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No More Favorites! Plus a New Writing Challenge
Posted on March 9, 2022 6 Comments
It is asked constantly in Genealogy circles: Who is your favorite ancestor? What us your favorite heirloom? What is your favorite story about…? Everytime I hear the word “favorite” I cringe. I immediately react negatively even though I may like all other parts of the question. Even a slight change to the question such as […]
The Days Are Passing Swiftly by and I Am One Day Nearer Home: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 32
Posted on March 5, 2022 1 Comment
“I am now about to retire it is nearly midnight beautiful and cool and moonlit.”
My Woman Warrior: Pioneer Mother Catherine Adeline Stewart Murphy Mosier
Posted on February 28, 2022 11 Comments
The impetus for this blog post was my writing challenge to resurrect one of your women warriors. A woman in your tree whose story lies hidden in the names, dates and places. I have spent the last few weeks on Catherine. I offer this as an example of what is possible to resurrect a woman […]
Write It Down
Posted on February 28, 2022 6 Comments
Aside from DNA, which I view as our personal encyclopedia of our ancestry, anything that is going to survive more than a generation or two is WRITTEN. Whether on a gravestone, an engraving, a letter, a newspaper clipping, photos or a book. What survives is written or inscribed. An unidentified photo of an ancestor is […]
Women’s Origin Stories
Posted on February 16, 2022 5 Comments
I woke up thinking more about the question I asked earlier—Who Gets to Write History? More specifically who gets to write a woman’s history? Why do we yearn for women to be the heroines of their own stories, the guardians of their own destinies and not just an add-on in the lives of men? Who […]
Life in this Eden takes on a Very Serious Aspect: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 31
Posted on February 14, 2022 Leave a Comment
April 1 – Eilene came over to Berkeley and I cut her black silk dress. “ 2 – Wed Morning Choral practice. Called on Mrs Fryer at St Marks Eilene went home. “ 3 – Washed and cleaned house. Spent afternoon sewing on Eilenes dress. “ 4 Fri – Eilene came again to work on […]
Heirlooms Gone, but not Forgotten
Posted on February 13, 2022 8 Comments
We keep some things so close, that even though we do not own them, they are never far away. The things that are indelible. The things that in a millisecond transport you back to the beginnings of our time, upon this earth. Their texture, fragrance, as close to you now as they were then, a […]
Who Gets to Write History? Who Are We Keeping Out?
Posted on February 9, 2022 9 Comments
A bit of a kerfuffle over who gets to write history and ask why, along with a series of emails with an Oxford educated historian and a local political scandal has me thinking about the parameters genealogists are “supposed” to operate within when writing our family histories. People act as if “facts” are truth. Sadly […]
It Matters: Intergenerational Family Trauma
Posted on January 27, 2022 6 Comments
Okay not your ordinary genealogy topic…but reading my grandfather’s letters and his mother’s diary [Lulu: A Soprano’s Aria]. We can’t help but wonder how much trauma gets passed down through families and the sometimes maladapted ways we deal with it. I am talking the spectrum from Wars, to early loses, abuse, dysfunction the whole gambit. […]
Writing Challenge: What Reminds you of your Grandmother
Posted on January 12, 2022 3 Comments
What is something that always reminds you of your grandma? This was a question that was asked by Connections-Experiment in a Twitter post. My first reaction was instantaneous. Grandma’s Trinket Chest. Before I tell you more about this former candy box, as we all know we have at least two grandmothers. I only had the […]
Wheaton Wood 