Dine with the Ancestors at the Carnival

Wow, the COG just keeps getting bigger and better! Thirty-one posts comprise the February 4th Carnival of Genealogy, 41st Edition. The topic is: "If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they be and why?" Take some time to meet the dinner guests and enjoy the culinary delights presented. They will make you laugh, they will make you cry, they will make you think. You'll run the full gamut of emotions and you will be amazed at the vivid imaginations of some very talented writers!

Who, What, When, Where, Why? is my contribution to COG-41.

Jasia also announced the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy:

"The Best of The Best!" It's Academy awards time... time for the Academy of Genealogy and Family History aka AGFH (an esteemed organization that all genea-historian bloggers who participate in this next edition of the COG will become founding members of) to honor their best blog posts of ..* in the following 5 categories:

Best Picture - Best old family photo that appeared on your blog in ... Tell us which you liked best and why.
Best Screen Play - Which family story that you shared in .. would make the best movie? Who would you cast as your family members?
Best Documentary - Which was the best informational article you wrote about a place, thing, or event involving your family's history in ..?
Best Biography - Which was the best biographical article you wrote in ..?
Best Comedy - Which was the best funny story, poem, joke, photo, or video that you shared on your blog in ..?

The award given to these very deserving examples of quality writing of family history will heretofore be known as the iGene Award.

Start digging back into your archives and choose which of your blog posts deserve to be recognized for outstanding achievement. This is not a competition between bloggers but a chance for you to spotlight your own shining efforts at recording your genealogy and family history in ..*. There is no nomination process. You just need to announce your winning blog posts for the 5 categories mentioned above in an article on your blog and submit it to the Carnival of Genealogy.

Please act as your own "award presenter" by writing an introduction and include it in the "Remarks" box on the BlogCarnival submission form. The deadline for submissions is February 15, ...

*We're going to define ".." to include any posts written in .. as well as those written Jan. 1-Feb. 15, .. as well (so that new bloggers can participate).

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

A Moveable View

Staying by the sea, I notice how unaccustomed I've become to a stationary view of any kind. Back in the city, the windows of my apartment offer vistas of a brick wall, a narrow alley, a tangle of branches and telephone wires. And I usually keep the blinds closed when I work anyhow; there is too much commotion outside.



But now I sit on this porch, just yards from the water's edge. A vast harbor is stretched out in front of me. The surface ripples of the cerulean water are like a silk scarf fluttering in the wind. Lobster buoys bob up and down. Now and then a fishing boat goes by. A family of swans travels back and forth along the shore in perfect peloton formation.



It is peaceful and almost improbably beautiful. And as I try to work, I find that it drives me nuts - the unchangeability of it. I am not used to looking at scenery so... passively. My eyes focus on the right outeredge of the harbor, where the rocky shore curves and disappears from view. As I study it, the curve begins to look hard-etched and forbidding, willfully preventing me from seeing beyond the bend.



In fact, I know - roughly at least - what lies around the bend; I have been there many times. A hilly back road winds along the shore's edge sleepily. There is a small patch of dense woods along the cliffs, then a gravel garden path, a wild rocky beach, an abandoned coast guard's tower... Soon I am visualising each of these landmarks in great detail, picturing them as they look when I cycle past them. I laugh at myself, realising that I am enjoying this mental game more than looking at the view in front of me.



I close my laptop, get on my bike and take off just as the sun begins to set, heading for the hilly back road that will take me around the bend. No one else is here. The road narrows and steepens dramatically and I get into my lowest gear. With each pedal stroke I see more and more of the landscape that was hidden from view as I sat on the porch just minutes earlier, and this fills me with an absurd sense of fulfillment. I reach the top easily, unhurriedly, and there sits the patch of woods with its narrow mossy path to the edge of the cliff. I keep going, coasting down the steep hill now at what feels like flying speed, passing all the landmarks I'd recalled. The mysterious garden path, the wild beach. And I remember now also the old sprawling house with a beautiful garden and the "bunnies for sale" sign taped to the green fence. After the coastguard's house I stop and turn around, my urge to experience a movable view satisfied. It seems silly now to have taken this short ride for no reason at all, but I am pleased.



