Kathy Wait Myers Genealogy» What: About Me

Madness Monday – Reigniting the Genealogy Spark

Kathy Wait Myers — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:41:35 +0000

My Uncle Bill Pedersen passed away last Monday at the age of 82. His first wife was my Mom’s sister Loretta, who passed away in the 80s. He was a quiet, strong, and kind man and raised a strong, outgoing, loving family. He married three times and lived a life full of Love.

Uncle Bill’s passing somehow reignited my genealogy spark! I’ve been a bit out of it since starting my new job at SuperTarget. Between my work schedule, the physicality of cashiering (who knew??), and our money situation, I haven’t felt like doing any research. I had it made last summer/fall when I wasn’t working! (Thank you, Scott!! xoxo) I vowed to jump back on the horse and tie up some loose ends, follow up with the “uber-WAITS researcher”, and get back to researching and documenting that research. Plus, I actually got on Twitter for the first time since I posted this in November:

Just got off the phone with uber-WAITS researcher AH She’s sending me ALL of her research from over the years, and passing the torch. WOWZA!
2:33 PM Nov 23rd, 2009 via HootSuite

She’s 86, sharp as a tack, and I can’t wait to pick her brain! Our conversation lasted all of 7 min. ha! She plays bridge and had to run.
2:48 PM Nov 23rd, 2009 via HootSuite

The “uber-WAITS researcher” was Angeline Harris… and she passed away on Friday.

I was “too busy” and “too tired” from working and meant to at least send a letter, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around my research and where I’d left off. I wanted to have my ducks in a row when I spoke to her again. I do regret not having picked her brain like I’d wanted, there are so many questions that I have about our ancestry. But mostly I regret not getting to know her. I feel like we could have been friends. Maybe it’s the shared love of genealogy like the kinship I have with my fellow geneabloggers that made me feel like I already knew her. Her death struck me to the core.

I don’t know what they’re doing with her genealogy files. I don’t expect to get them, of course, but if they’re looking for someone to take care of them and share them with the world, then I’m up to the challenge.

As an armchair genealogist, I know that we’re only on this earth for a limited amount of time. And while it seems that I have plenty of time left, that’s not always true for those around me. I felt this same regret when I lost my Dad in 2004.

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My Kreativ Blogger Award

Kathy Wait Myers — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:23:37 +0000

It’s been a big week for me! I got my first blogging award, started communicating with Angeline Harris (“the” WAIT researcher), and started a new job! Whew! My apologies to Regina and Missy for taking so long to get this post up. My cup runneth over.

Thank you, Regina De Leon aka: Kinfolk News for awarding me with my very first blogging award! What a great surprise!

By the time I got around to finishing this entry, I received a second award from Missy Corley at Bayside Research in Maryland. She was already on my list of favorites, so right back at’cha!

Apparently, I need to write 7 things that you don’t know about me and then nominate 7 blogs of my own.

So here it goes!

Seven Things About Me:

I am purpose-driven and devoted to improving my quality of life by focusing on things that actually matter. My new job is at Target and it allows me the flexibility to work on my projects without selling my soul. After suffering from extreme burnout and an eye-opening back injury in 2007, I left my corporate travel job of 11 years to pursue a career in Life Coaching. It turned out that I was better suited to “receive” than to “give” in that field, so I’m no longer coaching but I do stay in close contact with my friend and coach Brenda Rosaaen from Montana. She’s been through a lot with me in the past couple of years and I highly recommend her if you’re looking for a Life Coach.
When I run across a quote that I identify with, I like to write it on a colored index card and hang it where I can see it a lot. One of my latest favorites, “Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.” — Gandhi
I like things the way I like them. That’s why my blog has changed at least three times since I started it. If it doesn’t have the right feel, I can’t get past it. I’m a little obsessive like that. So I taught myself how to install WordPress and customize it to my liking. It took me away from blogging for a couple of weeks, but I just couldn’t get past it! I’m now helping Brenda design her new site (slow and steady wins the race, right, Brenda?).
I’m deliberately nurturing my inner artist and going through The Artist’s Way program (more about that later). A few weeks ago, I looked out the window and really fell in love with the way my neighborhood looked with the changing of the season. So I ran outside in my PJs and slippers and took a few pictures of my neighbors trees. One of those photos is in my header on this site. It’s my neighbor’s tree and I love the way it turned out. Here’s hoping that Santa brings me a new camera for Christmas! And just in case Santa’s reading this now, here’s my Wishlist! Ho! Ho! Ho!
I’m really affected by color. My office is lavender, the living room is a light green, the bathroom is blue and white, the kitchen is in the midst of a paint job right now and will be the same color as the living room! We’re planning on knocking out the top half of the wall separating the kitchen and living room, so we’re planning ahead!
I have a dent in my head. (that explains a lot, right?)
Here are some of my current favorites: Books: Right now, I have bookmarks in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan, and Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I also read Johanna Lindsey books on occasion and various personal development authors! Movies: Office Space, The Princess Bride, and Yes Man!

