Andrew's Graduation

The next day was undergraduate gradation and Andrew reluctantly walked.

Academic Procession

The flag and ROTC people.

The bagpipers. I'll be honest--I'm not the biggest bagpipe fan. And it was cool for a little while, but they kept blasting bagpipe music throughout the campus. So I got really tired of bagpipes. Especially since they just played the same song the whole dang time.

Here comes Andrew! (And T-Roy in the background).

He's the most handsome graduate in the whole school. :)

In the Spectrum

The engineers (with orange tassels) are coming in. You can see T-Roy right in the middle, and Andrew is to the left (T-Roy's right).

Hi Andrew! Please don't judge my photographer skills. I was far away. Also, I'm not that good of a photographer. I was really glad that they turned around and I (kind of) got this picture.

My parents laughed that I knew so many professors on first name basis. The whole history department all were happy to see me and they all said my name. My parents were proud that I am so prestigious.

Somewhere in there . . . is Andrew.

My friend Erika who just came home from her mission! She is in the blue shirt.

Engineering Ceremony

This is where we celebrated nerds who will make lots of money.

Mikey and Kaylee waiting for it to start.

"Andrew Walter Fassmann, Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering."

Congratulations Andrew! He got his diploma cover.

We bought a jade fish in Hong Kong for Andrew to put on his hat with his tassel.

Andrew, Kaylee, and Troy. Despite the way this picture looks, Kaylee is actually T-Roy's daughter. Andrew is wearing a Tau Beta Pi cape thing and a medal from the Engineering College.

Congratulations Andrew! Even though he did not want to walk, I'm glad that he did. It was fun to celebrate all of his hard work. He has been going to school for forever!

Sarah's Graduation

I forgot to mention that within all the chilling and packing and panicking I did during the end of April, I also passed my thesis defense with flying colors! David (my adviser and boss) said it was an unusual defense because the other committee members were so positive. My defense was amazing. I got so many new ideas and was so excited to keep working and expanding my project.

Anyway, that meant I could walk at graduation!

And it began traumatically for me. My friend, Chase, had a little medal from the Humanities College, which he said they just gave to him when he picked up his cap and gown. Well I didn't get one! And I am pregnant! And I became irrationally upset about this. So I went over the the Josten's table and kindly asked if they knew where I was supposed to pick up my little medal. The guy was super RUDE and told me he didn't have time to help me. Chase was also shocked at the Josten's guy's rudeness. So then I was even more upset. Fortunately, a few minutes later, Dr. Conte showed up and gave me a medal. I was really irrationally happy that I got my medal. Moral of the story: Give pregnant women medals. They deserve it.

And then we had to wait for a long time before the procession began because of the lazy bums who didn't pick up their caps and gowns before! So the academic procession began about 45 minutes late. And I had to pee and I was really really thirsty. This was a bad day to be pregnant.

Academic Procession

At this part, all the future Masters walked from the Fieldhouse to the Spectrum while they blasted bagpipe music from the speakers around the university. First best part of the procession was the kids at the elementary school applauding us and holding signs. They were just happy to be out of class. Second best part was seeing Andrew, my parents, and Heidi (my MIL) applauding me.

Me--looking slightly like the pope giving a blessing or a Medieval Jesus with the Holy Hand Grenade--marching.

A much more attractive photo of me marching.

The future Masters entering the Spectrum. Hi family!

The Hooding

In this part of the graduation ceremony, the future Masters walk through a tunnel of professors and you line up. The professors put the hood over your head and then you walk to the stage and give them the card with your name on it. These photos were taken by David with his phone from a distance, but since he was sitting where he could actually see the hooding, these pictures are actually pretty good.

The hood going over my head. :)

Oh my gosh! Moses (the professor in the yellow) just told me how to fix my hair over the hood!!! Moses put the hood on me! (Why is this post full of religious references?)

Heading up to the stage...

"Master of Arts in History, Sarah L. B. Fassmann."

Receiving my diploma cover--thanks!