I roll up to the porch as the last of daylight disappears. The vast harbor is still there, its fluttering silk surface now a deep indigo. A green light flickers in the distance. A stray boat is being rowed ashore. The swan peloton is making its last round. I get my coffee cup and turn on the porch light, ready to settle down in the stillness. But I know the moveable view will call out to me again tomorrow, even though I know what's around the bend.

The Seat Cluster: a Starburst of Lugwork

One of my favourite parts of a bicycle frame's anatomy is what's called the "seat cluster" - the joint where the seat tube, the top tube, and the rear stays of the bicycle meet. If done nicely, the seat cluster can look like a beautiful starburst of lugwork, and that is what I love about it. On the picture above is the very classic seat cluster on the Waja trackbike I rode in Vienna earlier this summer.

A similarly classic seat cluster on the Rivendell Sam Hillborne.

[image via Franklyn W]

And another example from an Ebisu bicycle. You can see how the individuality of the cut of the lugwork interacts with the colour of the paint to create subtle variations in form and shade. The stay caps (those narrow diagonal pieces that taper to meet the main lug) can be rounded or pointy, flat or concave, stubby or elongated.



[image viacycleczar]

They can even wrap all the way around the main seat lug, like on this Toei bicycle, so that the pointy tips meet. This is called a "wrap around seat cluster" design.





The stay caps also make for a good surface to embellish with an engraving of the manufacturer's name, like on this vintage Trek 610.



[image via Dancing Weapon]

Or with hand-painted flourishes, like on this Bob Jackson.



[image via Royal H.]

They can also be carved, if so desired, like on this early Royal H. frame.



[image via ribalrid]

While I prefer classic seat clusters, there are also many designs that deviate into all sorts of creative directions. On this Bates B.A.R. bicycle, the seat stay caps look like sharpened pencils and meet the main lug at the bottom.



[image via somervillain]

On this vintage Trek 560, the seat cluster is one big lug, and the seat stays are held by lugged sockets at the back.



[image via Kevin Saunders]

And then there are seat clusters where the stays connect to the tube directly, below the lug, like on this Formigli frame. (My understanding is that both this and the method used by Trek above is done to create tighter clearances?)



[image via Royal H.]

A similar approach to "fastback stays" by Royal H., with the seat stays attached at the rear.



When it comes to lugwork, there is no shortage of details to get obsessed about, and the topic can provide hours of impassioned discussion to those who feel strongly about one design over another. Crazy? Maybe so, but also beautiful... like the seat cluster on my Royal H. frame that will (hopefully very soon now) emerge as a fully built bicycle.

Weekend Wrap Up and snippets of Luchtmacht Dagen

Friday – went to gym and worked out for 2.5 hours, then ask for and signed my “uitschrijving” because I am moving gyms. Thought its better to train nearby home during the weekends, plus Dutchman and I will be going together so that would be good I hope, hehe. He’s not into fitness though but swimming.

After the work out I had this insatiable hankering for hot spicy chicken wings, and since Dutchman is off skating for the evening, I really have no desire of getting my hands dirty in the kitchen, so here I come KFC! Yeah, KFC on my birthday, lol.

Saturday – picked up our blonde curly haired 11- year old nephew. We are borrowing him for a day to the Luchtmacht Dagen (Royal Netherlands Air Force Air Show) in Volkel Airbase down south in Brabant.


The impressive red and yellow act represent the Spanish flag. These are Spain's Patrulla Aguilla, one of the air show acts that I really like. Next foto is the British Avro Vulcan with his 2 escorts, famous to have served during the Cold War.

On the way, the traffic was horrible! It took us more than 2 hours to get to Volkel and vice versa to Utrecht. Because of this we missed a couple of shows.

