Mind Bender

I got one for you genealogical experts out there. Who was the only president of the United States who was also a King. He was a King before he was President but was no longer a King when he assumed the Presidency??

I want to find my family tree, but I can't be bothered with stuff like research or actually talking to people like parents and relatives. I have this way cool ancestor tree chart and I want to fill in names for all the boxes. Money is no object, as long as it is $3.00 or less.

If it helps, the particular surnames are Smith and Jones. I think most of my ancestors lived in either the Americas or Europe. Also I have heard that I am a descendant of Charlemagne.

Where can I go to type in "Smith" or "Jones" and get the names (preferably back to at least 1400AD) to fill in my way cool ancestor chart with?

Any of you chronogically challenged supporters of this venue know what happened to Rustskipper. He as been on top of the answerers list since I've been on (though Ted is quickly catching up). But it seems he just disappeared 7 months ago. Hope he's OK.

I just learned from another answer posting that I am related to Ted Pack! I too have a line going back to Charlemagne. But we may have a closer relationship than that because my line also has a number of links that are questionable - though my line spelled it "questionable" vice Ted's line "questioanable", though that is probably just surname mangling we see so often.

Wondering if any other there are any other kinfolk out there with a semi-pseudo-line back to Charlemagne?

Does anyone know if it is possible to determine if an asker is from the US, UK or other place if they don't disclose it and they (as most do) have blocked E-mail and IM? In some cases I've been able to look at a collection of questions from the asker to determine this, but is there an easier way?

Often questions are posed that have very different answers depending on whether you are talking US or UK. And you really can't expect someone new to realize they should identify this in their question. Is there a way to tell from profile or such, or do you just have to do detective work (sort of like genealogy!) by examining other questions and answers by the person? I do like to give help and answers relevant to the asker.

Got an 1880 census entry that for an illness had the entry "dripcee".

My gut feeling is that it is a misspelling of "dropsy" which is kind of what we call endema these days. Given the very rural nature of the area, I assume this is a home diagnosis vice a diagnosis by a "doctor" so maybe either the census taker just didn't know how to spell it or the family said this was the "disease".

But before I just write this off to misspelling, has anyone actually heard of a medical term used in the late 1800s call DRIPCEE?

I often do manual examination of census to take advantage of the fact that extended families often lived near each other and to account for problems (such as misspellings, bad indexes, etc) common to census searches. There is also the likelihood that when a person does move, they often don't move very far.

Thus I examine earlier (or later) census in the same area. Problem is enumeration districts. Finding the boundaries of enumeration districts is pretty straight forward. However, mapping an area to an enumeration district becomes difficult when the boundary no longer exists (a road that is long gone, a landmark/building that is gone). I'm pretty much been manually mapping out districts as best I can. Does anyone know if there are actual maps of enumeration districts? And if so, where are they archived? I have access to all of the facilities in the DC area so would have no problem actually going to the place (if there is one and is in DC area). Does anyone know if there actual maps?

I have been doing this seriously for 25 years. And do support many genealogy boards (just started supporting this one) because many experienced people helped me out when I first got started and quite frankly, it's fun. But my "circle" that I have been part of for these 25 years, just because of years passing, is getting smaller.

Does anyone know of a forum/board that is really geared for the very experienced genealogist. I've not been able to find one. As you can image, the "questions" I have are not exactly basic, and have a lot to share that would not be very useful for the newbies. But know that like just about every experienced person I know, I will continue to support the forums, not only to pay back for the help I have been given, but because I love the explosion of interest in what I obviously find to be a very rewarding and important venture.

What do you experienced people think about FTM 2008. I've been a FTM user since Version 1. I thought it was a supurb program. But I was both shocked and dismayed at the complete makeover they did with FTM 2008. I find it almost unusable. Anyone else have an opinion that has experience with FTM V16 and before?

Any ice that is "floating" in water, as most of the Arctic icecap is, upon melting will not change the water level. Do this at home - fill a glass with water and ice, mark the water level, then let the ice melt. The water level remains the same (this is high school physics). So if every bit of Arctic ice that is over water melts, there would be no change to water level. Now ice that is supported by land (antarctica has a lot of that) is different. If that melts it would effect water level. But since most of Arctic ice is supported by water, how can it be claimed that the melting arctic icecap will change sea level to the point that Florida will disappear?? Can someone explain how I am wrong?