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With the release of iOS 4, Apple also updated the ibooks app for the ipad. I was looking forward to one app for dealing with epub and pdf’s. Unfortunately, ibooks is not very usable for reading pdf’s, at least for me.

The first problem is organizational. You have an epub bookshelf and a pdf bookshelf. I would prefer a unified bookshelf. It would make things easier to find when there are large numbers of documents and one doesn’t remember what the document type is.

The more important problem is that pdf support doesn’t have a way to crop margins that I can see. You can unpinch to zoom in but that’s a bit fiddly and to make matters worse, it zooms back to full page view when you change pages. I was hoping I could use ibooks as the One True ebook reader but it’s not there yet.

I don’t particularly like itunes but I use it because I don’t have any practical alternative. Getting things onto my iphone requires it and I haven’t used anything music management that I’ve liked better. Over the years, I’ve learned to limit my expectations and this has kept me from getting too annoyed. My biggest gripe with itunes is metadata management and codec support. Neither of those has changed but one itunes feature previously limited to the ipod shuffle has finally been added to other ipods including the iphone and presumably the ipad. That is the ability to downconvert high resolution music on the fly during sync to 128k bps aac.

This means I can finally stop keeping two itunes libraries, one with apple lossless for the home theater system and another at 128k bps for the iphone. I’m willing to trade the increase in sync time (because of the need to convert the files prior to sending them to the phone) for simpler file management. It only took three years of submitting this through itunes feedback for it to happen. Perhaps there is hope for my requests for flac support and for being able to have better support for multiple artists, composers and genres on a track.

In the beginning of March, Lauri and I bought a new refrigerator to replace a roughly thirty year old unit. The old fridge still ran but was beginning to make odd noises and the door wouldn’t always stay shut. It seemed likely that it was running on borrowed time and we began to search for a replacement. It was the last of the original appliances in our condo to go.

We settled on a 20 cubic foot LG french door style refrigerator in Stainless Steel from Sears. Our space for the fridge was very small and we didn’t have many options, particularly for nicer units. The woman at Sears in Fair Oaks pointed out this unit and after a couple of weeks of checking around and doing some research we decided that was the unit we wanted. Home Depot had it at a cheaper price but we wanted to give the commission to the woman who pointed out the unit to us. Sears matched Home Depot’s price and we set a delivery date for March 23rd.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, the new fridge was delivered and all seemed well. The next morning we began to realize that something might be wrong. Both the refrigerator and freezer sections seemed warm. We cranked down the temperature control to their coldest settings and hoped that things would cool down. Later that afternoon, Lauri called me to say that the food in the freezer had thawed out. We definitely had a problem.

We called the woman who sold us the unit and explained the problem. She directed us to another number where they would arrange an exchange. All went well until we asked about the lost food. They offered us $50. This was only a 1/3 of the actual value. They said they would have to send a technician out to verify the loss. Also, it would take two days for us to get a new fridge.

The next day the tech came out and asked if I wanted him to try to fix the unit. I said that I was willing to accept a repaired unit so long as we had confidence that the unit would continue to run. He opened the back panel and exclaimed, “Oh my god!”

The compressor was completely off its mount. It was clear the refrigerator had been subject to some pretty strong physical forces. He tried to set things right but the compressor would not work. He verified our food loss and in a few weeks I should get a check.

The next morning the new fridge came and it worked. The only problem is that the delivery guys have scuffed up and in a couple places gouged the walls in the stairwell. The stairway is tight but the first delivery crew made it without incident. No other delivery crew has caused damage. It’s fixable but this new purchase has had a lot of collateral damage associated with it.

I am a bit peeved that Sears would transfer us around to three different people to deal with getting a replacement and then question us on the cost of the food loss. Particularly when the tech who “verified” the loss simply asked me for the number. Now I have to contact Sears again to let them know the damage their delivery people have done to the walls.

It will be a long time before Sears gets my business after this.

In August 2009 I was in Maine with Lauri. We were visiting her family. I took the opportunity to visit the Maine Archives to see if I could find some info on my great grandfather, John F. Marson. I didn’t know much about him. From the census, I knew he was born in 1854 in Pittston, Maine. In 1860 and 1870 he’s still in Pittston but in 1880 he’s in Phillips. In 1920, he’s in Avon, in 1910 he’s in Strong and then in 1920 and 1930 he was back in Phillips. That was the last record I had for him. I didn’t know when or where he died. Then I found a grave transcription at NEHGS for a John F. Marson at Sampson Cemetery in Phillips. That seemed like it could be him.

At the archives I managed to find his death record that said he died on September 5, 1941 in Phillips. This matched what the grave transcription record said so it seemed worthwhile to see if we could find this cemetery.

The only catch was the directions. I had no idea when they had been written so how much had the roads in the area changed? Doing a web search for Sampson Cemetery didn’t turn anything up. But, the directions seemed clear so off we went. We drove back and forth on the main road through Salem, Maine which was supposed to lead to this cemetery without finding it. We spoke to some people, one of whom had been a cemetery caretaker for the area decades ago. He didn’t recall a Sampson Cemetery but said that there was a place that matched what we described and gave us some directions.

We still didn’t find it and gave up and got lunch. During lunch, I pulled out my iphone and started googling. Had I though of those searches before, I’d have saved a bunch of time. John Marson’s grave was listed on A Few Cemeteries in Maine and this showed that Sampson Cemetery was actually Sand Hill Cemetery and gave better directions.

We ended up going back a couple of days later and found the grave. If I’d any doubt that we found the right John Marson it was eliminated when we saw the graves of Verne and Ola Huntingdon nearby. I have photos from the 1930′s of my father’s family at Verne and Ola Huntington’s place including photos of John Marson there. I’m not sure what the connection between the families was but it was clear this was the right John Marson.

