The World of Grandpa Don
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Week Ending Friday |
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Or to learn more of Grandpa Don and his remarkable family ...
Many of the quotes found on this page are from the daily messages I receive from Covenant House  |
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Last weekend we celebrated the birthday of the French woman who invented rain. LaRain LaKell. Say the name out loud. ... That's my little joke for the day. (Damn little) Seriously .... it rained.... and then it rained some more. We were in good shape because around my house we only got about 8" and the neighbor hood is well protected with the use of retention areas In addition, my house is near the top of a hill. Others were not that fortunate. But, I don't care how beautiful it is, I would not buy a home in a flood plane.
The entire weekend was devoted to computer maintenance. I started by first trying to repair and then deleting and replacing my McAfee virus protection program. I had been getting error messages that refused to go away. Repairs would not work and even my first attempt at replacing it would not resolve the problem. It is now new and fresh. After that was done I did a total scan of the computer, found and deleted a couple problems and than moved on to the really big job.
Spam was driving me crazy. I had to wade through hundreds of trash and junk every day. Just deleting all of it was very time consuming. I had considered changing my email address but that is a hassle. I have to many things tied to that address and besides, I am sure that the new address would somehow be found by the spammers soon. Filters do not work. The only one that does is the one that only accepts mail to a pre-approved approved list. But I invite people to contact me through this web site and other links so that would not work for me. My computer guru, Kevin suggested Spam Arrest. I registered for the 30 day free trial. Nothing is downloaded to my computer, there is no program running in the background and no software is added. Instead, my Outlook mail server is configured to have all incoming email routed through the Spam Arrest server. I can use their mail system or continue to use Outlook. I had difficulty uploading the names and email addresses of my friends and family as the start of my "approved" list of senders. Some of you may receive a request to type in a code in order to get on my approved list. It will only happen once, unless you use multiple email addresses.
By Sunday everything was working. I will be checking the "rejected" mail each day for a while to catch and approve some newsletters and other mail that may not be on my approved list. Automated responses and such are usually rejected since a machine will not be able to respond to the request to type in a code. I have found that it is not difficult to scan and manually approve these items. By Monday, I paid for my subscription to the service. It is well worth (to me) the small charge.
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If you don’t place your foot on the rope, |
The weekend was not all work and no fun. I met Sarah and Dominick at church. When we went to the RCIA session afterwards, I could not help but ask if Sarah had been complaining to God about the food lately. You may remember that the first reading was regarding the Israelites complaining of the poor food in the desert and God sending serpents to bite them as punishment. Well, a few days ago, Dominick and Sarah found a snake in their bedroom. Sarah said that she now carries a staff with a bronze serpent on top whenever she is in the house. We had a Hobbit breakfast following RCIA. For those of you who are not Lord of the Rings fans, the little people, Hobbits, have breakfast, second breakfast, noon meal, mid afternoon meals, dinner and night time snacks. My kind of people! So, after RCIA, I went with Dominick and Sarah for my second breakfast. It was delightful.
Sarah gave me some genealogy information corrections for her mom's side of the family. I revised my working copy of the Family Tree. Her dad had mentioned that the President of France had Hungarian ancestors and had a connection to the Nagy family. .I had to check and found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Sarkozy#Family_background . I also found, http://www.geocities.com/nagy_name/ . I like the Nagy coat of arms.
Checking my in-box on Monday was a delight. There were only four messages and none of it was junk. One was from William (Chico) Marx giving me information on his parents and grandparents. I immediately entered it into the growing family tree and did a quick search on his grandfather. The 1930 census showed him living with his mother Mary and a sister in Lockport, Illinois. Looking at the original page I also found his grandmother with her parents and her siblings. I then found, on One World Tree, several more generations on his mother's side of the family gong back to origins in Ireland. The census also placed his grandfather's parents' birth in Pennsylvania. This all will generate further research.
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To get a full value of joy you must have somebody to divide
it with. |
A good friend, Sr Gael, responding to the information about my new Spam Arrest wondered why she gets so much spam, ... how do they get her address? Does Spam Arrest work? This was my reply:
In a word ... Spam Arrest Works well. It is a little bit of a hassle to set up --- took me several hours of tumbling around. It will take some time and effort to fine tune ... getting newsletters and wanted commercial mail that is sent automatically an the "approved" list. But ... since almost all Spam is sent automatically and the computer that does it can not read and type manually, so it can not enter the necessary code to get on my "approved" list and is therefore rejected. It stays on the Spam Arrest server for 7 days and then is erased. While it is there I can (and do) scan it for stuff that should be approved and sent it to the "approved" list. The service costs $5.95 on a monthly basis but is as little as.$86.00 for a two year subscription. (That covers up to 5 email addresses)
How do spammers get your email address?
1) People are careless when they forward messages and leave long lists of addresses on the email they forward indiscriminately.. These sometimes fall into the hands of people who will sell the list to spammers.
