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Racism has to stop

I grew up in Redding, California, in the 1950s. My high school had only a handful of students of color (black, Latino or Native American). Though as a reporter at the Redding Record-Searchlight I was aware of the small black population of Redding, it wasn’t until I went to work in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1974 that I experienced daily interaction with more than a few non-white folks. Our agency had a diverse multicultural staff and it was only then that I learned about issues affecting people of color or sexual orientation. Then I spent nearly a decade working in a small desert city of predominantly Hispanic population; in 2000 our family moved to Southern Oregon (which has a checkered past dealing with multicultural populations, to put it mildly).

As a human resources professional, of course I attended workshops, seminars, etc. and was fortunate to meet trainer Lee Mun Wah. Subsequently, Mun invited me to participate in the development of his 2011 book Let’s Get Real: What People of Color Can’t Say & Whites Won’t Ask about Racism. It is an amazing book–full of contributions he called “brave gift[s].”

When I read the speech President 45 (I’ve decided not to use his name) made in the Black Hills last Friday night, I dug out my copy of Mun’s book to reflect on what I said then, before the Black Lives Matter movement: ‘When white folks speak up against poor or indeed racist treatment. they are effective allies of people of color. When people of all races speak up against injustice of the courts, they are effective allies of change, It is when nothing is said, when enough people do nothing, that racism is permitted to survive.”

So we can choose to be trapped by the past, however recent, or we can choose, as Mun says, to “promote the healing that we all need.”

Posted in Main.


Wise Guy

Back in 2013, while I was working as Human Resources Director for the City of Medford, Oregon, I was pleased to be asked to be an early reader of an interesting publication called APE: Author-Publisher-Entrepreneur by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch.  This was an amazing guide for budding authors and even experienced ones seeking to move into the digital age. Of course, that meant I got added to Guy’s collection of followers, and this year, he asked if I’d like to join a group of reviewers for a pre-publication copy of Guy’s 15th book: Wise Guy, to be released Tuesday (Feb. 26) by Penguin Random House/Portfolio Books.

Guy says Wise Guy is his most personal book, and is not a traditional memoir but a series of vignettes. It reflects a wide range of experiences that have enlightened and inspired him.  He tells stories from his childhood in Hawaii, his education at Stanford and UCLA, his first job in the jewelry business, work for Steve Jobs at Apple, and his adoption of surfing at the age of 62.

Guy, who served, as he puts it, two “tours of duty” for Apple (from 1983-1987 and 1995-97), writes extensively and distills his experience there into 11 points of wisdom:

• Only excellence matters.
• Customers can’t tell you what they need.
• Innovation happens on the next curve.
• Design counts
• Less is more.
• Big challenges beget big accomplishments.
• Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.
• Engineers are artists.
• Price and value are not the same thing.
• But value isn’t enough.
• Some things need to be believed to be seen.

While expressing that he “made a mistake” at not returning for a third tour when asked by Steve Jobs to run Apple University, he clearly says if he had stayed at Apple, he wouldn’t have started companies, become a venture capitalist, advised dozens of other entrepreneurs and written more than a dozen books.

The points distilled from his years at Apple are instructive, but they are only four pages of this easily read 260-page book though the book contains more on his Apple years. Guy covers everything from moral values to business skills to parenting. As he writes, “I hope my stories help you live a more joyous, productive, and meaningful life. If Wise Guy succeeds at this, then that’s the best story of all.”

In addition to his story telling, I found most enlightening his 10 lessons in the chapter he calls Postpartum:

• Get high and to the right (be unique and valuable).
• Adopt a growth mindset (among others, he recommends Carol Dweck’s book Mindset, which is a fascinating work of its own).
• Embrace grit (achieving success is hard work).
• Smile (there’s no such thing as being too nice).
• Default to yes (say no only after contemplating information)
• Raise the tide (life is not a zero-sum game).
• Pay it forward (do good works and make the world a better place.
• Examine everything (healthy skepticism not negativity)
• Never lie, seldom shade (lying takes too much time and energy).
• Enable people to pay you back (fostering self-worth in others).

I thoroughly enjoyed Wise Guy, and enthusiastically recommend it.

Here is where you can buy it:

Posted in Booknotes, Main.

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Roblee Family

My great-grandmother Francelia Roblee descends from one of the “Old World” families whose actual surname is a mystery as there were so many speling variations in the New England colonies. But we are prety certain she descended from Reuben Robble who marroed Phebe Austin. For 20 years now, I have exchanged information on the Roblee families with a number of other researchers–most notably Cindy Walcott–and maintain a site for Roblee researchers.

