[bertwert]

P.S. Nice bear Bert, not the sort of animal you want to take a selfie with.... although theres are those who may try.

Many people do, he lives in the world biggest grizzly bear enclosure. With an electric fence.

A bit of a story time.

Many years ago, his mother was killed by a poacher, in the Caribou region. There were now two motherless very young cubs. They were called 'Cari' and 'Boo'. They were then put in this refuge made for them at the ski hill, 20 acres of space for them. The bears are wild, but would likely not survive on their own. Cari died fairly young and Boo is still living there today. He has escaped occasionally though.

[Racer X 69]

While everyone is bragging about being bigger, better, faster, let's keep in mind that we have the largest building in the world (by volume) right here in the Pacific Northwet.

[Liney]

While everyone is bragging about being bigger, better, faster, let's keep in mind that we have the largest building in the world (by volume) right here in the Pacific Northwet.

Is that the sound stage where NASA convince the rest of the world that there really is a country called Australia?

[MarkJerling]

The one thing I've found in my travels is that "old" takes on a relative meaning depending on where you are. I grew up in a city with history that went back to.... well let's just say the year part of the date only had three digits. Every day I would get the bus to school past buildings that went back hundreds of years, and to me it was just the scenery.

Very true!

As I grew up in Cape Town, "old" there was stuff built in the late 1600's and 1700's. I was fortunate to be involved with the preservation of may old buildings dating from the 1700's to 1800's.
I visited a friend in Shrewsbury, in the UK, and he said that night we'd go to the "new pub". The "new pub" was built in the 1600's while the 'old pub" was considerably older!

Here in NZ, everything that's old is really very new. The capital, Wellington, dates from 1840 and our town, a fairly "old" town in New Zealand, from 1854.

My ancestor, Jan Jacob Jarling built the oldest building in Plettenberg Bay. Only the walls are still standing. On 27 December 1786, the VOC entered into a construction contract with Jan Jacob Jarling to build a storage building in Plettenberg Bay. On 4 March 1788, the VOC noted that the building was nearly complete, and that Jan Jacob could be paid half the fee! In those days, retentions were not paid for a year or more after construction was completed. The building fell to ruin fairly quickly as the specifications and drawings called for the use of Yellowwood for the roofing timbers and whoever was the Architect stuffed that up as Yellowwood is a soft timber not very resistant to decay and subsequently the roof rotted out fairly quickly. Thus the age-old problem of builders being blamed for architects stuff-ups!

Jan Jacob Jarling > Martinus Jacobus Jarling > Petrus Johannes Jerling > Hendrik Lodewijkus Jerling > Marthinus Jacobus Jerling > Johannes Jacobus Jerling > Me.

[James also]

Is that the sound stage where NASA convince the rest of the world that there really is a country called Australia?

Or stage another fake moon landing?

[robtcorl]

Jan Jacob Jarling > Martinus Jacobus Jarling > Petrus Johannes Jerling > Hendrik Lodewijkus Jerling > Marthinus Jacobus Jerling > Johannes Jacobus Jerling > Me.

Impressive lineage!
Did Petrus add the e?

[bertwert]

Jan Jacob Jarling > Martinus Jacobus Jarling > Petrus Johannes Jerling > Hendrik Lodewijkus Jerling > Marthinus Jacobus Jerling > Johannes Jacobus Jerling > Me.

If I were to hazard a guess as to your middle name, I would say Jacobus, though it wouldn't be a stretch to guess Lodewijkus...

[MikeyBugs95]

Very true!

As I grew up in Cape Town, "old" there was stuff built in the late 1600's and 1700's. I was fortunate to be involved with the preservation of may old buildings dating from the 1700's to 1800's.
I visited a friend in Shrewsbury, in the UK, and he said that night we'd go to the "new pub". The "new pub" was built in the 1600's while the 'old pub" was considerably older!

Here in NZ, everything that's old is really very new. The capital, Wellington, dates from 1840 and our town, a fairly "old" town in New Zealand, from 1854.

My ancestor, Jan Jacob Jarling built the oldest building in Plettenberg Bay. Only the walls are still standing. On 27 December 1786, the VOC entered into a construction contract with Jan Jacob Jarling to build a storage building in Plettenberg Bay. On 4 March 1788, the VOC noted that the building was nearly complete, and that Jan Jacob could be paid half the fee! In those days, retentions were not paid for a year or more after construction was completed. The building fell to ruin fairly quickly as the specifications and drawings called for the use of Yellowwood for the roofing timbers and whoever was the Architect stuffed that up as Yellowwood is a soft timber not very resistant to decay and subsequently the roof rotted out fairly quickly. Thus the age-old problem of builders being blamed for architects stuff-ups!

Jan Jacob Jarling > Martinus Jacobus Jarling > Petrus Johannes Jerling > Hendrik Lodewijkus Jerling > Marthinus Jacobus Jerling > Johannes Jacobus Jerling > Me.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt?

No disrespect intended but that's what I thought of when I read this.

[bertwert]

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt?

His name is my name too.

[microlight]

Talking of building age - my first date with the lady that has been the Good Mrs Micro for the last 25 years was at a pub called The George Inn in the tiny village of Alfriston, in the rolling South Downs in Sussex, on the English Channel. It used to be an old coach house where stagecoaches would stop on their journey to and from the coast, and there still exists a notch in the stone fireplace where passengers would sharpen their swords. The date of construction can still be made out over the entry door: 1392, 100 years before Columbus sailed.

[MarkJerling]

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt?

No disrespect intended but that's what I thought of when I read this.

Interesting. No offence taken. That's not a song I've heard ever before.

[MarkJerling]

If I were to hazard a guess as to your middle name, I would say Jacobus, though it wouldn't be a stretch to guess Lodewijkus...

My uncle got the Lodiwijkus. My dad, Johannes. My grandfather, Marthinus, enjoyed boxing as sport but his dad did not want him to be a boxer. So, for his boxing matches he used the name Mark so that the papers would not print his real name and thereby upset his father. My parents decided to not saddle me with Dutch names such as Marthinus Jacobus and I was therefore named Mark John. We continued the tradition by naming our son John Joel, so he's JJ Jerling like his grandfather, but without the Dutch names, same as how I'm MJ like my grandfather.

[MarkJerling]

Impressive lineage!

We've been trying to get further back but the Church records in Germany is incomplete. It seems that, during the Second World War, the Allieds bombed many churches in Germany and that's coincidentally where all the old births, marriages and deaths records were kept. So, some records were, unfortunately, destroyed during the war making it impossible to go further back. On the Dutch side I can trace my ancestors back to the 1500's.

Did Petrus add the e?

That's an interesting result of the the "great European vowel shift" which resulted in 'a' becoming 'e' and so on, over much of Western Europe, and evidently also in the Cape and no-one knows why. So, the older kids were Christened "Jarling" but the younger ones were Christened "Jerling" during that generation. Later, the parents also spelt their surname with the 'e' instead of the 'a'.

This, interestingly, also occured in England where Garling (a variant of Jarling) became Gerling. Interestingly, the Carling, of Carling Black Label is also a related surname. Likewise, there are Carlings that became Cerlings.

[microlight]

My lineage goes back through the US and then Germany (hence the surname), and we’ve had difficulty with local German church records, presumably for the same reason.

[MarkJerling]

My lineage goes back through the US and then Germany (hence the surname), and we’ve had difficulty with local German church records, presumably for the same reason.

Most likely.
Annie and I have just sent away our DNA to Ancestry.com. With a bit of luck, that will help to fill in some of the blanks!