Hit the Road Capt. Jack
Image via WikipediaAre you going to go out of town for the Labor Day weekend? This year, we’re getting four days off. We are going to be visiting with some family at least one of the days. So, its a great time to put my new mobile apps to use. I got an iPhone last Christmas (thank you dear hubby!) and its really made life easier. The “Around Me” app alone really saved us when we were in Texas this summer for my nephews wedding and couldn’t locate the hotel. After the third time around the block, I pulled out my phone, put in the name of the hotel and it showed us exactly what turns to make to get there. Really cool. Playing with “Around Me” some more, we found local museums and other hot spots. As an addicted genealogist, of course I had to pull up directions for the local libraries and cemeteries.
When we visited the Alamo, I pulled out my trusty “Reunion” app and looked up all the relatives that I needed to do research on and was able to put a personal history twist on the whole tour. Sorry PC users: Reunion is Macintosh software. The staff over at LeisterPro told me they has no intention of making Reunion available for Windows users. I can understand that. There are more lots of genealogy apps for PCs anyway, but Reunion is the king of genealogy software for Mac users.
The Reunion iPhone app works in conjunction with the Macintosh version. It allows you to keep your entire family at your fingertips. Or, if you prefer, you can save only the individuals you know you’ll be working on while out of town.
Since we are planning to visit my husband’s relatives, I decided to install the free “Ancestry” app. It came out in January but Ancestry and I have a love-hate relationship so I put it off until now. Sure enough, I had a bear of a time getting it to work. But, I have a hard time getting Ancestry.com to work on any device.
Ancestry likes my money, but whenever I try to sign on it doesn’t like my account information. Genealogists are very familiar with the question: “What do you mean I don’t exist?” Well, Ancestry, it seems, tries to re-enforce this age-old question every time I try to log in. I have to reset my password every time. I get a lot of password reset requests from the members of the Heycuz.net website, and I can totally identify with them due to the problems I have had with Ancestry. With all the money I’ve spent on Ancestry over the years, I expect them to say “Oh, here she comes again, cha-ching $$$$” and bend over backwards to open all the doors for me, but they still make me jump through hoops just to sign on.
Well, its working now and I’m excited to show Steve’s uncle some records that are easily viewable on the app. In fact, I can see them better on the app than I can on my Mac’s Firefox browser. Specifically, I am going to show him the Passenger ship records of his grandfather arriving in America and the census records that shows where he worked before he opened his restaurant.
Cell phone mobility has made a huge impact on our daily lives, but genealogists tend to take a while to integrate the new tools into their research arsenal.The whole reason I even got into genealogy was due to this fact. I was trying to convince my mother–who’d been doing genealogy her entire life–to get an email account. I figured I’d show her all the information that was available online and pulled up the old GenWeb site.
She gave me a name and I put it in and found a list of people doing research on that name. I posted a query and amazingly within minutes I had a response. It turned out to be my father’s uncle’s daughter-in-law, but that’s another story. My mother’s eyes lit up with all the information available on that one website alone. So, I figured I was successful and soon she’d be emailing me daily. It didn’t turn out that way immediately. Instead, she sent me boxes of her research and a small note:
Happy Hunting,
Love,
Mom”

Busy, Busy Summer
Hi Cousins,
I hope everyone had a great summer and is ready to share all their genealogical research they found! My family had a very busy summer starting with the graduation of our son from middle school in June. Since then we’ve been running around like banshees up through Thursday when he started high school. We had a practice run on Wednesday, but not on purpose. My son and I were getting everything ready and when he hit the showers, my husband asked, “Why’s Lucas in the shower?” I looked at him like he was off his rocker for not remembering it was the first day of school. He pointed to the calendar on the fridge which clearly displayed my error. We were a day early. I asked him why he didn’t say something — between getting school clothes, packing a lunch, getting all the checks for various activities, getting his hair cut, etc — didn’t he notice we were getting ready? He said it didn’t even occur to him. It would be like celebrating Christmas on the wrong day. Well, my son finally started high school. Can you believe it? It seems like it was just last week when our Heycuz group was giving me advice on how to deal with his kindergarten teacher who thought he was ADD. Big Al Turman, gave me a lot of helpful information so my son didn’t start his school career on the wrong track. Young mothers, like our cousin Stacey Givens, will shrug like I did when told it goes by fast. But it really does.
