Related to Royalty

Yesterday, while digging through published Genealogies, I discovered that I am descended from royalty.

Here is a list, from parent to child, showing approximate birth year for each:

William I the Conqueror King of England  1027
Henry I "Beauclerc" King Of England      1068
Matilda (Maud) Empress Of Germany        1102
Henry II "Plantagenet" King Of England   1133
John "Lackland" King of England          1166
Joan Princess of England                 1188
Margred Verch Llywelyn                   1210
Maud de Clifford                         1234
Eleanor Giffard                          1275
Elizabeth le Strange                     1308
Roger Corbet                             1330
Robert Corbet                            1383
Roger Corbet                             1412
Anne Corbet                              1438
Blanche Sturry                           1472
Thomas Whitcomb                          1502
William Whitcomb                         1528
John Whitcomb                            1558
John Whitcomb                            1588
Johnathan Whitcomb                       1628
Johnathan Whitcomb                       1669
Johnathan Whitcomb                       1690
William Whitcomb                         1719
Oliver Whitcomb                          1749
Oliver Whitcomb                          1772
Hannah Whitcomb                          1806
Lucinda Haws                             1828
Mary Elizabeth Holdaway                  1856
Arthur Marion Conrad                     1882

I am a grandson of Arthur Conrad, and thus a 24th great-grandson of King John--the King John of Magna Carta fame.

This discovery is somewhat tempered by some realizations:

1. The descent is through Joan, who was an illegitimate daughter (although she married and became Princess of Wales, and later got Pope Honorius III to declare her birth legitimate).
2. King John must have millions and millions of descendants by now.
3. Although he was an innovator in some ways (ex. the Pipe Rolls), he had many disagreeable traits, and was recently selected as the "worst Briton" of his century.

Last year, in "Powers of two," I wrote about large numbers. These happen to apply in genealogy, for each of us has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc.

So, by the time you reach William the Conqueror, my 28th great-grandfather, there are well over two billion ancestors in my family tree. In particular, William the Conqueror is only one of nearly 550 million 28th great-grandfathers (and an equal number of 28th great-grandmothers).

I don't know how many people were living in western Europe back then, but I doubt that it was anywhere near a billion. So, it doesn't seem very unlikely that one of them in particular was a progenitor.

On Trusting the Internet

The other day, I was doing some JavaScript coding, and needed to find an element in the HTML document. Don't worry if you don't understand the technical details--the message of this post does not depend on them.

I remembered that there was a way to find an element by its identifier (or "id" for short), so I did a quick google of "findelementbyid" (which is what I remembered it being called) and got a whole bunch of results. The second one on the results list even included the excerpt, "FindElementById has yet to fail me" which sounded very reassuring.

However, it did fail me. Hmph!

I turned to my trusty reference book on JavaScript and there was no "findelementbyid" in the index. Very curious. So, I turned to "document" in the reference section and it wasn't listed there either. Curiouser and curiouser.

However, in the reference section, there was a mention of "getelementbyid".

Aha!

Why did I trust the Internet?

I've just done a comparison, and a google of "findelementbyid" returns only 556 results (YMMV) which, in retrospect is awfully small.

Sure enough, a google of "getelementbyid" returns "about 5,410,000" results. (Again, YMMV.)

The moral of the story: exercise care when using the Internet as an authority.

Mourning Great-Great-Grandmother

Over the past week, I've been studying the life of my Great-Grandmother, Anna Caroline Wintsch Muhlestein.

Our family has copies of a few pages of her life story that she wrote in later life. I assume that this came from her "Autobiographical sketch, 166-68, in Histories and biographies written by members of Camp Sunflower, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Center Utah County, Provo, Utah, vol. 1." (available at the Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah). (See this link.)

Another version of the story was posted on the Internet in 1999 by, presumably, one of my fourth cousins. I found this while waiting for Andrew to bring me a paper copy of the story that has been in our family for years.

Even though I had read both of these stories before, a funny thing happened while I was reading the story out loud to Sara.

Warning: plot spoiler follows. If you want to read the story yourself first, you ought to do so right now, before reading on in this blog.

You've been warned.

I was reading along, just past the point where Anna's older brother Jacob, dies and is buried in Florence, Nebraska. Then, as I got to the point where Anna's mother unexpectedly dies after saying goodbye to her children, I got all choked up. I even cried out, "No! I don't want this to happen." Sara and I were both crying, to learn of the mother's death.

