www.itowler.com - Ian's Home on the web

Wow, 2008 flew by.  The year has passed, and I did not even notice.  Lots going on this year, but its time to take a look at the goals I set for 2008 and see how well I did.  Without really looking very hard, I can already tell you that I did not do that great of a job on my goals list, so many of them will be carried over to 2009.  I will list the 2008 goals in blue below, and then a description of what I accomplished below that.

The Baskin and Forster Atlas was packed with interesting items for me.  One of the maps that I found surprised me.  It was a detailed map for the city of Hope, Bartholomew County, Indiana in 1870.  I have several members of my line that lived in the town at the time, so I was curious about the map.  Upon closer inspection it turns out that the map has some pretty significant information for me.

The surnames that are linked to the City of Hope are maternal lines, and center on the Spach/Spaugh and Arbuckle surnames.  The map in particular is significant to the Spach/Spaugh name. 

A little history about the Spach/Spaugh surname.  Adam Spach is the patriarch for the Spach/Spaugh surname in the United States.  Adam was deeply involved in the Moravian Church, and even helped start a Church in North Carolina.  A few generations after Adam Spach died, the Spach/Spaugh's moved to Indiana.  I am failry certian that they moved because of the Moravian Church, but I am not sure if the Church founded the City of Hope.  The Spach/Spaughs that I am related to were active members in the Hope Moravian Church, and may have been "founding Members". 

For the first time in 6 years we have a Christmas tree, and it's a real one at that.  The last 2 years or so we have done a small fake tree that was only 3 feet high or so, and it usually got relegated to a corner in section of the house not really used.  This year we decided to actually get a real tree, and it is actually located in a prominent place, the living room. 

Since this is our first real tree that we have had to acquire a few things such as a tree stand and lights.  Instead of the normal lights we choose to purchase some LED lights.  I think that they look great, and they use less energy than the mini-lights, and even less energy than the standard bulbs of old.  LED stands for Light emitting diode. 

A standard light bulb produces light by passing a current through a filament, the filament gets excited and heats up and glows, producing heat and light.  LED's produce light in a different manner, electroluminescence. The process that LED's use to generate light uses far less energy, and they should last at least 5 times longer than a standard bulb.

We are using 4 strands of LED lights and all four strands should use less energy together than a single strand of mini-lights, which is cool.  I did some looking around on the internet, and it seems that the LED light strands are pretty expensive.  We found a great deal on the light strands at Sam's Club and Wal-mart.  

Today, 01 Dec 2008 is World AIDS Day.  It is also the 20th Anniversary of the event.  Why do I mention it? A few reasons.  First off, it's what I do.  I work in a research lab that works on Mother to child HIV transmission.  While mother to child transmission in the US is still an issue, it is not near the issue that it is in Africa.  The second reason I call attention to it, is because it is the biggest pandemic the world has ever seen.  HIV was first described in 1981, and has exploded since.  There is no cure, and the virus has proven to be very elusive, able to work its way around drugs that are commonly given to fight HIV.

As I mentioned in my last post I purchased a digital copy of the 1876 Baskin and Forster Indiana State Atlas.  The atlas covers Indiana, and has maps of the counties and Cities that were in the state at the time.  In addition to the maps that are specific to the state, there are some maps that are of general interest.  These general interest maps include a world map, a railroad map etc.

One of the general interest maps that I found interesting was a map of the German Population living in the United States.  The map was based of the 1870 US census, but none the less it gives you a good idea about where people of German descent tended to gather.  The map to the left is a view of the entire United States, with German Population's marked in red (click on it to see it larger).  The darker the red the higher the concentration of German's.  As you can see the German population stayed in a pretty tight area, and did not really seem to venture south.  Of note are some of the "Big" German population centers, New Jersey, New York City, Erie PA, Buffalo NY, Chicago, Cincinnatti. 

I have always found maps interesting, and since I started working on my genealogy, they have become an important tool.  One of the maps that I have come across in my research is the 1876 Indiana State atlas.  It is a great atlas, but has become hard to find, and if you can find it, it is an expensive book to purchase.  The book was about 290 pages long, and it is bound in half leather black cloth covered boards.  The words "Illustrated Historical Atlas Of The State Of Indiana 1876" are stamped in gilt on the cover. Most of the maps are printed in full color, with a few being hand colored. 

The book was originally published in 1876 by Baskin, Forster and Company.  The title page reads:

Illustrated historical atlas of the State of Indiana. Published by Baskin, Forster & Co. Lakeside Building Chicago, Ills. 1876. Engraved & Printed by Chas. Shober & Co. Props. of Chicago Lithographing Co.

Interestingly enough, it appears that the author of the book / map is an Alfred Theodore Andreas.  According to the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Mr. Andreas was a "Hidden" author due to a bankruptcy issue.  I am not sure what happened, but it is an interesting little side note.  From what I gathered Mr. Andreas lived from 1839-1900.

Well, I think that I have everything pieced back together again.  itowler.com has been put back together and seems to be working as intended.  I have been able to move the old site over to Drupal, and still keep everything that I wanted.  The "new" Drupal version has the following features:

Great News to Announce!

A Toler book has been published!

A distant cousin Ray Toler, who is a character actor living in Chicago, has written a book that covers the Toler/Towler family.  Mr. Toler's book, Following the River Wide and Deep, is 286 pages long, and starts with Charles Towler of the Virginia Company and works its way forward.  The primary focus of his book deals with the Toler/Towler's of Virginia (from which I descend), but also talks about the North Carolina Toler clan.  The book is well cited, and very well written. 

I won!

As a part of the AMP meeting, researchers have the opportunity to present their work.  The presentations can by either an talk or a poster session, or both.  This year I am presenting my work at a poster session (I did last year as well).  At the poster session, you hang your poster and stand next to it and answer questions from people that come by.  The meeting publishes a brief description of each poster in the meeting book, so most people that come to see your poster have an interest.  Well in addition to just the poster session, I also applied for the Young Investigator Award.  As an applicant of the Young Investigator Award I had to send my finished poster in advance where it was judged before the meeting.  This judging accounted for 40% of my score.  Then while at the meeting, I had judges come and speak with me at my poster during the poster session.  That accounted for 60% of the my score.  I applied for the award, but did not really expect to win.  Well.... I did win, and was named one of the 2008 AMP Young Investigator Awardees.  I am pretty pumped about it. 

I am out of town for the next few days.  I left Baltimore this morning and it was about 40 degrees.  I am now in Texas, and it's sunny and 70.  Its a trip for work, but should be a good trip.  I am attending the annual AMP meeting.  I am presenting a poster and planning on attending some sessions.  The conference is being held at the Gaylord Texan, in Grapevine.  Its a huge building, that has an atrium, and a river, etc.  Should