August 29th, 2012 | Genealogy, Memory, Time Passes, Travel, United States
In genealogy, I have found, it is always easier to see a connection than prove one, to imagine a family than establish one, to design a tree rather than allow it to grow. When we attempted to track down my Dear One’s Lithuanian progenitors, for instance, an...
August 28th, 2012 | Genealogy, General, Memory, Society at Large, Time Passes, Travel, United States
The headline of The Scranton Times on December 9, 1914 read THIRTEEN MINERS KILLED, Dropped Dynamite Blows Bottom Out of Cage. Actually there was no dynamite. The elevator that carried miners up and down the Tripp Shaft at the Diamond Mine had a rotten floor....
May 28th, 2012 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, Education, Gardens and Gardening, General, Health, Shopping, Travel
The fragrance of Lithuania in May is lilac with a hint of lily-of-the-valley. It is best not to start a two-week vacation with a fall and a sprained ankle. It is worse to start a two-week vacation with a fall and a broken ankle, so count your blessings. Wherever you...
May 27th, 2012 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General, Travel
As it turned out, all the rooms were good and Lithuanian food is just plain delicious. Choosing hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, gîtes/self-catering apartments is something of a crap shoot. You start with the essentials: parking and free Internet. You move on to the...
May 25th, 2012 | Gardens and Gardening, Genealogy, General, Memory, Politics, Time Passes, Travel
Well we traveled from Maryland to Lithuania to learn more about my Dear One’s progenitors and all we discovered was that his maternal great-grandmother’s name was “Prana” not “Orene” (as it appeared to my eye in a scribble on a ship’s manifest). Apparent that “O” was...