Ever wonder what ‘LaQuinta’ means in Spanish?
‘Next to Denney’s,’ of course….
Ever wonder what ‘LaQuinta’ means in Spanish?
‘Next to Denney’s,’ of course….
This is a copy of Johannes Holliger’s Certificate of Baptism.
(My cousin Neil Holliker) has the original today.
The first thing to notice are the fold marks. It looks like it just came out of his pocket!
The Header is: “Certificate of Baptism.” Then is goes on to say:
“On the 27th of a winter month (in German this is either November, December or January) 1803, a legitimate child was baptized in the county parish church.” It is significant to note that the actual birth date is not recorded, only the date of the baptismal.
As was the practice in those days, in Switzerland, newborns were baptized on the first Sunday following their birth. So, when exactly was Johannes born? His tombstone gave me the clue here:
A couple things here first. This marker reflects ‘John’ Holliker, vs. Johannes Holliger. However, they are one in the same. His name ‘morphed’ over the years, primarily through inept census takers. Bureaucrats.
Okay… so here I have his recorded date of death. Subtracting 78 years from 1881 gives me 1803, which coincides with his Certificate of Baptism.
If we subtract 4 days from December 30, 1881, we can deduce his actual birthday was December 26, 1803. Then looking at my handy Mac calender, I see where 26 Dec. 1803 fell on a Monday. So, with children in those days being baptized on the first Sunday after their births, it is probable he was born on 26 December 1803.
The certificate then gives us his parents, Johannes Holliger of Rein, and Maria Hirt of Lauffohr. Lauffohr is very near Rein, just over the hill actually.
Next on the certificate are his God Parents, Johannes Mueller of Rein, and Verena Lauchli of Remigen.
The certificate then concludes with: “This is certified from the baptismal register of the country parish church with signature and seal, in Rein on the 23rd of April 1833. Johann(es) Mark, Pastor”
Perplexing. Why would this document be dated 1833, when Johannes was born in 1803? That escaped me for many years until it finally dawned on me. He wouldn’t have needed such a document until he was ready to leave! Besides being a Certificate of Baptism, this document also served as a ‘Birth Certificate,” and a Passport! And so, all this information was pulled off the parish church register often held in the basements of Swiss churches.
For the most part, these registers are still held in the parish churches, with copies now in the ‘county’ archives. And (photo)copies are also available to us through the Mormon church.
So, I think Johannes probably left Rein not long after 23 April 1833 for America. I asked Max how long the trip to Amsterdam would have taken, and he thought perhaps 3 or 4 weeks – traveling North on the Aare River to the Rhine River, then to Amsterdam. Then it would have taken some time to procure transport to America, maybe a week or so? And then, the crossing would have been approximately 6 weeks or so.
So, ballpark figuring (although they didn’t have ballparks in those days) I reckon he arrived in America sometime around the first of August 1833. It would sure be interesting to find his actual Port of Entry, and the date he arrived! I’ll keep looking…
Oh, the inscription at the base?
I will [both] lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.” ~ Psalms 4:8 (Thanx to my good friend, Doug…)
“I brought so few gifts to the task of being a military brat. You learn who you are by testing and measuring yourself against your friends you grow up with. The military brat lacks those young, fixed critics who form opinions about your character over long, unhurried years or who pass judgment on your behavior as your personality waxes and wanes during the insoluble dilemma that is childhood. But I do know the raw artlessness of being an outsider.
Each year I began life all over again. I grew up knowing no one well, least of all myself, and I think that damaged me. I grew up not knowing if I was smart or stupid, handsome or ugly, interesting or insipid. I was too busy reacting to the changing landscapes and climates of my life to get a clear picture of myself. I could never catch up to the boy I might have been if I had grown up in one place.“
“…and I think that damaged me…” Oh, how this phrase resonates in me, even today! I have had to continually struggle not to give in to it, and to just “quit.” Some days I think I’m there… but not today. Those days are fewer, and further between now – thank God! Today I have more “hope” than I have ever had, and “faith.” Through my recovery (from alcoholism) I am learning so much more about myself, and am actually “loving” myself these days! That’s new for me… I am not where I want to be, yet – but I am also not where I was at one time. What more could I ask for?
While visiting Switzerland, I asked Max, “How would Johannes have come to America?”
Max lives in Still, Switzerland, about 2 miles from Rein (where Johannes lived – go figure!). His house actually sits on the Aare River.
This is Max and me, ‘getting into it,’ – researching family history. That is the Aare River in the background.
The Aare River, in turn, empties into the Rhine River which flows northward to the North Sea. Max felt that (most probably) this was the way Johannes would have traveled – North, by river, to Amsterdam. From there he would have taken passage to America. His other option was to travel overland to Le Havre, France. He said this would have been a harder way to travel, and more dangerous. So, “I’m good” with this explanation…
I have yet to discover the actual ship he came over on, or his port of entry. The “Green Book” tells us that he landed in Washington, DC. But I don’t think Washington was a port of entry. I think Arlington was, but again, I can find no evidence of his arrival…
I saw this on FaceBook this morning:
What a great idea!
