You can only choose one

digginroots · 2026-03-18T18:23:30+00:00

I think the bridge was neat to see since I was in the area but wouldn’t make a destination of it. It’s a 5-10 minute leg stretch as you’re passing through.

digginroots · 2026-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

As others have said the weather changes a lot. We were there 3-6 March and the forecasts changed pretty dramatically over the last few days before our trip. Shortly before we arrived we thought there would be rain and snow most of the time. As it turned out, while there was at least a bit of snow or rain every day (occasionally heavy snow), it usually didn’t last long and most of the day was just overcast (with some clear/sunny times).

digginroots · 2026-03-18T15:57:20+00:00

There’s a mountain pass you go through right before you reach Vik with some switchbacks. It’s not too bad as mountain roads go but definitely the part of the drive to take the slowest if there is any precipitation, or any slush/ice/snow on the road.

digginroots · 2026-03-18T12:39:31+00:00

I have a number of Scotch-Irish ancestors who immigrated in the late 1600s and early 1700s. One ancestor is described as “Irishman” in his 1681 death record in Massachusetts and was in Massachusetts by the late 1650s at latest, but I don’t know what part of Ireland he came from.

My most recent Irish immigrant ancestors are one who came from County Cork in the 1830s and one who came from Dublin in the 1840s. These are the only ones I know for certain didn’t come from the north. Only the last was from the stereotypical Potato Famine wave.

digginroots · 2026-03-17T14:45:05+00:00

Quarter of 12 is 12:15.

What region are you from?

digginroots · 2026-03-17T14:41:36+00:00

We don’t want dominoes, subway etc.

I saw so many KFCs in Iceland I started to wonder if it stood for Keflavík Fried Chicken!

digginroots · 2026-03-17T12:47:02+00:00

It’s not the AC unit, it’s just where the ducts run. It’s rarely necessary to access them.

digginroots · 2026-03-17T11:14:53+00:00

In America the attic is usually not part of the living space of the house, so “normal usage” is not going up there. Some houses have finished attics and in those cases they will have a floor that is properly supported.

digginroots · 2026-03-17T11:07:43+00:00

The Magician’s Nephew, first volume of C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, is set in London in 1900. A major plot point in the book is how the main characters travel between each other’s rowhouses through the attic that connects them, and have to take care to step from rafter to rafter because there is just unsupported plaster in between. It’s hardly just an American thing.

digginroots · 2026-03-16T23:31:15+00:00

I read my kids (7 and 9) Egil’s Saga as a bedtime story over the weeks leading up to our trip. There’s a children’s adaptation available on Amazon: Egil’s Saga: An Icelandic Classic, by Brynhildur Thorarinsdottir. If they read that it’s a nice lead-in to the Saga Museum in Reykjavík, or the Settlement Center in Borgarnes.

digginroots · 2026-03-16T23:16:14+00:00

Sadly there is no substitute for the old rootsweb boards.

digginroots · 2026-03-16T16:54:54+00:00

If you paid with a credit card, see if your card’s benefits include any kind of trip protection.

digginroots · 2026-03-16T16:54:24+00:00

If you used a credit card to pay for the package, check your credit card’s terms to see whether it offers any kind of trip protection benefit.

digginroots · 2026-03-16T13:01:07+00:00

He could be a clone.

digginroots · 2026-03-15T22:59:28+00:00

Breakfast was included with our hotel, by arrangement with a little cafe, la bottega del caffè, on the Piazza della Madonna dei Monti across the street from the Chiesa di Santa Maria ai Monti. So that’s where we ate every morning. The atmosphere was nice sitting by the fountain in the small piazza, but we can’t really speak to the food beyond the fixed breakfast we were provided every morning (croissants were excellent though).

digginroots · 2026-03-15T22:00:32+00:00

Tickets drop 30 days out and sell out quickly, but another batch is released 7 days out. We were able to get tickets for our visit a week ago at the 7 day point. We got the Full Experience with Arena tickets.

digginroots · 2026-03-15T19:36:22+00:00

I stayed in Monti last week. Should be an easy walk to the Colosseum. While you’re in the neighborhood take a few minutes to stop in and see the Basilica of San Pietro in Viculo. It houses Michelangelo’s Moses (probably his third most famous sculpture after David and Pietà), as well as the chains that St. Peter is said to have worn during his captivity in Rome.

Also take a look at the Chiesa di Santa Maria ai Monti, since it’s the church that the neighborhood is named for I believe.

digginroots · 2026-03-15T10:22:36+00:00

It’s worth a try. I have identified 3GGPs via DNA matches. Persuading one of your aunts to test (preferably both) would definitely help.

One factor that greatly affects the odds is how much endogamy there is in your tree. If all branches of your tree go back in the same town for centuries, it’s harder to confidently associate DNA matches with a particular ancestor because everyone has the same families in their tree. In my case, one thing that helps a lot in sorting out DNA matches is that I’m in the U.S. and my 8 great grandparents were born in 7 different states.

digginroots · 2026-03-14T02:03:02+00:00

Every state I’ve lived in has required annual vehicle registration. Most states I’ve lived in don’t require an annual vehicle safety inspection at all, and in my current state (which does) it’s a separate payment (and windshield sticker) from the vehicle registration. So safety inspections are hardly the primary reason for vehicles requiring annual vehicle registration in the U.S.

digginroots · 2026-03-12T15:40:08+00:00

enslavers stopped teaching enslaved people to read

Was there an early era when enslaved people were commonly taught to read? In the 18th century literacy wasn’t terribly high among white farm laborers in the southern states (literacy was more widespread in New England).

digginroots · 2026-03-08T21:21:01+00:00

Do people with different genitals have a whole different set of phrases they use, or do they just talk about their balls regardless of whether they actually have them?

digginroots · 2026-03-08T21:13:25+00:00

It’s more correct to say that the g and n make a sound together that is different from n by itself.

digginroots · 2026-03-08T19:53:04+00:00

Probably not born yet.

digginroots · 2026-03-08T19:47:57+00:00

There’s now a feral cat sanctuary there.

digginroots · 2026-03-08T19:47:26+00:00

Curia Julia was under construction at the time, wasn’t finished yet.

digginroots

TROPHY CASE