#52Ancestors - So Far Away

This week I'm going to talk a little about one of my descendants for a change.

My older daughter Donna was married to Micah Simonson.  He was in the US Navy and was stationed in Guam from 2010 to 2013.  If you don't know where Guam is, it is in the middle of the western Pacific Ocean - four hours by plane from the nearest continent of Asia. 

One of Guam's sayings is "Where America's Day Begins" because it is the first US Territory west of the International Dateline.  It is 15 hours ahead of Central Time which meant we had to plan our skype times carefully.

View from the Naval Base in Guam - Donna Simonson, Kimberly Nagy, Amanda Nagy

My younger daughter Amanda and I visited Donna and Micah in December 2011.  While there, we toured the island and learned a lot about Chamorro culture.  Guam was invaded by the Japanese early in World War 2 and there are a lot of battle sites and museums there.  There is still a large Naval Base and Air Force base on the island to help protect our interests in the Pacific.

Guam is a tropical island - average temperature is 87 every day of the year, and it always seems to rain in the afternoon.  It felt similar to Hawaii - the beach is just a few minutes away.  In fact, just as we tend to view Hawaii as a honeymoon destination, Guam is the honeymoon destination for couples from China, Korea and Japan.

I was glad to have the opportunity to visit this tiny island on the other side of the world.

Wisdom Wednesday - Attending #SLIGAcademy

To continue with my pursuit of genealogical learning, I decided to attend SLIG Academy this year.
SLIG is the Salt Lake Institute for Genealogy and is celebrating their 25th year of providing intensive one-week courses.  SLIG Academy is a second week devoted to professional genealogists.

The course I signed up for is "You're Invited: Public Speaking From Concept to Delivery" coordinated by D. Joshua Taylor.  Having heard him speak several times previously, as well as taking a course from him at GRIPitt last year, I knew it would be a great course.

The week opened with a welcome breakfast for attendees in all seven of the Academy Courses.  The entertainment at breakfast was provided by members of the Debra Bonner Unity Gospel Choir.

They provided a rousing start to the week along with celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. on his holiday.  Everyone was moving and clapping along.

Then the coursework started.  Day one consisted of lectures on topic development, marketing, publicity and responding to call for proposals.  And homework....

On Tuesday we discussed preparing syllabi, negotiating contracts, and all aspects of copyright consideration.  Then there was a reception at the nearby Ancestry Progenealogists Office.

Today, we will learn about tailoring our presentations to different audiences, as well as different types of speaking engagements.

We will have opportunities to give a talk to the class - one with slides, and one without.

Later this week, we will work on building presentations and how to survive the inevitable disaster.

#52Ancestors - Favorite Photo

I've been very lazy about blogging lately.  I'm hoping that Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestor challenge will help get me motivated again.

This week's prompt is "Favorite Photo"  - this was hard to choose but I picked a darling photo of 3 children and a goat.

This was taken in 1924 in Toledo, Ohio.  Apparently there was someone who traveled around with a goat and a cart posing for photos.  My grandmother saw the opportunity and posed her three oldest children (the others weren't born yet) with the goat.

Pictured are the three oldest children of  Jessie Marie Hill Ormsby Kern, born 8 October 1895, died 20 March 1963.

She married Harold Basil Ormsby (26 April 1895 - 4 April 1919) in 1916.

After he died, she married James Harold Kern (19 March 1884 - 23 Jan 1944) in 1923.

Pictured are (left to right) -

Wilma Jane Kern, (9 October 1923 - 19 January 2000).

Donald Edward Ormsby, (30 December 1918 - 2 July 1988).

Charles Victor Ormsby, (1 April 1917 - 16 September 1996)