More Ancestor Sightings.....

I spent some time recently starting a little story about one of my collateral ancestors who had always interested me. Then, while googling, I discovered someone else had already put a story together and had done it so much better than I could ever do.

In a nutshell:

Two of my 4th great grandfathers were brothers, Jonathan and Ebenezer Zane. Yes, this makes me my own 6th cousin. There was another brother by the name of Isaac. When Isaac was 9 and Jonathan a couple of years older they were captured by an Indian raiding party and ended up in the Wyandotte camp of Tarhe. Tarhe adopted Isaac and Jonathan was returned to his family. Tarhe had married a French girl reputed to be of the Durant line. Their daughter Myeerah was a childhood friend of Isaac and when Isaac came of age the two were married. He was 18 and when their first child was born Myeerah was 14. Isaac returned many times to his birth family, but always came back to his beautiful Indian bride.

I won't get into it all here, as it has already been done for me - Click here and follow along with the story of Myeerah and Isaac.

Myeerah

There are a lot of interesting links. Enjoy.

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Myeerah
Isaac Zane
Wyandotte
Jonathan Zane
Ebenezer Zane
Tarhe

Genealogy Update

Darling
Deierling
Direling
Drierling

As this is Mother's Day and I have been working on my mom's genealogy I thought I'd post some notes I have made regarding her grandfather's family. I wish she was alive so I could share this information with her.

I have been spending the last few days chasing after a possible relative (if I am correct he would be a great-uncle) through the archives of the Federal Census. The last time I worked heavily on my family history I had to go to the LDS Library in Oakland and load up a roll of microfilm on a viewer and crank and crank and crank. Nowadays you just log in to ancestry.com ($$$) and put info in a search engine and voila! - up pops your information, along with a (usually) very readable copy of the original document. Nice!!

This latest endeavor started with my thinking about my mom's grandfather, Gottleib Darling. I had done a little research on him many years ago, but became discouraged, especially as mom promised me I would find nothing, that they had known little about him prior to his life in Lancaster, Ohio. Years ago, in a 1912 book "History of Fairfield County Representative Citizens" I found an article on Gottleib's son Jacob (a son by his first wife) which included the following sentence.

Gottleib Darling was born in Bavaria, Germany, a son of Philip Darling, who came to the United States and died of yellow fever at New Orleans, in 1848.

So, we thought we had at least one more name beyond Gottleib....but, maybe not. First, that sentence is ambiguous. I am not sure it means Phillip came to America in 1848 or he died of yellow fever in 1848. Secondly, there were other relationship errors in the article and I have always taken it with a grain of salt. In addition, there is the matter of how the name was spelled. "Darling" is how it evolved in America, but what was the correct German spelling? Darling, Direling, Deierling, Dearling, Dueuerling all all variations I have seen.

So, with the new internet technology available, I went looking for Phillip. I used the Deierling spelling for a couple of reasons:

In Elmwood Cemetery, Section C, Row 36 there are three graves for babies who had a short life -

Deierling, Clara, d. Apr 20, 1862, aged 9M12D
Deierling, Mary Alice, d. Sept 1863, aged 8 yrs
Deierling, Charles L., son of G & M.A., d. Aug 9, 1864, aged 4M1D

So sad, all the little children who died so young in those days. My aunt and I visited Elmwood Cemetery many years ago and she had not been aware of these youngsters. Elmwood is very old - here is an interesting website regarding the place -
Elmwood Cemetery

Also, I have Gottleib's signature and there are enough letters before the 'ling to sink a ship. One of them is an i.

First of all, I found what might be Gottlieb's immigration record. Name is close, Gottleib Deuerling. This Gottleib arrived in New York on Aug 15,1853 at age 25 (check). Port of Departure was Le Havre, France, Place of Origin was Bavaria (check) and the ship's name was "Tempest". I also found his name in the Index to Naturalizations of Fairfield County, Ohio. Naturalization 1860 and the name is spelled Gotleib Direling. This, I am sure is my Gottleib. I am currently attempting to find out where to obtain copies of his naturalization papers as they will surely answer the question as to whether I am correct on the immigration of Gottleib Deurling being my guy.

So, on to Phillip for awhile. One of the great features of ancestry.com is that they have census records for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1900 through 1930. In the 1870 and 1880's I found something interesting. There seemed to be three "groupings" of Deierlings that interested me. Mine in Lancaster, Ohio, a Phillip Deirling in (of all places since I am moving to Wisconsin soon) Watertown, Wisconsin and a Jacob Philip Deierling who was in Schuyler County, Missouri. To be sure, there are also some Deierlings in Washington state and scattered about, but they didn't seem to fit in with the three larger pockets.

Jacob Phillip was born in 1816 in Bavaria.
Phillip was born in 1822 in Bavaria.
Gottleib was born in 1828 in Bavaria.

