A few years ago I did an ancestry binder for an in-law branch of the family which shall remain nameless. I discovered the story of a genuine black sheep—George Washington Coomes, who was shot to death on September 5, 1896. George was born in McLean County, Kentucky, on January 16, 1861. He married Cordelia Martin …
Everyone thinks they want me to find a few—but perhaps that’s one of those things that sounds better in theory than it turns out to be in practice.
My Uncle Bob was a champion plowman, back when that kind of thing was a big deal here in the Midwest. I don’t want his story to be forgotten. How many young men of his generation ended up meeting four presidents, and competing in Europe (twice!) solely because of a remarkable ability to plow a …
I wish I had a Civil War veteran in my family tree!… But my ancestors came from Sweden and Germany quite a few years after the Civil War ended. My husband is more fortunate in that regard–I’ve found two of his direct ancestors who fought for the Union. But one of my clients turned out …
My grandfather, Sture Nels Wallin (1892-1979) was a Nebraska farm boy, son of Swedish immigrants. But somewhere along the line he developed a love—and a talent—for baseball. He was a left-handed pitcher and third baseman who played baseball while in the U.S. Army in Europe at the end of WWI—and later, after he returned home, …
Sometimes it’s hard to know what to believe. I love a good skeleton in the closet as much as the next genealogist—or a black sheep or two in the family—but this stretches the bounds of credibility. My maternal grandmother, Clara Anderson Erickson (1892-1967), had four brothers—George, Charles, Howard, and Lester. Grandma Erickson was a farmer’s wife—but …
Mystery Monday: The Anderson Boys – Reputations in Need of Rescue Read More »
Ah, the diary! An empty book just waiting for you to confess all your fears, dreams, secret loathings and lovers! At least that’s what I thought when I started keeping a diary at age 10. It had a lock and key just to make sure all my secrets were safe. But in reality, I had …
Dear Diary…Don’t Divulge Those Secrets Too Fast! Read More »
The Library of Congress has an expansive collection of historical images available online. Many show the daily lives of our ancestors and reveal exciting glimpses into our collective past. Thanks to efforts by the US government to document America’s people and cultural movements, many of these image descriptions retain names, ages, dates and other details about …
Family Gatherings: Images From Our Collective Past Read More »
My father, Robert Milo Wallin (1923-1993) spent nearly all of his life thinking he was the oldest child in his family. But things aren’t always what they seem to be, particularly in genealogy. Dad was born in Nebraska in 1923, in a hospital rather than at home—very unusual for that place and time. As the …
I am fortunate enough to have the letters my father wrote home during World War II. One of the most powerful is this one, written from a field hospital in France about a month after he was badly wounded… France – November 13 [1944] Dear Folks: Paper is kind of scarce right here at present, …