Seven Blogs I Enjoy Reading:

Amber Dawn Abroad – My friend and former roommate Amber just moved to London!

Davis/Williams Family Tree – A fellow WAIT researcher and awesome new blogger.

Brenda Rosaaen, Life Coach – She hasn’t updated it for a while, but it was one of my favorite reads and I can’t wait for her to start blogging again! I’ll update her link when we get her new blog platform off the ground, but for now you can read through her musings. =)

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My All-American Heritage

Kathy Wait Myers — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:55:51 +0000

I have this overwhelming fascination with finding out what my nationality really is (besides American). There’s a part of me that feels like I’m missing out on something. It’s the part that surfaces when I go to my friend George Kazas’s Greek restaurant The Parthenon, when I watch French Kiss, and when I listen to the stories that my boyfriend Scott tells about his Polish grandmother making pierogies (which are delicious!).

Back in September, I was reminded of this again when my cousin Amber (1st cousin, 2x removed) contacted me about a school project she was doing. She needed to write a generation paper to find out where we came from and how we immigrated here. Her aunt Lisa (of custom screen printing and Fleming photo book fame) suggested that she contact me so she could see the family tree.

Oh, if only it were that cut and dried!

I remember doing something similar when I was in school. I asked my Mom and Dad and somehow ended up with the notion that I was German and Czech from Mom’s side and Irish and English from Dad’s side.

Once I started working on my family tree, things got a bit more complicated.

The KUNZ connection to Germany was almost immediately apparent. My Mom’s paternal great grandfather John Michael Kunz emigrated here with his wife Christinea Winegar from Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, in 1857. Definitely German. Their son Hiram Frederick Kunz married another German gal named Amalia Lee. Which makes my grandfather Earl Daniel Kunz German. 100% German. (as far as I know)

I thought that my HARTSOCK (Hertzog) ancestors were from Czechoslovakia, but now I’m almost positive that isn’t true. I don’t know where I got that idea, and Mom doesn’t remember telling me that. But I guess that’s what happens when you’re in grade school. Limited attention span. Now what was I saying? Oh yes. So far I’ve traced the Hartsock line back to 1789 Pennsylvania, and that’s it. There’s more info on the web, but it isn’t sourced so I haven’t dug too deeply into it yet. I checked Public Profiler for this one and it says that Strasbourg, Alsace, France has the highest population of people with the surname Hertzog. France? Really? Then I checked… yep! It’s just West of the German border. I found anothergenealogy site with a great map of the area, you should check it out!

The FLEMING side is supposed to be from Ireland. It sure sounds Irish! I’ve only made it as far back as my Dad’s 3rd great grandfather who was supposedly born in Massachusetts ca 1790. His wife Matilda is listed on Census forms as coming from either Ireland or Massachusetts or Maryland depending on which one you’re looking at. Upon researching the Fleming name, it’s translated from French “le Fleming”, or “from Flanders” and the first Flemings were 12th century merchants from Flanders. Surname origin: Norman. Okay! There’s also an impressive one-name study on the Fleming name and origins at One-Name.org.

That leaves me with WAIT, or in past generations, WAITS. Since the connection to Richard Waite and Sarah Blake has been disproved, the furthest I can follow them back is John Waites who was born about 1730 and married Ann Deloss in Pennsylvania in 1750. According to the Public Profilerwebsite, the place with the highest concentration of WAITES is in Middlesbrough, North England, United Kingdom, right under Scotland. WAITS comes back with a top city of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. That sure makes things interesting!

So where does that leave me?

I would say that I’m a Hybrid of 25% German and 75% American. My other three lines have been in the U.S. for over 200 years. So long, that every other part of ethnicity seems to have been blended into something else. I have my Mother’s brown eyes and my Father’s blonde hair. I was raised in a meat-and-potatoes household with the occasional homemade Runza treat. Heck, I didn’t even eat at a Mexican restaurant until I was in high school! We always ate around the dinner table and if we actually did go out to eat, it was for pizza or diner food.

Yep. I’m an all-American girl! Yet I still have hope that I will discover what makes up the other 75% of me. That’s the piece that I feel like I’m missing, and probably the reason that I’m so drawn to Genealogy. But I feel confident that through additional research and scientific advancements like DNA Testing, I’ll get it all figured out. Maybe then, I’ll feel complete.

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