Two of the shows we missed but were lucky enough to get a glimpse of are: a) the KLM Airbus with his entourage of jet fighters, and b) Chinook helicopter and a jeep strapped hanging below it, also with his entourage of helicopters.

Me sitting on the grass just after having lunch. Next foto... the Chinook has become a live museum.

We caught sight of the spectacular show on Peelweg, the road to the airbase which at that moment was jammed with cars moving slowly. I was able to take a foto of the Chinook and we had a great view of it through the trees when it flew so low and hovered above us. It was simply awesome. Images of the Vietnam War flashed before me.

Below are a few videos I took with my Nokia Nav mobile phone. More to come on a different post!




F-16 solo act from I believe a Belgian pilot, if not Dutch... then the Spanish Flies, the Patrulla Aguila, I really enjoyed this act.

It was my first air show and the Dutchman being the airplane enthusiast was our coach for the day, giving information about the airplane, the model, and pieces of related history which I find really neat. Most men are into cars and fast driving (think about a sports car shooting down the no speed limit autobahn here), unfortunately Dutchman is into flying. If he could turn back the clock he would have been a pilot now by profession.

The event anyway was a success. There were so many aficionados and spectators, even children!

Saturday evening – after dropping off little nephew at his parents – I like kids you know as long as I can return them to their parents, we went home to change for dinner.

Grand Hotel Karel V in Utrecht has a Michelin Star restaurant

I didn’t realize that Grand Karel V is actually a 5-star hotel until I saw the 5 stars on the hotel’s sign board. The food was good. The wine excellent! I didn’t take fotos of the food as I thought it would be “genant”. I don’t mind doing so during my holidays because many tourists do this anyway but not here and not in a fine dining place.

I however did take a foto of myself in the toilet. I also managed to take a snapshot of Karel V’s facial mural impression in the basement for souvenir which I will post later together with the other fotos and videos of the Air Show once I have the software of my camera installed and running on my new laptop. Right now I only have the software of my mobile installed.

Basement of Grand Hotel Karel V, quick fotos I took before the stroll outside in the garden.

After settling the bill, we went for a little stroll in the Centrum and discovered small passageways that we never saw before. We hopped on the bike just after midnight with me perched royally at the back as Dutchman pedals home.

Sunday – spent the morning till early afternoon cleaning the house after which entertained the Dutch families for my birthday feast. I got nice presents but the present I am waiting for is from Dutchman – he promised to bring me to Berlin this autumn when we are back from our Philippine summer holiday. Yay!

Original plan for Sunday was picnic at the park with everyone but the weather was not cooperating. Bouts of dark clouds, showers and sunshine... not a good idea to be staying outside.

All in all the weekend went good.

I will be posting fotos and videos of the Luchtmacht Dagen (Royal Netherlands Air Force Air Show) separately once I have uploaded them all to my laptop.
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Silver Salt and Pepper Shakers

Riding the Pilen: a Multitude of Impressions

Since the Pilen give-away contest is happening before a final review will be published, I wanted to write up a separate post about its ride quality. It's funny that even though I should know better, I am still fooled into thinking that I "know" a bike based on the way it looks, and this was the case here. "A swan frame," I thought, "this will be just like my Austrian bike." But the Pilen is a completely different bicycle. Moreover, my impression of its ride quality differs from others' impressions, which apparently may be a factor of my size. But let me start from the beginning.

As described before, the bicycle is a 56/58cm frame with 700Cx50mm tires, which makes it a pretty large bicycle for a person my size. Since I am barely tall enough to ride it, I have the saddle almost all the way down. I also lowered the handlebars as much as I could. The bars are flared out quite a bit - almost placing the hands in a mountain bike style position - and having them set high felt unnatural. In the position shown, the saddle and handlebars feel more or less fine, though personally I prefer bars that are more swept back.