Anyway, I welcome the start of school like a major holiday and am eager to get back to “normal.” I wasn’t able to do much research this summer, but I did get a lot of corrections and updates done. It wasn’t an easy task, as anyone who read my last “What’s New?” column knows I had some computer problems. There were over 18,000 changes and additions to the Heycuz database. Our cousin Sherry Ceallaigh, submitted a 3,500-person gedcom which included the Kelleys, Tidwells, Sullivans, Whites, Reddells, and their allied lines, along with a CD-full of photographs. Both the photographs and the ancestors have been added to Heycuz.net. We also received other additions in the form of family group sheets and reports from Charlton Queen, Carole Phillips, Dale Johnson, Ruth Dickens, Debra Buerman, Jan White, Richard Archie, Carole Dee Sullivan Emmons, Vicki Rice, Cheryl Mangrum, Mattie Bishop, Nancy Stevens, Charles and Louisa Vest, Diane Johnson, James Breece, Ida Deal, Kathy McNeil, and probably some others that I’ve forgotten over the long summer months. I also want to add special thanks to Tom Sullivan, who has been going through the heycuz database and doing major fact checking. Every month he’s been sending me CDs with thousands of updates and corrections. I really appreciate the help.
I also want to point out that Wanda Losee submitted a report on Moses Beard that James Bradford had created as a supplement to the Friends of Oak Grove newletter. We discussed it on the list in April and I forgot to mention that it was now availble. Even though the copy she had was incomplete, it has the first generations of that family. Anyone who has the rest of the pages is encouraged to contact us. To view the report go to:
http://heycuz.net/SHARE/138-OAKGROVE/suppl/Og-MosesBeard.pdf
Also, anyone who’s a member of Ancestry.com, I wanted to note that I stumbled on a great Tennessee database. It’s called, incorrectly I think, “Tennessee Divorce and Other Records, 1800-1965.” I think its mislabeled because while it has divorces, more importantly it includes probate records, guardianships, and other court records. I was able to find images of the estate settlements for G. W. Givens, Zachariah Green, Newton McCord, Joseph Hendricks, Peter Hendricks, Jacob Lampley, Moses Lankford and others. There is also the Insanity Case for Andrew Jackson Sullivan, the law suit of Nancy and Elisha Sullivan against Jesse Benton and more. If you have access to Ancestry, check it out. If you don’t and want a look up, just post it here and one of us can look it up for you. The database is, however limited to Anderson, Carroll, Cheatham, Dickson, Franklin, Haywood, Henderson, Obion, Tipton, and Williamson counties. I hope Bedford and Sumner county get added soon!
AND, saving the biggest news for last, I want to thank Opal Hays who submitted what is left of the Family Bible of William and Artemese Green Sullivan. Most of us thought that it either didn’t exist or was destroyed. Opal said that she thought that the Bible was burned when Grandpa Gray and Minnie Belle Sullivan’s house burned down many years ago, but apparently their daughter Bonnie May Belle Sullivan Duran, (my great-great Aunt), copied down the family record about the year of 1944. The pages have been scanned and are available in Acrobat pdf format at:
http://www.heycuz.net/MAIN_files/Bible-WilliamSullivan.pdf
Well, whether you’re still soaking up the last remaining rays of summer, or ready for the genealogical hunt, remember you can always contact me with any corrections or additions and — my email server permitting — I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Love,
Your Cousin,
April
1940 Census, Doomsday, and April Fool’s (It’s no Joke!)
Genealogists have long sought the early release of the next census and, with the additions to the questions asked on the 1940 census, this one promises to be a doozy. That is, if your grandparents didn’t boycott it. The new questions, income and fertility for example, raised the ire of many, causing Senator Tobey of New Hampshire to lead the call for a boycott of the census. Still, I’ve been sitting on pins and needles to get my hands on it. I believe that solving the riddle of my father’s biological father’s line lies on that census. My father’s father, Harry Brooks’s death certificate says his parents are Henry and Florence Brooks. In the 1930 census, no Henry Brooks who matches the description can be found. However there is a Harry Brooks at the correct age, the correct place, who’s living with a Florence. Problem is she has a different last name and the census taker wrote that the young Harry Brooks was her nephew, not her son. As genealogists go, we’re a pretty patient folk, calmly scouring page after page of microfilm in a blackened musty back room, ’til we finally uncover that one sentence, that one line in a ancient document that “proves” a relationship between one person and another.
