Logan's birthday

Baseball Boy

Deutschland Trip 2009

Deutschland 261
Originally uploaded by Grandma Sonja

Jamie and I entered Tyson's German Butterfly picture to The Pioneer Woman's Photo contest. Don't you think it is just cool how his eye shows through the butterfly wing? This butterfly landed on Ty's hand and just stayed with him and had no desire to leave. It was so cool.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Grallas in España

Some years ago I came upon the Grallas in the Catalan area of Spain.  Gralla is my mom's side of the family.  They are my Polish side.  However, while doing research we found out all about the Grallas in Spain and even went to the Casa Gralla in Subirats and spoke to the Gralla descendants that were there.  It was a little difficult as my 6 years of Spanish had turned to "rust" but none-the-less the family shared their pedigree chart and pointed out the Gralla who emigrated to Polonia back several hundreds of years ago.  We were escorted to the Palace and the family church by the author of the book about Luis de Requesen.  He was also the proprietor of the Museum in Martorell.  Here are some quotes I translated from his book which is written in Catalan.

Miguel Juan de Gralla


From Lerida ? XV century - died in 1531. Distinguished royal official. Teacher of royal classroom. Delegate of the Generalilat (1491-1494). Royal accountant teacher of Catalunya. (1501-1520). His linage was through the Burgues de Lerida. He gained his riches by practicing mercantilism. Castellan and Feudal Lord of the castle of Subirat. He was at the service of Ana de Bretana until the capitulation of Reunes in 1491. He returned to Cataluna and intervened in name of the King in the municipal reforms and of the Generalilat and he was designated by the king as a delegate.

Short Lesson on Prussian Military History

A little military lesson from my friend Harald in Germany:

In a lithograph by Richard Knötel, whose former capacity was in regards to questions of European uniforms and equipment, from 1890 to 1905 when he published hundreds of these plates showing the European armies since the 30-year war, edited by Max Babenzien in Rathenow. It can be recognized that there are no significant differences, neither in the uniforms nor in the armament of the musketeers and fusiliers.

Usually women are more interested in the clothing of the ladies than in the solders` uniforms. Nevertheless it is sure, that at least two of my ancestors had to wear "des Königs bunten Rock" and there was also of the Swiez family as executioner and three of the Badura family who had joined the army.

When Friedrich der Große had conquered Silesia he started at once to institute a government, dividing the country in civil counties and military "Kantons". The general duty for serving in the army was also introduced at once. Early as 1742 Friedrich was recruiting Silesians and forced them to his troops. Fighting for the Austrians in 1741 some people found themselves in the Prussian army one year later in 1742. Beuthen, Tost and Tarnowitz had Prussian garrisons at several times.

Fighting in the Napoleonic Wars went back and forth. In the beginning the Prussians fought against the French. After the catastrophe of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806, Prussia was forced to support the French with their own troops at their Russian campaign. Which units had to follow Napoleon to the east was decided by lots. From our area it was: II. Battalion of the 1. Silesian Infantry Regt., II. Bat. and Fuesilier Battalion of the 2. Silesien. Inf. Regt. The disaster of Moscow is well known.

In the meantime Prussia had reorganised its army. A novum, founded by the French, now was used by the Prussians: nationalism. Up to that time farmers and labourers didn`t mind to which king they had to tax. But now they were going for their country. The Prussian king posted his declaration "An mein Volk" in Breslau 1813. With this declaration also the Order of the Iron Cross was founded (in Breslau!) - the first decoration the simple soldiers could receive as well, as the noble officers. (By the way: the first decorations were produced in the iron hut of Gleiwitz) And now one was going to fight against the French again and in the end some of the Silesian troops which had to support Napoleons army, served as a part of the allied occupation army in Paris.

And Knötel is showing us what the people of these times looked like.  And there are some people who told me, genealogy was boring!

One result of the Napoleonic Wars was the "Bauernbefreiung" in Prussia. It started 1810, initiated and developed by Stein und Hardenberg. Before this the Farmers and gardeners were not slaves, but they were not allowed to leave their lent land, had to work up to 4 - 5 days a week for the landlord who also decided which of their sons should inherit the lent cottages and who even had to give his allowance if one of his "erbuntertänigen" Bauern / Gärtner / Häusler wanted to marry. For the landlords needed the cheap workers, they fought against this "Bauernbefreiung" so the dependence lasted in Schlesien partly until 1830, while in the other Prussian provinces the farmers were freed in 1818. So it is always something special if the profession is given as Freibauer or Freigärtner.  If you click on the image, you will see a larger view.

Work Assignment 8

Today's work blog assignment was to check out Google Docs.  I wasn't really aware of this too much, although a friend mentioned it to me but here you can upload documents to work on, save, send or whatever.  I think it is kind of a cool thing.  The idea is that at some point in time, programs such as Microsoft Word, etc will be eventually replaced by this.  I can see the possibilities.  I like how it works and in the case of my computer crash, you would know the important things are there.  However, like in Picasa web albums, after a certain amount of space is used you would need to buy more room to store.  So depending on the costs, that could be a problem.

By the way, my computer wasn't a "true" crash, which is great news for me, but rather my video driver died and so that is why I could see absolutely nothing.I now have it back and happy that no data was lost.

Another part of Assignment 8 was to go to YouTube and find  a Family History video.  I found one of an interview of Thomas McEntee, the so called "Father" of Family History blogging.  He spoke of concerns others had regarding copywrite issues and privacy concerns.