This is a series of genealogy-related emails begun by Brad Wogsland in August of 2006.
Hi Brenna,
We had already discovered the July pictures (not to mention the cute older ones of Hannah), and I linked to them off my blog so everyone else would know where to find them. Thanks for Evie's middle name, but I must confess that I always thought your last name was "McAdams":
http://Wogsland.org/genealogy/brenna_mcadams.html
Perhaps you could answer some questions so my pages on y'all could be more complete:
1). What was your full name when you were born and what is it now? Where/when were you born?
2). What is Steve's full name and where/when was he born?
3). What are you parents and Steve's parents names?
4). We were in Monterey last weekend to go the aquarium for Maxwell's birthday and I was wondering, was Hannah born there?
5). Anything else you want me add or correct.
From the pictures it looks like Steve is really enjoying being a daddy to little Evie. I can't wait to meet her next year when we are living on the east coast again. Of course, if you guys can come visit us out here you are quite welcome!
Later,
Brad
Yes, Steve is head over heels. :-) It is so funny to watch him when he comes home- he wants to roughhouse with Hannah (who has been waiting all day for it) and wants to love up the baby (which he has waited all day to do). It's the which-daughter-do-I-toss-in-the-air dilemma...
Well, to answer your questions...
1. My maiden name was Brenna Lee McAdam. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio on January 12, 1978. My full name is Brenna McAdam Tsiopanos now.
2. Steve's full (Greek) name is Sotirios Dimitrios Tsiopanos and he was born on April 2, 1977 here in Annapolis.
3. My parents are Karen and Ralph McAdam and Steve's parents are Rita and Dimitrios Tsiopanos. Everyone calls Steve's dad "Jimmy"- it is the accepted Anglicized version of Dimitrios (just like Steve is for Sotirios). Greek men pass down their names by switching the first and middle names, so firstborns end up with the same name as their grandfather...
4.No, Hannah was not born in the aquarium. Just kidding. Hannah was actually born in Salinas, CA, because I moved out to Cali with little time to spare and picked the first doctor on the list and she was 30 minutes away in Salinas. The fancy hospital in Monterey was only 15 minutes away, which I discovered when I got my appendix out there 4 mos later...
5. Cute synopsis, only one change- we were in Korea for only 2 years (roughly- CA: 1.5 yrs, TX: .5 yrs, Korea 2 yrs).
(All in all, those years with Hannah on my own, working, putting myself through school, were incredibly hard, but immeasurably wonderful, too, and I am very proud of the strength that I found in myself. Thank you for giving me a chance to muse on them this morning!)
Kudos for keeping up your geneology site. My brother and I have been interested in geneology for a while and wish we had more info. Maybe I'll get a chance to pick your brain about it someday.
Hope all is well, say hello to the family for me,
Brenna
Thanx for all the info - I've updated it online now. I'm glad you approve of what I wrote. I'm always afraid I'm going to piss somebody off by what I've written about them. One strives for objectivity, but it is an impossible goal. As for picking by brain, you'll probably find alot more information on the site than in there! Genealogy, I have found, tends to be be done primarily by the old people, and there is probably someone in your family that has done alot of work in this regard. I am fortunate in that my grandfather and Cara's grandmother were those people in our respective families. It doesn't hurt that there are only a few hundred Wogslands and they are all related to me either. Reseraching my mom's side with Marshalls, Thompsons, etc is quite a bit harder as I would imagine McAdam would be. Your best bet is probably to try and locate the old person in your family that has done alot of the ground work and then use the internet to access the records they probably don't realize are available. There is tons online available to corroborate family tales - like for example Virginia has a list of those who served in the militia in the War of 1812, including my great x5 (I think) grandfather Jesse Fortune.
I also suffer from the which-child-do-I-toss-in-the-air dilemma, but often I just get down on all fours and chase one while the other three ride. I imagine Steve will also discover this solution once Evie gets mobile.
Give your kiddoes a squeeze for me,
Brad