So, if you were waiting to see the final product before turning your blog website into a book, I would say that it’s easy enough, and turns out okay too. It’s not perfect. The automatic software isn’t the best at laying out pages, so there are some pages that are nearly empty, but there are not many of those. Things that I would do differently…

• Take more time on the dust jacket. I should have put a title on the cover as well as the spine.
• Better proof reading. I have two spelling mistakes on the inside front cover of the dust jacket. The only thing that everyone is sure to read.
• The Sommerer Family Website has a fair number of posts about how to use the website. I can’t imagine that those are going to be interesting in book form.

Now I have to decide whether to mail it to him or keep it until the family reunion that starts on the 1st of July. Oh, and you’re all invited to attend.

About 4 years ago Apple completely rewrote their video editing program that comes with every Macintosh. They rewrote it and cut out about 50% of the features. Everyone was upset about it, and so they made the old version available as a download.

I’ve been using that old version at school for Multimedia Application and Video Editing, two of the classes that I teach. Every year they add back some of the features from the old program, and this last semester some of my students wanted to use their own laptops for their video projects. Nothing wrong with that, except that Apple no longer allows downloads of the old software, so they had to use the new software.

And they liked it. They told me I should try it. The annual Sommerer family ball game seemed like my chance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJVOepguyvY

My verdict? It’s good enough to use now, but I don’t really like it. Lots of features are hidden and the layout does not seem as intuitive to me. But it is easy to make a nice video.

P.S. If you are related to me, you should post comments on the Sommerer Family Website.

No comments needed here today. Why don’t you head on over to Mark’s site and congratulate the new parents? (Mark and Rachel know you guys from here. )

See, his giant new monitor leaves no room for the stereo speakers that used to live by the tiny monitor. Occasionally he likes to blast music throughout the house – usually when he’s cleaning (so no complaints here) – and he needed those speakers set up in a convenient spot. The piano top does very nicely.

Thanks, Brothers. You’re welcome anytime.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Qsn6nU8bA 520 433]

Danny, Lance and Chance helped behind the scenes, and although Sam served as MC, his dad had the best line of the night: When the Homestead Pickers asked Uncle Ralph what his hat said he replied, “It doesn’t say anything. It just has letters on it.”

The picture is tiny because I ONCE AGAIN left my camera at school and had to use the camera on the iMac.  That’s proud papa in the green t-shirt, and me in the v-neck.   The little one is due in June and is currently about as big as a newborn kitten, according to the very scientific measurements done by the ultrasound elves.  Rachel, hot mama, is a WARRIOR, as are ALL mothers!  Rachel, if you’re reading this, know that you are my hero – truly, the wind beneath my wings. You raise me up.…… so I can climb on mountains…….You raise me..   Ow.  Who just hit me?

My initial thought was that Mom could read the comment to him and he could answer her and she could tell me what was up. A few minutes into the conversation I knew that things weren’t going to work out that way, so I just started typing everything that my dad was saying.  If you know my dad, you know that this sounds pretty much just like him. The conversation was about an hour, but there were times when I fell behind in typing and I’ve just summarized those parts.

If you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, here’s the executive summary: No, there’s probably not a (close) connection between the two John Engelbrechts, but my dad did know two of the people mentioned, and their new church history book has at least some of and perhaps the whole family in it as well.

Here’s what it took to find out that information; All the words are my dad’s. (Lauren thinks it helps if you read it in a slightly southern accent.) You can usually tell what replies were by what he says. I didn’t even try to record what I said or what mom said…

Let’s say this dude, what’s his name? Charles Shoots? If James Sanders is 30 years old, then his mother is 60 years old and his grandmother would be 90 years old or more. I’m going rough age differentials. Now, James Sanders might be 70 himself, why I say that is that lots of old people get into genealogy. And if I take it right, my whole question is if James Sanders is kin to our John Englebrecht 

[Mom mentions something from the post]

Now hold on a minute, Jane. How did Calvary get into this conversation?

[Mom explains about the post these comments are for]

On the internet?

[My mom tries to explain the internet to my dad]

So he horned in on their conversation?