I have information on Gottleib and his family, of course. Jacob was a farmer and he had at least 7 children who married and also had very large families. There are still Deierling's in Schuyler County, Missouri today.

Now, Phillip has become my passion. Why? Because I can connect this Wisconsin Phillip to Phillip Deirling in New Orleans. New Orleans birth records Index shows two children born to Philipp Deierling and Barbara Langenbacher. Heline on 8/21/1855 and Charles Moritz William Deierling on 8/8/1857. Next, I found Phillip in Watertown, Wi in the 1870 & 1880 census but with a different wife and new children...but Heline is still there..right age and she couldn't be a daughter of the new wife, Charlotta because Charlotta is much younger than Phillip. Still not proof because all the children are listed as born in Wisconsin. Spend considerable time trying to find 1860 but finally was successful - the name was spelled Dearling.

There is little Heline (Helena) age 5 and this time she was born in Lousiana. HooRay!! But, to throw another interesting tidbit into the puzzle, there is another young girl by the name of Elizabeth who is 11 year old. Who the heck is this? Would have made her born in 1849 and it states she was born in Bavaria.

More later........

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Gottleib Darling
Genealogy
Deierling
Direling

Just a couple thoughts rattling around my head this lazy Sunday.

As we watch the media swarm all over Anna Nicole Smith I found a statement that hit home with me -

The media frenzy drives ratings and ratings drive profits. Truth is too often too boring.....Lin Wood

Link to article by Attorney Lin Wood on the subject of "media frenzies". Very interesting read.

freespeech


It is all about the money in the end. It doesn't matter whose lives we destroy as long as the ratings soar and the corporation coffers overflow.

There was a Yahoo! Answers question recently where someone asked who watched Fox and who watched CNN. It was interesting to see how both sides were adamant the other side had an agenda. And, of course they do. It is extremely hard to find places to find unbiased, accurate, un-spun news anymore. I answered the question that one had to watch both, evaluate the spin and do further research before making a decision.

Speaking of Yahoo Answers, Clay Aiken has a Question as Ambassador of Unicef -

What can we do to get more Americans committed to supporting programs that help children?

Take a look, there are lots of interesting responses and a few days left to post your own answer.
Yahoo! Answers

Don't forget to catch Clay on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Valentine's Day, February 14th.

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Yahoo! Answers
freespeech
Journalism

The Clay Aiken smear process continues. Sigh. Frankly, I am tired of the whole thing as it is so patently absurd. Perez Hilton and other gay gossip mongers really do not display qualities I would deem appropriate for a gay role model. At least, I hope not!

It is frightening, however, how this smear campaign parallels what is going on around us all the time. When we hear something on Fox news, or anywhere else for that matter, do we take the time to research their sources? Do we even notice if they have even quoted any sources? And, if the piece of news seems cockeyed to us, how many times does it have to be picked up by other media, friends and associates, etc. before we come to believe it is true?

I want to cite a debunked news story from the past couple of weeks that is politically based. It has to do with Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton.

From Obama's website -

In the past week, many of you have read a now thoroughly-debunked story by Insight Magazine, owned by the Washington Times, which cites unnamed sources close to a political campaign that claim Senator Obama was enrolled for “at least four years” in an Indonesian “Madrassa”. The article says the “sources” believe the Madrassa was “espousing Wahhabism,” a form of radical Islam.

Insight Magazine published these allegations without a single named source, and without doing any independent reporting to confirm or deny the allegations. Fox News quickly parroted the charges, and Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy went so far as to ask, “Why didn’t anybody ever mention that that man right there was raised — spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father — as a Muslim and was educated in a Madrassa?”

Link - Barack Obama

Further information on the debunking of this lie can be found at an interesting site I found.

Link - Snopes.com

Wait, it gets better. Enter the conservative talk show hosts who then proceeded to report that the Obama story was leaked by Hilary Clinton!!

Summary: Melanie Morgan, Lee Rodgers, Rush Limbaugh, and John Gibson all forwarded the accusation made by a website controlled by Rev. Sun Myung Moon that Sen. Hillary Clinton was responsible for spreading information linking Sen. Barack Obama to a madrassa, or Muslim school. None of the four cited any evidence, other than the article, that Clinton was responsible for promoting the madrassa story, and the article cited no one by name.

Link - Medidamatters.com

Well now, the debunking of this story has actually been highly reported on. CNN, I am sure, delighted in breaking their expose as it shows their competitor, Fox, in the poorest of light for perpetuating a story without checking sources. But, how many people now have a half buried thought that there could be something valid about the story even though it was proven inaccurate. After all, where there is smoke, there is fire. Right?