I'm so happy and my shoes are so great. 

Hi family! I got my diploma! And my cap is falling off my head.

 The Happy Graduate

Master Sarah--that's right. I'm so proud.

I'm so proud of this accomplishment! I have worked really hard over the past two years and especially hard during March and April to finish my thesis in time. I still need to finish revisions, but I am done!

And because it is awesome and I've already alluded to several religious things, don't you think I look great in my black robes of a false priesthood/academic robes?

Oh Hugh Nibley, you are so good for making everyone feel smart and stupid at the same time.

Finding My Family in the 1940 U.S. Census

The LDS Church is really big into family history because we believe that we are eternal families. They have a program where people can look at scans of historical documents and then type them into a form. This is called Family Search Indexing and it is searchable so people can find their ancestors.

April 1 of this year was when the 1940 U.S. Census became open to the public. Of course, the indexing community was in quite the hubbub. (On a side note, for historical research purposes not related to family history, I am thrilled, as that is my decade of emphasis.) Utah and Idaho were indexed really fast. I was amazed, but was in the throes of thesis work so didn't start indexing until the last two weeks. No more Utah to index for me. But since my maternal Grandpa is from Wisconsin, I decided to index names from Wisconsin. I probably won't find him while indexing, but I am helping others find their Wisconsin family.

And today, the records that have been indexed for Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming were open to searching. I was excited and began looking for my family.

First search. "Bredthauer" in Salt Lake County. Nothing. I tried a few more times and determined there must have been a spelling error in the indexing and I would have to get creative to find my paternal Grandpa and his family. So I didn't get super discouraged and started the next search.

Second search. "Barg" in Salt Lake County. Carl R. Barg (my great-grandfather) popped right up, along with his family and my paternal Grandma Marian. She was 16 in 1940. Her dad was born in Germany and her mother was born in Denmark. I learned that my great-grandfather was an accountant at a machinery company. There they are, Carl, Julia, Marian, Ardella, Joan, and Don.

Detail of Bargs in 1940 U.S. Census

Third search. "Park" in Tooele County. George and Vera were at the top of this list, too. And there was my maternal Grandma Margaret. She was only 6 in the census. All her family, except her brother James, were born in Utah. This is the family line from which all my Mormon pioneer heritage comes from. I learned that my great-grandfather was a crewman at some place in Tooele (I couldn't read the handwriting). There they are, George, Vera, Dorothy, James, and Margaret.

Detail of Parks in 1940 U.S. Census

By this time, I'm on a high. I'm finding my grandparents! Well, at this point, only my grandmothers. But still! I can figure out a way to find my other family members.

Fourth search. "Bredthauer" in the whole database. I pulled a few death certificates and there are apparently a bunch of Bredthauers in Texas and Nebraska. News to me. But, I did find my paternal Grandpa Henry and his family in the 1930 U.S. Census. This, I decided, would be my key to the 1940 one. So there they are, Henry (the dad, and my Opa), Anna (my Oma), Sophia, Henry Jr. (my Grandpa, and that is not his real name), and Fred. This was very exciting. I know Aunt Sophie and I know Grandpa. Grandpa was 6 in this census. This was also incredibly helpful. I wasn't sure if Opa was going by Heinrick or by Henry in the U.S., since they had immigrated about five years prior. Now I could search for Henry. What a unique name in the early-twentieth century (not). Great.

Detail of Bredthauers in 1930 U.S. Census

 Fifth search. "Henry," limited by residence in Salt Lake County, Utah, census records only, birthplace in Germany, birth date between 1880 and 1885 (searching for Opa). See, I limited my search options very wisely. There were only about five Henrys that fit that description, and from 21 years of having my last name slaughtered, if was fairly easy to find the correct Henry--Henry Bredthann. And there is the rest of them, Anna, Sophia, Henry, and Fred, all listed as Bredthann. We can see in this round that Grandpa was 16 at the time of the census. Opa was a farmer, Sophie was a "wrapper" at a bakery (probably the Deseret Bakery, owned by Uncle Fritz), and my Grandpa Henry was a helper at the farm.

