Medical Folderol & Wishes My Foot was Better so I Could Kick Some A$$

Well a bill came from Geisinger so I now know what my little excursion to the ER(then Urgent Card, then back to the ER)cost us.

We have an automatic $150 Copay every time we walk into an ER for treatment with our insurance plan.
And the bill for "Diagnostic Radiology"(2 ex-rays of my foot)was $548, "Pharmacy"(1 shot of Lovenox and 1 Coumadin pill)was $11.94 and "Emergency Services"(maybe the sonogram of my leg/ankle was included in this?..the ER staff's wages?.....the use of a gurney sitting in the hallway in the ER?...goodness only knows what this included!)was $1,420.

All totaled that bill came to $1,979.94 for my 9 ish hr. visit to the hospital.

Insurance paid $1,829.94 of the bill, leaving our payment at $150.
So with the copay we paid a total of $300 OOP for my ER/Urgent Care/ER Visit.

I thought our benefit was 90% for in hospital services but $150 isn't even 8% of the total charged on the bill.
Hhhmmmm.

Well the check is written and it's paid and done.  If they want an extra $50 +/- from me they can come after me.  lolz

And this all leads into talking about that this week and next are the "Open Enrollment" at Hubs works for next year's insurance plan.
I like to refer to it as "Open Season on Consumers" instead because I feel like Elmer Fudd when this time rolls around every year.




We've already started analyzing the costs/benefits of each of 5 plans we can choose from.
Oh what fun!! 8-))

Luckily for us, Hubs employer provides part of the cost of his healthcare so that is why we are limited to 5 choices.

I can't imagine having to pay the full shift of the coverage yourself and having to pick from all those supposed options on a state's mandated HealthCare Exchange.
That is, IF there are any options in your state, which doesn't seem to be the case in some states....not that anyone can get through the system yet because the websites are a clusterf*ck, but I digress......


We won't be going with our current plan, which is a local to this area of PA HMO, next year.
Mainly because we have a daughter in Louisiana who can't utilize any of the benefits where she lives as none of the practitioners or services are outside of Pennsylvania.  When she left home in May we had to purchase an additional insurance policy just to cover her.  It's an additional healthcare cost in our budget, and a bare bones policy and basically you can only use it if you are in dire medical need(and it has very high deductibles).  So luckily she has stayed relatively healthy the last 6 months, but she needs a policy that she can use for day to day problems or if she gets an infection and needs meds.

And thanks to our wonderful government and the ACA if we continue to keep her on the plan she is on(which her carrier WILL continue to provide for at least through 2014)she will be fined because it's not expensive/expansive enough.
Thank you Mr. Obama and those pinheads in Congress who passed this mess without reading it!!

I'd like to personally kick each and every one of you in the ass right now....but then again, I'd need medical again for my foot.

So now, even if the insurance we pay for currently is great for me(who is by far the largest consumer of healthcare presently in our family)we have to change our coverage, our doctors, and increase how much we pay out of pocket for our healthcare.  (If we were able to keep our same policy it would still go up a little bit but at least I wouldn't have to find all new healthcare providers.)

So option 5(our current policy)is out and we are left with 3 Consumer Directed plans offered by the same company(Cigna)and 1 HMO offered by Aetna.
I like the idea of going from our HMO to another HMO(this one is nationwide so daughter can actually use it!)but upon closer inspection it doesn't seem to be the best fit for us.

We'll run the numbers(benefits vs. OOP costs, co-pays, co-insurance and premiums)later this week using what we have spent this year on health issues to test which is the best financial option for us.

The 3 other choices, the Consumer Directeds, have in-network and out-of-network benefits, with the in-network benefits being higher of course.  So we have to sit down and list all the doctors, drugs and services I/we use and see what costs would be in-network and what is out-of-network.....then weight the possible costs against the costs to us in the national HMO for the same services and goods.

I swear you have to be an Einstein to get the best deal for yourself......

Sluggy


 

The Good & Bad About Sharing Genealogy

If you don't remember my post HERE about my purported 10 x Great Grandparents, you may want to refresh yourself on that, as it comes into play during this multipart saga I am beginning here.  8-)

Being an amateur genealogist is akin to being a masochist at times.
You work and work and work and finally find a connection to someone or some line and just when you are all happy and excited, you hit a brick wall.
Which makes you work and work and work and hope to make another connection, which in turn gets your face slammed into yet another brick wall.

This is how genealogy works for the most part for most people.
Unless you had nerdy ancestors who loved doing genealogy before you and left you a clear, documented paper trail of all your generations of family.
That my folks is a genealogist's wet dream.  8-)
But that is very rarely the case in the genealogical life. 