This kind of thing has been going on forever, of course, what is an election without smear campaigns? How does this relate to Clay Aiken? Well, it is basically the same thing, make something up that is calculated to destroy his fans belief in him . Rally together some team members (haters) (talk show hosts) and get the word out over the internet. The gossip mags and media will pick it up and pretty soon the main stream press is reporting it as news. And, no one along the line has done any checking of sources.

I have decided to rely on my own instincts as regards Clay Aiken. I watched him on AI, I have been to many concerts, I have read his book "Learning to Sing", I have listened to many interviews and watched him on countless tv talk shows and I have met him briefly in a Meet & Greet. This isn't "knowing" him, obviously, but my instinct tells me he is who he says he is and that's good enough for me. Always has been.

Some other interesting blogs I can recommend:

A heartfelt essay on Clay's journey from AI2 until today, the 4th Anniversary of Clay's AI audition.
TheConCLAYve

And, the 911 blog has a new entry that is thought provoking.
Claymate 911

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Clay Aiken
Tabloid
American Idol
Fox News
Smear Campaign

AI6 - Is it my imagination or are the judges even meaner and the contestants even wackier than last year? Or, is it like childbirth, and we somehow forget the pain by the time we get to the finale?

I watched the last two nights, and on some level I am ashamed of myself. Did I cringe, you bet!! And I read a magazine and turned my attention away from the screen as soon as I determined it was another bad singer. Why do I even have it turned on? Well, I honestly don't know. Maybe hoping to see a first glimpse of the next winner. I can tell you I enjoy it much more when we get past the abusive period.

Perhaps next week I will TIVO it and fast forward past the nastiness.

Now, I realize the auditions are not real. I know those bad auditions are staged. AI wouldn't take individuals who are horrible singers and/or have non-conventional looks and/or possible mental and psychological issues and string them along and put them on TV to be humiliated by the nation. Would they?

Tis perplexing. I also don't understand those that come back year after year to be humiliated. Well, those people obviously LIKE to be humiliated, and those that know they are put through as a joke, those who agree to be a laughingstock for a few minutes, I have no problem with them trying for a few moments of "fame". They signed up for it and get what they are looking for. Don't they?

What I really worry about are those that appear to be a little unhinged; I hope AI, in their eagerness for ratings & revenue, isn't causing actual pain above and beyond what is necessary to kindly inform those individuals they aren't right for the show. They wouldn't, would they?

Each year since the first I watched, AI2, has become more manipulative and contrived. I wonder if AI hasn't finally jumped the shark. It was lots more fun watching this cute singer guy evolve than anything I've seen since.



Clay knocking them dead at the finale of AI5

The claymate911 blog has been updated. Check it out. claymate911

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Clay Aiken
American Idol
AI6

I am a fan of Clay Aiken. As a fan I follow his career. I go to concerts, I watch him on TV and I read about him in the media.

As a fan, these are the things I am supposed to do. And, it is enjoyable for me - it is a hobby to add to my many others.

Unfortunately, this hobby has given me a sad lesson in learning the truth about today's press and the media. Because of my "Google alerts" and the fact everything Clay does seems to be "in the news" I have discovered that I no longer believe what I read or see in the news.

I watch Clay Aiken on TV or in an interview and then I read what is written about what I have just seen and find it's spun into something completely different. And the nastiness? Unbelievable. I have been wanting to blog about this, but haven't been able to put the words together. In the last couple of days two blogs have been posted that I would like to share. This first one was posted on Clay's Official Fan Club Blog and is reposted here with the permission of the very talented author. Thanks for writing it and thanks for letting me share it on my blog.

01/13/07 : Public Relations or Media Integrity Issue?

“We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.” ~ Carl Bernstein

Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine recently wrote a review of Clay Aiken’s latest single A Thousand Days in which he barely spoke about the song itself, the music, or the artistry but stated, “Aiken's challenge at this point is more a public relations issue. As press reports continue to spread repeated tales of his lack of humility and haughty, diva-like disposition, how much longer before fans retreat and any semblance of radio support fades like a Christmas wreath?”

Press? I contend that Clay Aiken doesn’t have a public relations issue as much as our society has a journalistic integrity issue. When did rumor mongering become tantamount with journalism? Why is credence given to faceless blogs and gossipers? The internet, while a powerful resource is also like the Wild, Wild West of old where there are no rules and anything goes. Where faceless people hide and are spreading malicious rumors as fact and where publications that once researched before reporting, such as Newsweek, are now using the plethora of gossip sites and blogs as legitimate news sources.

“The media tends to report rumors, speculations, and projections as facts... How does the media do this? By quoting some "expert"... you can always find some expert who will say something hopelessly hopeless about anything.” ~ Peter McWilliams

I recently watched the debut of a new show starring Courtney Cox-Arquette on the Fx channel called, DIRT and it scared the hell out me. The show depicts the goings on at a tabloid called DIRT and “shows” all the machinations of how they get their stories. I found it to be very realistic and saw that IF you are a celebrity and someone has it in for you, they will stop at nothing to trash you, right or wrong.

