I am slowly growing more interested in my family background. Over Thanksgiving I gathered some genealogical materials from my Grandmother (including one tree that went all the way back to the 14th century). Eventually I will create some kind of genealogy stack.

Cartan, originally MacCartan, is an Irish name. My great-great grandfather, Peter MacCartan, stowed away on a ship bound for Canada sometime around the Potato Famine of the 1840s. Legend has it that a woman was involved and that he was running away from a family which expected him to become a priest. My father's mother has a largely Scandanavian background.

The Montana components of my background derive from my mother's side of the tree. Here you will find miners, ranchers, homesteaders, (and maybe a horsethief or two). This is also where my intolerance for dairy products comes from. Legend has it that during the Civil War one of my ancestors once went for days without food and with very little water. Upon encountering a barn with fresh milk, his companions began greedily guzzling that vile fluid, but my ancestor would have none of it. Better to starve than to partake of a single drop of milk!

Anyway, I'm your basic northern European mix: English, Irish, Scandanavian, and German. Because of a natural talent for blarney, I prefer to think of myself as Irish.