Archives
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 […]
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 […]
Keeping it Accurate: How Do We Correct Genealogy Errors?
Posted on January 19, 2022 9 Comments
Note: It’s a bit ironic that the Queen of typos and mistakes wants to write a blog post about them but I need to make a distinction between errors we unknowingly commit and those that we ignore or worse yet promulgate for some other reason. We all make mistakes and we all inadvertently pass on […]
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 […]
What Got you Started in Genealogy?: Writing Challenge
Posted on January 10, 2022 3 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 […]
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 […]
Christmas Expectations
Posted on December 19, 2021 5 Comments
A fellow blogger Genea- musings asked: What are your most vivid memories of Christmas times past? The expectations would begin right after Thanksgiving with my Mother’s long Christmas gift list. Then every Christmas Eve starting around 2 in the afternoon we would load up the car with Christmas packages for friends of my parents and […]
Wheaton Wood 