No sooner had the “ink dried” on work correcting the title of Cindy Walcott’s compilation on the Descendants of Reuben Robblee and Phebe Austin  when but Cindy decided to update the report again to correct formatting errors and a few others discovered after we had a chance to review it. It is in keeping with the general philosophy that all family histories are works in progress and need frequent, and constant revision.   As an example, Cindy and I exchanged updated information on one of Reuben Robblee’s descendants–my 2nd great-grandfather Norman Roblee (1815-1900), who married Henrietta Adelia Soule.

A publication on the Soule family describes the birth of “Harriet” Adelia Soule (1816-1908) and an unnamed twin daughter.   For many years I belived this simply to be a naming error by the Rev. G. T. Ridlon, author of the 1926 two-volume history of the Soule family (including descendants of Mayflower passenger George Soule). Because I had so many other mysteries in my family (still unsolved example: who were the parents of my 4th great grandfather Nathaniel Winslow, and how are we related–if at all–to the Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow?) I didn’t bother attempting to identify the twin daughter until recently.  And then, when I did discover that Henrietta’s twin was actually named Harriet Adelia (yes, they appear to have been given identical middle names), and identified her family using online cemetery records.  But I neglected to share this with Cindy  (with whom I’ve shared cross-continental electronic correspondence for many years) until  motivated to do so after reading her updated Descendants of Reuben Robblee (and wife Phebe Austin).

Cindy has done a masterful job compiling  (and sourcing) the Robblee/Roblee story in  five reports available on the Roblee website.  But, as she points out:

I would ask that anyone using this report not turn “speculation” into “fact” when using the data for his or her own purposes. I welcome any questions, criticisms, confirmations, rebuttals, etc. My interest is in placing all   individuals in their own families, locations and historical context. I welcome documentation that would help me to turn those into fact, or establish that my guesses or estimates were wrong!

There are other additions and revisions to be made in these compilations, and I’m gratefiul for the revisions Cindy has continued to make.

The Descendants of Reuben Robblee and his wife Phebe Austin of Dutchess Co., NY, Lanesborough, MA and Granville, NY
(Decenber 2018 revision, Adobe PDF – 3.27 MB)

Posted in Detling Family History, Roblee Researchers.

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Rootsweb Update 4/7/2018

The following was posted on Rootsweb, which is the hosting site for several mailing lists administered by by the administrator of this site:

“Lists are now available to use, meaning you can now send and receive email on RootsWeb email lists just like you used to in the past. In addition to making the site more secure, we’ve upgraded our backend system to provide an easier-to-use interface to manage your email list subscriptions.

To get started managing your subscriptions, go to Setting Up My New Mailman Login. …

Any email that is sent will go directly into a new archive. We are in the process of importing the old archives into the new archives and due to the massive amount of content, that process will take time. We will continue to update you on the progress when we can.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to bring these features back online.”

Posted in Bradt/Brott Family, Bunker Family History, Detling Family History, Genealogy Web Sites, Roblee Researchers.


Response to Concerns about Bunker Garrison Graveyard Incursion

As noted in an earlier post (https://www.detling.us/?p=868 ) members of the Bunker Family Association expressed concerns about tourist incursion into the Bunker Garrison graveyard in Durham, New Hampshire. BFA Vice President Bette Richards fired off a letter of protest to Great Bay headquarters.  Thankfully, it had a positive effect, as the following was received from a spokesperson of the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve:

I am sensitive to the family wishes and am working on a
solution. We originally highlighted the graveyard in the
Passport to Great Bay because we sincerely believe the
history of your family is important to the region. We try
hard to accommodate family wishes, stay true to the
mission of the reserve and terms of the deed, and ensure
we are teaching people about the importance of local and
natural history.

The Passport original document had an associated flyer
for each property. We have not handed out the passport
flyers at our Visitor’s Center for some time, because some
information is outdated. We will not include directions to
the graveyard in the next printing, nor include prompts for
people to explore the graveyard. However, the effort to
update the materials will not happen this summer and the
passport is available online. I will look into the easiest way
to edit the online pdf or take it down with assistance from
our web support personnel.

Sincerely, Cory Riley

Posted in Bunker Family History, Genealogy Web Sites, Main, Mapping.

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Doug Appointed to City Community Development Commission

The City of Eagle Point’s City Council earlier combined the duties of the City’s Parks and Recreation and Economic Development Commission into a nine-member Community Development Commission, and tonight appointed eight members. I was happy to be appointed to a term that runs until December 31, 2019.  Previously I served from March 2016 on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Posted in Community Musings, Main, Personal.


