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My Woman Warrior: Pioneer Mother Catherine Adeline Stewart Murphy Mosier
Posted on February 28, 2022 4 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. […]
What Got you Started in Genealogy?: Writing Challenge
Posted on January 10, 2022 2 Comments
This gets asked periodically, especially on Twitter and I usually reply with my true, but fairly rote answer. But thinking about what got you into Genealogy might be a good exercise for all of us, whether beginning or seasoned, genealogists. It does not matter how well you write or whether you plan to share this. You […]
Music & Dressmaking, Singing as I Sew: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 30
Posted on January 5, 2022 Leave a Comment
Sat Feb 1 – Nothing particular to chronicle Sun “ 2 – Mrs Miller Essie & Herbie came over to look at a house and call on us. Lolita and Charlie also came had a very pleasant time. Mon “ 3 – Eilenes birthday J [Jessie] & I were almost ready to go to town […]
How to be a “You Cannot Fail” Genealogist
Posted on January 4, 2022 2 Comments
Confession Time. Everything in my life is a combination of trial and error, and that includes Genealogy. I started writing the past year of Blog posts by accident. It was in response to a blog post, by my now friend, Paul Chiddicks, in his article The Top 10 Sins of a Genealogist. So now after […]
Wheaton Wood 