Hi, it's me - Tricia. Great advice. I agree about the birthdate. Birthdays were not celebrated like we do today and many immigrants lived in countries where vital records were either not kept at all or were sketchy, at best. Church records are baptism dates - not usually birthdays. Result - many immigrants simply did not know when they were born. So, because it was required info they made a date up and, sometimes, didn't remember what they had put on each different form. Then, to further confuse the situation many immigrants were not literate or spoke dialects using just phonics and each person from the same village spelled the same word differently. Now, add in the problems on the other end in the US (lack of ability to understand foreign languages, poor literacy rates, equally poor spelling) and mistakes were more the rule than exception unless your immigrant came from an English speaking country. I agree to check other points of entry besides Ellis Island. Remember, to a non-English speaking person Ellis Island meant nothing. But, over the years it became the place most people associated with "immigrants" so they said that is where they were processed. T'aint always so. Even if they write Ellis Island on their official paperwork. My own grandfather is a good example. All of his official paperwork read Ellis Island. He told everybody Ellis Island, including me. I spent 10 years looking for him. Nadda. Hired the National Archives to search. Nadda. I'm a contact person for the German-Russian Historical Society for the village of Norka. Got an email one day - from a women searching for one of my aunts who immigrated with my grandfather. She said, "Ellis Island? Gee, that's funny. My aunt always said they arrived through Portland, Maine." With the correct point of entry - Grandpa was easy to find. Fifteen years old and towing behind 3 younger sisters. Sometimes, there no better genealogical research than dumb luck. :) I also think a membership with ancestry.com is a good investment if you're just getting started. But, I warn you - BE CAREFUL! People are idiots. They just copy what somebody else has written with no further research on their own. So, mistakes get passed on and on and on and on. LOTS of them. I use whatever I find on ancestry.com as a clue, nothing more, until I've confirmed the info by independent resources. Also, the Mormon church site is notorious for mistakes. So much so I could not with good conscience even recommend using their data bank. But, if you do - proceed with caution. My goal is always 3 separate confirming documents saying the same thing. And, I get copies if possible. I've got tens of thousands of hard copy records. I set an annual budget for vital records and such because it does get expensive. I had my second book, "Thunder on the Steppes, a genealogy of ______________", edited this past spring (while we were rebuilding from Sandy). I was especially nervous because I've written a novella inside the book to bring my German-Russian ancestors to life for my grandchildren. My first attempt at fiction. My editor loved it and said I should seek a publisher believing it has a broader audience than immediate family. I'm thrilled. First though I need to publish the entire genealogy and not get sidetracked. I'm so close to being finished - just got to sprint those last 200 meters and cross the line. It's taken over fifteen years. At that point, I'm going to call my genealogy project finished. Genealogy is never truly finished but after nearly 3 decades of research and two books each exceeding 800 pages and going back to the mid-1200s it's as complete as I'm going to take it. I'll leave it up to future generations to carry on. Have Fun! /tricia

You MUST upload to a web server. That usually means a photo hosing site for most people, but some computer people host their own servers. A linked photo does not always provide a link to the host site or open in a new window. That has to do with the HTML coding used to show that photo in a post. Sometimes, just the image tag is used and you get just the photo without the link to the hosting site. (img src="photohostinglocation.com/jpg") Replace the parenthesis with carets and your hosted photo will appear in the post. Photobucket is very easy to use for even a person lacking computer skills. I suggest you create an account there and follow their instructions for linking images if you wish to imbed images into a post.

I just gave up the medication entirely. I was compeltely and utterly stable on one medicaiton-Symbicort (which, by the way, I LOVE!). I'd taken Advair and another inhaler, but was supporting it with Sigulair. Only 20% of the population has good success with Singulair, which it worked for me, but little did I know it was truly the cause of my two problems. Which brings me to my next thought... "allergist said it could cause those problems in high doses, but only once you are above 480 mcg or higher per day." That's all fine and good if you're "typical", but if your genetic makeup means you metabolize it at different rate (high metabolizer) you could be getting a dose that is not right for your body makeup. They could be very wrong. But only genetic testing could quantify that. Ask them if it makes sense to try something else or a lower dose for a week or two. My docs will let me do that. It's how we found out I only needed one med even though I'd been on two for years. I wanted to get off of it all. One is the least I can get by with though. Here is a link that might be useful: Short and incomplete description of high metabolizer

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