It's true. I had always wondered why I had such trouble tracking my grandmother's maternal grandparents. Her mother had died young (which was so often the case then), but I had all manner of family information. I even had pictures of them, for heaven's sake. I knew my great-grandmother's name was Selia. I knew her surname was Graham. I knew she had a sister named Fredonia. How could they be hard to find on a census???

I now know this was due to the fact my great-granddad was an illegal Canadian alien. (GASP!) What's worse, he had illegally hopped the pond before he illegally jumped the border. He was from Scotland. Great-grandma was from England. They had no papers. Will my 350 years of ancestry on my other side help? Will my Cherokee heritage matter? Will I now be added to the terrorist watch list along with Ted Kennedy and a lot of poor guys named Robert Johnson? What's a true-blue Yank to do in the face of Lou Dobbs? (That's right, he's a blow hard bigot nobody listens to anyway ... thank heavens).

Go VOTR day - Vermont, Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island vote today. I know I'm hoping for a strong Obama showing in Texas at least. I think we may get one in Ohio, too. Whatever happens, jacta alea est -- we already have our nominee. Hopefully, the decision will be a strong one today so we can now set our sights on the general election.

BTW, the H/W novel is still rolling along.