Although the 1940 Census is scheduled to be released on April 1st, 2012, (no, it’s not an April Fool’s day joke), according to many the world will end on December 21st, 2012. According to a program on the History Channel: “There are prophecies and oracles from around the world that all seem to point to December 21, 2012 as doomsday.” (Luckily, some Mayan historians, say the day is actually December 23rd, but by that time I don’t know if two days will matter.) The History Channel program goes on to say, “The ancient Mayan Calendar, the medieval predictions of Merlin, the Book of Revelation and the Chinese oracle of the I Ching all point to this specific date as the end of civilization. A new technology called ‘The Web-Bot Project’ makes massive scans of the internet as a means of forecasting the future… and has turned up the same dreaded date: 2012. Skeptics point to a long history of “Failed Doomsdays”, but many oracles of doom throughout history have a disturbingly accurate track record. As the year 2012 ticks ever closer we’ll speculate if there are any reasons to believe these doomsayers.”
Even Wikipedia has set aside the date and lists all the references to that day as the end of the world. It’s list of those who indicate the end of the world — ranging from the Prophecies of Nostradamas to Richard C. Duncan’s book, “The Peak of World Oil Production…” — is too long to give here, but if you’re curious go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012
So, if the world ends on December 21st, that gives us genealogists only a short eight months to index, scan, and discover our deepest genealogical questions! I’ve downloaded the forms, which you can already get online at http://www.1940census.net. I’ve made a list of who I want to look up and where they are, because since there won’t be any index then I’ll need to look in a specific area, but all that is probably besides the point.
Now that I’ve moved to the boondocks, its not easy to just run down to the National Archives to wait in line for the 1940 census on April 1st, 2012, which is a Saturday so even if I could get to the Archives would they have them on a Saturday? Do government workers work on Saturdays? Since I probably can’t get close to the archives any way, I’ll be one of those people who have to wait til Ancestry or whoever battles it out to get rights to index it first so that they can bring it to the general public (who’s able or willing to pay for membership on Ancestry). So, I’m crossing my fingers that the doomsdayers are, once again as always, blowing smoke or that the Bureau will take into account that the world is ending and give us genealogists a break and release the 1940 census early. What do you say, Uncle Sam?
April
P.S. To let me know what you think, please click on the comments link below.
Netiquette
Recently, my mother included the Heycuz newsgroup in the address list in an email. An easy mistake given my email address is similar, april@heycuz.net. The problem was that the email contained a political message, favoring Democrats. The fallout from our right-leaning members was intense and she subsequently left the group, which is especially sad considering that the foundation of the heycuz database was built around the genealogy that my mother had done. My mother was wrong to have posted it, she knew the rules. But, hey, she’s my mom and knowing her personally, I knew that her heart was in the right place. However, this brought up some past issues for me. I have received a number of comments over the years from people who’ve left the group over issues that have nothing to do with genealogy but with the way they were treated. Whether imagined or not, they felt un-welcomed. I would never want someone who came to visit my home, leave feeling like that and, similarly, as the founder and moderator for what I thought was a family group, that hurts.
Because of the way this group started, heycuz consisted mostly of non-computer people. Those who only wanted to share information and talk with distant family. Some hadn’t yet developed a tough skin for handling the occasional not-so-courteous answers or feedback. For some it was their first time using the computer so there were many times I had to explain some things that are second nature to us geeks, like how to attach a photograph to an email. Yet because we were all family, it was only natural that our guidelines were sparse. All that we asked were that we act like we were at a family dinner, keep your elbows off the table and never discuss sex, religion or most importantly, politics. In my family there are both Republicans and Democrats so this rule was almost always abided by. On Heycuz, for the most part, this has worked and I’m not going to change it now.