[More explaining about the internet]

Well, we have it all. Tell him for $45 he can have it. They come from St. Michael’s church over in Germany. They have pictures of the church and the Englebrecht tombstones. Did you sing at that church when you were over in Germany?

Do you have the Sommerer book? It went back into Germany, but I didn’t buy it because they only had two pages about our family. They had my great-grandfather’s discharge – that was one page signed by The Pathfinder. Well, it was supposed to be signed by The Pathfinder – it was signed by one of his aides. And a page on my grandfather’s family. I didn’t think that would be worth quite fifty dollars. But probably some of that other stuff over in Germany would have applied to our family. It was kind of written on Uncle Ralph’s side of the family.

A lot of the old records in the church book were translated for the first time from German for this new church book. Were you thinking of putting him in contact with John Englebrecht? My grandmother was an Englebrecht: granddaughter of [I didn’t quite catch who it was]. His [James?] grandmother was Mary, and it [the comment] names the kids in his family. Are you in front of a computer now? Did you call me just to aggravate me?

Seven children. That’s a typical family for around here, and I knew two of ‘em. I didn’t know Bill Englebrecht. I knew Herbert Popp as a kid. He’s been dead fifty years or more. His son is in his 80’s.

Andy married Edith, and they never had a child, and they’ve been dead 30 years.

Do you remember Albert Englebrecht? Do you remember the farm Uncle Ralph rented? Were you ever down there? Did you ever meet Albert? He was an old bachelor – he never married. He must have been a first cousin of these people. He must have been part of this family.

There was one Englebrecht family that had 10 boys in it. I only knew five of them. I think John Englebrecht was one of those brothers. That makes him related to quite a few …. no… I’m sorry. John Englebrecht was Wayne’s dad. I think John Englebrecht grew up around Kansas City, and I don’t even know if he was one of those ten. You know, some people just aren’t interested in genealogy at all.

Ok. I found it. Maria Friedericke Katherine Englebrecht. March 15, 1890. Father – John Englebrecht. Mother – Anny Buschbach. He needs one of these books. Tell him all of these records were in German. I think like the first 70 years, then they, well, you were baptized in Harvey, Illinois, and you should be in this book because you were confirmed in Honey Creek. Some people could be in this book at least five times. When they were baptized, confirmed, married – maybe two or three times, when they died and where they’re at in the cemetery.

I was born at Honey Creek, and I was confirmed at Honey Creek, and that would be all I’d be in there. Oh, and father of my kids. We just got these books today and I have a hard time finding stuff in ‘em. They’re like 350 pages and there might be 30 – 40 people on each page. My mother was, oh man, I’d have to look that up. [To Mom] – Look Mom up.

She could have been baptized at Honey Creek. She was confirmed in Jeff. [Jefferson City] Look this stuff up. She was born in 1898, she was married at Honey Creek, and, like, the first maybe 5 to 6 kids were baptized at Honey Creek; then they moved to Schubert’s. For 12 years or so, anyway, whoever was baptized or confirmed at Schubert’s wouldn’t be there. Here she is. Her father was Edwin Erhardt, and her mother was Elizabeth Beck.

[Here the conversation takes a sharp turn to the right and Dad relates another genealogy question someone asked him today.]

Where does… what was his name? Can you tell where James Sanders is from? Is he local there? Is he in New York?

[I tell him we don’t know.]

Do you know, we could have a lot of relatives in your area. Most of them wouldn’t be named Sommerer. Just like we have Williams and Bakers and Dittmers and Faulkners, Deetzes and Carrys.

I don’t know what to tell you about it. Are you going to try and communicate with this guy? Well, I’m just trying to figure out who he could contact to get one of these books. That would be too difficult. [To contact the church.] I have the books here. Well, he’s going to have to send me 45 dollars. Well, more that that – you have to have shipping charges on there. And what the hell happens if his check bounces? Sometimes checks take quite a while to bounce. The next month on your statement your check might bounce. ‘Course, with electronics and stuff they ought to be able to clear them in a day or two. I dunno – see if he wants a book, and if he does – call me back and we’ll see about some way to get him one. You might ought to ask his address. Hell, he could be down here at Meta. You know, we don’t know where he’s at.

