Columbine Genealogy

08/07/2026

08/05/2026

Reposted from a Toastmaster friend Kathryn P. Puseman
From CCPA:

Proposed Changes to Section 106 that Will Eviscerate Historic Preservation in America.

Are you proud of your heritage? Do you value the places that reflect your community’s history and our shared past? Preservation of our heritage and the historic places that we value and love is in grave danger. For 60 years, the National Historic Preservation Act has been a cornerstone in historic preservation in America. Under the Act, Section 106 review has been the central tool used to influence decision making regarding the preservation of historic properties, including buildings, archaeological sites, historical sites, and historic landscapes. By law, you, the American public, have a voice when a project involving federal lands, actions, approvals, or funding may affect properties that qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of historic properties.

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires federal agencies to consider the impacts of projects they carry out, permit, or fund on historic properties. Additionally, federal agencies must consult with the State or Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and other interested parties on the effects of undertakings, the eligibility of sites for inclusion in the National Register, and mitigation for sites of our shared history that will be adversely affected by those projects. Part of the consultation process has included the interested public and allows us to have a voice either as individuals or members of organizations. Your ability to have a voice will go away if the proposed new rules are accepted in how the National Historic Preservation Act is carried out under Section 106.

Recently, the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation (ACHP) voted to make sweeping changes to Section 106 review that would take away your voice and those of your community. The proposed changes centralize all decision-making authority with federal agencies and require them to prioritize things like costs of mitigation to a project developer over the values of cultural and historic places. Mitigation of project impacts are such things as gathering the important information from an archaeological site before it is damaged or destroyed, doing interpretive signage that informs the public about the importance of a place, or provides funding for restoration. Section 106 consultation also allows for discussions that might result in a project avoiding or lessening its impacts on a historic property. The changes would mean that those discussions will no longer take place and that you, the Historic Preservation Offices, and tribes will no longer have the ability to have a role in decisions about historic properties that you or your community value. The National Historic Preservation Act came about because government projects were destroying historic neighborhoods for highway projects and urban renewal without the public having a say. That is not something we want to return to.

What can you do?
The proposed changes will eventually be posted to the Federal Register. The Federal Register is the daily publication of official government documents, rules and regulations, and public notices by the National Archives and Records Administration so that the public remains informed. The public will have a 30-day comment period to let the administration know that we do not support the changes. You can also tell your elected representatives that you support the Section 106 process and community oversight over federal projects.

To find out more about the proposed changes to Section 106 and additional resources for understanding the impact to your community, please visit:
https://savingplaces.org/section106. https://ncshpo.org/2026/07/24/section-106-rulemaking-whats-next/
https://saa.org/Member/SAAMember/Media-Room/News/SAA-Issues-Statement-On-ACHP-Draft-Changes-To-Section-106-Regulations.aspx

Our statement on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's approval of a complete proposed modification of the regulations implementing Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

07/17/2026

If I ever get dementia, I’d like my family to hang this wish list up on the wall where I live. I want them to remember these things.

1. Every time you enter the room announce yourself. “Hi- it’s ………...” NEVER ask- Do you know who I am??? That causes anxiety.

2. If I get dementia, I want my friends and family to embrace my reality. 🌸

3. If I think my dead friend is still alive, or if I think we’re visiting my parents for dinner, let me believe those things. I’ll be much happier for it.❤️

4. If I get dementia, don’t argue with me about what is true for me versus what is true for you.👍🏽❤️👍🏽

5. If I get dementia, and I am not sure who you are, do not take it personally. My timeline is confusing to me.👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

6. If I get dementia and can no longer use utensils, do not start feeding me. Instead, switch me to a finger-food diet, and see if I can still feed myself.❤️🥰❤️🥰

7. If I get dementia, and I am sad or anxious, hold my hand and listen. Do not tell me that my feelings are unfounded.

8. If I get dementia, I don’t want to be treated like a child. Talk to me like the adult that I am. ❤️

9. If I get dementia, I still want to enjoy the things that I’ve always enjoyed. Help me find a way to exercise, read, and visit with friends. ❤️

10. If I get dementia, ask me to tell you a story from my past.

11. If I get dementia, and I become agitated, take the time to figure out what is bothering me. ❤️

12. If I get dementia, treat me the way that you would want to be treated. ❤️

13. If I get dementia, make sure that there are plenty of snacks for me in the house. Even now if I don’t eat I get angry, and if I have dementia, I may have trouble explaining what I need.❤️

