I’ve spent way too much time documenting a problem with Apple software. I phrased my description in a manner that it was moved from the support people to the programmers. The latter asked for a bit more information.
To add to my “bona fides” I suggested they do a search for
“melvyn” “magree” computers
The quotes are important. Without them Google would also search for melvin and magee. The “melvyn” is also important because there are many Magrees who are better-known than I am, especially in Australia.
Wow! Over 20,000 hits going way back. Gosh, if I could have gotten $100 for each of those items…
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Monday, February 04, 2013
My nationality is American
A favorite conversational item of many Americans is "What nationality are you?" This happens often because we are a nation of immigrants from elsewhere or the descendants of immigrants. But how is it that the nationality of someone from Canada is Canadian and from Australia is Australian?
One of my favorite comebacks is "What nationality is the King of Sweden?" Following the male line back, he's French; he's descended from Marechal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's marshals.
As for me, my paternal grandmother is the only immigrant among my grandparents; she was born in Silesia, at that time part of Germany. The other three were all born in the United States. As I hardly knew my grandmother, I didn't have much German influence.
Of my great-grandparents, four were born in Germany, three were born in England, and one supposedly was born in Brooklyn. More about him later. I never knew my German great-grandparents, and we never had any German traditions in our house. I only knew my mother's paternal grandmother, and the only thing English I experienced from her was tea, with Carnation milk!
As for the supposedly Brooklyn-born great-grandfather, I've found some indications that he probably was born in Liverpool, England. Most of the records for him give his name as John J.R. Magree, but Brooklyn has no birth certificate for him. I did find two Liverpool records for the child John James Robert Magree. His mother may have been Irish or English, but his father was John Cornelius Magree, probably the John C. Magree who was the master of the Ship Ivanhoe bringing immigrants from Liverpool to New York in Jan 1851. There was no John J.R. Magree in the passenger list. Interestingly, on his marriage record, John C.'s father was Vinsent Magree [sic], Vincent Magree was in Baltimore in the 1830 Census.
Other than possibly John C.s marriage in Liverpool, I have found no ancestor that I can link to Ireland.
My only Irish link to the name Magree is from Magree's I contacted in Australia. They can trace their Magree ancestors to Kilkenny, Ireland, and even to some specific pieces of land.
Interestingly, on one St. Patrick's Day, my mother said "We are Orange Irish". Other than her in-laws, she knew nothing of my father's grandparents.
Having lived in Italy for two years and in Sweden for four years, I like to kid that I am more Italian than many Americans that call themselves Italian and likewise for "Swedes".
One of my favorite comebacks is "What nationality is the King of Sweden?" Following the male line back, he's French; he's descended from Marechal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's marshals.
As for me, my paternal grandmother is the only immigrant among my grandparents; she was born in Silesia, at that time part of Germany. The other three were all born in the United States. As I hardly knew my grandmother, I didn't have much German influence.
Of my great-grandparents, four were born in Germany, three were born in England, and one supposedly was born in Brooklyn. More about him later. I never knew my German great-grandparents, and we never had any German traditions in our house. I only knew my mother's paternal grandmother, and the only thing English I experienced from her was tea, with Carnation milk!
As for the supposedly Brooklyn-born great-grandfather, I've found some indications that he probably was born in Liverpool, England. Most of the records for him give his name as John J.R. Magree, but Brooklyn has no birth certificate for him. I did find two Liverpool records for the child John James Robert Magree. His mother may have been Irish or English, but his father was John Cornelius Magree, probably the John C. Magree who was the master of the Ship Ivanhoe bringing immigrants from Liverpool to New York in Jan 1851. There was no John J.R. Magree in the passenger list. Interestingly, on his marriage record, John C.'s father was Vinsent Magree [sic], Vincent Magree was in Baltimore in the 1830 Census.
Other than possibly John C.s marriage in Liverpool, I have found no ancestor that I can link to Ireland.
My only Irish link to the name Magree is from Magree's I contacted in Australia. They can trace their Magree ancestors to Kilkenny, Ireland, and even to some specific pieces of land.
Interestingly, on one St. Patrick's Day, my mother said "We are Orange Irish". Other than her in-laws, she knew nothing of my father's grandparents.
Having lived in Italy for two years and in Sweden for four years, I like to kid that I am more Italian than many Americans that call themselves Italian and likewise for "Swedes".
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Nuclear plants and childhood leukemia, a tenuous link
A new French study has shown that incidents of childhood leukemia are twice as high within 5 km of nuclear plants. See "Child leukemia doubles near French nuclear plants", Reuters, 2012-01-12. Hoo boy! Maybe we can get the damn things shut down!
But, wait a minute! We're still talking about some very small number of cases. Fourteen! 14! Similar studies have found no significant radiation increases near nuclear plants. Could there be another explanation?
"German study finds nuclear energy causes leukemia… or maybe not…" suggests that nuclear plants are in industrial areas, some of which have had severe pollution from other sources, like munition plants. Second, poorer people tend to live near these areas and for a variety of reasons tend to have more health issues, for example, more parents who smoke.
I checked Google for "smoking leukemia" and was given over six million items. Here's one from an "unimpeachable" source - "Kids' Leukemia Risk Tied to Dad's Smoking", Fox News, 2011-12-15 (actually from Reuters). The risk is given as 15 percent higher if the father smokes. The sample size was 400 for children with leukemia and 800 for children without.
I think these cases show that people shouldn't leap to alarmist positions nor should they be quick to dismiss indications of a problem. Unfortunately, our political climate leads to uncritical acceptance of one position or the other.