What I like best about the Pilen is its remarkable stability. Traditional Dutch bikes tend to have a light front end, which can make the steering feel difficult to control for those who are not used to it. Though I love the ride quality of Dutch bikes, I too remember being taken aback by the light steering when I first tried them. In comparison, the Pilen is extremely well balanced. It is a very easy bike to control and it handles predictably. I keep switching between the Pilen and my vintage Gazelle, and the Gazelle always feels shaky after the Pilen.



The wide, cushySchwalbeBig Apple tires offer another advantage. Potholes or road shock of any kind are a non-issue; the bike just rolls over uneven terrain and I don't feel a thing.



The surprising downside for me when riding the Pilen, is my experience with speed and acceleration. I am finding this hard to put into words, but let me try: When I attempt to ride the bike at the speed I am accustomed to, it is as if I feel a resistance. I have to push harder in order to keep it going fast, and this puts a strain on my legs. My first thought was that the gearing must be too high, because it feels better to start it in 1st gear, whereas on my other 3-speeds I am fine starting in 2nd. However, as soon as I accelerate, not only do I quickly find it necessary to switch into 2nd, then 3rd gear, but I also soon begin to max out the 3rd gear. This makes no sense, because the Shimanohub used on the Pilenis not spaced any closer than the 3-speed hubs I use on my other bikes; I should not be running out of gears. Even more odd is that I feel the strain in my legs regardless of what gear I am in and how fast I am going. According to the Co-Habitant's computer, I did manage to get the Pilenup to 17mph. But this was more effortful than on my other upright 3-speed bikes.



I shared these impressions with Todd of Clever Cycles - who is one of the North American retailers stocking these bikes and therefore has experience with them. Todd suggested it was possible that the bike is "overbuilt" for me - meaning that the tubing and the wheels are specced with a rider larger and heavier than me in mind. Though I have heard the "overbuilt" theory before (mainly when it comes to Surly bikes - which also seem to be best enjoyed by heavier riders), to be honestI found the idea improbable. I thought it was more likely that I needed to keep playing with the saddle and handlebar positions, or change the rear cog after all.



Then something happened to suggest that Todd may be on to something: A woman who is taller and heavier than me was over for a visit, and she wanted to try the Pilen. She did, and she absolutely loved it. She called it zippy and fast. She asked me what I thought of the bike, and I told her my honest impressions, but her impressions were totally different. She is not a stronger cyclist than I am. But the Pilens'ssize seemed just right for her and she looked a lot more natural on the bike than I do. She has tried a lot of other bikes at this point, including several Dutch bikes and the Rivendell Betty Foy, so she does have a solid basis for comparison. She preferred the Pilen's ride qualityto all of these.



Now I was seriously intrigued. I asked the Co-Habitant to ride the Pilen. He is just over 6' tall and weighs over 200lb. He raised the saddle and took the bike for a spin. He loved it and wanted to keep riding it. He thought it was nimble and a bit faster than his Pashley Roadster. He loved the cushy tires. He could not relate to my feedback at all and did not sense anything odd about the gearing.



Next I took the Pilen over to "cycler," of Biking in Heels. She and I are roughly the same height and weight. She loved the looks of the bike(as do I), but found the ride quality odd. Without my having said anything in advance, she had similar things to say about the gearing feeling too closely spaced as I have expressed above. She also found the "cockpit" configuration to feel unnatural compared to her own upright bikes (a Raleigh Sports and several DL-1s).



At this point, I am not sure what to conclude, or whether it is even appropriate to make any conclusions. I've tried to describe things as they are. It seems likely that the bike is indeed built with taller and heavier riders in mind, and that it handles differently for those riders. I cannot say via direct experience, as I can't magically enlarge myself and try it both ways. The two heavier persons who have test-ridden the Pilen in my presence were enthusiastic with their feedback, and witnessing this makes it clear that sometimes it is a matter of matching up the right bike with the right owner. Your thoughts on this are welcome. Have you felt that some bikes were overbuilt or underbuilt for your body type?

