My great grandmother divorced his father, remarried and never spoke of the man again.

My great great grandmother did that.

My sister and I got my dad the genome kit from National Geographic for Christmas.

That is so cool, Calli! Did the $99 fee include the test as well? It was a bit unclear to me from that site whether you'd have to pay another fee to get the test done.

Mostly Irish here. Since we have so few quaint holiday customs, I actually dig the St. Pat's pinching game but I haven't pinched anyone since school days for reasons evidenced by the folks upthread who said what they'd do to anyone who pinched them...

I'm cooking a full Irish dinner tonight. (I love corned beef, but it's not Irish. It's an Irish-American tradition because they couldn't easily get ahold of Irish bacon to make bacon & cabbage which *is* traditional.) I started the tradition in college because I was really tired of the kitschy green beer aspects of the holiday. I'm not a teetotaller but I'm not the type to make drinking the point of any get-together. So I have friends over for an Irish entree, side dish, dessert and Irish Coffees (which are also an American invention, but I dig 'em). Tonight it will be a beef stew with typical Irish ingredients (I'd make Irish Stew but I'm not a big fan of lamb), a vegetarian version of same, colcannon and apple crumble. I forgot to pick up red cabbage and ingredients for Braised Red Cabbage which is a pretty damned good dish. I'm not a big fan of most vegetables including cabbage and I'll eat this dish.

Today shall consist of much cleaning since the workmen managed to do something AGAIN which got a mix of wood, lead paint and other hazardous things spread in a fine dust over everything, including stuff in the cupboards. It's also a struggle to cook because I still haven't found some of the kitchen equipment they moved months ago.

I hope vw is okay and gets better soon.

Thanks to Grandma E's genealogy search we discovered my great grandfather's name and the misspelling, which isn't a big deal. She also found the county he died in but that's it.

I've always wanted to try and go digging and find out about him. My great grandmother was truly horrible woman so I've always wondered why they got divorced.

My father had a great-uncle who didn't know how many brothers and sisters he had. He came over on the boat with his parents from Ireland, and was always unclear on how many siblings had been left behind and who survived and who did not.

Dad doesn't have that excuse. He just fails to mentally file any information marked "family" as important.

I know he was told the information. He probably needed it when dealing with the paperwork following his father's death, and I know from my mother that his aunt, who she thinks was named Janet (and may have lived in William's Lake), was at the memorial. I had some information from Gram, but a: I lost the paper I wrote it on; and b: Gram was an unreliable narrator, so while Dad's dad's mother MAY have been a Ross, I have no supporting data.

My great great grandmother did that.

One of my great-great grandmothers remarried, and her children from her original marriage were all given the stepfather's last name. The only reason I know what the original last name was is that Gram's cousin Stella told me, and I was able to confirm it with UK census records.

Brenda, thanks for the update on vw. I'm glad she's getting the help she needs from us.

Ancestory: English, French, Scot, Ukranian and German. Might be a touch of Native American in there, too, but I've never been sure of the veracity--it could have been my grandfather just joking around. According to my mother it was joking, but then half the family never realized they were part German. My great-grandmother had been born in the Ukraine of pure German immigrant stock and they just assumed she was Ukrainian. Mom paid attention and figured out the German part by talking to my grandfather. While everyone else was busy taking Russian languages in college, mom took German and nobody could ever figure out why! Duh.

Did the $99 fee include the test as well?

Yep. I think there may have been taxes that pushed it up to $106, but it was a full-service thing. After you send off the cheek scrapings you can log into a site and track your genomic sample's progress through the typing. It's kind of fun.

Brenda, thank you for checking on vw and letting us know.

I forgot today was a holiday until we were heading out the door. If anyone tries the "Hey! You're not wearing any green!" thing on me, I will stare at them and say "Yes, and? You're going to do what, exactly?"

Non-genealogical question:

I need an opinion on a birthday present for my best friend. She's really hard to buy for, and I thought -- I should send her flowers for her birthday (which is this coming Tuesday).

Now, flowers, of course, can be sent by anyone -- family, friends, etc. -- but are mostly associated with being sent by an SO. She's single right now, and has been for a while, and really REALLY hates being single.

If I send her flowers, will she get all bummed that they're from me and not an SO, or will she like them?

Or, rather, if you (collective "you") were her, what would you think? *I* would be thrilled, but I'm easy to please.

Steph, I would be thrilled to get flowers, but then I like getting flowers from just about anyone.

I'd be thrilled. Get her flowers.

Jilli: gmail was acting up last night, but I wanted to tell you that the Mineral Basics foundation is nice. I'll decant you a bag of it.