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Writing About Yourself: The Blue Flower
Posted on December 19, 2025 Leave a Comment
I realized I never posted this before. It is a short, but true story about me. It is a relative narrow topic but it reveals volumes (excuse the pun). It avoids the general concerns about self revelation, and yet is still self revelatory. I offer it as an example of how to write about yourself, […]
The Footnotes of History: Duane F Mosier as Witness
Posted on December 16, 2025 3 Comments
Most of us will never even make it into the footnotes. I was lucky that my Dad made it, not just once but many times. He was never famous but he had encounters with those who were. Billions of people living and dead are witnesses to history-making events or persons, but unless they wrote about it, […]
Family History Writing: Telling Our Stories
Posted on December 15, 2025 2 Comments
Writing about oneself, especially in retrospect, is always a dangerous undertaking. Do you tell the truth and risk being seen in a bad light? Or do you soften the edges to make it more palatable? Will it be considered your own brand of narcissistic, revisionist drivel or worse yet will it mean a damn thing […]
They Came to America: The Immigrant Experience
Posted on November 22, 2025 5 Comments
The loved ones we call the dead, depart from us and for a while are absent. And then as if called back by our love, they come near us again. They enter our dreams.We feel they have been near us when we have not thought of them.They are simply here, simply waiting while we are […]
Writing Challenge: Choose Your Own Adventure Genealogy Style
Posted on September 19, 2025 Leave a Comment
First crossroads. Heaven, hell or purgatory. Your choice. Second crossroad. Which ancestor will you choose? Third quest. You will have 20 minutes to come up with a list of questions to ask your chosen ancestor. This may be a brick wall ancestor and your first question is where were you born? Or who were your […]
Celtic Origins
Posted on September 1, 2025 Leave a Comment
Apologies to my faithful readers. I took a break after the death of my best genealogy friend, Jean to process what her life and loss means to me. I have found that I cannot be creative on demand, and must wait for inspiration and the imperative juices to flow. Sometimes all that it takes is […]
KENT The Garden of England Day One Part Three: Canterbury : On the trail of Robert Cushman
Posted on June 28, 2025 3 Comments
When we finished up at Hever castle we made our way to Canterbury. It was Canterbury that led us to the KENT The Garden of England tour through Blue Roads/Backroads Touring. My friend Denise and I met in kindergarten and she is a direct descendant of Robert CUSHMAN 1577-1625 who was responsible for organizing and […]
What you are Missing if you Aren’t Using Family Search for your Genealogy
Posted on June 18, 2025 2 Comments
This is written for my Genealogy class and most of it is a repetition of resources found on FamilySearch.org however it is a curated list and aimed at beginners that do not know where to start at Family Search or those more advanced who have not mined all the great resources that are available there. […]
Fleshing out the Story: Context Matters
Posted on January 26, 2025 1 Comment
How do we go from avid genealogist to storyteller? How do we bring a single ancestor back to life? How do we take a set of facts, essential the bones of our ancestors life, and tell their story as a three dimensional ancestor that you want others to know more about? Research of course! There’s […]
TILDEN’s of Kent, England
Posted on January 2, 2025 5 Comments
In my last blog post Traveling for Genealogy I chronicled my research into the TILDEN family of Benenden, Kent. I decided to do a deeper dive and as usual found some interesting connections. One of the places we are to stay and visit is Leeds Castle. So let’s dive in to a bit of ancient […]
Wheaton Wood 