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

Thanks for answering my question. I have been "stopping by" various forums here. My favorites are Home Deco and Home Deco conversation side, Kitchens, Small Houses. This fourm seems different in that people seem to actually know each other. I guess I am interested in how that came about and if there gatherings in the tristate area.

Mary, I am sorry for all your troubles. Believe me, I understand about the garden. When you get to the point that all you're doing is just keeping the plants alive for the bugs to eat, you have to let it go. It is never easy to stop watering and to walk away, but there are times when it is not only the best option, but also really the only option. There is no shame in knowing when to quit---in fact, I consider it a sign of strength and intelligence to know when you've reached the point that quitting makes sense. Our climate can be brutal on gardens in July and August even in the best of years, and there is no way that 2016 has come close to being one of the best of years either. Now, take it easy and work on coping with your arthritis. Rest. Pamper yourself. Maybe if you are not working so hard in the garden and canning in the kitchen for endless hours, your body will get some relief too. It is so easy to overdo things and hurt our bodies when we are delightfully working in our gardens from late winter through late summer or even well into autumn and it sounds to me like your body has had all it can take for now, so please do take care of yourself. While I appreciate that I am still alive and kicking, I wish I would have appreciated having a younger, healthier body back when I had one! Aging is not for sissies, and the aches and pains that get worse every year remind us that we are not spring chickens any longer. That's a bitter pill to swallow! I miss the days when I could work outside from sunup to sunset and not pay for it with a multitude of aches and pains. Now, when I tackle a garden chore of any kind, in my mind I am calculating how much I am going to "pay" for a day spent gardening, with the payment being extracted as fatigue, aches, pains, and the need for a mid-afternoon nap so I can summon up the energy to make dinner later on. Luckily, Tim is aging right along with me so he understands the slower pace nowadays as well as the occasional afternoon nap. I'm pretty sure our son thinks we are turning into ancient, aging fuddy-duddies right in front of him. Ah, to be young again! His time will come just like our time has come, and one day a very few decades from now, he'll be looking in the mirror, like we do now, and wondering who in the heck that old person is that is staring back at him. Dawn

I agree with Nik's experience very much, and whilst Bierkreek have been helpful and in English, I also don't like their website too much. As for 'My Roses', I am wondering if there is something wrong with me, as when I check on their site, I cannot see any roses listed, just a lot of information in German. To find which roses they have, I had to look on HMF and see they have 500 or so, but I cannot see any of this on their website, which would disappoint me. Maybe I am missing something. I think, over here, we are blessed with so many suppliers, Beales and Austin's have such a large inventory to satisfy most people, so only the collector or the curious would want to bother with ordering roses from the Continent. However, there is one that I have not tried so far, but really want to give them some of my business, because they have an excellent website, everything is clear and precise, their FAQ section tells me all I need to know, payment is simple by Paypal or Card... and their delivery charge is very small and covers the entire order for container roses. They also have a good selection of roses that I cannot get here, from all the major breeders, like Guillot, Kordes, Tantau.. etc.. They are actually a Swiss nursery that sends out from near Bremen in Germany, called Lubera.. they also supply via Amazon. A quote from their FAQ: ''You are a Swiss nursery - where do the English texts come from on your homepage? As mentioned, we write and speak English. But honestly not as good as the texts that are posted on our website. We work with a professional translator who specialises in horticulture and helps us with our English''. They really deserve my business, I do hope to order something from them this season. I wonder if anyone here has already ordered from them...?? Lubera