I wrote about this subject in my blog almost a year ago and it is sad that in this time, not only has the issue not gotten better it has gotten worse. When the likes of Perez Hilton and TMZ.com have become more mainstream and are made credible by being given a forum on radio and TV, we have a problem.

“Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone. It depreciates their reputation and yours.” ~ Brian Koslow

If Clay Aiken has a public relations issue it is ONLY because sensationalism sells and ALL the good, legitimate stories of his compassion, his philanthropic works and the stories of how he has changed lives for the better are deemed not newsworthy.

I am sorry, but would a “diva” perform a concert while suffering from vertigo so badly they need help to just stay upright? Would a “diva” visit elementary school children and reward them for writing a book about one of their classmates who lives life with a disability and the lessons they learns from her? Would a “diva” take the time to film a public service announcement for a local children’s choir who shared the stage with the orchestra with which he was performing? Do “divas” worry about making a difference in the world? Do “divas” graciously spotlight and encourage those with whom they share a stage? In my experience the answer to all of these questions is no.

It is a shame when society and the media have made it so easy for people who have experienced disappointment, based on their own contrived expectations, are allowed to publicly berate and trash another person solely based on twisted opinion of facts. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

“Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.” ~ Ayn Rand

It appears to me that many have decided to be evil.

The second blog that I recommend can be found here : claymate911

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Clay Aiken
Journalism
Tabloids
Internet
Chuck Taylor
Perez Hilton
Jeff Varner
Scandal
Diva

Sorry, haven't blogged in awhile....but couldn't resist this.

'nuff said, don't ya think?

Some other recommended blogs:

Something that Really Happened

Conclayve

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Clay Aiken
Kelly Ripa

So You Think You Can Dance? - Gosh, It's been so long since I've blogged so have to catch up on some things I've been doing. When tickets for SYTYCD became available I was able to snare one pit ticket and one in row 6. To get two together would have put us way back in the theatre. So, my daughter in law and I didn't sit together and we exchanged seats at intermission so we both could have the treat of the pit ticket - but we had a great time and the show was great.

I got a lot of pictures....don't know what was wrong with me, I do know how to take pictures, but I was so entranced by the dancing I just couldn't distance myself enough to set the camera for sports mode so I just took pictures in still mode. LOL.



Ivan was one of my favorites during the show. I love his personality!!!



Travis and Heidi.



Benji and Donyelle



Benji and Travis made a great team and did their dance from the show!!



Ivan again!!! He was very entertaining !!!



Not terribly sharp, but I kind of like it !!



Benji was great as an announcer and, of course, as a dancer. Such a goofus sometimes, ya gotta love him.



I like this one of Travis.

It was a very energetic and fun show. The crowd had a good time and it was over much too quickly.

A little slide show of all my pictures.


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So You Think You Can Dance

New Clay Pictures !!!!!

Well, of course I couldn't help it. With these beauties in hand I decided to do a 100% picture scrapbook page. Wish I had the high res pictures, but these will do.



Don't forget to check out Clay's new single, Without You.


Clay's My Space


or, some prefer Fanscape as the audio is even better -

Fanscape

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Clay Aiken
ATDW
Digital Scrapbooking

My first Northern Cardinal pictures
I was raised in California where Cardinals do NOT visit and so, when I moved to Arizona, I was excited to discover Cardinals frequent the SE part of the state. Now, I'm kind of in the central part of the state, but I had my fingers crossed.

I saw my first one in a restaurant where they had a bunch of bird feeders outside the window. Then, one day a few months ago I heard a different bird call and went to investigate what it was. I'm not good at identifying which bird call is which, but I knew this was not one of my usual woodpeckers, cactus wrens, etc.

There was a cardinal sitting on my hanging bird feeder. I almost tripped over myself getting the camera and catching a couple of so-so pictures. I only saw him twice and he was gone.

One of the pic's is kind of nice after I PS'd it a little.


Today's scrapbooking challenge was colors again. This is the color pallet.



Hmm. Wanted to do something with a bird pic today but these colors didn't seem to go so I used the blur feature in PS filters to get a random blurred background and went from there. Not sure if it really works, but I kind of like the effect. And, I used all the colors from the challenge. They're there. Honest.

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Clay Aiken
Photoshop Elements
Digital Scrapbooking
Birding
Cardinal

My first from scratch scrapbook project. Awhile back I enrolled in "Photoshop Elements Techniques". It's a website that has lots of information, tutorials, downloads, etc. for Photoshop Elements. The scrapbooking pages I have done so far are from kits and/or some creativity on my part. After doing a couple of tutorials on this new site, I have come to realize the power behind Photoshop products. I don't know how deep I will get into it as I am basically not artistic, but I have committed myself to wading through all the tutorials, etc. and hopefully some of will stick.