But, I do want to give some netiquette tips that many have forgotten or were simply never told. You can start by taking all of the “manners” that your mama taught you and apply it to your online communication. That said, here are the most important “rules” to ensure a happier and more successful time online:
1. BE CONSIDERATE. The first, and most important thing to remember is the golden rule. Remember that there’s another person(s) on the receiving end of your post or email. It sounds obvious, but sometimes when you’re looking at an electronic monitor, its easy to forget. Also remember that your “humor” may not be recognized because we cannot write voice in-fluctuations, etc, as well as we can hear them. Being considerate is especially more valid on Heycuz than elsewhere on a seemingly anonymous web because here we are family. Some of us are eccentric, some stoic, some just forgetful, but regardless of that we are all cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.
2. “IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING NICE…” One of the shortcomings of schools is that they don’t spend more time teaching people how to argue. How many times have you had to figure out the ratio of a circle in contrast to the number of times you had an argument? I’m just saying, they should re-prioritize the educational requirements proportionately to life’s requirements. If you disagree with someone don’t, ever, make it personal. Not only is it hurtful, but it doesn’t work in swaying others to your side of the argument. I remember once when I was a child, my sis and I were having an argument and she realized she was losing. At the end of her rope, she appealed to my mother with “MOM! APRIL’S STUPID!” The result was that everyone, my mother included, erupted in uproarious laughter.
A side note: A lot of boards and newsgroups tell you to continue the argument off the list. I’m not going to tell you that because people come away with a false sense of anonymity. There is none. Some think that there’s only two people reading a so-called “private” email and so they can say the darndest things. But remember you have no control over what the receiver does with your email and now with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or rather the current abuse of the act, a server can be ordered to hand over all of your correspondence as well. In addition, I have my email backed up from 1987/8 til now. At any time, I can pull up the correspondence from others and blast it across the internet for all to see. I’m telling you right now, give up the idea that there’s any privacy involved in the internet. Any lawyer will tell you, “Never put it and writing.” And, speaking of privacy, I want to politely decline any further correspondence that include the words “for your eyes only” or “not for publication.” What do I do with that? Are you implying I like gossip?
3. DON’T WASTE OTHER’S TIME: Realize also that others might not want to hear you drone on about the same thing (especially if it has nothing to do with our topic of family history). This coincides with one of my biggest pet peeves, the forward button. Don’t use it. OK, you might use it once or twice, but only use it if you add some information or some comment or any text at all. Otherwise, consider taking the forward button off your menu bar. You can still find it, if you need to, in the “message” part of the menu. If it says “Pass it On,” don’t. My filters already put those emails right where they belong, directly in the trash. I belong to a lot of genealogy boards, so I get thousands of emails a day and it makes me feel like a heel when I get messages titled, “I better get this back.” If I spent my time responding to those I wouldn’t have the time to answer all the legitimate queries I get. In that same vein, never post “dittos.” If you have nothing more to add and you’re not answering a survey, a “me too” is useless.
4. ANSWER YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL: If someone has taken the time to write to you personally, answer them. Even if all you can write is, “I’m busy right now, I’ll try to write more later.” And with that I add be patient for a reply and if you don’t get an answer within a reasonable time period, like say 14 days, then send a gentle reminder. Perhaps, a “did you get this?” and repost your message. Many times, it can take me weeks to write an answer, though I try to keep the time down to a couple of days.
5. ALWAYS SIGN YOUR POST: especially if you’re giving information. In genealogy this is SO important. Facts are irrelevant if they have no source. How many times have you passed up unsourced trees on rootsweb or other sites. Why? Because, if there are no sources given, typically, they are so full of error’s they are useless. If you’re not willing to leave your name, then you’re just a lurker who has nothing to add. Sorry to be so crass, I’m pointing out how others view your posts.
6. QUOTE: Give me some idea of what you’re responding to or talking about. Familiarize yourself with the copy and paste keys on your keyboard. It’s really exciting when I get an email responding to a post that I put up on a board 10 years ago. But, realize my memory’s not that great! I need to know what my question was that you so kindly are responding to. This applies to emails also. Figure out how your email software or email website handles quoting. Sometimes you have to highlight the person’s message, sometimes you have to set your program to do that. If the message was long, remember you can just “quote” the part you’re responding to and delete the rest, but at least quote something. If you are talking about a web page, give the url. I really, really, and I mean, really!, appreciate people letting me know about a broken link or a error on the heycuz.net. However, please understand, that at last count there were 282,000 pages on our website. Help! (To give the url, highlight the text in the url box at the top of your browser go to edit, go to copy. Now, when you go to your email, go back up to edit then to paste.)
