Whenever I research someone’s family history, whether it’s for fun or for profit, I try to find out how they feel about “skeletons in the closet” before I start. 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 straight furrow?
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 …
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 …
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 …
Mystery Monday: The Anderson Boys – Reputations in Need of Rescue .
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, …
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 …
Once you become known as the Official Family Historian, a wonderful phenomenon begins to occur. Relatives, especially older ones, begin to give you things, saying, “I know you’ll take care of this. I don’t want it to be thrown out …
I am looking for someone. But this time, for a change, it’s not a dead person! I have been working on a genealogy binder for a client from Florida. Her grandmother Francis, now deceased, was married for a long time …
Sometimes you think you know a person… especially if that person is your father. I’ve been researching the paternal line of one of my clients. He thought he knew his father, Emiel Zietzke, pretty well—it was his grandfather, Wilhelm Zietzke, …