My ancestors ran the gamut from black sheep to outstanding citizen. But life isn’t fair… Those who honor faith and family, who play by the rules, sometimes suffer the most tragedy. Consider my Peterson ancestors. My great-grandparents were Nebraska pioneers Carl Peterson (1861-1917) and Emelia Fryksdal Peterson (1861-1933). From all indications they were a close …
I’ve had Amish friends for a long time. I took this picture from the back seat of their buggy—one of my favorite places to be… When I first got to know my original Amish friends, their eight children ranged in age from two to eighteen. Now the youngest is out of school (which means eighth …
My husband has a great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War and lived to tell about it (although barely). His name was Lewis Alpheus Mosey (1843-1925). A few years ago I found Lewis’ Civil War Pension Index Card and 1890 Special Veteran’s Census Schedule on ancestry.com. The census said that he had a “rifle wound …
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 »
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 …