Happy Gaudete Sunday!

Greetings on this third Sunday of Advent!  The priest dons the rose-colored robes today.  Just thing "Pepto" priest!

Getting ready to head to St. Mark's Cathedral for an Episcopal Mass at 8 am. 

Snowing right now.  Snowed off and on throughout the night. 

Will write more this afternoon.

Braced for the Storm!

Well, it looks like the snow is on it's way! The wind has been gusting...I mean GUSTING all night at about 40 mph. Sounded like a train coming through these sliding glass doors in the room. I've been up since 6:30 and the temp has dropped from 46 to 33. They are calling for 4 inches today and three more tonight, and no forecast for tomorrow yet. There is a winter storm warning until 5 pm tomorrow. I look out the window and large gray clouds are rolling in from the west.

I saw where a great man and scholar passed away yesterday morning. Avery, Cardinal Dulles was 90 years old. He was the only American Cardinal who remained a priest. When JPII named him a Cardinal in 2001, he declined episcopal ordination, so he never became a bishop. He was a great theologian and a Jesuit centered at Fordham University in NYC. He was a convert to Catholicism in 1940, as he grew up Presbyterian. His father was Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.

Yesterday was a great day at the library. Started out with a scrambled egg, coffee and a great cinnamon bun. It was warm and had a cream cheese glaze icing. MMMM....

I found some info for my friend Barbara who wanted me to research some of her German and Irish family. And then I found a good bit on this new James family I wrote about yesterday. Looks like my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was a wheelwright and then his son was a shoemaker. All farmers and husbandmen after that and then progressed to coal miners.

Found a section on Lithuania, so going to explore that today. And going to do some piece work on the Bell's and Jobson's. I am going to check out what they have on Slovenia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire as well. There is just so much to do...and with five floors in the library...it's just WOW!

Hoping to go to Lamb's Restaurant tonight. It is billed as the oldest restaurant in Utah! It was started by Greeks (imagine that!) in the late 1910's.

Last night I ate at Squatter's, a brew pub a few blocks over. Had great fish and chips and some killer coconut cream pie. Seems they really like coconut cream here in Salt Lake. Hopefully I'll be able to get some rice pudding tonight at Lamb's!

OK...needing to get going and start the day! Take care and stay tuned for more later! I am planning on going to the Cathedral of the Madeleine for Mass tomorrow and also to another cathedral---Episcopal cathedral of St. Mark for an Anglican service. Haven't been to one of those since UT-Martin days. I hope I can trudge through the snow....

Hello from Salt Lake City!

Greetings from Salt Lake City!

I arrived at 2:45 pm MST yesterday. It is rather chilly here, no snow on the ground other than in those sunless corners. Supposed to get snow tomorrow and Sunday.

It was a good flight but long! I flew from Nashville to Las Vegas--3 hours 45 minutes. And I was stupid and crammed myself in a window seat. I should have sat on the aisle so I could stretch better. But I made it fine and stretched a lot in Las Vegas on my big 35 minute layover.

I was able to see some slot machines at the gate in Las Vegas. I played $2.00 in quarter machine and got zilch. I decided to go one more dollar and Whoa! I won $11.25! So not a bad return on the "investment". I stopped at $3.00. No use losing!

It just getting light now at 7:29 am. The sunset last night was great over the mountains and LDS Temple at Temple Square. I am staying at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, right across the street from Temple Square and next door to the Family History Library.

I reeled through some records last night...this new James family I am tracking down moved a lot!! They were in Long Framlington and then Eglingham and then Edlingham, but I wonder if that is just writing errors since they sound almost alike when spoken in that dialect? More about that below...

Originally, I tied my great-great-great-grandmother, Susan James, as the daughter of George James and Susannah Maule Barnard Booth James born 1806 baptized 1807 in Alnwick. But the census in 1851 says she was born in Eglingham, as does my great-great-grandfather, George Bell. The ages she reported also makes her born 1803 or 1804. When I found George Bell's baptism in Edlingham in 1837, I found references to other James and noted them, but hadn't followed through on really tracing them. Ian Cairns, a Maule relative doing research in England on the big Maule family, recently brought this James family to my attention. So I decided to look at them. There is a Susan James born 1804 in Eglingham in that family. Also her brothers names were George and Robert. The Alnwick Susan had a brother Henry and nor references to George or Robert. On the 1826 marriage entry in Howick for Thomas Bell and Susan James, the witnesses were George James and Robert James. Tracing the newer James family back, the names which repeatedly are used are George, Robert, John, William, Joseph and Mary. The children of Thomas and Susan Bell were John, Mary, Robert, Thomas, George, Joseph and William. Soooo...things are tending to turn toward this new James family as mine. Hmmm....do I claim them, or do they claim me???

Hopefully today will shed some light on things...

I ate at one of my favorite restaurant's last night...JB's. It's here at the hotel. Got my all you can eat fried shrimp and fries for $9.99 and lemonade. Salad, soup and dessert bar also. So I was fat and happy when I hit the library. Later I went to Red Rock Brewing Company and had Holiday Ale. It was a nice spicy brew.

Also, in the James family I elaborated on, the maternal lines are Cumine and Common. So I was looking for them as well, and they moved around as well.

Well, I need to jump in the shower, tidy up the room, go grab a cinnamon roll for breakfast and head next door. Library is open 8 am to 9 pm. It's an all-dayer for me today and tomorrow. Back to Nashville on Monday.

Later guys! Someone did mention the library has wifi, so I'm taking my Mac with me today.

Wish me much success!

Mark

Governor, resign...

An excellent editorial in the Chicago Tribune..

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-chicago-tribune-editorial-1209,0,3482903.story

WOW! What a development!

The Governor of Illinois arrested by the FBI this morning? I knew he was under surveillance, but I think they got him.

Trying to sell a US Senate seat...I wonder what kind of sentence that will be?

Lt. Governor will turn out to be a good guy. I've always liked Pat Quinn, even though I am conservative.

More on things later this evening. I'm back to blogging here again. Got my Salt Lake City trip coming up Thursday and I love letting you all know what's going on with my trips!