At the 2015 Washington State Genealogical Society conference in Ellensburg, David Rencher was the primary speaker. His talk, Framing the Problem, was so excellent that I often think back upon and ponder the truth he presented.

David began his talk with this question:  “Have you a tough genealogy problem? Worried you won’t solve it in your lifetime?”  He then taught us how to “frame the problem differently.” Simply put, how to look at the problem differently.  He showed three pictures of the Golden Gate bridge and explained:

If you’re driving across the bridge, you see the bridge from that angle. If you’re in a boat on the water, you see the bridge from that angle. If you’re flying over the bridge in a 747, you see the bridge from that angle. 

David’s point with these images of the Golden Gate Bridge is that, with regard to your tough genealogy problem, you’re looking at the bridge as you drive over it. That’s all you see. But if you were to see it from a boat or from up in the air, you’d have an entirely different perspective. You “must frame your picture differently” and then from that new angle, you might see things that you did not see before.

Does this make sense to you? It did to me. And then, of course, the question follows, how do you do this?

Then David launched into the main theme of his talk to answer this question. “Descendant research.  Some cousin, near or distant might just have the answer you seek.” 

I need not go on and on about “descendant research” for I assume that most of you know what that means and entails. Between Google, YouTube and CyndisList you can find all the tutorials you’ll ever need. Good luck as you “re-frame” your tough genealogy problems. 

Was Johnny Appleseed for real?  Click to this link and find out:

https://waapple.org/johnny-appleseed/

(You may have to copy/paste this link.)

Apple facts perhaps you didn’t know:

Apples are a $2 BILLION industry in Washington. 

Washington grows over 30 varieties of apples….can you name five?

Apple sizing is designated by count—specifically the number of apples that can be packed in a 40-pound fiberboard carton. 

The average apple contains only FIVE seeds.

29 – times you could circle the earth with the apples picked in Washington state

7500- varieties of apples grown around the world

1381 – Year the earliest known apple pie recipe was recorded

4 lb 1 oz – weight of the world’s largest apple, picked in Japan in 2005

95 – calories in a medium apple

Did our ancestors eat apples? Darn tootin. Driving around and trying to find old homesteads, the surest indication that you’re in the right spot is to find an old, gnarled, apple tree. 

‘Vampire’ grave shows 17th-century fear of women who ‘didn’t fit in’

A sharp sickle was placed across her neck, ready to decapitate her should she jolt awake after death, and a padlock was put around her big toe.

That’s what scientists found when they excavated the corpse of a woman they believe was suspected of being a vampire in 17th-century Poland.

The unnamed woman — thought to be young and of a high social class, given that she was buried in a silk scarf — was probably accused of being supernatural because she stood out, experts said. A large protruding tooth may provide some clues.

A professor from Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun said burials involving a sickle are extremely unusual. Archaeologists from the universitymade the discovery in the southern village of Pien in the Eastern European nation last month and published their findings this week.

“Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them and smashing them with a stone,” Dariusz Polinski, who led the research team, told The Washington Post. Instead, in this case, a sharp scythe is “not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up, most likely the head would have been cut off or injured.”

The woman’s exhumed remains are now being studied by Polinski’s team.

Her burial reveals “paranoia” and “fear” around vampires — and the “gender politics” at the time, Stacey Abbott, author of “Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century,” told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree,

Discussing things as they’re said to be.

There’s a certain rumor that can’t be true

That Man descended from our noble race

the very idea is a disgrace!

No monkey ever deserted his wife,

starved her babies and ruined her life.

And you’ve never known of a mother monk

To leave her babies with others to bunk.

Or pass them on from one to the other

‘Til hardly is known who is their mother.

Another think you’ll never see

A monk build a fence around a coconut tree

And let the coconuts go to waste

Forbidding all other monks a taste

Why if I’d put a fence around the tree,

Starvation would force you to steal from me.

There’s another thing a monk won’t do: 

Go out at night and go on a stew,

or use a gun, or club or knife

To take some other monkey’s life.

Yes, man descended—-the onery cuss,

But brother, he didn’t descend from us!

** I found this poem while perusing a old periodical, Phillips Family Finder, in the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society library. It stated “submitted by Esther Freeman.”  I share it with you only because I thought it funny. I know that monkeys are “ornery” too and do bad things to each other (I’ve seen the documentaries) but I never thought of monkeys as “proud.” What about you?