We will be under construction for a little while. Meanwhile, there is news and talk of Vienna and Budapest, here: click here Happy trails to you!
March 03, 2020
BUILDING WORK, VIRTUAL HARD-HAT ZONE
A travel memoir
Travels in Thailand and beyond
November 10, 2019
It’s war: Giant Squirrels vs Singing Lizards
In the Lizard-Rat-Snake turf-war in my roof (local version of Scissors-Paper-Stone) there has been another offensive, it seems, with a new player: Asian giant squirrels. Here’s the background: When I first got back from months away, the corner behind the food storage area was an especially vile toilet-land, but it’s OK now. At the time […]
October 31, 2019
Thai Buddhist festival Wan Awk Phansa
The Buddha’s borrowing my tailor this week. Teo is a mature, gracious lady in the village, an excellent machinist who’s made fine things for me before. This year she asked me to wait, groaning, “So busy! Please after the 20th.” The 20th is a big local event. Masses of shiny blue satin swamped her room, […]
March 04, 2018
update from Budapest
I am writing Noodle Trails volume 2 – My Century in Budapest. People who are following this story, mainly follow it here: the blog continues where people actually see and read it, which is this: https://www.facebook.com/Noodle-Trails-Eileen-Kay-1560532710838005/. That’s why I discontinued doubling up everything on this page. best wishes and happy trails to you.
March 23, 2017
Ep. 13 – Somebody Misplaced Granddad
It was a wrong and stupid assumption, yet again. I should have seen this coming. Granddad Eugene died in 1948, five years before his wife Anna did. I thought he might be buried with their baby girl Bertha, who died as a toddler. He wasn’t. Granddad was difficult to locate, at first. It took persistence. However, […]
March 23, 2017
Ep. 12 – Jeno Karoly Kohn aka Eugene Charles Kardos
Eugene Charles Kardos. Born Jeno Karoly Kohn. Born 1884, Budapest, Hungary Died 1948, Bronx, New York, USA. It was 25 January 1948, and the cremation was the next day. To me that seemed fast, but I don’t know all conventions. According to the cemetery website, the burial date was much later, on 30 April 1948. […]
March 23, 2017
Ep 11 – Did Granddad Go, Or Was He Pushed?
It may be time to de-tangle a few myths, or legends, or assumptions – which is mostly what you do, when neck-deep in genealogical research. It’s possible we all assumed all our Hungarian ancestors wanted to go to America. Most Americans assume this is true for everyone on earth. Perhaps it’s not. When I marvel […]
February 26, 2017
Kardos Saga, ep. 10: 1940s New York
1940s, US Census, World War 2, and the Bronx By the 1940 US census, the three boys were gone from this house. Eugene was 55, Anna 50. There was a big X next to Anna’s name to designate she was the only one providing this information. Interestingly, she got his birth year wrong, but only by […]
February 25, 2017
Kardos Saga, ep 9, Ancestors as Kids
The Kardos Trail, Ep 9, Ancestors as Kiddies A lovely discovery: I found a few Kardos kids today. Not real ones. Ancestors. When Grandad Eugene sailed away from Europe about 1905, about age twenty, I imagined a little gang of family young’uns, admiringly seeing him off. His oldest sister Roza’s kids were Margit, Karoly (Carl […]
February 18, 2017
Kardos Saga, ep 8, long-lost siblings
I’ve always heard that Grandad Eugene didn’t talk much. He never said much about life back in Hungary. He never mentioned any siblings. So when I recently learned he came from seven siblings (four sisters and three brothers in that order), I was stunned. They were Roza, Lujza, Berta, Fredrika (or Frida), Markus (or […]