Michael A. O’Neill

Author: Michael

  • NullRef

    NullRef@Nordrassil had a good six-year run, but the guild is now dead. If you are still an active player, or are returning after a long break, I regret to tell you that you should look to find a new guild before the next expansion.

    I am gradually gkicking toons based on last log in.

    • I have gkicked every toon that hasn’t logged in for over a year.
    • At the end of July (slightly more than one month after 6.2 drops), I will gkick toons that haven’t logged in for six months, and will continue to do so.
    • When patch 7.0 drops (probably a month before the expansion), I will gkick all toons and delete the NullRef guild.

    I plan to lock the gbank from further deposits/withdrawals, and auction off all contents. Before I delete the guild, I will distribute an equal share of any gold in the gbank to members with active level 100s.

    NullRef@Nordrassil as a community began to dissipate after an incident in the spring of 2013. One portion of the community remained Horde, with some moving to Hyperion@Nordrassil, and a larger group to Anathema@Blackrock (a PVP server). Another portion changed faction to Alliance, with a few in Deadbeef@Nordrassil, and others with [Its Miller Time]@Proudmoore.

    Its Miller Time@Proudmoore:

    Its Miller Time has a few names that I recognize as belonging to long-term NullRef members, including Mosaique, Damonmorder (Beefbolts), Infectt, Moracai and Allendia, along with some toons that match naming conventions for Snowysong and Raindanser. Craig (Kolott in NullRef) pointed me to Its Miller Time, and both he and Richard (Knuck/Windbag) are in the guild as well (though I don’t know the names of their toons). I suspect there are a couple of more old NullRefers there with toon names I don’t recognize.

    Anathema@Blackrock:

    Dassem/Dan reports that Anathema is a raiding guild, and recruits based on raiding skill and guild needs at the time. Exceptions are made for NullRef members, but Dassem warns that because of the guild’s focus on raiding, non-raiders may not find Anathema to be an optimal home.

    Dassem added that NullRef’s Raid0 team moved to Anathema, but depending on how long a break you’ve taken, you may not be familiar with that group, so… In addition to Dassem, Anathema’s roster includes several long-time NullRef members that I recognize, including Jessikan, Kezana, Eyeballs (Ayeballs), Heap, Stoli (kren, adin, totem, etc), Scoobzilla, Akilah/Zeira, Lirad, Angrim/Oughtred, and their current GL, Desra.

    If you want to join Anathema, I think your best bet would be to get in touch with any of the players above that you raided/WoW’d with in the past.

  • Doubts about Thomas and Joseph Chew’s ancestry

    I stumbled upon a serious flaw with my article about Andrew and Anna Chew’s children, and updated the article accordingly.

    In David and Nancy McBride’s Marriage Records of Highland County, Ohio (1805-1880), I discovered the source of the commonly listed 20 March 1820 marriage date. Much to my surprise, Joseph’s wife Amelia/Emilie was a Chew before she got married.

    While it’s fairly unlikely that both Joseph Chew and Emilie Chew had mothers named Anna M., but if this were the case, there’s no reason why the Anna Chew living with Joseph’s wife and children couldn’t be Joseph’s mother-in-law, and that his mother passed away before the 1850 census, or perhaps even remarried after Andrew passed away in 1830.

    Additionally, in the same volume, I stumbled upon a marriage record between a Nathan Overman and a Nancy Chew–probably 21 July 1821, though the index–spanning 1817 to 1821–didn’t actually list a date. Thomas Chew was named the guardian of Nancy Chew Overman’s two children, Zebulon and Luisa, after Nancy passed away between 1841 and 1846. Typically, people name close relatives such as brothers and sisters as the guardians of their children, which raises the question of how Thomas and Nancy were related. And both Joseph and Thomas were mentioned in earlier records associated with Nancy Overman.

    I already have lock-solid documentation proving that Nancy Chew Bishop was a daughter of Andrew and Anna Chew, and it’s pretty unlikely that they would name two of their daughters Nancy.

