Welcome! I'm Kathy, AKA The Down East Genealogist, AKA Major Rakal. I was born, raised, and
educated in Maine, lived in upstate New York for 25 years, and have
resided since 2001 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My checkered career has
encompassed chemistry, photography, website development and management,
technical writing, computer programming, and collectible trading card
game development.
My other active blog, Pine Trees and Pedigrees, where I post as The Down East Genealogist, chronicles my genealogical explorations, primarily in Maine. This is my retirement project – the continuing pursuit of those often elusive
Downeasters, New Englanders, Islanders, and Quebeckers that populate my
family tree.
But Pine Trees and Pedigrees is actually my second blog. My first blog, begun during a bout of unemployment in 2005, was Hinterspace, where I posted as Major Rakal. It's still out there, though I last posted to it in 2011. Given that some of my most frequent tags on Hinterspace were "joys of home
ownership" (39), "job hunting" and "unemployment" (total of 30), and
"misadventures" (25); bolstered by "weather" (16), "customer service"
(14), "joys of car ownership" (9) and "malevolent appliances" (3) ...
well, I think you get the idea.
In short, life in Hinterspace was – and still is – just one damned thing after another.
And so, after a year of posting snippets of my family history on Pine Trees and Pedigrees, my renewed desire for a place to chronicle my non-genealogical (mis)adventures led me to launch, if you will, the New Hinterspace, or Hinterspace 2.0 – indeed, the true essence of Hinterspace:
Welcome to Just One Damned Thing After Another.
