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WELCOME TO: GEMINI RISING   UPDATED INTRO 25 OCT 2021: Just a little about me. I've been married for 30 years in NOV this year!! and currently live in Southern California, but I grew up in New Hampshire. I've got 2 boys in their teens. I work as a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. I enjoy my job a lot. I love to write, but since I've been so involved with the Boy Scouts program since 2015 (now Scouts BSA since girls were invited to come on board) I haven't written much. I hope to get back to more writing soon, as I'm scaling back my BSA commitment. Update on this: I was able to get out 2 stories that were previously published. The update/publishing is going slow. I like to get out in nature, take walks around Castaic Lake, drink coffee and watch football. Here's a little bi about my zodiac. GEMINI: Gemini, the sign of the Twins, is dual-natured, elusive, complex and contradictory. On the one hand it produces the virtue of versatility, and on the other the vices of two-facedness and flightiness. The sign is linked with Mercury, the planet of childhood and youth, and its subjects tend to have the graces and faults of the young. When they are good, they are very attractive; when they are bad they are more the worse for being the charmers they are. Like children they are lively, and happy, if circumstances are right for them, or egocentric, imaginative and restless. Their good qualities are attractive and come easily to them. They are affectionate, courteous, kind, generous, and thoughtful towards the poor and suffering - provided none of the activities resulting from expressing these traits interferes too greatly with their own lives and comforts. Geminians can be successful in many walks of life though their general characteristics tend to make them unreliable. They are often skilled manipulators of language, in speech and writing, and may be: debaters, diplomats (though in politics they are more interested in theory than practice), orators, preachers (brilliant rather than profound), teachers, authors, poets, journalists, or lawyers. This is me. I am a Gemini. Pure, Raw, passionate. The NEW focus of this blog is to share my adventures, book reviews, thoughts, opinions, and writing adventures from actual writing, writing/editing tips, marketing, research. I'll get there.  Find me at: WEBSITE: http://www.stephanieburkhart.com FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor GOOD READS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart YOU TUBE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee Previous GRATITIOUS Warning, that I decided to keep in case I post about something that might offend.  WARNING I intend to be open, honest, and forthright. No topic is off limits from religion to you name it, I'm going there. If you think you might be offended...back up now - this blog isn't for you. For those who "dare"  check out the "Gemini Rising..." |
I wish I was a genealogist. Why? Because then I would have answers to my past that would help me explain the following photo: Dispatch Riders (or Despatch Riders) were used by the British in World War I and World War II as messengers to deliver urgent orders or communications from headquarters to field units. In World War II when men were in field units, the British used WRENS as Dispatch Riders. WREN stands for Women's Royal Navy Service (WRNS) . As men were out to war, the service drafted women to be dispatch riders with the important mission of delivering orders/communications. They worked in all kinds of conditions from the Blitz to bad weather. The women who were initially selected needed to have knowledge of motorcycles, how to ride one, and how to provide maintenance on a motorcycle. They were usually well known competition drivers from local racing circuits. As the war grew on, they selected untrained women and would train them up. Their work during the Battle of Britain was praised since traveling during those conditions where dicey to say the least. The bike this dispatch rider is on is a BSA 250cc, which is a common bike of the time. The photo is dated 10 May 1941. An article about the dispatch riders that share some information on their background and heroism can be found here: https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/female-dispatch-motorcycle-riders-world-war-i... Why do I wish a genealogist? Because the women on the bike looks just like me.  I'm a tad older in this picture, in my 30's, but you can see the resemblance. When I saw this picture I was stunned. A co-worker found it on a Pinterest board and shared it with me. We were both floored. I was able to find out a date on photo, the type of bike, and from what's she's wearing, determined she was a British dispatch rider, but that's it. I want to know more!! I did 23andMe about a year and half ago and found out some interesting things about my genes. I'm 44% Eastern European from Poland and Ukraine. Not surprised. My mother's family came from those areas. From what I've been able to find out, My maternal grandmother's parents, Michael and Petronella (from Ukraine) left in 1913 to come to America so Michael wouldn't be drafted into the Russian army (World War 1) . They settled in Massachusetts and my grandmother settled in Hinsdale, NH with her Polish husband. I don't know his story at all, but would interested to learn it. My father's side has a rich Canadian history that can be traced back to the "Daughters of the King" (Fille Du Roi) where Louis XIV (14th), wanting to increase the French population in Canada, sent approximately 800 young women with dowries he provided them to Canada to find a man and start a family between 1663-1673. According to 23andMe, I am 15% French/German. (Interesting side note, according to 23andMe, my German comes from Nord Rhine Westphila -- the area where I was stationed when I was in the US Army 86-88.). My French comes Normandie. I'm 15% British/Irish. When I was little girl, I once asked my Granny (my father's mother) where she was from. She said, "I don't know. I'm a mutt, I'm little from here and there." Me: Are you Irish? (because St. Patrick's Day was around the corner and I wanted to wear green.) Granny: Maybe a little, I don't know. Come to find out, Granny was a lot more Irish -- and British -- than she thought!! 23andMe says I'm from all over Britain, but the big "hit" is in the London area. I'm 2-3 generations removed according to them, which sounds about right if one of Granny's parents (or both) had British roots. I would love to know the woman's name in the picture. Where is she? Is she in London? Who are her family? Is she a cousin of mine? Why does this woman in the picture look remarkably like me? Ah... it's something only history -- and a genealogist can tell me. |
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I love gyros. We have a Greek church and restaurant in town and a festival. But... I'm not there. 