I received the following note from Ellen Bubeck Laurent responding to the recent website update announcement.  ChuckR:

“Thanks, Chuck…will check it out. I appreciate you keeping me on the list. I did get back to Madison this August for a reunion in Oconomowoc with my husband’s Northwestern University grad school international group. It’s the first time I’ve been back to Wisconsin since we moved in 1957 (back to Maryland). We went by the high school and took some pictures…it looks much bigger than I remember, also went by our old house and neighborhood, and checked out the lakes and University area. That and the downtown area has certainly built up, and looks a lot different than I remembered it. I got up to Portage to see Joan Clifford Indermark and her husband Jerry. We had a lovely visit…didn’t stop talking until we parted. It was a very nostalgic visit. Wisconsin is as beautiful as I remembered it. I tried to post a photo on the Blog…I’ve never blogged…sorry. I’m attaching it here if you want to put it on the blog. Joan and me after dinner. Thanks again, Chuck.

Ellen Bubeck Laurent

PS. Hope you will like your new home. My husband and I have been retired since 1993, and are now thinking of selling our home here in the World Golf Village in St Augustine, and moving into a CRCC nearby. We’ve spent the last 23 years volunteering and now are ready to relax a bit more. Thanks for all you do to keep us together and informed.

PPS. I see someone else in the group is interested in genealogy. I have been doing all my family lines and all my husband’s line since we retired, and now have to get them all written up. I found out Elvis Presley is my cousin, and we have a common great grandfather at about the 8th great grandfather level, per research, of mine and others, including Elvis’s family DNA project which has confirmed it all and I’ve been to Hochstadt, Germany to meet the relatives still living in the tiny town of Hochstadt and see the vinyards and the Bressler (Pressler) Winery. I also have my Bubeck line back to the early 1500’s in Germany. With my mother’s lines, I joined Daughters of the American Revolution with several people from her line (have many more to validate), but have proven them to my satisfaction. I also proved my Mayflower line back to John and Priscilla Mullins Alden. So, I have more work cut out for me to write up into book form each of my parent’s lines (maternal and paternal) and that should take me well past the age of 100 without running out of material to work with (with 15 file drawers of research plus 10 boxes of photos and memorabilia.) Since I was the only one in either family doing genealogy, I became the repository, a bit of a mixed blessing.”

Ellen and Joan