Happy New Year!

Photo by Patrick Jones. Reykjavik Culture Night, 20 Aug 2016.

Have a fun and festive New Years! Bring on 2017!

Reflections on 2016

Photo by Patrick Jones. Point Dume, 23 Sep 2016.

It has become a blog tradition to recap the year with a closing post and some thoughts on the things to come. I have some wonderful memories from 2016, of new places and experiences. I have some sad memories too, losing our Dad to cancer and seeing others more famous gone too soon in 2016. The long election and Presidential result added to the negative thoughts on the year. I can only hope things look up in 2017. The uncertainty with an unfriendly administration taking shape in DC brings a challenge that will shape the next four years and beyond.

Looking back, I started 2016 in LA. Returning for meetings brought an opportunity to walk where my 5th-great-grandfather Francisco Suastegui may have walked in 1835. I also ran with Blacklist LA and started the long preparations for the half-marathon and marathon.

Later in the month I went to Istanbul, a place that has become one of my favorite cities. Istanbul and Turkey as a whole had their own challenges in 2016. The people are very resilient and I am looking forward to going back in early 2017.

I returned from Istanbul early for our epic Snowzilla storm. We celebrated by turning our street into a toboggan run and making the best of the snow with our neighbors. As fun as that was, I am hoping 2017 brings less snow to DC.

In March I was able to do another Miami street art layover, see Madrid and Marrakech. As a family we spent Spring Break in Mexico, visiting the ruins at Chichen Itza and Coba, and swimming with dolphins at Xcaret eco park. In April I went to Bangkok and Siem Reap. I was able to see the amazing Angkor Wat, a brief trip that I will never forget.

May included a whirlwind trip through Moscow, Amsterdam and Minsk. June took me to Helsinki, Finland, a land of stunning sunsets. I started July with a stopover in Reykjavik and a first visit to the calming waters of the Blue Lagoon. I also went to Montevideo, Uruguay and stepped up the mileage for the Reykjavik Marathon.

I have already written quite a bit about my running experiences from 2016. The marathon and the trip to Iceland were unforgettable. After returning from Iceland, I ended August with the family at Duck, North Carolina.

September included a visit back to LA and a family trip to Universal and Harry Potter World. October featured a trip to Namibia and stopover in Dubai. November included a trip back to India and a memorable Thanksgiving run back at home in Del Ray. December has been spent at home, taking the family to movies and enjoying the holidays around DC.

I know 2017 will begin much like past years, with meetings back at the West Coast home. Los Angeles is one of my favorite places and it always feels like home to go back. Right now I am not planning to run another marathon, but I may enter another half-marathon in 2017. I will certainly enter a 10K and perhaps the Parkway Classic 10 mile race in April.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Hyderabad, India. 1 Nov 2016.

I am ending this post with a photo taken at Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad. The lake has been declared as the "Heart of the World" with UNESCO. May 2017 bring good fortune and many new adventures. Have a safe and Happy New Year!

More from the pension file of James Smith

Prayer in Chioggia by Leonardo Bazzaro. 1897.

Looking over the Revolutionary War pension file of James Smith and Margaret Truax Smith, I see a few more historical gems to share. One document dated 12 February 1835 appears to include James' signature (see below). This one transferred the administration of his pension from Kentucky to Indiana.

Source: Fold3, page 36.

Andrew Smith, son of James and Margaret, and Stephen Daugherty (son-in-law through his marriage to their daughter Jane Smith) appeared before the Justice of the Peace and testified that they knew James to be the same person who had originally applied for the pension in Kentucky. Stephen and Jane Smith Daugherty testified on behalf of Margaret on 13 July 1843 as part of her widow's pension application. This document also includes Margaret's mark for her signature.

Source: Fold3. Page 39.

Where I ran in 2016

Source: Mapmyrun. Reykjavik Marathon, 20 Aug 2016.

According to Mapmyrun, I've run a whopping 667 miles in 2016. While the year is not quite over yet and I may still run a little bit more, I thought it might be interesting to look back on my year in running and see some of the interesting places I was lucky to run through. I am quite happy with what I achieved. I set a post-40 personal best in the Alexandria Turkey Trot, completed the marathon in August, and another half marathon back in April.

I ran pretty consistently through the winter months, starting with 43 miles in January and 78.9 in February. January also saw my first run with LA running group Blacklist LA at LACMA's Urban Light.