The tutorial I did today was to create a cutout, basically for a picture frame. Frankly, the instructions were not good, either in the tutorial or in the instructions for using Photoshop Elements located within the product. Point in fact, the tutorial called for using a shape for the cutout. Now, I knew what a shape was, there is a pull down where you can pick generic shapes to use as a cutout or frame or whatnot. But, I needed to go get a shape from an Adobe site. The instructions said to download it and install it by going to Edit, Preset Manager and loading it in through there. There WAS no shapes in the pulldown - brushes, patterns, etc. but no shapes. I clicked here and I clicked there to no avail. So I went into the forum and sent a note. Good thing I mentioned I was a blond, because when I got back to my project low and behold the new shapes were there in the pulldown. But they went away when I went back to my default shapes. What had I done to get them there in the first place? After some experimentation, this time I paid attention, it seems you click on the shape file and it temporarily puts the shapes in your pulldown. Now, this makes complete sense as there are probably lots of shapes I might want to download and use, but they would clog up my pulldown menu and probably affect computer performance if they stayed permanently. (Sort of like having 10 gazillion fonts installed - who?? me??) But, boy....you'd think they'd tell a person this. Once I had this licked I was back to the project and the next wall I ran into was a problem in the tutorial....the author was assuming I knew things I do not and that I would know I had to create a new layer for my "shape". LOL. It took me hours to complete the following, which I don't even care for particularly, but I did it ALL from scratch, including the pattern on the background. What you see here is what some digital scrapbooking sites call a Plopper - all you need to do is insert a picture between the parchment layer and the background and add some journalling and/or embellishment.



Oh, the shape, of course, is the peacock. Yah know, I don't even think I have a picture that goes with the frame. ROTFL....

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Clay Aiken
Photoshop Elements
Digital Scrapbooking

Jasmine, my adopted Siamese cat is a pretty good subject for photographing. She seems to like to pose. So, I was playing around today and made this page for her. Blue is definately her color.



Jazzy has all the typical Siamese characteristics....loves to talk. She never lowers herself to play with Baby Kitty's toys, but if you are careful she doesn't see you, you might catch her swat carelessly at a catnip toy...her head held high. Some more pictures in a little slide show.


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Clay Aiken
Cats
Digital Scrapbooking

Clay comments on a scrapbooking site - I often post about the digital scrapbooking challenges I participate in and my last one I uploaded was Clay (as are most of them). When you upload the scrapbooking pages they are then available for view by other members and they often comment. The last one drew 7 comments, 5 of which went like this:

Nicely done. While not a huge fan of his (I'm more into country music), he is such a cutie, and the pics you've chosen to showcase are adorable!

I have heard of him but thats it , he is a cutie i will say that and great LO.

Great LO. While I've not heard any music from him in awhile, I still like him (and still think he should have won!).

This is a great layout ... could be a great promo for him! (Maybe you need to send him a copy!)

Great job with Clay's photos! I TOTALLY agree! He SHOULD have won but in the end he is the winner....he;s doing better...lol...

So, heck.....todays challenge was a simple layout with a main pic, three small ones, some journaling....so I uploaded this:



Well, I figure....if only one of them decides to go out and buy it I've done my part!!!

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Clay Aiken
ATDW
Digital Scrapbooking
ATDW

A Thousand Different Ways

We have snippets!!!! My jukebox is now updated with snippets of all 14 songs on A Thousand Different Ways which will be for sale on Sept 19, 2006. In addition, the album cover has been confirmed and although I posted it in my previous blog, it's so gorgeous I just have to post it again.




Enjoy the snippets. I cannot pick a favorite at this point and desperately want to hear the complete versions!!! Broken Wings and Lonely No More are especially screaming at me...

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Clay Aiken
ATDW
A Thousand Different Ways

Gah. Last week we thought we had the album cover picture.

Love the picture, Love the bold typeface...... I am getting very excited about this album, I think it will surprise some people, fascinate some people, and entertain us all enormously. And, I certainly hope the "actual" album cover is even more striking than this one....cuz I like this one very much....

Although I have added a link to Clay's myspace account to the sidebar on the right, I want to put the link here Clay Aiken MySpace and I recommend going to listen to what is reported to be his first single off the new album. Notice I didn't say it IS the single off his next album as we haven't heard it from either he or RCA. I wasn't too sure about "covers" because of the negative value placed on the WORD covers. I have purchased cover albums and have always enjoyed hearing a favorite artist singing songs I have loved in the past. After hearing this song I can't wait to hear the rest of the songs, because "Without You" is stunning.

Hopefully, this album will be embraced by the fans as well as the general public. I think it will, the heavy promotion at Walmart in their SoundCheck series should be huge in first week sales. A few television promo's and appearances and we should be good to go. I get to see him in Hollywood at the Jimmy Kimmel show on 9/26!!!!

