Saturday Update

So hot that I fell asleep on the couch last night, with the TV on and all the doors and windows open. Halo nudged me awake about midnight, because he wants me to do the normal night routine, and situate everything properly, and then sleep in the bedroom.

Some guy on the internet might be interested in the puppy, and also a neighbor (she is, but her husband, not so much). It's really a nice dog, and is blossoming with the care she's received.
The no-kill shelter is fully booked with animals, and won't have room for any more puppies or small dogs.

Modern Tech On The Cheap

I finished the e-book Gotham, an exhaustive, 1200 page history of New York City up to 1898, and just downloaded and started re-reading The Great Gatsby.

I really like this android tablet, and mostly use it as an e-reader. It cost a grand total $74 delivered, for a fully functional little Wi-Fi computer.

I'm not an early adopter, but I do love my modern technology. I would prefer real books, but an e-reader gives immediate access to everything published.

Another fun gadget is the media computer, hooked up to the internet, of course, but also to a fairly decent rotating antenna on the roof. A tuner card in the computer acts as a dual dvr, and I can record and watch anything aired on about 30 broadcast channels within a 70 mile range. I don't have cable or Netflix, and I don't pay for anything, but it's great for me. I've never felt the need to pay for a downloaded movie or TV show, some stuff I can download for free, but there's always something interesting to watch in the queue of prerecorded programs.

My TV setup is a little subversive, and the cable and satellite conglomerates don't want you to know you can get free over-the air and internet tv and movies, and pop a card into a computer and have your own dvr, with no monthly service charges.

On Genealogy

I spent some time on ancestor.com, and traced everybody* back to Europe, except my one great-great grandfather, born in New York state in 1826. When you get that far back, I think you have to go to church records and such that aren't on the internet.

His name was George Washington Majory, and I believe his grandfather was a Revolutionary War veteran from Massachusetts. I can't find definitive birth records online, but it's a rare name, and all the Majorys in Massachusetts seem to be descended from a John and Benjamin Majory (Le Mesurrier), cousins from the Isle of Jersey who came over about 1640. Benjamin's father was born in 1590.

One married a woman that emigrated in 1624, 4 years after the Mayflower. Those were the starving times and often these people that survived eventually had 3 or more spouses. These were the Puritans, and my ancestors may have been French Huguenots.

I wrote to a Le Messurier, still on the Isle of Jersey. He was into geneology, but he hadn't heard of my ancestors that came to New England early on.
He told me the church records over there are pretty spotty, and many have been lost over the years.

*except a maternal great-grandfather. His wife died young, and his two sons were raised by her family. I couldn't find anymore on him after that point.

I just found a reference to a Majory in Edward Randolph's 1680 report on the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was listed as a military man who was loyal to the King.