But, wait a minute! We're still talking about some very small number of cases. Fourteen! 14! Similar studies have found no significant radiation increases near nuclear plants. Could there be another explanation?
"German study finds nuclear energy causes leukemia… or maybe not…" suggests that nuclear plants are in industrial areas, some of which have had severe pollution from other sources, like munition plants. Second, poorer people tend to live near these areas and for a variety of reasons tend to have more health issues, for example, more parents who smoke.
I checked Google for "smoking leukemia" and was given over six million items. Here's one from an "unimpeachable" source - "Kids' Leukemia Risk Tied to Dad's Smoking", Fox News, 2011-12-15 (actually from Reuters). The risk is given as 15 percent higher if the father smokes. The sample size was 400 for children with leukemia and 800 for children without.
I think these cases show that people shouldn't leap to alarmist positions nor should they be quick to dismiss indications of a problem. Unfortunately, our political climate leads to uncritical acceptance of one position or the other.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Reconstructing family history
Genealogy once upon a time seemed to be a search for illustrious ancestors. As it became more and more popular for people just to connect back to Europe, people came just as interested in the stories of their ancestors as in the connections of one generation to another. Besides, the stories often gave clues on how to find the connections.
I've been interested in the origins of the name Magree for years, but really didn't make much progress until the 1970s when I stumbled on a whole bunch in Australia. From some of them I found that they could trace their ancestors to Kilkenny, Ireland.
My own personal search stopped with my greatgrandfather, John J.R. Magree who was born in Brooklyn in 1851. I've gathered a few stories about him and his descendants, but I gave up on searching documents to go back further.
Meanwhile, I do a Google search on Magrees and turn up a few I never heard of before. I generally don't follow up because the letter exchange or telephone calls would just eat up time from all the other activities I want to do.
Every so often my curiosity gets the better of me and I attempt to contact someone. I did this recently through classmates.com and got a reply. She gave me some information about her ex-husband. I made the connection to one of my uncles, replied to her, and haven't heard from her since. I probably exhausted her interest in the subject.
However, this led me to reflect on some decades-old issues. My family is not very good on keeping connections up, possibly because of many divorces. I had not seen my paternal grandmother since I was about 7 or 9, but I sent her Christmas cards and maybe birthday cards for a long, long time.
The year after I was married, we drove through Chicago on our way home to Cleveland. I stopped at a phone booth, looked my grandmother up, called her, and she invited us to stop by.
She was living upstairs in a duplex where her youngest son, his wife, and children lived downstairs. My wife and I remember her bitterly complaining about her daughter-in-law.
A couple of nights ago, during a sleepless period, several weeks after I received the message through classmates.com, two explanations about the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law conflict popped into my head.
Both were born in Germany.
My grandmother had come to the U.S. when she was about six, but as an adult she spoke probably only English. Her children would ask for German words but she had a harder and harder time remembering any.
My aunt was the widow of a German soldier and the mother of a young son. She met my uncle, a G.I., after the war and came to the U.S. with her son.
I wonder if there was friction between the two women because 1) my grandmother could no longer speak fluent German and was frustrated, or 2) my grandmother had antipathy towards Germans in general because of the two World Wars.
I may never know. All the principals are dead now except possibly my aunt's first son. I may never get sufficient curiosity to follow up with people who may be reluctant to get involved with distant relatives.
And this is how so many interesting stories get lost or garbled.
I've been interested in the origins of the name Magree for years, but really didn't make much progress until the 1970s when I stumbled on a whole bunch in Australia. From some of them I found that they could trace their ancestors to Kilkenny, Ireland.
My own personal search stopped with my greatgrandfather, John J.R. Magree who was born in Brooklyn in 1851. I've gathered a few stories about him and his descendants, but I gave up on searching documents to go back further.
Meanwhile, I do a Google search on Magrees and turn up a few I never heard of before. I generally don't follow up because the letter exchange or telephone calls would just eat up time from all the other activities I want to do.
Every so often my curiosity gets the better of me and I attempt to contact someone. I did this recently through classmates.com and got a reply. She gave me some information about her ex-husband. I made the connection to one of my uncles, replied to her, and haven't heard from her since. I probably exhausted her interest in the subject.
However, this led me to reflect on some decades-old issues. My family is not very good on keeping connections up, possibly because of many divorces. I had not seen my paternal grandmother since I was about 7 or 9, but I sent her Christmas cards and maybe birthday cards for a long, long time.
The year after I was married, we drove through Chicago on our way home to Cleveland. I stopped at a phone booth, looked my grandmother up, called her, and she invited us to stop by.
She was living upstairs in a duplex where her youngest son, his wife, and children lived downstairs. My wife and I remember her bitterly complaining about her daughter-in-law.
A couple of nights ago, during a sleepless period, several weeks after I received the message through classmates.com, two explanations about the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law conflict popped into my head.
Both were born in Germany.
My grandmother had come to the U.S. when she was about six, but as an adult she spoke probably only English. Her children would ask for German words but she had a harder and harder time remembering any.
My aunt was the widow of a German soldier and the mother of a young son. She met my uncle, a G.I., after the war and came to the U.S. with her son.
I wonder if there was friction between the two women because 1) my grandmother could no longer speak fluent German and was frustrated, or 2) my grandmother had antipathy towards Germans in general because of the two World Wars.
I may never know. All the principals are dead now except possibly my aunt's first son. I may never get sufficient curiosity to follow up with people who may be reluctant to get involved with distant relatives.
And this is how so many interesting stories get lost or garbled.
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