Check out my new counter for days, hours and minutes until the release of the new album.

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Clay Aiken
ATDW
A Thousand Different Ways

Baby Kitty & the Lizard. The other day my (formerly) sweet and innocent kitten brought me a present, which she dropped right at my bare feet while I was sitting at my desk. The present immediately started to scurry around and I launched myself onto the top of my desk, getting those bare feet out of the way. As my camera was on the desk, I got a few pictures before I felt it was time to intercede and rescue the critter. Baby had to be locked in the laundry room as she was beside herself with the joy of the hunt and I was able to sweep the lizard back out onto the patio. I loathe the things, mostly because they can move so fast. Anyway, here is a little slide show of Baby Kitty's day.


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Clay Aiken
Cats

Clay's New Album. Finally, last week we got a press release and a song list for the new album, "A Thousand Differant Ways". And, then we got some pictures and a promo on ET with some more stellar pictures and images. Wow. Still, we haven't heard him speak. There are those who are wondering when the new hair will speak. Hah, maybe it won't. A sorta 2006 sexy male version of the Greta Garbo " I vant to be alone" personna. Nah, just joking, but there is a sort of mystery forming around Clay that is enticing and romantic.

Naturally, I had to do a scrapbook page......




As one DJ has been reported to have said, Hubba Hubba

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking

Yesterday I tackled cleaning out a closet that had my camera equipment. I never throw anything out if I can help it, but in anticipation of an upcoming move.....no, not to Charleston as previously stated - but that's another blog, I have been doing some discarding. My original "serious" camera was a Minolta Rangefinder that I dropped in the surf in Hawaii and ruined. I did keep it for many years, thinking I would cough up the money to have it fixed, but I finally (cries) discarded it. Now, I see I have my second camera, an Olympus OM1 that took all the great pictures of my son growing up and my Canon Rebel EOS, which I truly loved, my original digital camera, an Olympus was stolen and I replaced it with a Sony, which was ok...and, of course today I have the Canon Powershot. I guess that's not a lot of camera for a lifetime, and I did have the instamatics and the polaroid, but I haven't bothered keeping any of those, just the ones that mean something to me. I would love to have the new Canon Rebel Digital, but the price is prohibitive at this point and I would not be able to take it into a concert...so, I'll stick with what I currently have for the time being.

At any rate, and the point of all this, while going through the various camera bags and organizing everything, I found several Sony memory sticks I had put away when I got the new Canon....and surprise, found some pictures I had taken on a vacation to Southern Arizona about 5 years ago. Not very many but I had obviously forgotten about these as most of the pictures I took on that trip were with the Canon EOS.

Since I was thrilled with putting the Concord Hall pictures in a video format I tried it again. This time I used Roxio instead of Photoshop Elements Organizer. With Roxio I don't see a way to add captions to the pictures, which I might want to do with bird pics. I also found Roxio a little more unwieldy for getting the pics into the project and organizing them. It's a tossup.

These pics aren't great, but there are a couple of sunsets on here that I remember well. it was like the mountains were on fire. Most of the bird pics were taken near Tucson, but the sunsets were from a B&B I stayed at in Hereford, Az (not far from Bisbee). Great birding area. If I can find some of the SLR pics perhaps I will blog on the B&B and trip - it was a lot of fun.

So, here is the video, if interested. It's short, and again the music is by William Joseph. Go to the sidebar on the right and turn Clay off by hitting the two bars.



Just trying to distract myself while we are awaiting a PR for Clay's new "Highly Anticipated" album.

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I've mentioned before that I'm trying to digitalize my family pictures and documents for posterity. Yesterday I completed scanning of one small photo album (of many). I was glad to get the pictures scanned but then I thought about putting them into a slide show and sure enough Photoshop Elements 4 Organizer does just that and allows you to make a video of the whole thing. So, I did it and uploaded it into Youtube and feel very proud of myself. I see all the wonderful montages everyone does with Clay pictures and this is not anywhere as nice as those, but it's my first attempt. I will work on it a little more and maybe make DVD's for my siblings for Christmas.

I call this particular album Concord Hall because most of the pictures were taken there. Concord Hall is a house in Lancaster, Ohio and is now on the Heritage Tour in the area. My great grandmother bought the house in 1903 and my father sold it in 1949 (for a pittance, almost exactly what Mary paid for it) when we moved to California. I visited the house in the 1970's and have some pictures I took at that time and it looks just the same, except some of the big elm trees have come down over the years in storms.

Anyway, here is the video if you are interested in genealogy or history you might enjoy some of these pictures. The clothes were beautiful...the young boy in the pictures is my father and man, he had some wild outfits. Before you play the video, go to the jukebox on the side bar to the right and turn Clay off by clicking the two little bars ". Thanks. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhfdeaWjv6g

The house was built in 1831 and on it's 150th anniversary, the following story was written by Ruth Drinkle and published in the 1981 Fall edition of the Fairfield Heritage Quarterly.