7. CHANGE THE SUBJECT LINE. This is especially true on web boards because many times the search engine crawlers only search by subject line. You took the time to respond, now take the time to make sure the right people see your message. On yahoo, which is the server Heycuz is on, it seems to only search by subject or email addresses. So, if a person is looking for a particular subject, and the subject hasn’t been changed, those emails are missed. Changing the subject line is an easy thing to do. When you click reply, pop back up one line and write a short description of what you’re writing.
8. BREATHE! Before you hit the send button, look over your reply. Seriously consider whether you’d want to receive the message you’re sending. Are you clear? Would you talk like that to someone if they were standing in front of you? We get all caught up in the speed of this new internet thingy, or the thrill and excitement that we found a new cousin, that we don’t realize the web doesn’t have to dictate the speed of our reply. Recently, some college did a study they called The Good Samaritan. In it, they discovered that the one thing that dictated how “good” people acted toward each other was related to how much time pressure the person was feeling. Those who were rude or unhelpful felt rushed. So, remember to breathe. You’re not rushed. We can wait for your words of wisdom.
This blog is probably way too long, and gives too much emphasis on the negatives. The last thing I want to do is scare away newcomers to our family tree. Honestly, negative posts on Heycuz are rare. We truly are one big family, and now, doing genealogy, I’ve realized that applies to more people than I could have possibly dreamed. We are all related. To me, family means, embracing the differences in each other and I welcome them. I love them, in fact. I’m astonished by and proud of the level of talent in our little group. My final comment is a request: If I don’t treat you like you’re my family, please do what my father would do, kick me in the rear and tell me to get with the program.
Your cuz,
April
Thanks for Your Patience
Thank you all for bearing with me while the site undergoes a major overhaul. I’ve received a lot of letters from members about links not working and I apologize for that. I hope to have it all fixed soon. While it has been inconvenient, I believe the changes will benefit visitors to the site. The first thing I hope to do is make the site more organized so finding the information you need will be easier. I also hope to make the pages more interactive by adding a number of improvements. One of the improvements includes a photo gallery that will allow members to add their own photographs and have them viewable instantly. Members will be able to also download high-resolution copies of your favorite photos or entire albums with a single click. Your photos download as full-size JPEGs (highest resolution) or images optimized for 16-by-20-inch prints (smaller file size).
Another improvement will be our Wanted Board. I get a lot of queries and I try to answer them as quickly as possible. But, I am only one person, if you put your Most Wanted queries on the board you’ll have more people see your query and can help you out.
There are also a lot of changes being made to the Heycuz database. Right now, I’m uploading corrections, but there are many more still to be completed. Thank you all for your assistance in sending me updates and corrections. I especially want to thank Rev. Thomas Henry Sullivan who has been working now for several months on going through the Heycuz database and fixing, updating, and correcting broken family lines and catching errors, and very importantly adding sources to each fact on individual ancestors. For instance, he’ll write that a birth came from a delayed birth certificate, Bible, or a Family History. His attention to detail has really cleared up a lot of questions on some of our most puzzling ancestors. Unfortunately, he’s not online right now, so if you want to thank him, you’ll have to do it when you run in to him at a library in Dickson, Hickman or Williamson County, TN.
The changes will be complete soon so thanks again for your patience.
April
MERRY CHRISTMAS, CUZ!
This Christmas, I thought I’d get you something you’d really love! I tried to get all of your corrections and additions done and uploaded before Christmas. Alas, another lot of corrections came in and I was not able to finish it up. In the past couple of months, I’ve made over five thousand corrections to the familiy tree. Thanks for your contributions. Your help is really appreciated. I realized I had to just post all of the corrections done so far. I should be all caught up on the corrections made up through Thanskgiving. So, if you have sent in your family files–either by email or CD–and the changes are not made yet please send me a reminder by email, just to make sure I did receive it. As I write this, the pages are being updated.
As you know, I lost both of my grandmother’s this year and I’m finding it very difficult to feel very Christmasy. Still, I have them to thank for all the traditions and happiness that they brought me. Family is one of the most important parts of Christmas and I’m so thankful that I was able to share the family traditions that I inherited with my son and I’m sure he’ll pass them on to his children. Just today, while we made our family’s Magic Cookie Bars I was taken back to when I was a child and couldn’t wait to bite into those gooey, chocolately concoctions.