James Sanders. That’s Ma Sanders’ boy. You know Beetle Bailey? On the bridge of his cap it says, “Ma Sander’s boy Jimmy L.” In the service, he must have been in the service. Have I told you this story before? He did a lot of weird things in the service, and one weekend the whole platoon was supposed to get leave so they could go into town. At the last minute they canceled the leave, so Jimmy L. Sanders stole a bus on the base and he rammed the front gate getting out to get to town. The guy who told the story said, “There were 32 of us on the bus.” [awkward pause] I guess you had to be there.

[At this point, Mom reads my reply to James Sander’s comment.]

“This is exactly the sort of question that gives meaning to the vast amount of ‘begat’ information that my dad has accumulated.”

Is that a direct quote? Is that on the internet? Is my Jimmy L. story on there, too?

I guess what confused me is when I heard, and Momma threw another quirk in there when she added Calvary to it, when I heard John Englebrecht and I automatically thought of our John Englebrecht, because we saw John and Becky in church this morning and I wasn’t thinking about another John Englebrecht.

But whoever the hell James L. Sanders is. The Hosterleins live across the street from Aunt Ada and Uncle Tony. Do you remember them living up there across the highway? She was Edie (Edith) – one of those seven kids, and her name was… you ought to print that off like Jane did and maybe you can decipher it better. I can’t decipher stuff on a screen as well as I can in print. But them two I knew for sure. The others, I’d have to have last names on them, but the boys are not ringing any bells with me.

Charles Englebrecht? Never, ever knew a Charles Englebrecht. I never knew a Bill Englebrecht. Do you think he wanted to know something or do you think he was making conversation? Well, whatever he had around here would be in that book.

What would be have to do to find Edie in that book, Jane? Would we have to know the year she was baptized? Can you look up Englebrecht? Did it give her name Hosterlein? Do you have to know the year to look them up?

[Here Mom offers some explanation about the make-up of the book.]

Let’s see – how about Charles? Well, were they in alphabetical order? Was there a Charles? Butch Tillman has a – I don’t know the word, fetish? – about the Stressners who lived down here on the farm, and we talked a couple of hours about it and he called last night and we talked about the Propts. But anyway, I asked Ralph Propts this morning in church and was told that Gilbert, the only Stressner that lived down here as a kid was Gilbert, and the only reason I know Gilbert is he married my second cousin sixty years ago and I didn’t even know it. He married Paul and [I didn’t catch that name] Meyer’s sister and they didn’t have any children. He always talked about comin’ out here and going hunting, but he never did. He asked nearly every year but never did.

He was born in this old farmhouse and I thought we were the only two born there. Ralph Propts told me there was one born to the Stressners who died about age twelve, and I never heard that story before from Mom or anybody. Looking in this book, there was a Stressner who was born and died the next day. He’s buried at Honey Creek. You know – an infant child. I didn’t even know that anything like that even existed.

[Mom says at this point that there’s another brother in here that James doesn’t even know about.]

Johann Heinrich Eduard Englebrecht. Edie Englebrecht. Could be Craig’s great-grandfather. You’ll have to ask Norma [Englebrecht]. Ask her if she’s related to Ma Sander’s little boy Jimmy L.

[Lotta stuff about names that I didn’t type.]

No, that’s the translating between the German and the English, and the preacher didn’t spell everything right. My Dad detested the name “Adolf”, and I think the pastor wrote that on a lot of his papers. His name was “Adolph”. There are some things like that you think a good translator would correct.

[More looking through the book.]

You know, there must have been a lot of Duenkels in those days. I wonder… you know, Lloyd, the first Sommerer who came to this country married a Duenkel. That lady did a lot of work to get this book put together. Betty Lorenzof, she was Pastor Boltman’s granddaughter. They moved back to Honey Creek, I don’t know, I can’t say exactly 10 – 20 years ago.

[More discussion about James Sanders’ relatives.]

