Standings going into Monday Aug 30

So, we have 2 seconds over Australia... We just need a repeat performance.

Results of our Olympian. First heat

They came in 2nd in the first heat, 2 seconds behind Germany.

A Taste of Chattanooga.... Leet's Tanyard

For a flavor of the drama around Chattanooga, see https://sites.google.com/site/leeteleetgenealogyna/home/leeteleet-biographies/arthur-irvin-leet-1812-1892.  There are some pictures on the page and a PDF file at the bottom of the list of files.  For the most part, this is just bare-bones pictures.  But many of the pictures are of original contemporaneous articles and the wonderful diary that has surfaced.  

2014 Leete/Leet Reunion

Given my progress to date, by 2014 I should have most of the major Leete and Leet trees for early immigrants to the US from England and Ireland in electronic form.  I should also have a number of epic stories to tell.  So, it is time to reconstitute the Leete Family Association and to plan a reunion.

Now, one of the greatest stories to tell has to do with the Civil War battles fought around Chattanooga.  I believe ALL the Leete/Leet lines converged in this time and place in history to fight with and against one another in the epic battles.  Absolutely fascinating and educational to all.

There are other place I could think of.  Of course, Guilford, Connecticut.  But that would emphasize Gov Leete, and the Leet(e)s in Western PA and NY would say:  We've got more history here than Guilford has!  But even there we'd miss the drama of Leet(e) against Leet(e), Yankee against Rebel.  We'd miss the literally! crazy Leet that was the talk of Washington after the Civil War, editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and major developer of Denver.  We'd miss the stories of the Leet(e)s in Nevada, where Quebec Leet(e) met Leet(e)s from the other branches.  (The Quebec Leet(e)s were of Gov Leet's line.)

In addition to being central to Leet(e) history, Chattanooga is nice to visit in its own right, and the Smokies are a couple of hours away.

So, what do you think?  A Family Reunion in Chattanooga in 2014, probably just after school is out, so you can bring your kids to learn history.

A Leete Olympian!

We have a Leete in the Olympics!  (Maybe more than one.  Any others?)  Adrienne Martelli, daughter of Chris and Gail (Leete) Martelli, has qualified in the 4 person skulls (that’s rowing a skull , a kind of skinny canoe like thing.)   She is 24 years old.  She started rowing at the University of Washington in 2006 and did very well.  After graduating from college in 2010 she moved to New Jersery to continue training with the USA National team.
So, if you haven’t watched rowing before, nows the time to see what an exciting sport it is.  I’m a kayaker, so I know something of the stamina and overall conditioning required to excel at this sport.  It’s in the Leete genes!
Here’s the link to the official announcement: http://www.usrowing.org/News/12-06-22/USRowing_Announces_Final_Olympic_Lineups.aspx
Here's the link to her bio:  http://www.usrowing.org/Pressbox/AthleteBios/AdrienneMartelli.aspx

An Important Hint on How to Use Ancestry.com

I've been giving cousins access to the main Gov Leete tree and to their own lineage branch.  I give you this access by "sharing" the tree in Ancestry, which sends you a boilerplate email with a link to the tree.

You may be confused with what you see when you first click the link to tree.  The first thing that might be displayed is a kind of Welcome splash screen.  Just click OK or whatever the button is to close that screen.  What's left is a screen that looks like this example?

  You can navigate around using this view, but it isn't very obvious how to do it.  (Parenthetically, there are good tutorials on how to use this interface.  If you don't understand, you can ask a question by emailing me.

BUT, there is a much better view for navigating around the tree.  Look in the upper left hand corner.  See that the button labeled "Pedigree" is dark(er).  This is because this default view is called the "Pedigree" view. Note the button beside it:  the "Family" view.  Click that button and this is what you will see:

(You can left click on these pictures to make them larger.)  This is the "nice" view for exploring the family.  Note the box with the little squares in the lower left corner.  If you click on the box outline inside this box, you will move around the tree.  You can accomplish the same thing by clicking on the background of the tree and holding your left button down.  A hand will appear and you can move the picture with the hand to see the rest of the tree.)  This should be enough to get you started with the Ancestry.com trees.  All the details can be found in the link I gave you on "good tutorials."

PS.  If you double left click on a person, the Pedigree view of that person will be displayed.  There will be a line near the top of the Pedigree display that says something like "go back to tree."  This will bring you back to the above Family view.  Oh, if I have given you modify access, then you can add pictures and documents to any person.  That would be really nice.  I still need to retain control over entering new information, unless we are both at the point where the rules for changing the tree are understood.  It takes a lot of work to vet the tree- there is so much misinformation in the Ancestry.com databases.  I"ve been 4 years on the master Gov Leete tree and it is still not ready for prime time.  So, once a tree is vetted, we have to be careful to not add misinformation.  Thanks, Duane