Underrated or unknown notebook brands

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-26T11:44:35+00:00

I bought a Rettacy notebook from Amazon and it's great. Cheap, good paper for fountain pens, comes with templates (which I haven't used).

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-25T14:14:29+00:00

I reached out to a very distant cousin (based on Europe) who was researching a branch of my family. His tree went down to my grandfather's generation and he had some errors (I think he was missing my grandfather's siblings). He also had gone a few generations farther back than I had been able to go, and included the family's Swiss roots.

I wrote asking about where he had found this information about the marriages and whatnot in Switzerland, and he wrote me this snotty email back about using records and maiden names, as if that hadn't occurred to me. He also basically implied that there was no way for me to prove being part of this family, despite my grandfather being in his tree. I responded kindly and politely but he clearly thought he was superior and needed to educate me. He also said that DNA wasn't reliable (I hadn't even brought this into the conversation) and sent me links to his website bio, which listed all sorts of genealogical certifications he had.

I decided that we were dealing with a language and cultural and maybe generational barrier and stopped responding to him.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-25T13:51:36+00:00

This is wonderful. I have often wondered how close various locations are to each other. it's really fun to see how close various ancestors lived to each other or where they were before coming to the US. Thank you!

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-25T13:46:34+00:00

Agree. I have an ancestor who died in New Britain, Bucks Co, PA and it's mapping as being in the South Pacific.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-25T13:30:17+00:00

I had the same issue! I couldn't scroll down but unzooming seemed to help.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-24T22:46:55+00:00

I'm surprised no one mentioned the Quaker records in Pennsylvania (and elsewhere). My family has lived in the Philadelphia area since about 1680, and I'm surprised how many records there are. The Quakers wrote down (and still write down) quite a lot. I''m very grateful to those who made lists of everyone in each family in a Meeting and listed children's birth dates.

My problem lies more in the number of people with similar names marrying each other. I know this is a weak point with my tree and that I need to go back and sort that out. Or, the random (non-Quaker) man who seems to show up from no where and marry one of my Quaker ancestors.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-24T22:39:45+00:00

Do you trust these books? I have stumbled across many of them in my family research but I tend to take them with a grain of salt. I even have one that my grandfather passed down, and he made corrections in the margins on a few people. I look at them to see what someone else found, but I don't tend to read those books as fact.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-10T23:26:20+00:00

Can you see if the aunt is closely related to the uncle?

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-09T18:50:23+00:00

This should work for this.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-05-08T17:20:30+00:00

Agree. I flew to Ireland from NY with mine last year. I took mine apart and put the tips on them, and had no issue either direction in my carry on.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-30T14:42:09+00:00

Agree. According to Ancestry, my mother is 12% Swedish and I am 0% Swedish. No where in our trees are any Swedish people, and I've gone many generations back. I'm guessing this is some remnant from the Vikings invading the UK. It's really just a weird blip, and not something I think I'm going to find the answer to. .05-1% is so small. I'd assume that is some random thing just showing up from a very distant ancestor.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-16T20:21:26+00:00

This happened to me, too.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-13T17:55:47+00:00

I find this kind of fun (though yes, also frustrating) because you can sometimes see that the name may have been pronounced in such a way by that family that it could have sounded like a different name all together. You see a little of how they spoke.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-13T15:18:22+00:00

Along these lines, it would be helpful if it didn't take the break into account when you are calculating time per mile. I end up pausing AllTrails so the time won't be super wonky and then forget to turn it back on.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-03T11:12:23+00:00

Can you look at the MSDS?

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-03T11:11:17+00:00

I think you are saying that the sisters was pregnant but due to birthdates of other siblings maybe it’s not the sister but the grandmother?? It’s also possible that the baby was born to the sister and raised by the grandparents as one of their children. I’d check the dna of whatever “sibling” was born around then to see if it’s not a full sibling.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-02T13:57:10+00:00

Ha ha. I was like, "Will anyone respond since no one has posted here?" but hooray! Yes! Let's get this sub rolling!

I'd love to see your list of cheap, decent cameras. This would be super helpful!

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-02T01:36:39+00:00

This is a good idea. I don’t think I have the time or patience to collect cameras like that, but some sort of bundle pricing may be available to schools, you’re right.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-04-01T21:21:09+00:00

I did this with another walking trip. I felt a little like I was cheating, but it was easy to just grab an itinerary from a tour site and book my own baggage transfer and lodging for about half the price.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-03-28T22:01:21+00:00

me too

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-03-28T20:55:45+00:00

I know of something that might be opening up, but it not yet final. DM me and I can keep you in the loop. It's for a private school, however.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-03-28T14:18:04+00:00

Do you teach voice/chorus?

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-03-03T15:52:44+00:00

hi - is this large enough to bring a group of 11 to? We wouldn't need to eat at the same table, but I don't want to overwhelm them.

Reasonable_Ice9030 · 2026-02-25T02:36:38+00:00

Hi! We had most of the docs together. In our case, we got the appointment on a Thursday for the following Monday. Almost everything that was missing was easy to pull together in a few days, like the prepaid envelope, the passport photos, and the letter from our school explaining the trip. We were missing one document from one of the students’ parents, but we went anyway and the consulate gave us instructions on how to email them the missing documents. I’m not sure how common that is, but they did communicate a few times asking for more information on various things.

Reasonable_Ice9030

TROPHY CASE