I have between 13 – 14 hens out back. Not sure as they move around too much when I try to count them. Anyway, right now I have about 5 dozen eggs in the refrigerator. So, I decided to try a tray…
They did come out “great!” So, since the oven was already warm, I decided to try another tray – I mean, what the hell? Completely intrigued with the idea, in went another tray. I now have 56 boiled eggs.
If you are in the area, and would like to stop in for a snack, please… I need to get a life, and stop reading stuff like this…
“This is my paradox. Because of my military life, I’m a stranger everywhere, and a stranger nowhere. I can engage anyone in a conversation, become well-liked in a matter of seconds, yet there is always a distance I can never recover, a slight shiver of alienation, of not belonging, and an eye on the nearest door. The word goodbye will always be a killing thing for me, but so is the word hello. I’m pathetic in my attempts to make friends with everyone I meet, from cabdrivers to bellhops to store clerks. As a child my heart used to sink at every new move or set of orders. By necessity, I became an expert at spotting outsiders. All through my youth, I was grateful for unpopular children. In their unhappiness, I saw my chance for rescue and I always leapt at it. When Mary writes about military brats offering emotional blank checks to everyone in the world, she’s writing the first line of my biography.
Yet I can walk away from my best friends and rarely think of them again. I can close a door and not look back. There’s something about my soul that’s always ready to go, to break camp, to unfold the road map, to leave at night when the house inspection’ done and the civilians are asleep and the open road is calling to the Marine and his family again. I left twenty towns at night singing the Marine Corps hymn and it’s that hymn that sets my blood on fire each time I hear it, and takes me back to my ruined and marvelous childhood.“
So familiar; so descriptive…
I can be driving and “sense’ a jet near. Maybe I catch a flash, or hear the acceleration of the engine, or just flat look up – and there it is – an F-16 from out at the base. I don’t think it coincidence that I chose to live in retirement under the flightpath of the jets from out there. The roar of their engines still make my blood boil…
Harry has a neighbor who is “none too bright.” I have met him, and I would think describing him as “half-bright” sometimes would be a “stretch.” But he treats Harry well, so Harry ‘tolerates’ him. With all his incessant whining and ineptness, Harry tolerates him…
I stopped by Harry’s yesterday to check on him. Harry isn’t doing too well physically, but his mind is still pretty sharp. As we were talking his neighbor came up, and Harry began laughing.
For years they have watched each other’s houses when the other went away. To allow Harry access to his house, his neighbor gave him a garage door opener. With Harry, wrong move.
One day, when his neighbor was out working in the yard, Harry shut his garage door from his place. Now, between Harry’s and his neighbor’s place is a small field, maybe 150 feet to so wide. and it is usually planted with corn or beans. But the garage door opener works fine from Harry’s house.
So, the neighbor seeing his garage door lower, has to walk around the house to gain access – there is no readily assessable door near his garage door. And Harry takes great delight in knowing this! Soon the door opens once again, and out comes his neighbor.
Harry lets him work for another 30 or 40 minutes, then shuts it again. And the drill repeats itself: around the house goes the neighbor, the door opens again and back to work goes the neighbor.
This goes on for about a few hours when Harry sees his neighbor get into his truck. “Oh, here he comes,” thinks Harry – and he’s right. The guy would never just walk across the field!
“You having problems with your garage door?” asks his neighbor.
“No,” replies Harry, “what’s up?”
“Oh,the gawd-damn door keeps closing, or opening on it’s own,” reports the neighbor, “and it’s getting to be a real pain in the ass!”
“Ya think it might be the jets?” asks Harry, referring to the local F-16s from out at the base.
“Now, that’s a thought,” the neighbor replies, “I think I’m gonna call out there and complain…” and of he goes. Harry is beside himself…
As he tells me the story yesterday, Harry begins looking for something in the kitchen. When I ask what he is looking for, he tells me, “the garage door opener.” And this time, we both laugh!
“I thought I was singular in all this, one of a kind. From Mary’s book, I discover that I speak in the multi-tongued, deep-throated voice of my tribe. By writing this book, she handed me a visa to an invisible city where I am welcomed for the first time as a native son. Her book speaks in a language that is clear and stinging and instantly recognizable to me, yet it’s a language I was not even aware I spoke. She isolates the military brats of America as a new indigenous subculture with our own customs, rites of passage, forms of communication and folkways. When I write The Great Santini I thought I’d lived a life like no other child in this country. I had no clue that with The Great Santini, I had accidentally broken into the heart of both the military brat’s truth and cliché. With this book, Mary astonished me and introduced me to a secret family I did not know I had.
This great family of military brats has had no voice because we’ve assimilated so well into the slipstreams of American life. We’ve never had a way of reaching out to each other, letting each other know we were around, that we endured and even prospered in out trial by father and the permanent transiency of our sturdy breed.
