BOE, PTA, & DNA—CoronaLife Day 740

March 24, 2022 By Leave a Comment

I really don’t have much to report on my writing adventures this week. Much of my time was taken up by Board of Education and PTA duties, which left little time and energy for writing projects.

The weather isn’t helping my motivation. We have a had a few very nice days, but the past few have been gray and rainy. Great for napping, not so great for writing.

On a positive note, my mom’s sample was received by Ancestry. Now we need to keep our fingers crossed that her DNA can be extracted and processed successfully. Ancestry is a “spit-test” where you fill a tube with saliva. My mom has trouble with that, so we followed directions to make artificial saliva and use brushes to swab her cheeks and put into the solution. Many people have used this method with great results, so I have my fingers crossed that it works with her as well.

Having her DNA on Ancestry will help my research a lot. She has lots of matches to her Scottish Campbell side, but her Irish Sutton-Hayden side is elusive. I managed to find a group of matches from the Hayden line, because one of my great-grandmother’s brothers came to America and had a large family. However, I have not found a single Sutton match.

Given that her grandfather Sutton was the only one of his siblings to have children that we know of (there is one sister that we do not know her fate), all the Sutton matches would be farther out. So my mother, being one generation closer, has a better chance of stronger matches than I or my brother do.

I am also hoping that her being one generation father back can pry open the brick wall we have one her Campbell line. I have many matches that trace back to Hugh Campbell, born about 1787, but we lose the trail with him. I am hoping my mom’s DNA pulls up some matches that are one generation farther back. DNA is really good for about 5 generations back, which is where Hugh is to me. So I look to my mother to get one past him.

But first we need a good sample! It will take some weeks before we know if it’s successful.

So that’s where I am this week. Where are you?

Marching Ahead–CoronaLife Day 733

March 17, 2022 By Leave a Comment

After a couple of rather hectic weeks, it’s back to the routine grind.

The good news is my mother’s genealogy book arrived prior to her surgery, so I was able to give it to her before.

Allow me to introduce The Campbell Family of New York City, New York, and Their Ancestors:

That edition is the “family” edition, which contains details down to the present generations. My next step is to trim out the information on living people and create a “public” version. That version will be for sale through the usual distribution channels, same as my other genealogy book, The Warren Family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Their Ancestors.

So that is my March project. Hopefully I will have that done by the end of the month.

Sometimes I lament at how slow my progress seems to be. I need to remember that slow progress is still progress, and learn to accept that this is the best i can do at the moment.

With that in mind, I choose to celebrate the publishing of the family version and enjoy sharing it with my Campbell clan!

RIP, Aunt Carolee

March 10, 2022 By 7 Comments

Aunt Carolee had perfect pitch in a dissonant world.

My aunt was a masterful musician. “No one ever really appreciated how brilliant she was,” my father said. “Everyone jokes that I am the smart one, but the things she could do…She was a genius.” She could play any music you put in front of her, on the piano or organ. She sang beautifully. She was a conductor and ran numerous church choirs. As a teen, she stepped into the lead role in a school production with only hours notice, and was flawless. She made a living with her music, which is a miracle in itself.

Carolee had the classic artist’s temperament. Sensitive, passionate, mercurial, her feelings ran deep and strong. She had an intense love for her family. I saw it often in her respect for her parents, her faith in her husband, the joy she had in her sons and grandson, and the pride she showed in the accomplishments of her siblings and nieces and nephews. The few times a year I saw her (usually on her way to or from a reunion at her beloved Westminster Choir College), I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her, one creative spirit to another.

For someone with her sensitive soul, the dissonances of the past few years grew heavy. She and her husband battled COVID in January 2021, a battle her husband lost, and which exacerbated her own health issues. Losing her sister only a few months after her husband was a crushing blow, and sparked an unstoppable decline. After months of struggle, Carolee slipped peacefully away in her sleep.

As sad as we all are to lose her, we take comfort in knowing she is reunited with her parents, siblings, and the love of her life. Although we will miss her here on Earth, I am sure she is already singing with the Heavenly Choir, and her ears are joyfully hearing only harmony.

Finishing February–CoronaLife Day 712

February 24, 2022 By Leave a Comment

We’ve just come off a four day weekend, so not only do I not know what day of the week it is, but I am finding it hard to get out of vacation gear.