What if she died and she never grew up? Lloyd, Butch Tillman was telling me this morning about one of his cousins, years ago, I’m talking about over 100 years ago, these people had five boys and the plague came through and all five of them died. Then they had five more and used the same names. And Butch said that that was confusing as hell. And I said that it wouldn’t be in genealogy because they didn’t have any kids. That’s like myself. I have no cousins by the name of Sommerer. I have cousins by 15 other names, but no Sommerers because Daddy’s brother never married, and so I have no cousins by the name of Sommerer. Well, I think you probably ought to let me go to bed.

I share this auspicious day with the handsome Bill Pullman and the cake meister Duff Goldman.  (Hey, Baltimorians, make Brad take a picture of himself outside Charm City Cakes for me.)  So, well-wishes are welcome!  Bonus points if it rhymes.

I missed the giant breakfast.

And the hanging out on the boat.  Lloyd was supposed to bring pop – I hope he remembered.

Here are Mom and Dad Sommerer watching the traditional softball game.

Are you thirsty?  They must have put Lloyd in charge of spelling.

Lloyd’s cousin Katie said he could have this tie rack if she made it to the website.  Anytime, Katie.  (Is that Vincent beside you?  How’d he get so tall?)

I just have to say, how on earth is Lloyd able to check the internet from his iPhone out in the middle of nowhere, but he doesn’t have a phone signal in our house? Something is wrong with technology.

Coming home, I only almost killed one person by swerving into their lane. All in all, not too bad driving. (It wasn’t because I was tired – I didn’t pay attention.) I also had the chance to pee here:

I came home to a clean house (thanks, Lloyd), had a birthday beverage with Annette (Happy Birthday, Annette!) and now am off to bed.

I need one of those things so badly. I have trouble with east & west, and right and left, for that matter. Directions are hard. This things shows you in a little tiny car, and tells you when & where to turn in a sweet little voice. (Mark calls her Myrna.) Plus, the graphics kind of look like Guitar Hero! (Or Handbell Hero)

The best part of having company come is that it motivates my to get off my duff and clean the house. The guest room has been closed off since November, with experimental towels hanging over the windows and boxes and bags of stuff accumulating. It’s all better now, so I’m dying to do some sort of project in there!

Before:

During:

After:

Visit again, Mark, in about two or three months when that room’s a pit again, ok?

My cousin Erik and his beautiful wife are officially hitched! (Lloyd has a beautiful cousin Heidi on his side, and I have a beautiful cousin Heidi, now there’s a third! They’re taking over like the Rachels did!) It was a gorgeous service and we had a wonderful day visiting with family and seeing St. Louis.

The reception was in the evening at the zoo, but we didn’t get to dine with any animals. I was a little disappointed that zebras weren’t our servers. It was beautiful even without them, though. We were in the Lakeside Cafe that they had all dolled up for the event. Very, very cool! Something that I’d never seen before was how they stocked the ladies’ room. They had candles all along the counter and trays with every little necessity that a girl could need – lotion, hair spray, band-aids, bobby pins, stomachache/ headache medicine, Girl Stuff, floss, clear nail polish – it was genius!

• clothes
• swimsuits
• floaty things
• towels
• sheets, blankets, pillows
• sunscreen
• bugspray
• folding chairs
• beer cooler
• some stuff to eat
• cameras, phones & chargers
• ukuleles
• shower present (Lloyd’s cousin Steve’s young bride is pregnant.)
• Brad

I think that’s it.  See y’all Sunday!  (Or maybe there will be some time-delayed posts???)

It turns out that there are a lot of these, and they all have a very consistent internal grammer. After you look at a few dozen you should have the hang of it. I don’t know if my caption was the best for this picture, so if you have another one, post it.

My cousing Heidi wrote a sweet memory of him on her website, and I just thought you should see his picture.

Here’s a picture of our family when we lived in Delta.  (I’m 3, I think.)  Don’t these children look pleased with their presents?  Doesn’t my mom look YOUNG?  (If my math is correct, she is 35 in this picture.  If you’ll remember, I’m 37 now.)

(I’m the little one – asleep, as ususal. Left to right are: Mom, Phil, Mark, and Keren. Dad’s taking the picture….or maybe Santa is….)