The First Post

Well, here goes.  For a woman who has 8 siblings, 7 of whom do or did work in various aspects of computer engineering and programming (and one of whom is deceased), I really have no clue as to what I'm doing. 

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I call this "the bald one in the blue dress" to differentiate between my brother and me.  He's the bald one in the yellow suit.  These are all of my siblings.

I have a particular interest in Renaissance history.  My interest in that time can be best identified by the garb I have sewn for myself and others to attend the Michigan Renaissance Festival. I'm one of those weirdoes who buys a season pass and dresses up and knows the sumptuary laws enough to point and laugh at the peasants who wear velvet.

I have done genealogy on my family and can trace my surname back to France in the 17th century.  My father is the first of his line not to marry another French person.  As an English major, I'm required to have 2 years of a foreign language...so guess which language I'm muddling through.

The community I plan to research is the New England textile community.  Again, this is personal for me.  My grandmother was educated to the 8th grade.  She would always say, "Then I attended the JP Coats Academy."  Yes, JP Coats the thread makers.  Memere, as we called her, was all of 4' 11" (and a half; she always included that) and had tiny hands which made her an excellent candidate to work with the silk thread.  My oldest brother taught in New Hampshire for a year.  He said he was frustrated by the pervasive attitude toward education being that of "graduate from high school and work at the mill...or DON'T graduate from high school and go work at the mill."

My grandparents, Omer and Aurore Hemond.  Memere (Aurore) made her entire wedding outfit including the veil.

That's the nutshell.  We'll see how it goes.