28 January 2009

When are we??

I can't believe this is my first blog on Lost since I started the page. In my defense, and Lord know I probably need one, when I looked at all the blogs, message boards, TV interivews, etc., I felt that anything I could add to the Lost luv would be redundant. That was until last week...


In the first two mind-blowing episodes of the season, we dealt with the Island consequences of Ben turning the frozen donkey wheel. We already knew that it threw him forward 10½ months into the future but we were wondering "What about those folks who were on the Island??" Well, we got the answers (sort of). It seems that activating the exotic matter in order to move the Island destabilized the time element there and it started flashing through time. Was it every 108 minutes? I thought so at first but there were a few scenes when this didn't seem applicable because too much was happening between flashes.


We learned that there were Rules to time-travel.
  1. You can't change the past. Does this mean the broad strokes of the past but not the nitpicky details? For instance, if I go to my parents, there are two different routes to take. One, involves a highway turning onto a couple of county roads and coming to their house from the south. The other involves a windy farm market road and you come to their house from the north. Both get you to the house but the scenery is different along the way.
  2. You can't change the future.
  3. Anything you have with you or has been done to you will go with or carry over with you when the next flash happens, ie, the Zodiac raft, the compass that Richard gives Locke, the wound on Locke's leg from the gunshot, etc.
My first thought on rule #1 is then why bother?? After I got to thinking about what I would do if I could go back in time and I knew the rules and thinking about it from a genealogist and history buff perspective, I thought, "Well, if I can't change any of the big strokes of the past, then maybe I could visit ancestors or be a part of their background and find out some things that have been driving me nuts!" As a amateur genealogist, here are some of the people I would hope to be able to find and get information on:


  • Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - about 1774-1775: See if I can have a conversation with Stephen Goff to find out if his father is definitely Samuel Goffe and Elizabeth Hollister of Hartford County, Connecticut. All the circumstantial evidence points in that direction but it would be nice to have confirmation. The biggest problem with gathering this information is that it's in the American Revolutionary infancy and they would probably be very suspicious of anyone asking question. This mission would take a lot of finesse, that's for sure. If I could get another question answered, I would see if he knows who his great-great grandfather was and where in England his family came from but that may have to wait until another time jump.
  • Washington Parish, Louisiana - about 1810 or so, see if I can find John A. Fisher (my gggg-grandfather) and see if I can find out who his parents are and if there's an even earlier connection to the Corkern family than we know now. I also want to know what the A. stands for. I've been thinking it's Adnell because that's a name passed down through the family but that's all the evidence I have for that supposition. Hopefully, through that conversation, I could find out more about how the northeastern part of Louisana was settled and why they came to that area in the first place.
  • This would be a lot more tricky to manuever - Elijah Alexander. Who are his parents? What is his first wife's maiden name? In another time further down the road, did he die in Yell County? I think you get the idea. In order to get these answers, I would have to go to Columbia County, Arkansas in 1860 and then hang around 1880s Yell County for a while. Another question would be - who played the fiddle that his daughter, Ruthie, ended up with??
  • In that same part of the family, what did her husband, Joseph Lewis Bradberry, die from? Where was he buried? Where was his family in 1860 and 1870??!! This is the family that I've joked about being on a spaceship hovering above Southern Illiniois any time the census take came to visit. I would also like know if his father's name was Jus, Joseph, or Ius.
  • Leon and Freestone County, Texas, about 1880 or so - see if I can find James W. Wade and Margaret Tryphena Moore. Where was James born? Who were his parents? Maybe I can get to the Leon County courthouse in time to prevent the courthouse from burning. This is a wish for several courthouses in my family locations - Leon County, TX; Washington Parish, LA; Randolph County, IL are among the most pressing that come to mind.
  • Is Elizabeth who married Thomas Stuart and later Daniel Goff, the daughter of Reuben Young and Ann Wharton?? If not, who were her parents??

I'm sure there are more questions but these are the major ones that come to mind. As a genealogist, amateur or otherwise, who would you like to go back in time and find out about? I'm going to try to figure out how to send notices that there's a new blog up here. Wish me luck and please let me know your ideas even if you aren't into Lost.