14. If I get dementia, don’t talk about me as if I’m not in the room.👍🏽

15. If I get dementia, don’t feel guilty if you cannot care for me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s not your fault, and you’ve done your best. Find someone who can help you, or choose a great new place for me to live.👍🏽

16. If I get dementia, and I live in a dementia care community, please visit me often.❤️

17. If I get dementia, don’t act frustrated if I mix up names, events, or places. Take a deep breath. It’s not my fault.👍🏽

18. If I get dementia, make sure I always have my favorite music playing within earshot.❤️❤️❤️

19. If I get dementia, and I like to pick up items and carry them around, help me return those items to their original place.👍🏽

20. If I get dementia, don’t exclude me from parties and family gatherings.❤️

21. If I get dementia, know that I still like receiving hugs and plenty of laughing ❤️🥰❤️

22. If I get dementia, remember that I am still the person you know and love.”🌼❤️

In honor of someone you know or knew who has dementia. In Honor of all those I know and love and lost who are fighting Dementia/Alzheimer’s.

Someone once said if you take care of someone with dementia, you lose them more and more every day. When they get the diagnosis, when they go through different stages, when they need treatment, and when they pass away.

This is called "the longest goodbye ". As the brain slowly dies, they change physically and eventually forget who their loved ones are. They could end up lying in bed, not moving and not eating or drinking.

To raise awareness of this cruel disease, I would like my friends to put this on their page today.

Hold your finger on the post to copy and paste to your timeline.

A special thank you to anyone willing to put this on their timeline for Dementia Awareness.
💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

07/17/2026

Records to Check When the Obituary Is Missing (New Quicksheet)

Obituaries are valuable sources of genealogical information, but they do not always exist or survive. When an obituary cannot be found, other records can provide similar details about death, family relationships, and community connections.

Get the Quicksheet at https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/records-to-check-when-the-obituary-is-missing/

06/22/2026

✍️ When an Irish child was given a name in the Gaelic tradition, they were not simply being labelled. They were being placed. The name located them in time, in bloodline, in territory, in legal standing, in the entire social and cosmological order of the Gaelic world. The name was not yours alone. It was your connection to everyone who had carried it before you and your obligation to everyone who would carry it after.

The Irish naming tradition was one of the most sophisticated in medieval Europe, and it operated on several levels simultaneously. The personal name — the given name — connected the child to a saint, a mythological hero, or a revered ancestor within the family. The clan name — the surname, with its O' or Mac — connected the child to the founding ancestor and through him to the entire genealogical chain stretching back through Irish history and into the mythological age. And the place name — the townland and the territory — connected the child to a specific piece of Irish earth that the clan held and that, in the Gaelic understanding of sovereignty, was as much a part of their identity as the bloodline itself.

The poet who recited the genealogy at naming ceremonies was performing a legal function as much as an artistic one. In a culture without widespread literacy, the hereditary poet's recitation of the genealogy was the equivalent of a birth certificate, a land registry, and a charter of rights simultaneously. The correct recitation established who the child was in every sense that the Gaelic legal system recognised — which rights they held, which obligations they bore, which alliances they could call on and which feuds they inherited.

The O' names of Irish surnames preserve this tradition in compressed form. Every time an O'Connor or an O'Sullivan or an O'Malley states their name, they are performing a miniature genealogical recitation — announcing their descent from Conchobar, from Súilleabháin, from Máille — connecting themselves to a founding ancestor whose name has been carried forward through a thousand years of Irish history intact.

Your name is not a label. It is a genealogy in two syllables. 🌿

04/28/2026

Come help us Celebrate on May 12th!
We are celebrating of the 250th Anniversary of our Country

Members, we invite you to share a 3-minute story about one of your ancestors at the time of the Revolutionary War. You can share either in person or on Zoom, on May 12, 2026. Zoom storytellers are welcomed. If you participate in person, you may bring books, photos or artifacts for the display table. Start thinking about the story you want to share, and how you can stay within the time limit.

If you plan to share a tale of your American Revolutionary era ancestor on May 12, 2026, please contact Marylee Hagen, [email protected] to let her know.

​Columbine Genealogy Hospitality will supply the birthday cake. We will have special door prizes on this occasion. Members are asked to bring finger foods for our light refreshments and to wear - red, white, and blue - or a costume from the revolutionary era to add to the festive mood of the celebration.

Hope to see you there!

04/21/2026

Coming tomorrow, 4/21/26 at 1:00 pm, on our Columbine Genealogy - Educational Zoom: come learn about “Google Workspace for Genealogists” presented by Stephen Asay. Hope to see you there.