My wife arrived home early last evening while I was watching some T.V. and unwinding with two cans of strong Cariboo Malt (8% alcohol) that I then followed with a decent helping of red wine.
Although I was to get to bed very shortly after 9 p.m. (and very soon after the arrival home of my younger brother from wherever he had been drinking), the combination of so much alcohol consumed in such a short time, combined with the overall stress of the four-mile round-trip hike in the Summer heat that I had undertaken to get to the nearest government liquor store ─ an excursion made in the latter afternoon ─ seemed to have resulted in an especially debilitating hangover that is still with me.
Even so, things might have been different if only I had slept the night through instead of rising late in the midnight hour and sitting up overnight until nigh 5:20 a.m. ere getting myself back to bed.
It was clear in all that while that I was unwell, but I am quite the slave to self-imposed duty.
I was to remain in bed until around 9:30 a.m., but I was not recovered. Nevertheless, I did join my brother downstairs at 10 a.m. to soon put our Android TV Box into action to watch some shows together, beginning with Odessa Orlewicz's latest video: June 21 - THe WHO says what still?? WTF is going on?! WHO says not for kids still !
My brother and I watched T.V. together until 12:40 p.m., and then he got himself ready to head off for a haircut and to spend the afternoon away elsewhere, ultimately to re-engage his daily drinking.
This has been our third scorching hot Summer day, but I was too seriously in need of some further time in bed in the early afternoon to be able to both tackle the day's scheduled exercising and to then do any sunning. Right now as I type these words it is 3:18 p.m., and I do still intend to at least exercise, but I am first having one of my sustaining and very rich, hot caffeinated beverages.
My wife had to work the full day today at her friend's Thai restaurant where she is employed part-time, so she rose soon after I did this morning, and was away on her drive in plenty of time to make her 11 a.m. start.
One of the tasks that kept me up overnight was a researched response to an E-mail from my Edmonton cousin Doug. He, I, and another relation of ours who is named Danae have been trying to verify that our great grandmother Sarah Anne Bird's parents are Thomas Bird and Ellen McDermot.
Thomas Bird would be a son of James Curtis Bird, and Ellen or Helen or Helena McDermot is a daughter of Andrew McDermot. One would think that verifying that the children of two such fairly well-known men yielded a daughter named Sarah Anne would be simple enough, but we have had no success despite enlisting outside aid in our enterprise these past couple of months.
Doug and I know enough about our great grandfather George Barcelo, Sarah Anne Bird's eventual husband, but none of the family genealogists ever seemed to have taken an intense look at her.
Doug and I recently discovered ─ and none of our family seemed to be aware of this ─ that Sarah Anne Bird was born with plenty of Indigenous blood. Her grandmother Sarah McNab ─ who became wife of Andrew McDermot ─ was Métis.
And if Thomas Bird is Sarah Anne Bird's father and also the son of James Curtis Bird, then Thomas was also Métis because James Curtis Bird quite liberally 'fraternized' with Indigenous gals. One possible mother of Thomas was Métis, and another a full-blooded (I believe) Salteaux.
So establishing these facts about just who are Sarah Anne Bird's parents is what has Doug and I so consumed.
Ever since I was a boy, I have known something of the 'legend' behind my family name. Paternally speaking, our ancestor(s) came to North America from what was always believed to have been Barcelona, Spain; and my father was quite proud of this 'Conquistador' connection.
But beyond even that, the family legend extended us all the way back to ancient Carthage, and claimed that we are descendants of the famous Barca clan (Hannibal was the most famous member). It was proposed that because the Barcas were so heavily involved in colonizing the western Mediterranean, that the city of Barcelona owes its origin and even its naming to them.
In effect, our ancestors had almost the status of royalty.
Well, that would be nice if it could be proven, but of course it cannot.
However, what got me involved last night was this message from Doug:
I tried accessing the resources on the Alberta Metis site and ran into a bunch of brick walls. Perhaps I'll try calling them in a day or two when I have more energy.
The Mormon site, familysearch.org , goes waaaaay back to the 1200s in Germany on the Dunlap side, but the Barcelo/Bird lineage ends at George/Sarah. I'm actually surprised that it doesn't go back to Quebec for George, since all those Barcelos were likely registered with the Catholic church.
Danae said something about George, or George's father, being disinherited because their Great Grandfather, the king of Spain decreed that their marriage to a non-Catholic Native broke the family lineage. I don't know where she got that, because when I talked to her mother, Judy, she was unaware of any Native connection. Perhaps it came from cousin Diane. I know Danae is talking to her. So she is suggesting that there is a 3rd Native bloodline. The first being that Sarah McNab, who married Andrew McDermot, was the daughter of Mary Jane Indigenous, who was the full blooded and only daughter of the Ojibwa Great Chief Buffalo. The 2nd line being that perhaps Thomas Bird was the son of Mary (Swampy Cree Woman). The third being that George's father married a Native, perhaps making George a half breed.
