Larry Robert Royston (1960-2017)

In the spring of 2005, I answered a question posed on a blog called "Love and the Happy Cynic".  I was flattered when I got an answer--I mean, bloggers were BMOC, with thousands of followers, right?  But this guy actually wrote back, and wanted to talk.  Turned out he lived in a little town in Georgia with his wife Jan.  He'd grown up in Hawaii, knew tons about history, was well read and very funny, and had young-onset Parkinson's Disease.

That was Larry, the co-author of "Janson" (and "Hesch History").  We emailed and chatted most days, tried to make each other laugh.  We often discussed books or the news, as you do, and one day he asked what I knew about my ancestors.  I vaguely recalled a story about a great grandfather who fell out of a wagon, and a Janson grandpa who came here as a 3 year old. That was about it.

So started an adventure that kept us both interested for years.  HH  began in January 2009, and "Janson" that September.  This post is the 300th here.  We tapered off in the last year, partly because of Larry's PD, but mostly because we ran out of new sources to tap.  He was an inspiration, zeroing in on small facts that turned into days of fun research (about local people and the history of Buckman and St Michaels, among many other topics).  Because of Larry, I went to Europe to find the places we discovered (and because Marion persuaded me ☺).

It's been a wonderful twelve years, knowing Larry.  I'm heartbroken that he's gone.  I've lost a dear friend, and as I've said before, he knew way more about us than you do. 

Rest in peace, dear friend.

I'll miss you always

Aunt Jeanette turns 90

This last Saturday we celebrated Aunt Jeanette Janson's 90th birthday.  It was an open house at the Pierz Ballroom (the Funhouse 😊) and a ton of people came to wish her a HBD.  She taught school in the area for 42 years, so there were former students and lots of neighbors, friends and family. It was great.
Here are some old and new pics of the last 90 years...
(Thanks to family Facebook pages for most of em).

 This photo was taken at the party--most of my wonderful family and two of my sisters.  Can you pick out Kathy, Marion and me?  ☺  

AJs crown was perfect on her, don't you think?

 (Just a side note: remember how, at weddings when we were kids, the whole hall would be hazy with cigarette smoke?  Well, at the party on Saturday, a friend of the family was telling a joke and needed cellophane for the punch line.  He asked the smokers in the crowd to bring a pack to the stage--and NO ONE had cigs!  (Or, no one wanted to admit it) but even 10 years ago, there would have been plenty of packs to choose from...now, not even one.  Truly remarkable!)