The strange thing is, she actually died long before either of us was born. And, I had even read the story before. What a strange reaction.

Empathy, I suppose, for Anna, her brother and sister, and especially her father, who had lost his father, a brother, two step-fathers and several step-siblings, his mother, his oldest son, his first wife, twin baby boys, and a grandson by that point in time.

Time is a strange thing.

San Francisco Warning

Beware of parking signs in San Francisco.

The AAA guidebook for Northern California and Nevada does clearly warn, and gives accurate estimates of the costs. One thing it doesn't emphasize is that they really mean it.

San Francisco has a serious parking problem. There are more automobiles than there are parking spots. With typical California ingenuity, they have turned this problem into an opportunity.

Big money.

In parking meters, a quarter will buy only 5 minutes (in some, less desirable places, as much as 10). So, come equipped with three dollars in quarters if you want to park downtown for an hour. And one hour is the most you can get. Not enough time for lunch in a fancy restaurant, like the one we visited, Aqua.

Organized parking is very rare and comes at a cost of $2.50 per twenty minutes, or more. Doesn't look all that trust-worthy either.

So, we hunted around and found a spot that looked all right, several blocks away. After lunch, we walked to the spot which was empty. Looking up, we saw a sign that said no parking from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. To make a long story short, we called the number on the sign and took a taxi there.

We found the location doing a booming business, with long lines. A steady stream of tow trucks was arriving, unloading, and going out again. We expected to pay maybe a hundred bucks, but the bill came to $238.75 and when we finally did get the car, there was a ticket on the windshield for an additional $60! Wow.

Big money.

Three hundred dollars--the penalty for not seeing a sign 15 feet above the ground. Or, for being unwilling to hand over $15 for parking even further from the restaurant. During the evening the restaurant offers valet parking (price unknown), but nothing at lunch time.

Since that experience, we noted other parking dangers. Further out, there is two hour parking where there are no parking meters. There is an exception for local residents, whose cars carry a neighborhood sticker. Overnight parking is allowed. If you can find a spot. Park in an illegal location (several per block) and you will be towed. Exceed the time limit and you will be ticketed. More than four tickets and you will be towed.

Further, each side of each block has a sign warning of tow away for a two or three hour period each week. We befriended a local merchant, who asked us each time we passed, "Where did you park?" Upon hearing our reply, he told us the details of the difficulty of that side of whichever street.

Wow, what an expensive ordeal! Our conclusion is that San Francisco is not a friendly city for automobiles. Leave yours across the bay in your hotel parking lot and take the ferry into the city. Or, take your chances, but you have been warned.

We won't be returning unless we absolutely have to--we didn't leave our heart there.

"If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair" may have been good advice in the 60's. Today, better advice is to leave your car behind, or bring lots of quarters.

Holiday Travels

Really, one should write one blog entry for each day of holiday travels. Oh well, we didn't.

Day 0, Thursday, December 20, 2007

Board the Amtrak "California Zephyr" just before midnight, and get some sleep in the bunk beds of our private roomette.

Day 1, Friday, December 21, 2007

Enjoy the train ride and the pre-paid meals in the dining car. Arrive in Emeryville late and take the bus into San Fancisco. Check luggage at the Amtrak station just at closing time. Walk to Ben's restaurant and then to his van, mostly uphill. Wait an hour for him to finish work. Cold. Drive to his apartment and stay up late listening to his room mate talking until early in the morning. Sleep on Ben's bed. Cold.

Day 2, Saturday, December 22, 2007

Go pick up a rental car and drive into Marin County. Visit with Tony and Anne. Lucas drops in. Cold. Drive to Emeryville and find the train station. Sleep in the Hilton Garden Inn. Comfortable.

Day 3, Sunday, December 23, 2007

Church in Cupertino. Drive to Monterey and enjoy eating near the beach. Sara gets her feet wet in the Pacific. Sleep in a Ramada Inn room. Comfortable.

Day 4, Monday, December 24, 2007

Drive along Highway 1 and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Windy and cold. Stop at Hearst Castle, where tours are sold out, but watch the video. On to Morro Bay and enjoy seeing Morro Rock, but not much of an ocean view. Sleep in our chosen motel. Burn one fire log in the fireplace. Comfortable.

