Our Feathers and other pithy translations.

My dearest friend, a thoughtful and caring man, leaves me a note on Google talk before he leaves for church in Brownsville, Texas, each Sunday morning.  I arise in Orange County, CA, a short time thereafter, get my coffee and go to the computer to read my morning greeting.  Oh I should probably mention the notes are almost always in Croatian which I do not speak or read.  I use Google Translator.  This is the best translator I have found on the internet but what with the dynamic shifts of our languages, especially with the internet, translation is a huge challenge.  And so there are bound to little slip-ups.  As in one of my lovely Sunday morning messages which the Translator told me  said:

 "Embrace the finches!  Happy mischief!  I'll see you after church."

Did I mention that the reason he leaves a bit early is because he is the pastor?  Now tell me if you could have kept from spraying just a little bit of coffee reading that one.

The thing is you just have to be kind of careful when you are using a translator and understand that what it is telling you may not be exactly what was said by the sender....quite.  I have found that the best policy is just to let people know first thing that you are using a translator.  That way if it comes out stupid, it isn't your fault.  And sometimes even if it is you saying the occasional really stupid and inane remark, you can blame the translator anyway.

Here is a translation of a comment left on one of my friend's YouTube videos:

"Hello dear friend, to sorrows were not enough to doubt lacking, Crazy, have fun, przymrz.  Eye, and smile broadly. Sieze every good moment to remember later miles.  laugh out loud, do not shred the head, then success is ready.  I wish wonderful day."

While causing a good bit of head shaking (no shredding mind you), you really can't help but smile at that.  Though I doubt that it expresses quite the sentiments intended.  The thing is, the internet has opened the possibilities for us to talk to people from all over the world in many different languages and then given us the tools (translators) to make it work.  AND the thing is, we have to learn to think to check up on those translators and not blindly accept every word as final.  Our sense of humor can make this whole thing a delight and a  journey of enlightenment and surprise.  I encourage others to get out into the international waters after getting to know their translator.    One thing the contributor above might have wanted to do was to check Google Translators suggestions.  This translator often gives you suggestions for other ways to say something in your translation that might be better.  Every language has ways of saying things that are more familiar to its users than the absolutely proper way.  It's a useful tool and helpful.  And if I joke about it please notice I am still using it.  So let's say we share the humor among friends.  As did my friend, unwittingly, when he reminded me not to forget to say my "Oče naš, koji jesi na nebesima".  And the translator advised me not to forget my "Our Feathers, who are in heaven".  Humor.  The people of the world talking to each other and humor.  Could it get any better than that?

Effie's Quilts

My Grandmother had a huge bedroom in the old house.  It was part bedroom part work area.  And it seems now to me that there was almost always a quilt frame up there.  Her quilt frame held about a half of a double bed quilt.  And something was always going on there. Her name was Effie.  No bit of fancy or bright or unusual material escaped Effie's stash box.  Effie made quilts.  She called them "crazy quilts" but each was a witty, whimsical piece of original art.  My father and grandfather's old neckties were a favorite material of hers.  I remember in particular a little black felt Scottie dog on the satiny background of a red necktie that I had always loved to see my father wearing.  His tail was up and you could tell it was just about to wag and his little button eye had a glint to it.


As a young woman Effie had gone to "normal" school.  That's what they used to call teacher's colleges.  And, yes, there were institutions of higher learning that just taught how to be a teacher.  They were nearly all women's colleges.  She was a teacher and a very good one.  Her best friend had been Katie, the wife of a local attorney.  Katie had many children (eventually 10) and all had been Effie's students at one point or another.  All except the last one.  And baby Katie and her mother died within a few months of each other.  Katie's husband Alfred was just decimated.  And Effie mourned for her dear friend.    Effie helped A.L. (as he  was known) with the children as much as she could.