2) People ask for information on line or "register" to use a web site or purchase items on the web. This includes merchandise but most often games, screen savers, and some software. . Some, not all, internet sites will sell these email addresses to spammers. There are many web sites that are nothing but address gathering devices
3) Some people publish their email addresses on websites so that visitors can contact them. I did this for a long time. "SpamBots", computer robot programs scan web sites for addresses and use them to send spam. That is why we avoid publishing email addresses on the parish web site and on my web site.
4) Some people include their email address in printed publications so they can be contacted. These publications often end up published on the internet. The "SpamBots" will get them.
Most people fall victim to spammers through #1 and #2. Tell your friends to PLEASE delete all the old addresses from the email they forward. It doesn't take much effort and it is the courteous thing to do. And as far as #2 is concerned, don't be greedy. Think twice before responding to that "FREE" offer on the pop up ad for a screen saver, music or game download or whatever. That includes the offers to scan your computer for viruses or worms. They will often leave one rather than help. Know who you are dealing with on line. That is your first defense. And ... never, ever, respond to spam, not even to remove your name from their list. That tells them that their junk is getting to you and they can sell your address to others.
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To be social is to be forgiving. |
Last weekend, Nick participated in his second Cage Fight. He vanquished his opponent in 18 seconds, coming away with a bruised hand while his opponent required stitches. Apparently Nick has trained well and deserves a pat on the back. Kudos to Nick.
Anne Marie, Dom, Anthony and Ashley went to New Jersey on Saturday. They enjoyed New York sight-seeing on Saturday, visiting Elis Island, the Statue of Liberty and more during the day. A helpful cab driver took them to Little Italy and a great restaurant in the evening. Sunday evening the destination was the Sox game at Yankee Stadium. Although our team lost, they had a great time and loved NY. They met friendly people wherever they went. They came home tired but satisfied on Monday.
Joe had stayed home so he would not miss the first day of baseball at RMC on Monday. With the broken finger he would not have been able to practice but he wanted to be there none the less. In spite of his intentions, he came down with a nasty case of the flew and was unable to attend. Marc's team was eliminated from the playoffs and he came home Sunday just in time to replace Joe as bullpen catcher for the Windy City team. I havent heard any details but I know that Dan's girls are busy with track and, for Ana, soccer while Tom's girls are deep into swimming. It is a busy world.
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When the knees are not often bent, the feet soon slide.
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Monday was a day of that "further research"..into the Marx genealogy and I struck pay dirt. Through the US Census pages I was able to determine that his great-grandfather Nickolas Marx was born in Germany in December of 1846 and immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1871. There he met American born girl and raised 6 children. His wife is identified as Rosa. However, in the 1910 census there is a 7 year old nephew named Lewis Bahl living with the family. On the chance that Rosa's maiden name was Bahl, I searched and came across a possibility. There was a Rose Bahl. She was the correct age and both Rosa Marx and Rose Bahl had parents born in France, although In later census records Rosa's parents are listed as being from Germany. One wonders ... Rose Bahl marries Nickolas Marx and he begins to refer to her as "My Rosa". The name sticks. In the 1910 census she identifies her parents correctly as being from France but is subsequent census' either an error is made or a grown child gives the information incorrectly..
If we accept Rose and Rosa as being the same person, then we have found that the great X 2 grandparents of Chico Marx are Andrew (b 1812) and Mary (b 1814) both born in France. We also find his great X 3 grandfather to be Sabastina Bahl (b 1791) who came to live with his son in Pennsylvania..
Phillip A Marx (b Sep 1881), one of the sons of Nickolas and Rosa traveled to Illinois sometime prior to 1910 where he met and married Mary (maiden name unknown) These were Chico's grandparents. They went back to Pennsylvania where Kathryn was born in 1910. Returning to Illinois, Philip Andrew Marx was born in Chicago on December 20, 1911.
Philip Andrew married Ruth Cecilia Brown (1913 - 1979) in her home town of Lockport on 15 May 1936. They apparently lived in that area for a while because Chico was born in Joliet. His sister Margaret Alice was born in Chicago several years later.
I also found a "One World Tree" of the family of Ruth Cecilia Brown. Most of her American ancestors lived in Lockport and and the person who provided the tree documented it by providing the cemetery locations. These include Ruth's mother Margaret Dougherty (1858 - 1942) her grandparents William Joseph Dougherty (1861 - 1945) and Elizabeth Bannon (1861 - 1942), her great-grandparents, James Dougherty (1825 Ireland - 1879 Lockport) and Margret Keough (1833 - 1917) and her great X 2 grandparents Moses Michael Keough (b1796 Ireland - - d1861 Lockport) and Margaret Roache (b1801, Ireland - d1834, Lockport)
The One World Tree did not include the parents of Elizabeth Bannon but a census search found her, her four siblings and her mother also Elizabeth and the fact that she was born in Ireland in 1831 ... but no husband was living with them. That same 1870 Census found an Edwd Bannon living alone in Effingham, IL. He had been born in Ireland in 1831. I did find Elisabeth at the age of 77 living with one of her sons and his large family in Lockport. (1910 Census) Searching the 1850 and 1860 census records provided no insight into the Missing husband although there were several Bannon families found, no names matched our quest.
