A full day!

Hello from balmy Salt Lake City! Just got in from outside and it's cool, but not frozen cold. Right now 37.

It's been a full day to say the least. Couldn't fall asleep last night until after 1 am. Woke up at 6. That's ridiculous!! So I rolled over and dozed some more until 7:30. Two cups of coffee and a shower and I was in JB's for breakfast. I thought if I ate a good breakfast, I could skip lunch and work straight through until supper. I did! I had scrambled eggs, corned beef hash, hash browns, and sourdough toast with three more cups of coffee. No, I didn't take a nap after that...

I hit the library and went straight to work. I worked on all my project families today. It was hard to plan out because I didn't know where the first pieces would lead. Two projects kinda bottomed out...just no records published or extracted from those locations. I will have to use alternate methods, such as direct letter writing and RAOGK (random acts of genealogical kindness).

I had mentioned that I wanted to research my Common and Cumine/Cummings families from the area around Rothbury in Northumberland England. I started that this evening. Parish records on file start very late, so I thought I was screwed on that. However, I found a book containing copies of The Rothbury Parish Magazine, which was put out by the local church every week in the 1890's and 1900's. In each issue they provide a list of old parish record entries of baptisms, marriages, burials. And they pre-dated the known catalogued records. The earliest mention of Common was the burial of Michael Common, son of Gilbert Common of Cornwall on May 21 1669. One of the other families from that era in my tree are the Joyce/Joicey group, which listed a christening of Christopher, son of William Joicey of Ffarneham on Jan 19 1658. There is also a microfilm copy of a compendium of these Magazine pages, but they are a bit out of focus and not in good order. There is an index to them, but there are multiple sets of page numbers on the individual pages and it is very confusing. Tomorrow I will spend a lot of time on this and see if I can grow the trees back a few more generations.

So I got to the library about 9:30 am and left at 7:45 pm. I went from Mahoning Co. OH to Pittsburgh PA to Edinburgh Scotland to Slidell LA to Carlisle and Ballard Counties KY to Putnam Co. TN to Atlanta GA to Carroll and Maury Counties in TN to Brainshaugh Northumberland England and finally settled in Rothbury Northumberland England. WHEW! I'm beat!

It was dark when I left, and I needed to get out and walk and get some food. I walked around southwest of downtown and passed a couple of places I've gone before. 1) they were packed; 2) I wanted something different; 3) it was nice outside to walk. So I wound up walking toward the Gateway Center and found Cafe Trang. It's a Vietnamese/Asian atmosphere. Wasn't too crowded, so I popped in. I ordered Vietnamese spring rolls with a peanut hoisin sauce and BBQ pork with snow peas with jasmine rice. The spring rolls were fantastic! They weren't deep fried, just a thin rice papaer wrapping around fresh veggies and steamed shrimp. The sauce was excellent! I'll have to get some for home. The BBQ pork was spicy with a hint of ginger and garlic. Not overpowering but bold enough to make you take notice. I had Hue Beer from Vietnam to cleanse the palate. A great meal!

I walked back through crowded streets. Families and kids are all going to Temple Square to see the lights and Nativity scene. I make those tours on Saturday and Sunday evenings....it is beautiful to see. Definitely photogenic sites!

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. Spending all day in the library wasn't a picture site!

Walking tonight and I was thinking, this feels so right. Is SLC in the cards for me in the future???

Have a great evening!