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, …
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 after I’m gone!” My Aunt Janet recently left a box with me. One of the …
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 to a man named Joseph Roy Crews. My client has some things that belonged to …
Mystery Monday: Seeking Relatives of Joseph Roy Crews Read More »
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, who was the main object of his curiosity. But his father’s life has turned out …
Recently I found the 1848 Ohio marriage record for my husband’s 2nd great-grandfather, John Garver (1821-1901) and his wife Mary Ann Overly (1829-1890). Often I give these types of records a cursory glance, looking for the names and dates I need—but this time I read the old, handwritten record closely, and it gave me pause. …
“La Corriveau”… Her real name was Marie-Josephte Corriveau, and she was one of the most infamous murderers in Canadian history. She was born in 1733 near Quebec, and she is my husband’s 2nd cousin, 6 times removed. This is a bronze sculpture of her from the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec. According to …
“La Corriveau” – Second Cousin and Infamous Murderer Read More »
While researching the ancestry of my sister-in-law Susie, I came across the stories of two sisters—Anna and Eva Grimm. I wrote about Anna in a separate post, so now it’s Eva’s turn. Eva Grimm was born around 1886 in Aurora, Illinois, and married her husband Alfred Wyatt in 1908. The marriage was not a match …
Here are memories of life on an Illinois farm, as recalled by my mother, Adra Erickson Wallin (1922-2010)… “I was born at home (all four of us were), at the farm at Barbers Corner on August 18, 1922, at six in the morning. A nurse and a doctor came—Dr. Ludwig—but I was born before he …
One Girl’s Childhood During the Great Depression Read More »
Most of my father’s life story is lost forever. I always meant to write it down, and he always said he would do it—but when we finally made time to do it together, he died not long after we started. I would give a king’s ransom to know more details about his life before we …
I grew up with one brother and one sister—a typical 50s family. My mother-in-law, however, grew up in a different world—she shared her childhood with five sisters and eight brothers. Walter Garver and Hazel Alwood were married in Clare County, Michigan in 1914. Over the next 25 years, they had fifteen children—in order, they were …