But Mary takes the testimony of these children of the military experience and tells us what it means. With her brilliant analysis of these far-flung anonymous voices, she lets us know we are brothers and sisters who belong to a hidden, unpraised country. To those of us without homes or hometowns, Mary Wertsch gives, for the first time, a sense of spirit and pride.“
And it is in these paragraphs my inspiration to have our Nation, the Congress, recognize us for our sacrifices, our commitment and our service to our Nation. In 2010 my US Representative, Bob Latta, R/OH (Dist. 5) introduced legislation proposing exactly this – in the form of a Congressional Lapel pin: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr5333. This bill “died in committee” in December 2010.
In March 2011, Bob reintroduced the bill as HR 1014: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr5333. Essentially the same bill, it sat for 2 years with no action, and subsequently “died in committee.”
(I plan to “tee off” on our ‘weak-dick’ congress here soon, in another thread. These were/are simple bills. The idea has merit. Yet, our legislators can’t get off their asses, and pass this legislation in a “straight-up” vote.)
(I pulled this off “the Net” this morning. You can find information of ‘Snopes;’ and I like what I see here: http://fatalfacts.com/index.php?/topic/1308-facts-on-honey-and-cinnamon-it-is-found-that-a-mixture-of-honey-and-cinnamon-cures-most-diseases/ They are essentially the same…)
Drug companies won’t like this one getting around. Facts on Honey and Cinnamon:
It is found that a mix of honey and Cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also note honey as very effective medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without side effects which is also a plus. Today’s science says that even though honey is sweet, when it is taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm even diabetic patients. Researched by western scientists:
HEART DISEASES: Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, put it on toast instead of jelly and jam and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol and could potentially save one from heart attack. Also, even if you have already had an attack studies show you could be kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of cinnamon honey strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada, various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as one ages the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and the veins.
ARTHRITIS: Arthritis patients can benefit by taking one cup of hot water with two tablespoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. When taken daily even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week (out of the 200 people so treated) practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain — and within a month, most all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis now started walking without pain.
BLADDER INFECTIONS: Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder….who knew?
CHOLESTEROL: Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water given to a cholesterol patient was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, when taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol-could be cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.
COLDS: Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and, clear the sinuses, and it’s delicious too!
UPSET STOMACH: Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also is said to clear stomach ulcers from its root.
GAS: According to the studies done in India and Japan, it is revealed that when Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.
IMMUNE SYSTEM: Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacterial and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles (where DNA is contained) to fight bacterial and viral diseases.
INDIGESTION: Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food is eaten relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals
INFLUENZA: A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural ‘Ingredient’ which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.
LONGEVITY: Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Use four teaspoons of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of boiling water to make a tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans increase and even a 100 year old will start performing the chores of a 20-year-old.
RASPY OR SORE THROAT: When throat has a tickle or is raspy, take one tablespoon of honey and sip until gone. Repeat every three hours until throat is without symptoms.
PIMPLES: Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it off the next morning with warm water. When done daily for two weeks, it removes all pimples from the root.
SKIN INFECTIONS: Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin Infections.
WEIGHT LOSS: Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast and on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. When taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.
CANCER: Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder three times a day for one month.
FATIGUE: Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, even when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, when taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M., the vitality of the body increases within a week.
BAD BREATH: People of South America, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water first thing in the morning so their breath stays fresh throughout the day.
HEARING LOSS: Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal parts restores hearing.
Remember when we were kids? We had toast with real butter and cinnamon sprinkled on it!
One of the fun things we had while I was on active duty were the “No-Notice Hospitality Checks.” These took several forms. Essentially a group of us would head over to someone’s house – someone who usually left the O’Club (Officer’s Club) earlier the evening. We would carpool, then muster on the front lawn. This usually took place around 2300 hrs., or later. (11:00PM)
Once we were all there, we would ring the bell, and then “barge in” once the door was opened! From then it was, “Party On!” There would usually be about 10 to 12 of us, with maybe a few wives.
The idea was to drink all the “guest of honor’s” booze, and then eat all the food in the house. Usually, no problem.
In July 1980 I was assigned to Canberra, Australia, as a Flight Safety Officer for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF.) I think, when I was there, there were 28 other American Exchange Officers in country. We lived “off base,” and had made several Australian civilian friends.
One of the things I missed were our “Hospitality Checks.” So, I decided to add a bit of a “twist” to the drill. Instead of showing up at someone’s house late in the evening, we would muster on their doorstep at 0700! And we would bring the food!
So this one morning, three of us, with our wives, decided to hold a ‘Hospitality Check’ at Al & Mavis’ house. The women made various American breakfast dishes to take, and the guys took care of the champagne (and beer.) And we decided it should be a “formal” occasion, of course.
You should have seen their faces when we walked in! There they were; in their finest pajamas wiping the sleep from their eyes – and us in “fancy dress!” I wonder if they have recovered yet?