Update and Gosh the DAR is a lot of work (the real lesson)

It has been a long time since I have blogged. I have good reasons why but feel I did not use my time home to its fullest potential. I suppose I am too hard on myself because it is hard to be productive in anything when you are not feeling well.

I have been sick this year. And when I say this year, I really mean this year.. like since March! I had been having some stomach problems for a year and a half and well, that turned out to be a faulty gall bladder which was the easy part. I just added some serious complications to the mix to make my year "fun". So after months of jaundice, infected stones in my bile duct and the topping on the proverbial sick cake, I added a trip to the hospital emergency, blood infection and! septic shock. I am happy to report, add my doctor's big grin here, that I have come through the septic shock with no permanent disabilities and alive. Woot! I was very lucky and this leaves me with this thought this week (my final follow up appt was this past Monday)… just what will I do with what I have been given. I am looking at some of the areas of my life that need improvement.

I was home from work three to four months and I can not report any outstanding genealogical progress. Once in a while I would immerse myself but it just isn't easy when you feel like crap and it takes all of your energy to walk from one room to the next (regaining my strength has been long and boring....). Thank goodness for my children who I depended on heavily. My son.. I can't say enough about how much he helped me as he took on the bulk of the responsibility. I did a bit on my Fender line, finding more documents on ScotlandsPeople and I did solve the mystery of an incorrect father in my family tree on that side. On the Stockton line I sat down a few times determined to get this Stockton business done to a point I can add a supplemental application to my DAR membership.

And this brings me to the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). Wow, is it a lot of work! It should be, I know, my first application was easy as two family members were already members of the DAR so my job was to prove myself to my great grandmother. That was a piece of cake. Now I am breaking off the proven line to another surname and it is not so easy now! My target applicant is Reverend Robert Stockton of Barren County, Kentucky. There is a lot of source material for him but it is his son Robert Junior that has been the chore. He didn't live long so a paper trail for him has not been easy. However by the detail of the Reverends will and his gift of land to Robert Junior I am on a roll. His daughter, Elizabeth (Betsey) Wilson Stockton is mentioned in a few of these documents and with her husband (my Hugh Lawson Baldwin) so all of the family connections are finally made. I think I am at a point to pull it all together and sit down with my Chapter's Registrar and see what I am missing. I think I am if not holding enough documentation, I am close! Another woot here!

Stay tuned…. :)