  • ​​​Mary Chew née Caldwell’s Parents

    I published an article digging into the immediate ancestry of Mary Caldwell Chew, wife of James Chew (~1740-1783). She was the daughter of Andrew and Jane Caldwell of Berkeley County, West Virginia based on the will of her brother, Andrew Caldwell Jr., and that of her father, Andrew Caldwell Sr., all supported by other primary source evidence.

    This conclusion is contrary to the common assertion that Mary Caldwell Chew’s parents were James Caldwell and Catherine Buford.

    For reference, James Chew was the son of Thomas Chew and Martha Taylor, first cousin to President James Madison’s father, a major in the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War, and a member of the 1780 Virginia House of Delegates.

  • The family of Andrew & Anna Chew

    I published a first effort at mapping out documentary evidence tying Andrew and Anna Chew to their commonly listed children.

    Summary

    Andrew Chew left behind very few documentary records of his existence. Many family researchers, including myself, list basic facts about his life, including his birth between 1770 and 1773 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia; and his death in 1827, 1825 or 1830 in Ohio.

    With the exception of his 26 Apr 1797 marriage bond for a marriage with Anna Mariah Barthist, however, these basic genealogical facts are neither supported nor contradicted by primary source evidence.

    The names of the men and women commonly listed as Andrew and Anna Mariah Chew’s children are a different story. I will document what evidence I have discovered that support the assertion that Andrew and Anna Chew are the parents of the seven children commonly associated with them in other family trees.

    The following two children can be conclusively tied to Andrew and Anna Chew via primary source evidence:

    • Mary Moon (1807-1859), based on a document where Andrew Chew granted permission for her to marry.
    • Nancy Bishop (1812-1892) based on an affidavit from her son James, and supported by an 1850 US census record.

    I believe two additional children can be tied to Andrew and Anna Chew by combining circumstantial primary source evidence with an indirect proof.

    • Joseph (1798-1845), based on an 1860 US census record combined with an indirect proof.
    • Thomas (1801-1879), as Joseph names him “brother” in his will.

    I can find no primary source evidence supporting the assertion that the following three children are descendants of Andrew and Anna Chew.

    • Sarah Bailey (1810-1877)
    • Elizabeth Beals (1802-1881)
    • James (1805-1840)

  • The Vinsons

    I finished transcribing Mabel Vinson Cage’s memoir, and published the lot. Of course, very little of it relates to my daughter’s family–really just chapter 2–but maybe someone else will appreciate it.

  • Office 365 Product Marketing videos

    A selection of customer-facing videos I produced at Microsoft to guide Office 365 Enterprise and Small Business subscribers through the 2013 service upgrade and the earlier BPOS-to-Office 365 transition. Preserved here from my old Examples page for the archive.

    Office 365 Service Upgrade for 2013

    Overview of the Office 365 Service Upgrade for 2013
    Enterprise
    Small Business
    Postponing the upgrade
    Early Update Demo

    BPOS to Office 365 Transition

    BPOS to Office 365 — Video 1
    BPOS to Office 365 — Video 2

  • Laura A. Hawn Patterson’s untitled memoir

    I finished transcribing Laura A. Hawn Patterson’s 1906 memoir about her trip across the plains to Oregon that she took with her parents in 1843 when she was just eight years old.

  • Leviatte S. Hawn Patterson’s untitled memoir

    I finished transcribing and posted Levia Hawn Patterson’s 1930 memoir relating stories told to her about her parents’ journey by stage coach across the plains to Oregon in 1843, and about her life growing up in the Oregon territory.

    I did my best to transcribe it exactly as she wrote it, including the grammar and spelling errors. Of course, the copy I used was typed–I found the photocopy of the original handwritten version so faded as to be illegible. I don’t know when the memoir was typed, nor if any errors were introduced then.

  • Life in the Early 1900s

    I finished transcribing my grandmother’s brief memoir about what it was like growing up in Franklin, a small town of maybe 500 in Minnesota.

  • This Close

    I’ve been trying to explain to people how close you can get to the critters on the Galapagos, and I realize, it just doesn’t… you can’t explain. You can never get this close.

    20110212

    We could’ve gotten closer to these Nazca Boobies (or any of the critters). Only reason we kept our distance is that we were told to.