Santa List
It’s a little late to make changes to your letters to Santa Claus, but if any cash is left under the Christmas tree for you you might want to consider a couple of purchases for yourself:
One of our cousins, Dennis Lampley, has written a book: CAPTAIN ED BAXTER & HIS TENNESSEE ARTILLERYMEN, CSA. My ggg grandfather William Sullivan, fought under Capt. Baxter in the Civil War, and if your ancestor was in Dickson or Williamson County during that time maybe yours did too. If you’re related to William Sullivan, check out the Share the Wealth Section here and download his muster rolls, pension application, and letter to Capt. Baxter, if you haven’t already done that already.
Another book that came out this year, The Heritage of Dickson County, Tennessee. The book requires a good chunk of change, $77.50, but is definitely worth it. I’m learning a lot from it, not the least of which is learning how much I didn’t know!
Another really neat thing to get for yourself as well as your descendants is a family album. So many sites these days offer ways to help you create one, but it does take a little time. You can go to Snapfish, Kodak Gallery (kodakgallery.com), Flickr.com, or many others, ranging in price from $6.99 to $69.99.
I even converted my photos into a nice Calendar for my parents using a very convenient service at Apple.com, and even if you’re not a Mac user a lot of the photo website above offer the same types of calendars. They turn out really nice. I even put on it all the special days to remember of all the kids and grandkids.
Anyway, I want to thank you for all of your help in keeping our group active and keeping me up to date on your genealogical research.
Merry Christmas!
April
Yep, We’ve Moved!
“You say Yes. I say No.
You say Why? I say I don’t know.
Oh,
I don’t know why you say goodbye.
I say hello.” — Lennon-McCartney
- What kind of world would this be if I didn’t zig while the rest of the world zagged? After all, I have a history of choosing the other lane, don’t I? Examples: When everyone else disco’d through the 70s, I rocked out with Ozzy. When my childhood girlfriends oohed and ahhed over the likes of David Cassidy and Michael Jackson, I proudly displayed my Al Unser and Mario Andretti posters. My entire family left the state of California, and here I sit, happy as a lark.
So, what do you expect me to do? Join the thousands of genealogists who have bought into the MyFamily.com craze? No, not me. I’ve been completely happy with the outcome of my past decisions, and so with confidence, I have decided to leave the likes of MyFamily.com and their sister site “Freepages” at Rootsweb. The truth is that freepages wasn’t exactly free. Visitors were bombarded with ads, both pop-ups and banners, some of them so largethat the visitor couldn’t even tell that our website was underneath it. In addition, visitors were placed on a spam e-mail list that added insult to injury. In the good old days, freepages were actually free and I am grateful that they gave us the opportunity to grow there. However, they were bought out by MyFamily.com, which is dedicated to the idea that you can make a buck or two on genealogy. They soon began charging us to access our own family trees, which they placed onto Ancestry.com without even asking. When we started in 1996, we were just a group of cousins who wanted to share our research and I am delighted to say that, even though we’ve grown by leaps and bounds, we still have the same philosophy. It is my hope that the only brick walls we run into are in our family trees and not our wallets.
So I’m breaking out and I’m taking you with me. I hope you don’t mind. I hope you don’t miss the non-stop pop-up windows. I hope you don’t miss the banner advertisements. I hope you don’t miss the spam from Ancestry.com promising to solve all your problems if you just send them your credit card number.
I had planned to do this much later when I could afford to get my own server. Right now, I simply bought a domain and paid a service provider to host our site. It is a little lower cost than it will be when we have our own server. It is limited in size to 4 gigabites. Believe it or not, we’ve grown that big. As a result, I haven’t completely brought everything over. I am still trying to make everything fit. I haven’t managed to get our Family Album on our new site yet, but hope to soon.
You might also wonder where our search engine has gone to. Honestly? I can’t get it to work on this server. Having to write my own code is one thing, but getting the server to recognize it is another. In short, I am still working on it.
In the meantime, please take a look around. Let me know what you think. If you see any broken links or errors, please let me know. This is your site as much as it is mine and I need all the help I can get.
- April
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