As I have said before most amateurs at this will use Ancestry dotcom at some point as it's an easy source for finding records without leaving the comfort of your home.
It's great this age of technology!

But all the sharing on Ancestry dotcom also has it's ugly side.
Being able to share and see other family trees can aid you in your own search but it's a double edged sword.

Mainly because you don't know how or where the other people have gotten their information from to assemble their tree.  Other trees can be riddled with mistakes and down right lies. 

Sluggy's axiom of wisdom--"If the tree you are copying leads to famous, notorious or royal people in history, view it with an extra dose of suspicion.  Everyone wants to be related to famous/infamous and royalty and will baldface LIE to make it appear that they do."

It is never good to just blindly copy information off of someone else's family tree and then leave it at that and walk away.  But sometimes a less than professional genealogist may resort to this, lacking their own resources or knowledge or time or money to do the job.

I am guilty of having "lifted" family members info. from other family trees.  Given my resources and level of skill, plus add in the fact that frankly I don't have 20-30 years to hunt down clues at this age in my life, I do use information off of other family trees at times. 

Usually I will use them as a last resort or take the information and then try to document it, so it's using that information/person in the tree as a "hint" around which I try to substantiate their place in MY tree.
What I don't do is blindly just lift a person and cut & paste them into my family puzzle, even when the corners aren't even close to fitting.

If I am not within my core at least 50% sure that a particular person finds into my puzzle I will keep them there for the time being, with a notation that this person could possibly be a mistake so that other's looking at my tree(and I can't keep others on the site from seeing my tree unless I make it private)know that I know that some links I have forged in the family chain aren't 100% accurate to the best of my knowledge.

Sharing information in this way can be a good thing as it may give another genealogist an idea or a hint, but it can also be very damaging as it can lead to people spreading around erroneous information or innocent mistakes in the recording of facts.
So I am on the fence over this practice.

Now this sharing information comes into play in regard to my Packer/Isgar line.
I initially used other family tree's information to build parts of this line. 
I started at the known end.....the generations closest to me and worked via documents I could find online back.

I got to a point where I could find no public documents readily(as I don't have access to any European records at this point...too much $$$ to access) so I made some "leaps of faith" by following the people trail via other's family trees that jived up to that point with mine.  That brought me back to England and Ireland and Phillip Packer and his parents and Sarah Isgar and her parents.

Then I went about digging up documentation to substantiate the claims of dates and people which I had lifted from other trees.

And I hit an obvious error.
And it's an error that every public tree on ancestry dotcom seems to have, so I am thinking either someone made an honest mistake at one point with a date and then everyone else has lifted that erroneous information into their trees OR worse, that the person in question does not fit into this tree at this juncture and someone just lied about it.

Here is how the Packer Line I am on, descends from Phillip Packer/Sarah Isgar as is purported on hundreds of family trees on Ancestry dotcom.........see if you can find the error.......

Phillip Packer 1618-1686
Sarah Isgar   1625/26-1677
who begat--

Phillip Packer immigrant 1656-1739
who married--
Hannah Sessions  1665-1689
who begat--

James Phillip Packer  1686-1764
who married--
Ann Coates  1699-?
who begat--

Susannah Packer  1664-1728
who married--
Robert James Baker  1660-1728
who begat--

Douglas Baker  1688-1764
who married--
Jean Jane Thompson  1717-1762
who begat--

Douglas Baker, Jr.  1743-1778
who married--
Mary Elliot  1743-
who begat--

Elliot Baker  1775-1836
At which point I could find written records.

I have since substantiated up to Robert James Baker on the Baker line and their wive's line and the Sessions and Coate's lines as well.  Plus I have been able to document the Packer line down to James Phillip Packer.

Which leaves us at James Packer and Ann Coates' daughter-Susannah Packer.....the square peg in my round hole as it were. ;-)

You will notice that this line, as does EVERY single family tree on Ancestry dotcom has Susannah Packer being born the YEAR BEFORE HER GRANDMOTHER!
Go look, I'll wait.......

The few folks I have contacted who have this family tree with this obvious error have either ignored my email or said they just copied the information from another tree but then they never did any research or questioned the obvious error here.
Argh.

As Susannah's supposed mother, Ann Coates was not born until 1699, this Susannah couldn't possibly have been born in 1664.
Upon further research I have found that Susannah's father had a sister named Susannah as well, which means there could be confusion between the Susannahs here.  My Susannah Packer may be in reality the Aunt of the Susannah that has been place in my direct line.
This would change the line of descent from James Packer to Susannah Packer-his sister and down to my generation.

This would change my line of descent to this.....

