Long Summer...

Sorry for not posting in a few months. Summer has been very hectic so far for me. I have been in Indiana the past few months spending time with family, doing further research on my family tree, and preparing for my move to Chicago on August 20. Sooo... where to begin, lol.

Family Tree: I have made a lot of surprising discoveries on my father's side of the family. My grandfather, who passed away in 1970, lived in New Jersey before moving to the region in the 1950s. The New Jersey Woodruffs of which he belonged were descended from a Thomas Ogden Woodruff and Hannah Markwith. Thomas Ogden's mother was Elizabeth Ogden. The Ogdens, from my understanding, were a very influential family on the East Coast. In fact, Elizabeth's aunt married a man by the name of John Edison. John Edison was the Great Grandfather of Thomas Alva Edison! I, at first, wasn't even aware of this connection until I came -by chance- upon an obituary for my Great Grand Uncle. Shortly after commenting on the obit, I received a message from his daughter! I was amazed! In one of the correspondences, she relayed that family stories stated we were cousins of the Edisons! Sure enough, a little research verified it! I have really learned a lot about myself and my family from this research.

Music: It's been pretty hectic to write as much as I wish I could. I've been working, slowly, on several small projects just to keep my creative juices flowing. Nothing too substantial though.

Chicago: I have a lot of stuff prepared for my move up to the Windy City. So far, I have purchased everything I'll need to make my little dorm apartment home! I've looked into working part time in between my courses. I will give it a try - hopefully, I can manage it. I move up on August 20 and then begin a week of placement testing! To prepare, I am studying to brush up on the basic stuff. Hopefully, I can place into the appropriate theory courses, etc. I'm really psyched about this opportunity!

I'll try to post at least once a week. I do apologize deeply for being a bit busy to give updates!

Genealogical Findings

Over spring break I went to good old southern Indiana to search the local cemeteries for ancestors. To my surprise, I discovered about 10 graves belonging to the Meurer family. The graves were pretty easy to find and I was able to snap photos of all of them. One place I wish I had stopped was Fountain County's Mount Hope Cemetery. I discovered, while doing searches for my great great grandfather William H Hopper, his tombstone at the cemetery along with his wife Mary J Linville. He has been a very hard person to track down since he went by William later in life and Harrison (or Harris) early in life. In the 1920 census, I located him in Covington, IN. along with his son Walter J. Hopper (who is listed on the 1900 census along with my Great Grandfather S W Hopper, thus connecting the two.) It's been a fascinating, yet extremely difficult task of reconstructing the family history. Now if only I could find out where my great great great grandfather, Philipp A. Meurer, was born at in Germany and WHEN he arrived in America.

On the musical front, I have also been toiling away on a new piano sonata. I have the first movement nearly finished - just working diligently on the development section. The work is a bit different than my regular works. I'm really trying to apply the sonata-allegro format in a different way than I've normally done. Will keep you updated!