I never lack for things to do, of course, but sometimes the motivation to do them is hard to find. It doesn’t help that, like most of us, my To Do list never seems to get smaller no matter how much I work.

I am chipping away, though, because time doesn’t stop and things still need to get done.

So I am working on taxes, and Board of Ed stuff, and waiting on getting the hardback of my genealogy book. If that one looks good, I can approve the paperback version, since it’s the same interior content file.

It’s hard to believe February is nearing its end. January seemed to last forever, while February has sped by.

How are you finishing your February?

Book Fair Spring 2022–CoronaLife Day 705

February 17, 2022 By Leave a Comment

We are at the tail end of our spring book Fair, and it’s a jungle out there!

This is our second in-person Fair since the pandemic, and once more the kids are loving having books in their hands.

Watching them shop is fun. Some want every book they see, regardless of topic. Some are overwhelmed by the number of choices and get paralyzed. Some are very hard to match with a book, but once you find the right one, the joy beams from their faces.

Our kids are learning economics, too. Even the kindergarteners quickly learn where to look for the price of the book. We have to collect sales tax, so explaining that to the kids is sometimes difficult. One middle schooler exclaimed, “Tax?! Is this what it’s like to be an adult?”

Yes. Yes, it is.

The kids also learn to budget their money, to prioritize which books they most want, and to understand that they can’t always get everything they want.

Clearly, the Book Fair is about more than reading.

I have worked the book Fairs for 7 years now. I never tire of watching the love of reading pass down to the next batch of youngsters that come through.

The Proof is in the Printing—CoronaLife Day 698

February 10, 2022 By Leave a Comment

Last week, I mentioned that I had gotten the e-proof for my genealogy book. There is a reason we get proofs prior to going to print. I found a mistake on the first title page! While it was a bit disheartening to have to resubmit the fixes and wait another 4-5 days for a new e-proof, I was happy that I had caught it. Also, it allowed me to polish up a few other pages that I had been willing to live with but would have liked to change. So I got the chance to change them, and now the only thing bugging me is the index, which I just could not get to cooperate no matter what I tried. The index is 99% fine, though, so I feel okay with it.

I got the revised e-proof and found nothing to worry me. So I approved it, and ordered myself a print proof. This will allow me to see the colors and quality of photos in reality, because colors in e-proofs are not always spot on, and resolution can look fine on a screen but not in print. I expect everything to look fine, as it did the last time I printed a book through this company, but I will be relieved when I see it in person.

The company estimates 15 days to print (perhaps longer) and then however many days of shipping. So it will be a while until I have it in hand. Still, it’s exciting to be so close!

My illustrator for my middle grade book has been turning out some wonderful work, so that project is also moving forward.

Progress!

How are your projects coming along?

 

Forward in February–CoronaLife Day 691

February 3, 2022 By Leave a Comment

January seemed interminable, but like all things, it has come to an end! As we move into February, I am once more looking forward.

My illustrator for my middle grade book, The Witch of Zal, churned out more awesome illustrations, so we are moving closer to the finish line there.

I also got the e-proof of the genealogy book late Wednesday, so I will be perusing that. I’m hoping I can approve it and then order a print proof before setting it for production.

I mentioned the issues I had uploading files that passed validation. I managed to resolve all the issues, except the “graphic less than 150 ppi” error. I went into the PDF and replaced each one of the 70 illustrations with JPEGs of 300 ppi. Every. One.

Still didn’t pass validation. Since I could not figure out where the issue was, I went ahead and put it to publication. That’s why I will be ordering a print proof after the e-proof. I want to make sure everything looks good.

Still, forward progress, and soon I will have a new book published. First one in a lot of years.

How are you moving forward in February?

Not Quite There—CoronaLife Day 684

January 27, 2022 By Leave a Comment

I had thought that I would be done with the genealogy book I am working on today. Yesterday I got the cover template from the publisher, and finished the cover. I uploaded it today. I had already uploaded the interior content. So all that remained was to run the final checks.

My files failed the final check.

I had uploaded regular PDF files. Apparently, these files did not have the correct color profiles and did not have all the fonts embedded. There was also a warning that one or more of the images was not 300 ppi.

