I subscribe to Kimberley Powell's newsletter, and this week I noticed two short articles that seemed especially good. I invite you to check-out her blog and maybe subscribe to her newsletter. Brick Wall Strategies for Dead-End Family Trees By Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide http://genealogy.about.com/od/basics/a/brick_walls.htm?nl=1 and Top 10 Tips for Finding Alternate Surname Spellings & Variations By Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide http://genealogy.about.com/od/name_changes/tp/spellings.htm?nl=1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Family Fun For Canada Day we had nice weather and most of the family were home for part of the day. It was a great day! Yesterday was not quite as much fun. My daughter arrived with front brake pads that were worn down to the metal, and her husband was working away from home, so it was "Dad's" job to fix the brakes. I don't have a garage, I have seldom needed one. So I strung a tarp between two cars to keep most of the rain off, while I jacked up the car and removed the first wheel. I soon found I didn't have a socket wrench to fit the bolts on the calipers. When I got the pads replaced on that side and reinstalled the wheel, it was time to work on the other side. The ground was muddy and as I was jacking up the car, it slid forward, falling off the jack and taking a nose-dive into the mud. A bigger problem was that there was no room under the car to put a jack. Eventually I did get the car raised and the brake pads installed and finished up the job. A job that should have taken an hour took about three hours. But I was glad I did it. How is that relevant in any way to family history? The prophet Malachi said "Behold I will send unto you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children unto the fathers ..." (Malachi 4:5-6) We need to look after our posterity as well as looking after our ancestors. We can run into unforeseen obstacles in both cases, but both can bring us a sense of joy!