Detail of "Bredthanns" (supposed to be Bredthauers) in 1940 U.S. Census

So I contacted Family Search and notified them of the error in indexing. Granted, this census person has really bad handwriting and that is a super hard last name to spell, so I can't really blame the indexer. I just want my family to be on there correctly.

Anyway, I hope this inspires some of you to look for your ancestors on Family Search. You may be surprised at the wealth of information out there and what you are able to learn about your family. If you can't find someone, get creative with searching for them. And if you don't want to do that, you can be a historian and get involved in Indexing. It is fun and easy (well, some handwriting is easier than others...).

Happy Family Historying! I feel like such a legit historian finding people and reading handwriting and stuff.

Chilling

Before I left Utah, I chilled a lot. I only got a few pictures. Cuz when you chill, you got to chill and not take pictures. Unless you are not really chill, and are only using "chill" as a synonym for "hanging out", which is the case right now.

I chilled with some of my old roommates from Merrill 310. Here I am with Tasha, Tessa, Michelle. I got sunburned, which made me  happy but then I realized I got way more burned than I intended.

I said good bye to our paint dance shoes.

It was really hard to throw out our shoes from the paint dance. Mine are on the left and Andrew's are on the right. They are special to both of us, as old and nasty as they are, cuz when we first started to spend time together, we went to a paint dance and got a five-gallon bucket of paint dumped on us. Andrew said, "I could only tell it was Sarah because her smile was the only part of her face that didn't have paint on it." So cute and sweet and romantic. Good bye paint dance shoes.

 I passed on the baton. I was the Robert M. Utley Fellow at the Western Historical Quarterly, and since my two-year fellowship was over, I passed on the senior fellow baton to Sean, the S. George Ellsworth fellow. He will be fine. That baton is full of wisdom passed down from many senior fellows from the past. Yes, I put something in it. When Sean looked inside, he said, "Whoa, that stinks." Apparently wisdom smells rancid. I also gave Sean some verbal parting wisdom, which he succinctly summarized as 1) No one knows what they are doing. 2) Don't work too hard. 3) Don't be nervous. I am freaking wise.

Most importantly, I chilled with Nigel. I get to be an aunt and then I have to leave. It is a sad sad world. I made sure to spend a lot of time with him to make up for the future.

Nigel sleeping on me while I rest my tailbone.

Happy little boy!

 Hi there Nigel! How did you get so cute? Are you enjoying your afternoon outside? Me too. I will miss you! We hung out while his parents cleaned my apartment. I was happy I didn't have to clean, and they were happy they got a baby break.

 Stop crying, here, have this orange binky.

My oldest best friend Erika came home from her mission! Erika (in the middle) came home from her mission to Leeds, England. We met in 7th grade orchestra and became friends in our 7th grade science class with Mr. Merrill. We are also with Monica, another one of my best friends. I'm so glad that I could see them again before I moved!

I did a lot of chilling. It was a busy last little while.

Time Flies When Life Gets Crazy

We have officially relocated to Washington! And a lot has gone on since then, so I will do a few updates. In general, I hung out with my nephew, ended my job, graduated, Andrew graduated, we moved, celebrated a wedding, unpacked, and I am looking for a new OB/GYN. Life is good, so be excited for these thrilling updates!

Also, today on my morning run, I saw six bunnies and seven ducklings. I live in Easter land!

Another also, we live on the top floor. Thank goodness I took the stairs to work every day so I am strong. I am quite thrilled that I no longer hear our upstairs neighbors talking, jumping, singing, peeing, or other awkward activities.

We have to give talks on Sunday in our new ward. We are talking on Elder Dallin H. Oaks's talk, "Sacrifice." I feel like we just barely gave talks (which we did, in March). His was a great talk, and hopefully mine will be all right. At least I don't have it like Andrew does, he has to teach Elders Quorum on Sunday. :)

Auf Wedersehen!