictures.  There are still many more photos and bits of information to scan and collect out at Vida's farm.

Then, another Workman cousin, Claire, stumbled upon my website, Penny's Genealogy Pages. Claire in turn sent me copies of several articles on a major explosion at a Edward Workman house in Watertown, New York in 1922.  The explosion, which killed 8 children and caused damaged for two blocks in every direction, was caused by unexploded artillery shell.  Claire also sent a letter that was written by Philip Workman to his sister Barbara (Workman) Schrode.   I'll be returning the favor and sending Claire some information.

Today, while catching up on some genealogy blogs, I learned of a neat show on the History Channel called "How the States Got Their Shapes" based on a book by Mark Stein.  The description of the show intrigued me.  Unfortunately, it didn't look like the show was going to be re-shown on the History Channel any time soon. Then I discovered the show in pieces on YouTube.  I watched all the pieces and learned (maybe re-discovered is a better term) that our state borders were etched out based on natural resources, transportation/commerce, technology, and equality.    Here's the first piece of How the States Got Their Shapes.



Thank you, Claire, Vida and the genealogy blogs, for my recent stumble-upons!!

2 comments:

  1. How the awesomeness of the past shall forever--and most delightfully--intrigue us all!

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  2. Nice to find myself mentioned in the "Saturday Stumble Upon"! I think everyone interested in family history would like to make a connection with previous generations-maybe a similar look to an earlier family member's photo, a place we can visit that connects us to our ancestors, or a similar experience. I think I found a simple connection in Philip Workman's letter. It's the word "punking" that he uses to describe a newspaper article that he's sending in his letter, meaning that the article is worthy or substantial. I remember my mom and aunt using the word "punk" to describe defective fruit. "The apples aren't much punk this year." Of course "punk" has a different meaning now, but that word did connect the generations for me.

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