Happy 150th Birthday

Concord Hall

It was in the summer of 1831 that Augustus Witte moved his family from the log cabin, which had been their temporary home, into their newly built fine brick home three miles west of the village of Lancaster. If the walls of this venerable home could talk, it could tell a story something like the following:

"Yes, it has been 150 years that I have provided homes for several families, and in the course of those years I've experienced many joys and sorrows, many fond hopes and dashed expectations but I've always been loved and most people think I'm more beautiful than ever, which of course comes from sturdy and well planned construction and tender loving care over the years and I've had three different names. But let me start at the beginning.

I was conceived in Hanover, Germany, shortly following Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Young Captain Augustus Witte, who had distinguished himself with gallant conduct during that battle had received a medal from the government for his service, and had married the niece of his commanding officer, General Bliicher. She died quite young and a little later he married Agatha Von Roden. Having heard much of the wonders of the new world, they must have decided to build a new life for themselves, there, and so on May 15, 1829 he embarked from Bremen and six weeks later he landed in Baltimore, Md. He came directly to Ohio and to Lancaster, where there was already a sizeable German settlement. He brought with him plans for a fine house, drawn by his brother who was an architect for the royal family of Hanover.

He soon located a suitable tract of land just west of Lancaster on Zane's Trace. This land had a very fine spring of water, and a former owner had established a small tread mill for grinding grain and a small distillery. That fall (1829) Witte returned to Germany leaving his friend Charles Schur who along with a few other craftsmen had accompanied him from Hanover, to superintend the construction of the house, barn, steam flour mill and distillery. Bricks for the house were made in the brick yard across Boving Road (then Zane's Trace).

In the spring of 1830 Witte returned from Germany bringing his wife and family consisting of 5 year old Cecilia and four younger sons, furniture for the new home, a trunk full of silver, and 4 millers, 2 distillers, 1 carpenter, 2 farm hands, 1 cooper, 1 boy, 4 maids and 1 housekeeper. Since the new house was not ready for occupancy the family moved into the log cabin; the others had to live in the barn. Unfortunately in November of that year the log cabin and most of its contents were destroyed by fire. A lovely little painting on copper of Agatha Von Roden and her daughter Cecilia, which had been painted in Germany, survived this catastrophe. Soon after this, Agatha died. She was never to live in this house for which she had planned, for it was not until the following summer (1831) that the family could move in. The steam mill and distillery were in full operation, so they named me "The Steam Mill Farm."

Captain Witte soon organized the German Guards, a very fine military company - the first such company here to have good uniforms and drill in a precise military fashion for Captain Witte was a German gentleman of fine manners and martial bearing, who had greatly disliked the "rag-tag cornstalk" militia which he at first encountered here. The German Guards, who often drilled on my grounds, were well uniformed, had a band for music, and a cannon, and were invited to participate in the laying of the cornerstone of the new State Capitol building in Columbus where they made a fine display.

In 1838 Capt. Witte married Miss Anna Schloman and to this union were born five children. Capt. Witte had also brought with him from Germany a habit of hospitality which he dispensed with a lavish hand. Having built a ballroom on the second floor of his home, there v.,Pre many fine occasions when his house was full of guests. But, like many liberal men, he was imposed upon. Then he had another disastrous loss, for two canal boat loads of whiskey which he had sold were confiscated by a dishonest boat captain and sold in Detroit. So, in 1845, with many debts and not enough money, Witte was forced to sell the property to his friend John Gromme. For thirteen years Gromme tried to develop a dairy farm, but since he was primarily in the tanning business, in 1858 he sold the farm to John T. Brasee, a prominent lawyer and State Senator at the time. He became very intersted in farming. He had a family of eight children, who undoubtedly enjoyed riding over the hills and through the woods where Johnny Appleseed once planted apple trees along Zane's Trace (A gnarled survivor may still be seen).

Their nearby neighbors and friends, the Darius Tallmadge family were given, for the sum of one dollar, all the water they could use from the marvelous spring on this property and the right to lay wooden pipes to conduct water from said spring through Brasee's farm to the lands of Tallmadge adjacent to the east.