Phillip Packer 1618-1686
Sarah Isgar   1625/26-1677
who begat--

Phillip Packer immigrant 1656-1739
who married--
Hannah Sessions  1665-1689
who begat--

Susannah Packer(sister of James Pillip Packer rather than his daughter)  1664-1728
who married--
Robert James Baker  1660-1728
who begat--

Douglas Baker  1688-1764
who married--
Jean Jane Thompson  1717-1762
who begat--

Douglas Baker, Jr.  1743-1778
who married--
Mary Elliot  1743-
who begat--

Elliot Baker  1775-1836


This change basically takes out one of the generations but the birth date for Susannah is still incorrect if Hannah Sessions is now her mother rather than her grandmother.

Then I found 1 tree with Susannah being born in 1728 rather than dying in that year, which is impossible because the marriage to Robert Baker is documented as occurring in 1709!

And then I found another tree with Susannah Packer with dates of 1688-1764 and this Susannah being James Phillip's sister.  It is looking at the moment like THIS is MY Susannah Packer but there are still questions and inconsistencies.

I tell you my head is about to explode sometimes from all this! lol

So this line, as laid out, is still not "firm" with factual documentable evidence that my line goes back to Phillip Packer/Sarah Isgar in this descent.
There are still questions(and it's possible My Susannah Packer may not even be blood related to this Packer line now) and until I find the missing links, or the right person to ask or someone comes forward to connect with me on this issue, the voracity of this family tree will have concerns for me.

And then this week another window opened in this brick wall.
To Be Continued.....

Sluggy

 

Yah, We are Now Covered All Right.....But In What?

If this wasn't so close to the truth it would be funnier rather than frightening......

 

Sluggy

Giveaway is Now Open.....Week One, Come Enter!

What time is it?!

Well it's time for another BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAY!!

Here's how it works if you are new here.......

 

I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

Here is what went into the Box today............

 

1.  1 bottle of Dove Shampoo 

2.  1 bottle of Olay Body Wash

3.  1 Tube of Dove Deodorant

4.  1 Computer shaped Trinket Box

 

Here's a close up of the trinket box.....

 

 

When you open up the box, there is a tiny computer mouse with a tail inside....too cute!
Keep it for yourself or gift it to that computer crazy friend in your life.

 

 

This week's prizes have a value of about $20.
 

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.  *As always, if you are located outside the US, you CAN enter and win but weight restrictions/shipping costs may mean your prize box will contain less items.*

***Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.
Leave your name/email address and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about any good recipes you have for using pumpkin.  Please no pumpkin bread or plain old pumpkin pie.  I REALLY need a good pumpkin doughnut recipe....well, my waistline doesn't need it, but my mouth does. lolz
Give me your unusual pumpkin or savory pumpkin recipes.
 

You can come directly to this blog post or find it through the link on the right side bar to leave 1 comment per day.  The current Giveaway Post will be linked right at the top of the side bar.

Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy

Hunting Down My Elusive Ancestry

*Let me start this genealogy post by prefacing it with this.....

When I was a very young child, I remember hearing something about there being Native American blood on my mother's side of the family lines.  I can't tell you exactly who said this(though it was my mother or someone related to me on her side of the family)but I have a recollection of "something".
Of course, now that I'm interested in all these things, my mother and her parents are long dead so there is no one in my life currently to get any more information on this to either prove or disprove this idea.

As I've been going through the paper records on my ancestors I've uncovered a few "interesting" things in regard to our ancestry and having native peoples in our family tree.

First off, here's a little background information on World War I US Draft Registration Cards.

There were 3 stages of the draft process, so your ancestor's card could be from one of these three time periods:

1. 5 June 1917 all men between the ages of 21 and 31 were registered.
2. 5 June 1918 those men who turned 21 AFTER 5 June 1917, with supplemental registration on 24 Augusts 1918 for those who turned 21 after 5 June 1918.
3. 12 September 1918 for those men aged from 18 to 45 inclusive who had not previously been required to register.

Each registration period used a slightly different registration card.
These are just random persons cards from the era, not family members. You can click and 'embiggen them if you are interested in seeing the differences between each registration period's form.

Someone's card from 5 June 1917.....on this one they asked you Which race? and you filled in a race.....

 

 A 5 June 1918 card.....on this one, under number 5, they put each possible answer for race and you crossed off the ones that didn't apply to you, leaving 1 answer uncrossed......

And a 21 September 1918 card.......this one has 5 possible race/boxes(the native box had 2 sub-boxes)and you checked which applied to you......

 

Each one is arranged slightly differently, but ask the same basic information.


The first "interesting" thing concerns two of the brothers of my maternal great grandmother and their World War I draft registration cards.

