Where does De Kalb come from?

Quite unexpectedly it has become handy that I have family members that have spent some time living in the great state of Texas. I have been updating the Austin History Center's Biographical Sources finding aid with useful Internet sites and I need to test to make sure that the web sites are, in fact, useful. Who better to test genealogy web sites with than your very own family? Especially when your very own family has a fairly unique surname. Your own family does not make for a very good test case if your last name is Smith.

When looking up my cousin's Texas birth record I learned that my aunt's middle name is Shepard? I also learned that my grandmother's middle name was De Kalb. Amazing the things you don't know about your own family. I wonder where these names came from? Chances are that I will only remember this newly discovered information for about the next 3 days but I know where to find the information if I ever need it again. You never know....

And if anyone is wondering if I have had any additional weird Whitman coincidences - never fear. I am currently processing the family papers a of multi-generational farm family from Richland, Texas that doesn't seem to care about anything other than family, the weather and church. This collection is one of the last places I would expect to see Whitman's name but it turns out that one of the family members was an Austin police officer. Guess where he was on August 1, 1966? You guessed it - being shot at from the UT Tower by Charles Whitman.

And I thought not having a washer and dryer was bad...

I have always been a bit obsessive about those real estate flyers you see posted on the street. If I am walking by I will always stop to at least look at the pictures. Now that I am looking for a place to live I will even cross the street to see what is for sale.

Yesterday while I was walking to find some lunch I picked up a flyer for a 2/2 condo in a building called the Penthouse Condominiums. Perfect location - just 4 blocks from work. Unfortunately the flyer advertised "laundry facilities in the building" which is real estate code for the fact the condos don't have washer and dryer hookups. I will live miles out of town before I will go back to lugging my dirty laundry into the basement.

Turns out that not having washers and dryers in the condos is not the worse thing about that condo building. After lunch I returned to work and continued processing the FBI files from the Charles Whitman shootings. And what should catch my eye? Before the building just four block from my work was known as the Penthouse Condominiums it was called the Penthouse Apartments. Penthouse Apartments is where Charles Whitman's mother lived and this is where her son shot her.

I don't remember that being mentioned on the advertising flyer.

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Photo courtesy of the Austin History Center.

My first autopsy and cranberry sauce

Today I read my first autopsy. It wasn't all that thrilling - a lot medical jargon that I didn't understand. The dead guy's brain weighed 1408 grams if you are interested. And if you know what that means in pounds let me know.

The actual incident reports were much more interesting. All kinds of innuendo that the daughter of the Lt. Governor of Texas was sleeping in the same room with someone to whom she was not married. It was the 80's not the 50s - who cares if there was a white blouse to small to be worn by the victim at the foot of his bed.

And if you didn't already believe that drinking and television are bad for you - believe it now. This guy had been out drinking and passed out on the couch while watching TV in the Lt. Governor's apartment of the Texas Capitol building and the television caught on fire and he died of smoke inhalation. Everyone else got out but him.

It was a Zenith. Do they even make televisions anymore?

And speaking of the Texas Capitol building - it is not, contrary to popular belief, the tallest or biggest capitol building in the United States. The Louisiana State Capitol is taller and our nation's capitol has more square footage. So everything is NOT bigger in Texas.

Tonight I made fabulous cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving - I had to stop myself from eating it all because Thanksgiving is about sharing and not stuffing yourself with the Thanksgiving menu items 2 days before the main event. This recipe is a keeper.

1. 1 bag of cranberries


2. 1 1/2 cups of sugar


3. 1/2 cup of brandy


4. 2 TBSP of orange zest

Mix it all up in a 8 or 9 inch baking dish and cook in the oven at 325 degrees for an hour to an hour and a half (and why is it that you feel like it should be "an" and not "a" before the word "hour") until most of the liquid is gone.

I think I am going to have to make more tomorrow.

To be a Texan...

The great state of Texas knows that I am here. Well, at least the Department of Motor Vehicles knows that I am here and has sent me a nifty little book that says things like "To be a Texan, you do not need to own an oil well, unless of course, you live in Midland, where it's mandatory." and "To be a Texan, you do not need to own a horse. You do, however, need to practice safety at all times."

The little booklet also tells me that I only have 30 days to register my car. I suppose my 30 days are already up but I can't quite bring myself to go down to the DMV. I did manage to get the car inspected but putting Lone Star state license plates on my car makes this all very real. I am not on a long vacation visiting Rebecca. I am not doing an internship at the Austin History Center. This is real life.

Perhaps I will wear cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and a western shirt with snaps to the registration office just to prove that I am a Texan now. I wonder if they will think it is as funny as they think their little booklet is.....