All of his eight children were talented and lively. His eldest daughter Ellen married Darius Tailmadge's son, Theodore, who became a well known attorney in Washington, D.C. His son John became a prominent member of the Lancaster bar, but the most colorful story is told of his youngest daughter Alice who had a romance with the son of my builder Augustus Witte. Young George Witte, who had gone to the Mexican War and afterwards settled in New Orleans, came to Lancaster to visit his oldest sister Cecilia Witte Mithoff (Augustus Mithoff in the meantime had purchased the neighboring Darius Tallmadge place) and met the beautiful and spirited Alice Brasee. They fell in love and he promised to come back and claim her for his bride. With the ring he gave her, she etched her name and the date - on the window of the widow's walk (where it can still be seen). When the day came for him to arrive by train for the wedding, young Alice went up to the widow's walk again and waved a large Confederate flag as the train passed nearby. Since this was just prior to the Civil War, this incident caused much consternation in the countryside. However, the wedding went on and soon the young couple departed for New Orleans to make their home. Unhappily, cluring the War, young Alice became ill and died. After the war, a trunk full of her beautiful clothes and mementos was sent back to her family.

During the Brasee's ownership of this house my name was changed to Concordia, the name of a Roman goddess denoting harmony.

In 1903 the property was sold to Mrs. Lucien B. Martin, whose grandson and heir is the great, great, great, grandson of Ebenezer Zane. Mrs. Martin had a portrait of Zane which hung in the parlor of the house as long as the Martins lived there. The Martins had come to Lancaster from their home in Martins Ferry to found a glass factory (later merged with Anchor Hocking). Before coming to Lancaster, Mr. Martin had been president of Fostoria Glass Company. The Martins were well educated, well traveled and affluent citizens. It has been alleged that a friend, who was a southern architect, had suggested to them that in the South such a fine residence was usually called a hall, and so they decided to change my name from Concordia to Concord Hall, and as such it has remained.

In some of her travels Mrs. Martin had been so fascinated with the Swiss custom of attaching bells to the collars of their cows, and the musical tinkling the various sized bells made as the dairy herds were grazing or coming down from the mountains, that she purchased a group of Swiss bells - one for each cow in their herd near Lancaster. For many years they were heard on my grounds, evoking pleasant memories and more practically, making it easier for the herdsman to round up the cows.

Mrs. Martin also was a great gardener. There was a rose garden bordered by huge snowball bushes which extended on both sides of a wide walk-way from the house back to a garden pergola at the edge of the woods. Many a festive dinner party was served at tables along this beautiful pathway.

But Philip Martin's sudden and tragic death changed all that. In 1948 Jack Martin, who had inherited Concord Hall from his grandmother decided to give up farming and move to California, so he sold it to Henry Peters, who two years later sold to Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Jamison. The Jamisons restored the house and lived there until 1954, when they sold it to the present owners, Dr. Robert and Dorothy Fox. Dr. Jamison was a native of South Carolina, and once again the house had some Confederate overtones, as Dr. Jamison hung a large portrait of General Robert E. Lee in the entrance hall.

While I have had kindly treatment from all of my owners, none have lavished more tender, loving care than the present ones. They have preserved all my historic features, repaired my fascinating barn (where many a square dance has been held) developed fine gardens, built riding trails around the acreage and through the woods. Oh, yes, I almost forgot to tell you that they also discovered a tunnel leading from the cellar of the house to a spot near the barn where it is presumed that prior to the Civil War run-away slaves were assisted in their way along the Underground Railroad. But best of all is the way the present owners share the beauty of their home with their many friends, associates, and organizations. Twice I have been on the Fairfield Heritage Pilgrimages. The first time, in 1965, young ladies in beautiful appropriate riding costumes rode side saddle around the grounds; and in 1975, the Rocky Fork Hunt Club staged a very exciting fox hunt. All seemed right at home.

I had one big fright when the Rt. 33 Bypass was first scheduled to go exactly in front of me which would have meant my demise, but thanks to being on the National Register of Historic Places, that tragedy was averted. Now I look forward to my next 150 years, for I am now as sound and certainly more beautiful than I've ever been!"

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Clay Aiken and some more scrapbooking...... I wandered around some scrapbooking sites this morning and found some beautiful kits to download and downloaded one called "The Impossible Dream". The kit made me think of Clay and what has happened to him the past three years and what the future holds in store. It is "An Impossible Dream" and I am so happy to be along on the adventure with him. Here is a link to this great scrapbooking website:

Scrapbook Elements

Yesterday, Clay blogged about the tragedy of the displaced children of Lebanon affected by the current conflict. As an Ambassador for Unicef, Clay requested his fans consider donating to Unicef for the needs of these children. Check it out here.

Unicef Front Page with News of the Plight of Lebanonese Children

If, after consideration, you wish to contribute, here is a link to do so:

Donate to Unicef Specifically for Lebanon Children

As of this morning, Clay fans alone have contributed over $47,000 to this charity. This is a stupendous accomplishment in less than 24 hours and I am proud of everyone for stepping up to the plate. WTG, Claymates.

OK, enough of that....here are the two pages I did this morning.





The pictures were from a Joyful Noise 2005 concert I attended in Columbia, South Carolina last Christmas. The Christmas tours and Christmas music seem to bring a special joy to Clay's life, so I used them in the scrapbook pages.

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