Fall is coming to Phoenix. That means cooler evenings and mornings (great for walking) and days under 100. I know it still sounds warm, and it is, but it is a huge relief from over 100 and it is surprisingly comfortable.
It has been a busy summer with traveling (a wonderful family wedding in Michigan) and escaping the heat of Phoenix, for the cool summer in Colorado. I have been working on small projects, not getting a great deal done, but keeping busy. I am having trouble keeping motivated on the book I am working on about my Beckington grandparents. I have submitted an article locally to a society's publication in the Phoenix area about Mickey, which will appear in the Winter edition. I have written extensively about Mickey Bruner on my blog in the past. The Writer's Group I belong to meets next week so I need to get busy on another article. I am going to write about the Court family that stayed in New York. My great-great Grandfather, William Wallace Court, came to Michigan. He was one of five children born to James and Janette Bouquet Court, and the only one to migrate to Michigan. The others stayed in New York and didn't seem to fare as well.
I watch a blog called "Life from the Roots" by Barbara Poole. It is an excellent blog. She has the name Scramblin on her surname list. Maria Court, William's daughter, married a Lewis Wilson Scramblin. They lived in the Jackson County area of Michigan at one point. Maria had at least three children who died in infancy. Maria died at the age of 43 in 1928. I did some further research on the Scramblin name and am trying to figure out a connection to the family that Barbara highlights. Since Barbara is in the New England area and most of her ancestors are from there, we have a great many names in common.
Our monthly study group has been going very well. Everyone is trying new things and learning a great deal. I certainly learn putting the meeting and lessons together. This September was our one-year anniversary so we went over the goals we had set last year. It was amazing how many of those goals had been accomplished already or were near completion. We then started a new list of goals for this next year.
The group is heading for the West Valley Genealogical Society's library in Sun City in late October. It is a wonderful library (over 12,000 books and 1,500 periodicals) with an extensive map collection. Some of the ladies have never been. We are also all going to start a writing project on an ancestor who has an interesting story to tell, which we will work on over the next couple of months. Many of the group are avid writers already, but we are ALL going to start on a new project to write about and then will present them - and maybe do some editing - at our November meeting. I will be working on the Court story I mentioned above.
