So, we hit a little bad weather today. The winds were so strong that we were unable to tug into port at Cocoa Cay. After several attempts, Captain Johnny decided that we would get underway early for St. Thomas. That game amy and I an extra lounging day that we didn't expect. We spent the majority of the day sunning on one of the top decks. It got a little windy after a few hours but not before Amy and I both got a bit of sunburn.

Tonight was our formal evening. We got all dressed up and had our genealogy cocktail party in one of the lounges. We met all of the speakers and had the opportunity to get books signed. We met several nice couples. Breaking tradition we even won a free t-shirt.

Tomorrow is our first day of conferences. Unfortunately I will be missing the first several hours as I will be taking my refresher course for scuba diving. The afternoon is mostly Irish historical briefings mostly dealing with state and land records in Ireland and locating other sources that may have otherwise seemed to be lost.

So, yes, it definitely is a big boat. Today we checked into our rooms, had our safety drill, met a couple members of the staff from South Africa, formally met Drew and George from the GenealogyGuys.com, had a couple of meals aboard the ship and then walked around having a few drinks. A couple of bonuses that we didn't think we would have; 1) our BlackBerry devices work here (roaming at $3 per minute but they work) and 2) they have TV. With the discovery of the latter, we were able to find the score of the Bears game.

I was looking to do some diving since I haven't been diving in a while. Since it has been 6 years, the crew requires that you take a refresher course. So, I take the refresher on Tuesday and then I have two dives in later in the week. Luckily I have my dive housing for my camera with me so I'm really looking forward to the dive.

Tomorrow morning at 8am we arrive in Cocoa Cay which is the island owned by Royal Caribbean. We spend the day there, have a big BBQ and then it is off to St. Thomas.

That all said, with the exception of meeting some great people we haven't really done anything from a genealogy perspective. There will be plenty of time for that!

We will be aboard the Mariner of the Seas. I was able to find an independent review of the ship here. Last night we picked up our "goody" bags and met many of the people that we will be with over the next several days including George and Drew of the GenealogyGuys podcast.

Our first oops of our vacation was waking up way too early this morning when we forgot to change the clocks.

How's the weather, you ask? It is currently 60 degrees and sunny with an expected high of 78. Not a bad way to start the cruise!

Today Amy and I departed Chicago for Orlando to await our departure from Cape Canaveral. Amy and I will be sailing for 7 days and 7 nights aboard a Royal Carribean cruise for the Genealogy Cruise 2006. Some stats about the ship:

- 1020 ft long
- 3,114 passengers
- 1,181 crew members
- 138,000 tons

Tomorrow will mark the start of our cruise as we get all of luggage aboard the ship, perform our safety drill and depart at 5pm. This evening we meet some of the 3,000 people that we will be traveling with and picking up our materials for the genealogy conferences.

I currently am a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (S.A.R.) based upon descendency from three different gentlemen (John Porter Jr., John Porter Sr. and Benjamin Worcester). Recently I have been researching my Beasecker line after becoming acquainted with a 2nd cousin, Robert Beasecker. While researching I discovered that Abraham Beasecker (b. bef 1745; d. 17 May 1795) was in the Revolutionary War as a Private for Pennsylvania in Captain Daniel Clapsadler's Company of 1st Battalion of Cumberland County Pennsylvania militia commanded by Col James Johnson 20 August, 1780 and 28 July, 1781. To simplify the SAR supplemental application process, I was able to obtain two DAR applications based upon lineage from Abraham. It will most likely take several weeks, if not months, to complete the process but it is underway. If anyone is interested in more details please feel free to email me. I would have linked to the applicaitons in the blog but it doesn't care for Adobe documents.

The other item that we are researching is when the family changed the spelling of their last name from Biesecker to Beasecker. Family stories have it that David Beasecker (b. 1775; d. 02 Aug 1855) changed the spelling of the last name to distinguish his family line. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any information that confirms that story although facts discovered so far (census records & cemetery records) confirm the David was the first to change the spelling from Biesecker to Beasecker. The search continues.

Do you have old photographs which can't be identified (similar to that from my lost journal entry)? The site Dead Fred allows you to upload those photographs to the the DeadFred site and be viewed by others. You can search by surname and view other photographs. Through the site there have been close to 1000 (991) reunions.