*** Melons Costing $10,000??  (thanks to Charles Hansen)

*** Ancestry & Ancestry DNA: Two Sides To Every Family Story

*** Welsh Ancestry Has Its Challenges

*** Clam Digging: A Washington Activity

Charles shared a link to a website explaining that cantaloupes were developed in the 1700s in the Italian papal village of Cantalup. Watermelons were enjoyed in Merry Old England. Early explorers sometimes used watermelons as canteens. The most expensive melon in the world is the Yubari King, a kind of cantaloupe, grown in Japan. Recently two sold for $20,000! The Yubari is below…….. see much difference between it an the one you ate????

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Ancestry and Ancestry DNA are two sides to the same story, or so their advertising states.  Here is the comparison:

                     ANCESTRY DNA                                                                      ANCESTRY

                     * Discover your ethnic origins.                                              * Start with a name and build your family tree

                      * Connect with cousins you never knew you had.             * See how your ancestors lived in billions of

                                                                                                                               records.

                      * Find new ancestors—and take your family tree             * Share your discoveries and connect with

                         to entirely new places.                                                              our community.

   “Visit Ancestry.com to get started today!” So stated the ad in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

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During RootsTech 2017, I attended a presentation by Darris Williams on the topic of Welsh genealogy. He explained the” blessings and the curses of doing Welsh genealogy.” The Blessings: (1) More records are available online than ever before; (2) Even the Non-Conformity records are becoming available; (3) The National Library of Wales is a great resource; (4) Welsh probates are becoming available; (5) the patronymic system, once understood and if followed, it a great help. The Curses: (1) Common names are used endlessly! (2) You won’t find your answer in just one record; you must use all available records; (3) You must plan for no quick answers; plan to take plenty of searching time; (4) Patronymics is often difficult to understand and follow;  (5) the Welsh language is impossible!

FamilySearch.org, in the Library Card Catalog, has plenty of records from Wales cataloged. All the pre-1850 probates are available and the post-1850 wills are indexed. Williams stressed that the Five Basic Record Sets to use for researching in Wales are: (1) Census (1841-1911 all indexed); (2) Civil registration for vital records; (3) Church records; (4) Probate records; (5) Cemetery records and tombstone inscriptions.

“Non-conformity,” Williams explained, “was a big deal. This meant that if your ancestor didn’t belong to the Church of England and those vital records will not be found in the Church of England parish registers. With the exception of marriage records. Between 1754 and 1837, any and all marriages had to be Church of England marriages.”

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If you’ve living in Washington for a long time, you probably have gone clam digging on the Washington coast. I remember driving from Spokane to Kalaloch to camp and dig those tasty clams in the late 1950s.  I did not realize that clamming has been a way of life on the Washington coast for thousands of years; shell middens have been dated back to 5000 years ago. When the early settlers arrived in the mid-1850s they happily discovered a rich abundance of clams which they used for food and for commercial purposes. Commercial clamming was begun in 1898 and during the heyday (1920-1950) tons of clams were dug, canned and exported to the eastern U.S. and to Britain. By today, there is still a few days/weeks of clamming season but many difficult factors have severely restricted the appeal of these tasty shellfish.  Do you have memories of clamming?? And do you remember what a clam gun was?