Now comes the mystery. John Marson’s grave was off by itself with a fairly large gap between it and other graves on the same row. His grave had flowers that looked fairly recent. The mystery is who left them. It looks like John Marson and my great grandmother Helen split up at some point after 1891 though I don’t know exactly when. Though I know Marson’s whereabouts from the census, I’ve no indication he married again. His grave is solitary with no spouse or children nearby. So far as I know, my grandmother was his only child. Who left the flowers?

Just about a year ago I began some research into my family tree. I’d been wanting to do it for some time but didn’t know where to begin. Then in February 2009 my aunt passed away. She was the last remaining sibling to my father. When I read her obituary I learned things about the family I didn’t know. This provided the catalyst to begin though it took a month before my schedule would permit any attempts.

I decided to take advantage of a 14 day free trial at ancestry.com. I didn’t expect to find much. I didn’t know anything at all about my great grandparents and though I had birth and death dates for my maternal grandparents I only had the names of my paternal grandparents. It wasn’t much to go on.

To my surprise, I got an “ancestry hint” on my paternal grandfather. This indicated that there were two “historical records” that could refer to him. When I looked at them I found they were from the 1900 and 1910 census. I had no idea how much data was in the census. Neither was in the part of Massachusetts I had expected. The 1910 census was in Phillipston, not too far from where I had been expecting but the 1900 census from from Peabody.

I examined both of these documents and found that they could refer to my grandfather. How many people named Augustus Thomas could there be in early 20th century Massachusetts? His age on these census forms seemed plausible based on my father’s birth year. But there wasn’t a way to be sure because of the lack of other knowledge. Still, it felt right. There were no other matching census records coming up.

The most interesting moment for me was when I realized that since he was still living with his parents (being 13 in 1900 and 23 in 1910) that they, too, were listed on the form. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I read “Frederick” and “Sarah L.” and saw them listed as “head” and “wife” with Augustus listed as “son.” There was a good chance that these were my great grandparents.

Ancestry then found a draft registration that had Augustus’ birth date and this matched up with the census records I found. I also found him in the 1930 census in the town of Petersham married to my grandmother and with my father and some of his siblings. This made sense as I knew my father had been born in Petersham. His age also matched up with the earlier census records. The odds seemed to be going up that I had located my great grandparents but it would be a while before I was certain.

That night I began following these hints that ancestry was showing me and before long I was back the 1700′s and much of the activity was centered around Salem. I began to wonder if my family might have some connection to the witch trials though I never believed it might really be true.

As it turns out, that idle musing was to get a kicked up a notch. One of the women that ancestry showed me as a direct ancestor was named Rebecca Nurse (born Towne). She was hanged in the hysteria even though she was 72 and a woman of known good character.

In the course of four to five hours I had covered over 300 years of history and found myself in 17th century Salem Village. To say it was surreal would be an understatement. I had never felt much connection with my family’s past because I was never exposed to it. My father’s family was from Massachusetts. My mother’s family was from Sicily. I was born and raised in Maryland. There wasn’t much family connection beyond my first cousins on my mother’s side. We had occasionally visited first cousin’s on my father’s side but that was a rare occurrence. Suddenly, I had a connection that went back to colonial America!

The only question was whether that connection was real.

The next day I went back to critically examine the data and found I had been far too trusting of ancestry hints that connected me with other trees. Much of the data was inconsistent or even impossible. I lopped off the tree at my great grandparents and started again. I also picked up a book on genealogy and began to educate myself on the process.

I reconstructed the tree on ancestry and again found myself with Rebecca and this time the data seemed believable. The only problem was that most of this lacked sources so I still didn’t know if it was real.

I next found the New England Historic and Genealogical Society and joined. I was hoping their databases would yield much of the source information I lacked. I wasn’t disappointed. Though their web interface was clunky and their image format non-standard, I was able to slowly work my way back.

I also contacted the Athol Public Library in search of the obituaries of my grandparents. The librarian there was incredibly helpful in getting me this data and my grandfather’s obituary confirmed that the census data was for him. I now had verified my starting point ensuring that I wasn’t heading down the wrong path.

Over the course a year, I’ve gone myself as far as their three Massachusetts vital records databases can take me. It hasn’t quite taken me back to Rebecca but it’s still back fairly far. On the line that ancestry says leads to Rebecca I get to a man named Peter Twiss. He was born in 1782 in Danvers. His father was also Peter Twiss (though it may have been Twist). His mother’s maiden name was Sarah Twiss so it appears that we had a Twiss/Twiss marriage. Unfortunately that’s where the database strands me. Peter’s father, also named Peter doesn’t have a clear lineage in this database. I’m hoping a trip to NEHGS to visit their library will help. It’s also possible that  a group called the Towne Family Association may have the data I seek.

Even if I never prove or even disprove my connection to Rebecca, it’s been an enlightening year. I’ve learned more about my family history than I ever thought possible. Here are a few of the things I’ve learned:

• One of my great great grandfathers immigrated from Ireland making me 1/16 Irish
• My paternal grandmother was born in Maine and only moved to Massachusetts later
• My maternal grandfather actually went through Ellis Island twice

Things I’m working on:

• Is the connection to Rebecca Towne correct?
• Is the George Southwick who died in 1775 at the Battle of Lexington my 5th great grandfather?
• Is the Eli Curtis Thomas born in 1843, the Eli C Thomas who died in the Andersonville POW camp in 1864?

I haven’t even begun the maternal side of my tree. My grandparents were born in Sicily and those records don’t appear to be online. Hopefully that will change. The Maine side of the family is also going to be a challenge because Maine didn’t require vital records to be kept until 1920. Though I’ve found some data, it will be tough to go beyond 1850.

I’m looking forward to what the next twelve months bring!