I don't know how much of this is accurate. But I'll keep digging. And no, I don't have a library card.
Well, I made an initial response to that message, and ended with this:
The King of Spain as a great grandfather of George or maybe Oscar? I'll save comment for now.I later responded with this:
Doug, I advanced upwards from Oscar Barcelo for at least five generations ─ so that would have been to his great great great grandfather at very minimum.
No King of Spain.
Here's the Google Translate of where I ended up ─ a Jean Barsalou for whom there is no further data.
But notice that his son Gerard was born in France in 1673, but died in Montreal? Perhaps he's the guy who made the original leap to North America?
And if so, then that might be why there is no record of his father beyond the name Jean Barsalou because it has been too arduous from a genealogical perspective to learn anything at all about the guy's father ─ not even the town or date of birth. Ditto the mother. And both of their names sound more French than Spanish to me, so they were likely born in France too.
Gerard Barsalou probably had to list the names of his parents for sundry legal reasons after he came to North America, but no background on them was required. And now there is none.
Or that's my speculation.
No, I don't see a direct Spanish king connection ─ if there was, then what king? Why isn't that known? ─ surely that sort of detail can't have been lost!
Besides, Wikipedia doesn't show any family names for Spanish kings as being anything like Barcelo. It could only have been a spin off from a daughter, and that probably leaves us far out in the cold because there's still a living Bourbon descendant today.
Granted, it's not as far-fetched as my father's belief that we're direct descendants of the famous Barca clan of Carthage, but ... well, 'the proof is in the pudding', and 'seeing's believing', to throw out a couple of apt phrases.
There may just be a lot of fictitious wishful thinking going on over the years.
If there is any royalty, it was probably less imposing, like maybe someone from the line of counts of Barcelona (there was even a dynasty called the House of Barcelona).
But if we have a direct ancestor named Jean Barsalou who was likely born in France sometime in the first half of the 1600s, it seems to me unlikely that we can claim royal Spanish lineage. It's going to be impossibly diluted ─ all bled out, if you will.
I've always wanted to be a proven descendant of the Carthaginian Barca clan!
But I was not yet done. This was what I busied myself with overnight:
It seems I was right, Doug!
I found this:
The first Barsalou to come to North America was Gérard Barsalou ─ Jean Barsalou and Hélène Lamarque's son.
Gérard Barsalou was born on May 10, 1673 at Agen, Lot-et-Garonne France and died August, 8 1721 in St-Laurent, New France. He married Marie-Catherine Legras-Lalonguealle on May 6, 1700 in Montréal, New France.
Marie-Catherine Legras-Lalonguealle was born April 9, 1684 Montréal, New France. She died on February 5, 1737 in Montréal, New France.
Gérard Barsalou and Marie-Catherine Legras-Lalonguealle had fifteen children: Jean Barsalou, Joseph Barsalou; Jean-Francois Barsalou; Marie-Catherine Barsalou; Jean-Baptiste-Barsalou; Geneviève-Catherine Barsalou; Marie-Charlotte Barsalou; Gérard-Maurice Barsalou; Angélique-Catherine Barsalou; Ignace Barsalou; René-Jean-Marie Barsalou; Marie-Louise Barsalou; Jean-Francois Barsalou; Marie-Josephe Barsalou and Jacques Barsalou.
Jean Joseph Gerard Barsalou (March 3, 1703) ─ one of the sons of Gérard, and who was apparently named after Gérard's father ─ is our direct ancestor.
Young Jean begat Jean Francois Barsalou (August 28, 1724).
Jean Francois Barsalou begat Louis Barsalou (January 10, 1767).
Louis Barsalou begat Jacob Barsalou (sometime in 1789).
And Jacob Barsalou sired Oscar Adolphe Barcelo ─ George Barcelo's father ─ on April 18, 1819. Oscar apparently changed the family surname.
But let’s now trace back (or above) Gérard Barsalou, the first Barcelo to come to North America. As noted earlier, he was the son of Jean Barsalou and Hélène Lamarque.
I’m going to start at the remotest known Barcelo (Barsalou). I am only bolding the names of our direct ancestors (male and female), so feel free to skip past lineages that don’t contain a bold name.
The first Barsalou was named Salvi-Salvy Barsalou and was born circa 1585 in France. No one has yet found the name of his wife nor where and when he got married. Salvi-Salvy had only one known son called Joseph Barsalou born circa 1600 in France and died February 28, 1659 at Foulayronne, Fromenty, Lot-et-Garonne, France.