Source: Mapmyrun. Blacklist LA run, 4 Jan 2016.

In March I ran through Marrakech, Morocco, walked over 10 miles through Wynwood Walls and the Miami Airport, and ran through Xcaret and Chichen Itza in Mexico.

Source: Mapmyrun. 5 miles in Marrakech.

April included the brutal hills around Charlottesville for the Charlottesville Half. In May I ran three miles in Moscow, 13 miles in Amsterdam and 9 miles in Minsk, all within the same trip.

Source: Mapmyrun. 6 mile run through Minsk.

In June and July I really stepped up the mileage as I got closer to running the Reykjavik Marathon, hitting 117 and 115 miles. This included a memorable 17 mile Midsummer night run through Helsinki and two of my then longest runs, 19 and 20 miles along the Potomac.

Source: Mapmyrun. Midsummer training run.

August featured the long run through Reykjavik (see the top of this post for the map), while runs slowed considerably in September as I recovered. I did manage to run with Blacklist LA again in September while in LA. November saw treadmill running in Hyderabad. December has been light on the miles but I am looking forward to more runs in interesting places in the first few months of 2017.

Looking closer at the pension application

Source: Fold3. Pension file of James Smith.

The Revolutionary War pension file of James Smith includes a declaration dated 9 August 1832, made in Adair County, Kentucky. In this document, James claimed that he entered service in Frederick County, Maryland in either 1774, 1775 or 1776 under "Captain Craiger" with Philip Smith the First Lieutenant of the Company. He would have been 21 years old in 1776.

I found verification to part of James' story in the Archives of Maryland, Records of Maryland Troops in the Continental Service. Captain Valentine Creager was in charge of a Flying Camp company in 1776. According to the Archives of Maryland, the Flying Camp was established by the Continental Congress on 3 June 1776 consisting of 10,000 men from across Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. James Smith does appear on the service list for the company, along with a John and Joseph Smith, although at this point it isn't clear if there is a relationship between these two and James. Creager's company was formed on 3 October 1776 from the Middle District of Frederick County, Maryland. Further information on James' enlistment in the Flying Camp militia company should be located at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore.

Archives of Maryland, page 72.

Archives of Maryland, page 73.

According to a Rootsweb post updated on 8 February 2002, Creager was born 9 February 1734 in Oley, Pennsylvania. From June to December 1776, his company saw action in battles on Long Island, at Harlem, White Plains and Fort Washington. Smith's declaration mentions he was at a skirmish at Brunswick, this would have been during General Washington's retreat through New Jersey.

It looks like James served for the remainder of 1776 in Creager's company, and then joined with Captain John Carmack in early 1777 for two months. He says he marched over parts of New Jersey and New York. I need to look at available records in Maryland on Smith's service.

James claimed to have served for two months with Captain Humphreys in Virginia, marching to Williamsburg and Jamestown. This should be Thomas Humphrey of Loudoun County, Virginia, who commanded a company from 1779-1780. He also claimed to have served a two month tour under Captain Josiah Moffett in 1781. Moffett was from Loudoun County, Virginia.

Smith notes he was at the "taking of Cornwallis", which would have been the Battle of Yorktown. Another ancestor fought at the Battle of Yorktown, my 6th-great-grandfather Joseph Thornhill Senior. James said he assisted in guarding prisoners, marching them up the Potomac to Fredericksburg. At this stage of the war he was a Sergeant.

At the end of the war, James returned to Loudoun County, Virginia, where he married Alice Margaret Truax. A verification of their marriage was included in the file as part of Margaret's widows pension in 1841.

James provided an amendment to his file on 1 April 1833, stating that he served with Major Samuel Cox, marching to Mechanicsburg and Jamestown. James' Adair County neighbors Samuel Wilson and Joseph G. Walker testified that they knew him and were aware he was a soldier during the Revolutionary War.

There is more in the file following James' move from Adair County to Gibson County, Indiana in 1835. His widow Margaret Truax Smith's case was linked to the widows pension application of Nancy Ann Redman, wife of Aaron Redman. Aaron was another soldier originally from Loudoun County, Virginia and a good friend of James Smith. Redman and Smith's families moved together from Virginia to Kentucky, and later from Kentucky to Gibson County, Indiana.