A.L. and Effie were married about a year and half after Katie's death.  If they weren't head over heels in love with each other then love surely grew between them because by the time I came along they were certainly devoted to one another.  My mother, Harriett, is their only child together.  Elizabeth is the daughter of Effie's sister who died when Elizabeth was just a baby.  And then Elizabeth was theirs.  She just came by a little different route to get to be their darling daughter.  So Effie came home from her wedding to a household with 6 children still at home.  If she wasn't accomplished at household skills then, she got that way pretty fast.  But she was teacher and a good one.  And she could manage children.  Two essential points for her situation.


I asked her once why on earth she would marry a man with that many children?  She looked at me and said, quite honestly I believe, "I was either truly in love or just plain crazy, don't know which."


We have already talked about her stationery.  And how she wrote to everyone and kept up with them.  She also volunteered at church and was in the garden club and the ladies aide society.  And she had all those children to raise.  And this woman had a husband who by that time was the district judge.  And whatever social obligations attended with that were taken care of in good order too.  He was a very happy husband.  How she did all that I don't know.  But I do know that I don't complain about having too little time without thinking of her.  There was always time to talk to a child, I know that.  My Uncles and Aunts have told me that.  And she made quilts too!  Wonderful magical creations.  One for each of her children (she had no "steps" in her mind, they were hers).  


I learned how to embroider and do hand stitching on one of those quilts.  Don't know which one.  But there was plenty of practice to be had.  I imagine quite a few other little girls in our family did as well.  "Aunt Effie" (and she was everybody's Aunt Effie) never turned down a little girl's willing hands, trained or not.  She was always happy to show another one how thread a needle and hold it and how to stitch.  


My Aunt Ruth, Uncle Arch's wife gave me hers after I was all grown up.  She found out that I never got one.  Effie ran out of time finally.  And I treasure that quilt and I love my Aunt Ruth for her good heart and treasure her memory right along with my Grandmother Effie's.  Just a memory, but a very happy one.


Until next time, happy searching!

Stories

I just love a good story, don't you?  In putting this blog together I have done a lot of thinking about stories.  Family stories, the very best kind.  They are true, at least as true as a person's memory, full of humor, pathos, sympathy, empathy, sorrow, joy, anger, happiness and most of all love.  When I started down the path of looking for ancestors, I thought I would find a few stories and rubbed my hands together in expectation.  I never expected veritable river of stories and information that began to flow right to my electronic front door.    In fact, I was going down for the third time, drowning in new information when a cousin I had just met through her own constant genealogical search, grabbed me out of the uncontrolled flood and set me upon a nice dry organized path  I have found so many wonderful stories on that path that I will be sharing with you.  Many of them are my stories, many are your stories.  And if you have ever tried to find an Aunt Susie from Peoria, this is your personal story.  


If you start trying to find Aunt Susie with any seriousness at all, expect to meet new people, not just discover past family members.  There are cousins out there who like you want to find out about their family and they will find you!  That is a really good reason why you should always document ancestors you find before you decide they are a "keeper" for your family tree.  I had met and enjoyed so many cousins I never knew before.  And some I knew as a child and lost track of completely.  It has been wonderful.  And because I did document each new addition to my tree, I knew they really were my cousins.  Oh yes,  I went down a couple of wrong paths at the start.  It is so exciting when you first go into Ancestry.  It seems like it will take about a week and you will have your entire family history down.  WOW!  Whoda thunk it?  Then you discover there were really 3 Susies in Peoria and only one of them was really your missing Aunt.  Uh oh.  And that's when you learn about documentation and chasing down leads and census information and all those magical terms.  You are on the road to being a genealogical researcher and it's fun!  The discoveries are triumphs.  And it can get tedious too.  It's like popcorn.  Not all the seeds pop.  But the ones that do are really good.  I will look forward to your comments.  I will guide some future scribblings from them so let me know what are your likes and interests.  If I don't have direct experience with them, I can guarantee that I have friends who do.  Happy searching.