I have been thinking about and connecting with Sarah’s post this week about “guilt items” – those things you keep out of guilt or a sense of duty, even though you don’t want them. I can be absolutely brutal when it comes to tossing or giving away items that I’ve personally acquired, but it’s harder for me to let go of things that have come down through the family. I understand Sarah’s compromise – she’s keeping one of several similar items made by her grandfather, and letting the rest go to auction – but I also know that 100 years from now, a precious few artifacts may be all that remain of an ancestor to say “I was here” to the future family history buff.  Speaking as that history buff for my family, I can say without hestitation that every item that survives is truly a treasure.

This past Sunday when I was visiting my dad, we ended up taking on a really interesting project: going through his jewelry box, looking for treasure. There were a few things he wanted to be sure to give me: a pocket watch he said had been mine when I was younger (more on that in a moment), some costume jewelry that belonged to his mother, and generally anything I found in the jewelry box(es) that I wanted to keep. It was a wonderful couple hours of “Ooo where’d you get this?” and “Where’d that come from?”

The pocket watch is an interesting story: Dad found it in his jewelry box a few weeks ago, and determined that it had my birth initials, J.B., engraved in script lettering on the cover. He determined that it must have been mine, and today he gave it back to me. The only trouble was, I didn’t remember ever owning it – or ever having seen it. It looked very old, and I thought perhaps the “JB” actually referred to one of his uncles back in Pennsylvania. My husband theorized that maybe a relative had bought the watch for me when I was very little, intending that I should have it when I was older, but that it was simply never given to me. This would explain why my initials were on it, as well as why I didn’t remember ever owning it.

When I got it home, I did a little closer inspection. The name in script on the face of the watch reads, “C.A. Cole, Winterset.” That made it more likely that it came from my mother’s side of the family, as her ancestors were all from Winterset. I did a little Googling, and learned that there was indeed a Winterset jeweler name Clarence Adrian Cole who was a watch- and clock-maker. But, he had left Winterset and moved to Florida in 1909. Since this was long before I was ever a sparkle in anyone’s eye, it didn’t seem likely that the watch had been purchased with me in mind.

Then I took a closer look at the engraved script initials. It turns out that they are not “J.B.,” they are “I.B.” We were mistaking the script capital “I” for a “J,” but finally determined that it doesn’t have the bottom loop of a typical cursive “J.”

At that point I realized immediately who the watch probably belonged to: my great-grandfather Isaac Bardrick, who lived in Winterset much of his life and died there in 1907 – certainly within the timeframe in which C.A. Cole would have been a jeweler there.

My grandmother Verdie, his grand-daughter, once gave me a shoe button hook that he had made as a blacksmith, which I still have. And now I have what I believe to be his pocket watch. Which is really incredible, as it’s likely more than 100 years old. And extra special to me, because finding his gravestone remains one of my favorite cemetery-searching stories along my entire genealogical journey.

I’m delighted to have been tagged by Brett Rogers over at BeatCanvas to participate in a meme called “7 Things You Never Knew About Me.” I’m supposed to share some things about myself that might surprise you… and then “tag” (invite) a few other folks to participate. Here goes:

1. My first job was reading newspaper articles and business documents to a blind entrepreneur. This financed my purchase of a Honda Express. My second job, around age 16, was as a DJ at a roller skating rink. (“Are you ready to HOKEY POKEY??”) This financed my purchase of a pair of dance skates. I became a really good skater, and stayed that way well into my 20′s. These days… well, let’s just say I’ve noticed that my center of gravity has changed.

2. Back in 1993, the inside of our home and all its contents were destroyed in “The Flood.” I was pregnant at the time.We rebuilt the house and officially became the idiots you see on television who refuse to move.

3. After graduating from college, I began a book-length work in which I intended to analyze various elements of cinematic symbolism contained in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movies. I wrote detailed essays about several of the films, but stopped when I got to “The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle” because I didn’t like that one and didn’t want to sit through the multiple viewings it would have taken to do my research. My favorite Astaire/Rogers movies are “Swing Time” and “The Gay Divorcee.”

4. Writing – either by hand or electronically – is in my soul. Sometimes, I get “restless finger syndrome” where I literally must pick up a pen and write, even if I’m just scribbling my name. I’m addicted to pens, markers, paper, computers… anything that helps me get the words out.

5. I have a tasteful but discreetly located tattoo consisting of two hummingbirds. I intend to get a second, equally tasteful and discreet tattoo in the very near future.

6. Growing up, my nickname was Jay-Bird, often shortened to Jay. These days, my nickname is Corn Dog.

7. I am a brand-loyal Harley Davidson rider, and learned to ride motorcycles at the age of 40.  I’ve since ridden about 12,000 miles, including a 2006 trip to and from the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota.

I’m going to specifically tag three bloggers to play along here - Shane, Iowa Harley Girl, and Steve Mathews – but if you’d like to participate without being tagged, feel free! Please be sure to link back here in your post so we can go and read it! And as always, if you don’t have a blog, feel free to post your “7 Things” in the comment section below.

I try to link back to the blog posts of other Des Moines area bloggers as often as I can. One of the ways I decide whom to link to from a particular post is this: I determine a topic I want to write about, then I do a Google search to see who else is talking about that topic. Problem is, of course, Google gives me links to bloggers from around the world – and I want to specifically link to local bloggers as often as I can. So, what I needed was a tool that could do a Google-style search only on Des Moines area blogs.

It didn’t take long before I found what seems to be a tool for doing just that: it’s called Rollyo, and it allows me to create my own custom search list by entering the URL’s of up to 25 selected blogs. So, I spent a little time creating a few of my own “searchrolls,” and now I can search for occurances of my selected phrase just within the blogs I’ve specified. This tells me if anyone else locally is blogging about the topic I’m covering, and helps me quickly uncover a post I might be able to link back to.

Only two faults I’ve found so far: first, the limit of 25 URL’s. I ought to be able to enter as many URL’s as I want to in a single searchroll. And second, I can only search one of my custom searchrolls at a time. It took me four separate rolls (25 URL’s in each) to enter all my local site links, so I have to do four separate searches. That’s still better than searching the entire Internet for a link to a local blog, but I’d like to be able to check multiple searchrolls with one click.