Family History Stories | Wheaton Wood

And What About Frank?: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 37

Posted on August 8, 2022 7 Comments

Not everyone in our family trees are people we admire. Sometimes they are unsavory characters that people want to bury the details of—but I think we need to know about the good bad and the ugly. Here’s my follow-up piece to Lulu’s diary. This is Lulu’s husband Franklin “Frank” Stewart MOSIER my great grandfather. Frank […]

Comfort Laps: Writing Challenge

Posted on August 8, 2022 3 Comments

Our reminiscences are important parts of who we are. As we stitch them into narratives they connect us to our ancestors, sometimes in unexpected ways. I urge my readers to not shy away from writing about uncomfortable and challenging topics. My mother, for reasons that remain somewhat of a mystery, did not like to be […]

Writing Challenge: What Did You Want to be When You Grew Up?

Posted on July 31, 2022 1 Comment

This is a common question we ask young people all the time. It is a question fraught with pitfalls. As a high school counselor, I devised a strategy for my students. I told them “Just figure out a school and some major or aspiration you ‘might’ want to accomplish.” Adults want nothing more than to […]

The Circle Game: Loss and Healing

Posted on July 26, 2022 17 Comments

Dear Readers you may be wondering where I have been. I have been wondering that too. If one has lived a half century or more one has endured loss. Sometimes the losses are monumental like death or war, and sometimes so subtle we may hardly notice them. Then one day you wake-up to the passage […]

A Love Letter to Young Genealogists

Posted on June 11, 2022 9 Comments

Dear Young Genealogist, Once upon a time I was you. I always had an interest in the past and unlike many of my peers I enjoyed hanging out with old people (gray haired retirees). I liked their stories and their points of view. I tried to imagine living through life without cars and planes and […]

Mundane to Profane: Writing our Own Stories

Posted on May 30, 2022 3 Comments

Every person alive will respond in different ways to National tragedies like the shooting of President Kennedy, the Challenger disaster, 911 or the latest mass shooting. Each of these traumas affects us depending on our temperament, our proximity and our ability to compartmentalize tragedies that are beyond our control.

Fill a Jar: Writing Challenge

Posted on March 28, 2022 2 Comments

This challenge is designed for those who haven’t written before or are convinced they don’t have time to write, or that they must be polished writers in order to write. It has several different variations so feel free to adapt it to suit

Endings: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 36

Posted on March 27, 2022 2 Comments

The above is the last regular entry in the diary. However the page below was from 1913, and it predates the first entry in the dairy which was September 1st 1913. So in a remarkable way we arrive back at the beginning.

Hands in the Mud: Writing Challenge

Posted on March 27, 2022 3 Comments

I was daydreaming about mud which led to this piece of writing. I will have some writing suggestions at the end. “Learn to humble yourself, you are but earth and clay.” Thomas a Kempis When I was a kid we made mud pies. The best mud was made from dirt with lots of clay in […]