Going back to the Brown line (no, not a transit system) I searched for the parents of Chico's grandfather, Joseph Robert Brown. There is Census evidence that Chico's great grandparents, on this side of the family are William Brown (b 1847 in New Jersey) and Mary (b 1859 in Massachusetts). Her maiden name is unknown. Trying to filter out our William Brown as a child to connect him to his parents proved to be fruitless amongst all the children of the same age and with the same name in New Jersey at that time. I fear that this will remain a mystery.
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If you are afraid for your future, you don’t have a
present. |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY times two this week. Both my sons married girls with the same birth date. To add to the coincidence, both girls have mothers with the name of Marilyn, the same as it turns out, as one of my sisters. So we send good wishes to Karen and Diane.
The destruction and water damage continues to be fought both in Texas and the Chicago area. Interstate 80/94 continues to be shut down for a long stretch north of the Illinois/Indiana border due to the flooding of the (not so) Little Calumet River. One group of people who were staying in a motel because their homes had been severely damaged by a tornado a couple weeks ago had to be evacuated because of the high water and now can't get the few belongings they salvaged from the first disaster. At was a double whammy for them. Please Pray.
The cable guy came Wednesday morning. Or was it the Telephone man. In any case, he came in a cable company truck and wired me to get my phone calls from the now TV/Internet/Phone cable. AT&T is now disconnected. It works like a charm and will cast $20/ Mo less. And ... I have more features than I had before.
When I came home from Bible study Thursday I checked my email and my phone. There were voicemail messages for me but the email announcement that should have been there about the voice messages was absent. Later I found two of them among my "blocked" email messages. OOOPS, I forgot to authorize them in SpamArrest. That has now been corrected. Now I will get email notification of telephone voice mail and can listen to them via internet. A great feature for travelers. Every day I find an email or two that has been blocked and needs to be authorized. It will take some time to get everything sorted out but all good things take some effort. The SpamArrest website makes it easy to scan the blocked mail, mark those which should not be there, authorize the senders for that message and all future ones and then delete the rest. This is how I add automated mail to my "Approved" list. I make a point of doing this the first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. At some time down the line, it will only need to be done once a day and then, only when I sign up for something new.
On the subject of Spam and such, while working on other things on Thursday, my McAffy Security program (furnished free by Comcast) popped up to inform me that it had found and removed a Trojan Virus in my computer. It is nice to know I have good protection. .
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If there is to be any peace it will come through being,
not having. |
Today, Friday, was one of those days that the bed felt too good to leave. When I heard Mikey stirring around, his polite way of waking me, I told him to go back to sleep. When I heard him again it was a little after 8 so I got up. Before I got downstairs I herd the lawn guys doing their thing. I let Mikey out and he did what he had to do, quickly returning to the door.
After breakfast, we both went out, this time to settle in on the patio to soak in the beauty of the day and commune with God and nature. It was delicious, so much so that I refilled my cup of coffee and extended my stay. Some of the flowers have completed their blooming but the Asters are resplendent in their delicate lavender attire. I wish there were more of them. I had to force myself to leave my little bit of paradise for the confines of the house but I must finish and post this page.
I have spared you any of my politics this week. .... Your welcome. We have been busy considering the weather and its effects. Interstate 80/94 is now open, the flood waters having receded a bit. Families are still kept from their homes and it is even worse in Galveston. We pray for them. The financial situation is still in turmoil. Some say the government should have done something. I blame it on greed and carelessness. When will we learn to live within our means. The President of our company at the time once told me that the only difference between a rich person and a poor person is that the rich can owe more. Yes indeed. That is food for thought.
By this time, Kelley Villa, Sarah Albano's Sister is having her surgery.
Please join us in praying for a successful procedure and quick recovery,
not only from the physical trauma but the mental anguish it entails.
We see hurt and problems all around and we are concerned. We should also
be concerned that it does not overwhelm us. There is also the good and
the beauty. It is the nature of this world that one does not exist
without the other. To all I send my prayer and wish ... Long Life ...
and Prosper.
Too blest to be stressed.
Too anointed to be disappointed.
Too overjoyed to be annoyed
Grandpa Don
Plefka
. Links
of the Week
Following the link is ...
the name of the person who led me to it.
Anne wanted everyone to be 'Nice'.
This button was in one of
her dresser
drawers I cleaned out in August of 2004
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