Russell Paris Baker(the son of Wesley Baxter Baker and Luretta Foster)registered during the 3rd draft period and his information appears on the third version of the Registration Card.......

 If you look closely, Under RACE, you can check the box for "White", "Negro", "Oriental" or "Indian".....and under "Indian" there is a choice between "Citizen" and "Non-citizen"(Which probably meant if you lived on a reservation, and thus within the Indian Nation, you checked Non-Citizen and if you lived outside of the reservation you checked off Citizen).

Russell Baker, who lived in Randolph, Charlotte County, Virginia in 1918, checked off "White" AND "Indian-Citizen".

And his brother, Richard Baxter Baker's draft card....

And their cousin, Bruce Prudent Foster(the son of my great grandmother's Uncle William Dillon Foster), who registered while living in Wilmington DE, also has the White and Citizen-Indian boxes checked as well.......

This information either means that my great grandmother Baker's mother's Foster line had a known to this generation Native American ancestor(s) OR that my great grandmother's brothers and cousin didn't understand how to fill out these cards fully and thought the "citizen" box meant a US Citizen and not a reservation vs. non-reservation recognized Native American person of that time.

So this does nothing to answer my NA ancestry questions one way or another.

Earlier this year, when I had my autosomal DNA tested(it tests random areas on your DNA strands and your matches can come from any of your 4 ancestral lines at the grandparent level) one of my closer matches was to a gentleman who is a known 5th generation descendant of William Taptico.

William Taptico(which was later shortened to Tapp)was the last Chief of the Wicocomico Nation.  The Wicocomico were an Algonquin speaking tribe of Native Americans who were living in what is now the Northumberland County area of Virginia(The northern neck of Virginia).   They were among the confederacy of tribes lead by Powhatan and were first encountered by Capt. John Smith in 1608 as he explored beyond where Jamestown was founded.  They were one of the first Native nations "given" reservation lands(land that had belonged to them to begin with)by the first English who settled in Virginia.  Over time the English used the courts to swindle the tribe out of some of those acreage, leaving them with about 1700 acres by the early 1700's from the original 4400 acres granted them in a treaty in the 1650's.

After the death of Chief William Taptico, the last weroance of the Wicocomico, in 1719, the English confiscated what was left of the lands of the Wicocomico nation and forcibly disbanded the tribe and officially brought the tribe to extinction in the eyes of the English legal system and society.
You can read some more on the Wicocomico HERE and HERE.

Anyway, I am related to this known descendant of the leader of the Wicocomico nation through my DNA but I don't know which of the 4 lines.  I suspect however that I am probably related to him via one of the European Northern ancestors that intermarried into his family tree(which I am assuming there are)as his Y-DNA(paternal) Haplogroup is Q1a3 but he has not listed his mtDNA(maternal).  My mtDNA is obviously NOT native American since it's a J Haplogroup(Northern European) and my Y-DNA, when it comes back, will most probably be a R1b or R1a(also European)given the paper trail I have compiled so far.
At any rate, there is still a chance we are related via his native line since I don't know nearly enough about how all this dna stuff works.
I've written the gentleman to look into doing some joint research with him to see how we ARE related(through which lines), but he elected to ignore my email.
Oh well.....

So I am still left with open questions and no answers.

And of course because my people on this side of the families are from Virginia going back many centuries I also have to deal with the "Plecker Factor" when trying to root out any information in regard to race.

Yes, Mr. Plecker......the bane of every genealogist doing research into Virginia records of the early 20th century.


The Plecker Factor refers to Walter Plecker, who was the head of the Bureau of Vital Statistics for the state of Virginia from 1912 to 1946.  He drafted and lobbied for the passage of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which instituted the "one drop" rule in the state.  He was a white supremacist who the Nazis consulted in regard to his views on race mixing and eugenics.
Plecker used his position to have anyone with any non-white blood to be classified as a Negro, even Native Americans, as he held the belief that the Virginian Native population had intermarried so often with the Negro population that no one at that point in history in Virginia was pure enough to be considered Native.  He had official records changed so that anyone with non-white blood was recorded in society as Negro.  Many Native or mixed blood Native people fled Virgina during this time to other states.  His manipulating of the records adds another layer of difficulty to trace anyone's Native ancestry in Virginia from that period on.

I had hoped to ask some at the family reunion last month but fewer of the old timers elected to come this year and I didn't get a chance to ask any of the ones who might know something.  I have connected with the wife of my mother's cousin who is their family's historian so I am hoping to get a dialogue going soon on this native American issue with her, if she is aware of it.
Stay tuned......

Sluggy