The program told me to convert my file to a PDF-X to solve most of the problems. I had actually expected this, as this was the format needed for my last book with them. I had wanted to try a regular PDF, though, because I had a huge problem when I converted to PDF-X last time.

The conversion added errors to the text—either smashing words together by removing the space between, or adding excess spaces. I don’t mean just a few times, either—the PDF-X was littered with them. I cleaned it up as best I could, but I found even more once I got the printed proof.

You can understand my reluctance to convert it this time.

But there was no alternative, so I converted the PDF to PDF-X. Even though I already paid for a proofread, I am now in process of combing though the new file and cleaning up the text errors the conversion has inserted. Perhaps because I did the conversion differently this time, there are not nearly as many mistakes. Most of them are words smashed together, which is much easier to see than extra spaces.

So I am going to spend at least one more day going over the text to fix mistakes I didn’t make, on a text I have already had proofread. I’m not terribly happy about it, but it must be done, so I might as well buckle down and do it.

The conversion will not help the image under 300 ppi issue, but I am baffled as to which image(s) it might be. I knew from the start that 300 ppi was the standard, so I created everything at that resolution. I am going to re-export the cover as  JPEG rather than a PDF, since I can be certain of the JPEG resolution. I am hoping that the wonky image is in the cover, and that this will solve the issue. Otherwise, I will be spending another day combing through the 69 pages of images inserted in the book to try and find the culprit.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend, this will be uploaded and in the queue to be printed!

Ups & Downs – CoronaLife Day 677

January 20, 2022 By 1 Comment

As the saying goes, life has its ups and downs. This week my daughter tested positive for Covid. She’s doing okay, mostly just congested. She had one day she felt terrible, with a horrendous headache, but that was the second day of symptoms and has eased off considerably. Now my husband and I are waiting to see if we get it from her.

So that’s the down.

The up is that the genealogy book I am working on is nearing completion! Remember how I had thought I would need to cut a whole lot of pages to fit it into an affordable price range? The text of this book was clocking in at a whopping 290 pages, while the earlier book I did was only 180. Therefore, I spent a few days trying to cut it down, despairing of ever getting close.

Then I had a bright idea. I decided to look at the final PDF of the first book, to see what the final page count was after I added all the photos, trees, and title pages. I almost fainted, because it was 500 pages! I immediately knew that even with all the inserts added to the 290 pages of text, this book would not be 500 pages. Which meant I did not have to try to cut any text out!

What a relief!

I will finish compiling the PDF tomorrow, then I need to upload that to the printer so I can get a cover template for the book. The final large project will be designing the cover once I have the template. I already know what I would like to do for the cover, so it will just be a matter of getting it done. Then I can send it off to be printed!

Almost there.

How’s your January going?

Genealogical Proof—CoronaLife Day 670

January 13, 2022 By Leave a Comment

Ask and you shall receive! I got my proofreading copy for my genealogy book back last weekend, so I have been diligently making or rejecting changes.

There’s a lot to look at.

Some are genuine mistakes. Some are things perfectly clear to me that confused readers who have not been immersed in this for 20+ years. Some are things I decided not to change because they weren’t actually mistakes.

One thing I should have explained to the proofreaders is that ages and spellings are elastic until after 1900, and even sometimes then. Many people were illiterate, so spellings were at the mercy of whoever was taking the dictation. I once had someone write an ancestor’s name as “Eva Murray”, leading to a long chase for an Irishman in early 19th century Germany. Turns out her name was Eva Marie, and her immigrant husband’s heavy German accent was misheard by the clerk.

Ages floated a lot, too. People lied to go to war, to get married, to appear younger than their husbands. Many people honestly didn’t know their exact birth year. Until Social Security, it really wasn’t necessary to know. So genealogist get accustomed to a certain amount of drift in ages. Ancestors are simultaneously 40 and 37 and 52—it all depends when you look.

Schrodinger’s relatives.

Still, the proofreaders did a fantastic job. I am inching my way through. I have 4 more chapters to do, then all the photo and graphic captions. I hope to have it completed by Monday.

I will still have to go in and edit it severely to bring the page count down. I hate to lose so much fun historical stuff. So I am considering keeping the longer version and making it available as a PDF giveaway with purchase of the book. We shall see.

How is your new year kicking off?

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