Is He or Isn't He?

The question being, is Jacob Switzer #2 a son of Jacob Switzer #1 and his wife Elizabeth?



Jacob #1 did not leave a will nor was there a probate file found for him, thus we do not know with any certainty at this time who his children were, which was discussed in this post.



There is only circumstantial evidence that might connect them, and, to be honest, rather flimsy evidence at that!



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When were they in Columbiana County and where did they live?



Jacob #2 born January 4, 1788 was married on February 26, 1811 in Columbiana County to Caty Brinker. He was 23 years old at the time. He initially lived in Fairfield Township on the land inherited by his wife Catherine from her father Andrew Brinker. In 1838 they purchased land in section 33 of Salem Township and they were living there in the 1840 census. This land was not far from where Jacob #1 and Elizabeth Switzer lived in section 23, also in Salem Township. Jacob #2 easily “fits” in as one of the older children of Jacob and Elizabeth, who were reportedly married on February 19, 1786. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, reportedly born on December 25, 1786 so it is possible that Jacob #2 could be their second child.



But then, so could Jacob #4 who was born November 8, 1788. However, he does not appear in Columbiana County census records until 1830. He is listed in Fairfield Township from 1830 through 1850 where he presumably lived until his death on March 25, 1859. He was already married to his wife Catharine when he arrived in Columbiana County. Yes, he was born the same year and died the same year as Jacob #2, and they both had wives named Catharine.



Then there is Jacob #3 born December 25, 1794 who arrived in Columbiana County about 1815. He was 21 years old when he married Polly Skelton on January 16, 1816 in Columbiana County. In 1824 they sold their land and moved to what later became Ashland County, Ohio. So he was only in Columbiana County a few years, about 1815-1824.



So far, no evidence except that Jacob #2 was in Columbiana County earlier than the other two and he lived closer to Jacob #1 than the others.



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Well, what about naming patterns of their children?



The first two daughters of Jacob #2 were named Barbara and Elizabeth. Barbara was presumably named after Catherine's mother, Barbara Leatherman. Could Elizabeth have been named after her “grandmother” Elizabeth, wife of Jacob #1 ? Or was this merely coincidence? The other three known daughters of Jacob #2 were Rebecca, Susan, and Sarah.



Neither of the other two Jacob Switzers have a daughter named Elizabeth. At least, not that we know of anyway.

• Known children of Jacob #3 were John, William, Nancy, Margaret, and Lewis.


• Children known of Jacob #4 were Ann, Sophia, Benjamin, Lydia, Eliza, and Susan.

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What does the term “Junior” really mean?



On page 133 of the 1828 Ohio Tax Records for Chattels (i. e., personal property) is an entry for a Jacob Switzer and Jacob Switzer (indexed as Junior). The first one listed appears to have an “S” after his name (first line in image). But I can't figure out what it is after the second Jacob Switzer (at the bottom of the image). In any case, in 1828 there were only two Jacob Switzers known to be in Columbiana County – Jacob #1 and Jacob #2.





Also, in his will, Andrew Brinker refers to the husband of his daughter Catharine as Jacob Sweitzer Jr.





Of course, back in the day, “Junior” sometimes simply indicated a younger man with the same name. It didn't necessarily mean that “Junior” was the son of the elder man.



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And that leaves us with what? Not much, I'm afraid. Mostly wishful thinking on my part. Obviously, a whole lot more research will be needed before I can claim Jacob #1 and his wife Elizabeth - if ever - as ancestors! At this point, I guess I'm “beating a dead horse” as the saying goes, rehashing the same information over and over.



So, for now, this concludes the saga of my research on the Switzer families of Columbiana County, Ohio.... until something new shows up!



All posts related to the Switzer families are summarized in this Index to Posts. If anyone doing research on these families is interested in collaborating, please contact me at kinexxions@gmail.com - Jacob #2 and his wife Catharine are my 4th great-grandparents.