Bunker Garrison Graveyard included in Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

This is an amazingly beautiful site; a great many thoughtful people designed a trail that explores twelve different areas around the Great Bay estuary. Each destination can be found using the given coordinates or a map specific to that spot. The photography almost makes you want to investigate each attraction, explore and find the answer to a particular question. Explore ten of the twelve venues and you will receive a Great Bay Estuary mug for your excursions through the salt marshes. It is truly a great way to learn about Mother Nature, while keeping in shape!

However, officers of the Bunker Family Association are not pleased to see our little bit of paradise being thrust into the limelight. The peaceful Bunker graveyard is now a destination for wandering trekkers and explorers, hell-bent on finding Valentine Bunker’s 1852 death date. Thoughts of vandalism and/or tombstone desecration, is a source of “grave” concern – we are devastated. Elsewhere on the Bunker Family Association web site, pictures of previous acts of vandalism and storm damage are shown. Hopefully, visitors to Bunker Creek will respect the final resting place of our ancient ancestors.

Welcome to Bunker Creek!

The trail on this property begins behind the barn and leads you to the Bunker graveyard. This property has three major wildlife habitat attractions. The shoreline along Bunker Creek is prime waterfowl nesting habitat. The large white pine trees along the creek are potential eagle perch sites. The upland is maintained as shrub habitat, being rotationally mowed to sustain the habitat type, important to so many wildlife species.

Exploration logistics

Directions: East on Route 4. Take a left on Bunker Lane, park in the designated area. Access the trail to the left and behind the barn.

Terrain rating: Fairly level, easy terrain

Exploration time: Allow ½ hour

As you stand next to the historic barn, envision this property as a working farm owned by the Bunker family over 200 years ago. You may still be able to see a piece of old farm equipment, fruit trees that surrounded the house or even the cellar hole of the old farmhouse. The area behind the barn is maintained as shrub habitat. You may notice that sections have been mowed, keeping only fruit and nit bearing vegetation such as dogwood cedar and apple trees. The habitat is essential for species like woodcock, ruffled grouse and cottontail rabbits. Follow the trail behind the barn and end up at the sign to the Bunker Graveyard, a fenced in, quarter acre parcel that is the final resting place for 28 members of the Bunker family. To the left of the graveyard is what is historically noted as “Dirty Slough,” a small creek that flows through the salt marsh into Bunker creek and eventually into Oyster River. A garrison, circa 1655, was built by James Bunker on a knoll to the west of the graveyard and at one time was staffed by two soldiers. The garrison was said to be standing in 1892.

While you are here:

  • Find the date Valentine Bunker died.
  • Locate the cellar hole of the Bunker farmhouse.
  • Watch for cottontail rabbits and listen for ruffled grouse drumming.
  • Discover the “spiny” locust and “burly” ash trees.
  • Coordinates: N4308.119746 W70o 53 21.4917

SOURCE: https://www.greatbay.org/documents/greatbaypassport.pdf

The PDF file is also available here.

Posted in Bunker Family History, Genealogy Web Sites, Mapping.

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Bunker Family Association

Regular readers of my site will know that among my other interests, I manage the web site of the Bunker Family Association, a non-profit organization devoted to preserving and expanding the family history of the Bunker surname. I can trace my ancestry to James Bunker, the progenitor of one of the major Bunker family groups (sometimes call the “Devon Bunkers” after that area of England.

If you wish to know more about the Bunker Family Association, you can follow this link to the annual dues notice of the Association, which will take you to its web site:

BFA Annual Dues Notices

Posted in Bunker Family History, Web Site News.

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Photos Moved to New Location

Photographs I have shared among friends, family and colleagues for many years have been physically moved to a new website.

The new address for the photo gallery is

https://douglasdetling.smugmug.com

Some shared photographs are already in folders (sometimes called galleries or albums) where passwords are required.  Because my intention is to eliminate passwords from various folders, I am listing them here for those folders on the new site having them currently:

ABAGers: 101_8_JPBM

Bunker Family Association (BFA): CND_BunkY!

family – 2473zMed

friends – 97ZHHXV

Roblees – n0_freNch  That is not an O but a zero.

Feel free to let me know if you have difficulties accessing these photos.

Posted in Bradt/Brott Family, Bunker Family History, Community Musings, Detling Family History, Digital Photography, Genealogy Web Sites, Main, Roblee Researchers, Web Site News.

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Website Security

This WordPress site is now active with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security implemented. Please note that the correct way of accessing the site is by entering https://www.detling.us.

Posted in Main.