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Writing Challenge: Where were you when Kennedy was shot?
Posted on November 7, 2023 1 Comment
One of my Genealogy class students, Frank, suggested that we write a piece on what we remember of where we were and what we were doing when President Kennedy was shot. November 22, 2023 will be the sixtieth anniversary of this national tragedy. As luck would have it they were both Wednesdays before Thanksgiving. It […]
Writing Challenge: Playing with Sentences
Posted on October 26, 2023 1 Comment
I tried this out on my Genealogy Class and the results were terrific. So I offer it up for your consideration. This is a true beginners exercise, but even seasoned writer’s can have fun with it. Ground Rules Okay once you have your one or two sentences you are going to revise them as many […]
Family Heirlooms: Egyptian Cosmetic Spoon
Posted on August 27, 2023 5 Comments
This is an example of starting to write about a particular object and ending up with much more than you bargained for. All the memories of a beloved place come streaming back. So no matter the writing—let it take you where it wants to go. This figure sat on the coffee table of my grandparents […]
Fact or Fiction? A Revolutionary War soldier talked to a boy, who became a Civil War soldier
Posted on August 25, 2023 5 Comments
“There will be stories, and only some of them will be true.” DUANE F. MOSIER These words my Dad spoke after his diagnosis with lung cancer. They were words of wisdom he passed on to me and his grandchildren. In my The Challenge: Tokyo Rose I proved that a story he told about testifying at […]
We Can’t Write What We Don’t Know: A Journey from the Fjords of Norway to the Shores of New York Mid 19th Century
Posted on August 8, 2023 2 Comments
If you decide you want to write about an ancestor be prepared to go down many gopher holes you never dreamed of visiting. Almost every time I decide to dig deeper into an ancestor’s story I end up researching things I never knew anything about. My last blog post Deep Diving: Water Wheels and Papermaking […]
Nicholas BROME & the Three Murders: Part Five
Posted on March 6, 2023 Leave a Comment
ST JAMES now ST MICHAEL at BADDESLEY CLINTON The above window at St Michael Baddesley Clinton [previously St James] gives some important details of Nicholas BROOME’s life: ” Nicholas BROME Esq. Lord & owner of Baddesley Clinton. Married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Rawfre ARUNDELL of Eggleshole in the County of Cornwall, Knight Anno Domini 1473 […]
NICHOLAS BROME & the Three Murders: Part Four
Posted on March 3, 2023 5 Comments
When last we left Nicholas BROME we had fixed on the approximate date of the murder of the priest as about 1485. One of the challenges of trying to understand Nicholas is to understand the time and the circumstance in which he lived. Trying to do so with someone who lived 500 years ago presents […]
NICHOLAS BROME & the Three Murders: Part Two
Posted on February 12, 2023 2 Comments
“This late dissension grown betwixt the peersBurns under feigned ashes of forg’d love,And will at last break out into a flame:As festered members rot but by degree,Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,So will this base and envious discord breed.” William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 1 When last we left young Nicholas BROME in 1468, […]
NICHOLAS BROME & the Three Murders: Part Three
Posted on February 12, 2023 1 Comment
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The Plantagenet Kings represented the richest family in Europe and they ruled the English throne from 1154 to 1485 while also holding Anjou in France. The name Plantagenet comes from “planta genista,” Latin for the yellow broom plant. A symbol of humility, the broom sprig was chosen as the badge of the royal […]
NICHOLAS BROME & the Three Murders: Part One
Posted on February 9, 2023 5 Comments
Back in 2019, I was doing some genealogical research, before a trip to Warwickshire and it led to the discovery of Nicholas BROME, my 13th great-grandpa. I was researching all the possible connections I had in the area which led from my grandmother Helen Mildred SHELDON to her 3rd great grandmother Sylvia SHERMAN and her […]
Wheaton Wood 