Day 5, December 25, 2007

Burn two more fire logs. Drive to Cambria. Check in to chosen motel very near to the beach on Moonstone Road. Cold. Return to Morro Bay to eat crab.

Day 6, December 26, 2007

Drive to Hearst Castle and take the tour. Cold. Walk on the beach. Cold. Another night in the Moonstone Inn.

Day 7, Thursday, December 27, 2007

Drive to San Francisco. Hotels there do not honor their coupons, so we check into Marin Suites in Corte Madera. Very nice room.

Day 8, Friday, December 28, 2007

Eat Breakfast with Tony at Max's, and he gives us the key to Lucas' apartment. Drive to San Francisco and late lunch with Ben at his restaurant, "Aqua." While there, our rental car is towed! So, we go redeem it for $240. Move into the apartment on California in the 3200 block. Comfortable, but very cold.

Day 9, Saturday, December 29, 2007

We fly Helaman out to Oakland and go pick him up at the airport, after treating Ben to lunch at Max's in Corte Madera. Dinner at "Conduit" where a friend of Ben's is our waiter.

Day 10, Sunday, December 30, 2007

We try to go to church on Pacific Avenue, but get there too late. Helaman and Ben go to a Raider's game in Oakland.

Day 11, Monday, December 31, 2007

Drop our luggage off at the Amtrak station in Emeryville. Check into the hotel. Drive back into San Francisco to return the rental car. Help Helaman get ready to drive Ben's van back to Utah and say goodbye to Ben. Helaman drops us off in Emveryville, where we spend our last night in the area at the Hilton Garden Inn. Comfortable but not quite warm enough.

Day 12, Tuesday, January 1, 2008

The hotel has a shuttle, but no shuttle service! So we walk to the train station, and board the train, which leaves at 8:05 a.m. Enjoy the day on the train. Sleep in the bunk beds of our private roomette.

Day 13, Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Arrive about 5:15 a.m. and Helaman picks us up. End of holiday travels, and I actually work that day.

Caffeine

A few weeks ago, I decided to stop ingesting caffeine.

After the withdrawal headaches, things settled back to normal.

However, I notice that my head feels "fuzzy" and I'm not sure how clearly I am thinking.

No worries, though. Even though I can't remember why I decided to go off of caffeine, I trust that my mind was sharp back then, and I must have had a good reason.

More things not working

Thanks for the comments to my previous post. I found a setting so that the program will ask me before downloading an update. And, I took Andrew's suggestion and re-installed.

Today, I decided to make a list of things that didn't work right.

When trying a new web application, it failed with a nasty stack trace including the information, "Unable to find class for xyz.jsp" (name changed). Ok. But, where did it look? Why not give more information?

Leaving the office building, I hit one of the four exit doors and it was stuck. The one next to it was too. That's fine because after hours I need to swipe a badge to get it. Still, shouldn't you be able to get OUT? Well, the other two doors worked for getting out. After they closed, I turned around and tried opening them. That's right, they both open just fine.

Then, I need to cross a busy intersection, in two directions, to get to the opposite corner. The pedestrian lights don't operate automatically. You have to hit a button. That's fine, but the button to cross East is 15 feet away from the button to cross South, and I have to do both of those. That's a lot of steps to hit the buttons. Then, when I hit it, I just miss the green light for the cars. It doesn't work, even though there would be plenty of time. Apparently a pedestrian has to hit the button BEFORE the light changes. So, I wait to cross the other way first. When the light changes, there is the little chirp for blind people. But it is the WRONG CHIRP! Good thing I'm not blind, or I might have started crossing the wrong way and been hit. Having crossed, I race the extra 15 feet to get to the other button and get it in time. But the crosswalk leads directly into construction, so I have to take a big detour. Again, good thing I'm not blind.

Got home and my cell phone gave another little chirp. Oh yeah, that's right. It had been chirping like that the whole time I was trying to work on the web application. But, there wasn't anything I could do to get it to stop, and the charger was at home. Now, it's plugged into the charger, but I will most likely forget about it, and if I don't get the ONE chirp when it finishes, it will sit there for days maybe.

Well, I'm just going to have to deal with cell phones needing to be recharged.

But, somewhere, someone probably cares about doors not opening and opening when they shouldn't. And someone probably cares about blind people getting hit by cars. But, I don't know who it is. Who does one report this kind of thing to?