Joseph Barsalou was firstly married to Francoise Valade in 1622 at Ste-Foye, Agen, Lot-et-Garonne. Francoise was born in 1602 and died in 1632 in France. Joseph Barsalou and Francoise Valade had three children: 1) Louise was born circa 1620 in France. She fistly married Jean-Guillaume Brugières and secondly to Jean Miramont. The marriage between Louise Barsalou and Jean Miramont happenned after her father had passed away. 2) Jeanne was born circa 1622 in France. She married Bernard Boutoute. 3) Pierre was born circa 1623 in France. He married Peyronne Amouroux. They had five children: Catherine Barsalou, Guillaume Barsalou, Magdalaine Barsalou, Marie Barsalou and Peyronne Barsalou.
Joseph Barsalou secondly married Catherine Cominal in October 23rd, 1634 at Artigues, Foulayronnes, Lot-et-Garrone in France. Catherine was born in 1614 and died on 1665 in France. Joseph Barsalou and Catherine Cominal had five children: 1) Bernard Barsalou was born circa 1636 in France. He was married to Jeanne Constan in France; 2) Guillaume Barsalou was born circa 1638 at Foulayronne, Lot-et-Garonne, Guyenne, France. He died as of February 23, 1711 in France.
Guillaume Barsalou married Bernarde Duparier and had nine children: Catherine Barsalou; Claire Barsalou; Jean Barsalou; Bernard Barsalou; Francois Barsalou; Hélène Barsalou; Raymond Barsalou, Antoine Barsalou and Jean-Pierre Barsalou. Antoine Barsalou was born circa 1640 at Foylayronne, Lot-et-Garonne, Guyenne, France; Francois Barsalou was born circa 1646 in France.
Francois Barsalou was firstly married to a Marie, there is no known last name. He and Marie had one child named Catherine Barsalou.
Francois Barsalou was secondly married to Jeanne Delamas; Jean Barsalou was born circa 1648 at Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, Guyenne in France.
Jean Barsalou was married to Hélène Lamarque on July 12, 1671 at Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, France.
Jean Barsalou and Hélène Lamarque had five children: Gérard Barsalou; Guillaume Barsalou; Jeanne Barsalou; Marie-Anne Barsalou and Thérèse Barsalou.
And that of course brings us to emigrant-to-Canada, Gérard Barsalou.
There were a lot of confusing first and second marriages in that history, and the various names of children that would not directly lead to us, but like I said before, I tried to just bold the relevant biological players who would have been responsible for our existence.
It’s still bloody confusing, and I might have messed up. I have a hangover ─ I drank a little too much last evening.
And with that, I believe that I essentially demolished the family legend of a royal Spanish connection. If there is one, then it had to have been centuries earlier; but certainly, there was no king of Spain who was a great grandather to our great grandfather George or his father Oscar in the latter 1700s or early 1800s.
It is now 6:13 p.m., and I took a break to dispose of that bit of exercise ─ I actually performed quite well. And then, beginning at 4:48 p.m., I managed to accrue just over 40 minutes sunning my front in the backyard while attired in a pair of swimming trunks.
Before going outside, I weighed in at 178 pounds. Yesterday I believe that I was 179 pounds.
I ought to mention that after I got home late yesterday afternoon with my liquor store purchases, my youngest stepson transferred over to me $50 ─ it was his conscience kicking in over not having done anything on my behalf this past Sunday, Father's Day.
My wife, however, did acknowledge me that day even if her two sons did not. At 7:14 p.m. she texted:
Happy Father's Day
And included with the text were three emojis ─ the first must not have been recognized by my phone, for it was simply a question mark within a square. However, the other two were a bouquet and a pair of wine glasses clinking together.
I responded back:
Oh you sweetheart!
Then at 8:56 p.m. she texted me again:
Thank you for everything
This time her emojis were that question mark in the square again, as well as a pair of hands clasped in supplication.
She can be quite thoughtful at times even if our marriage is sorry.
The final thing I want to mention today is the report about some Florida parents who recently sent six of their kids' face masks to a University of Florida lab to have them tested for pathogens.
Are you a parent who has one or more kids that you insist have to wear face masks?
If so, then pay heed.
The six masks in the article had been worn by children aged between six to 11 for a period of time ranging from five to eight hours; and all of the masks prior to use were either never worn before, or else they had been freshly laundered.
What did the lab find?
See for youself ─ if your head isn't too deeply buried in the sand that you just don't want to know. The article was published on June 16: Dangerous pathogens found on children’s face masks.
Okay, I'm in the mood for just one can of that strong beer and a little television; I'm also rather looking forward to having myself an early bedtime.
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