Whether you loved or hated the uniquely delivered first season of Genealogy Roadshow, they’re back for another go of it on Jan 13th on PBS. They’ll be visiting the fascinating cities of New Orleans, St. Louis and Philadelphia this year and talking with everyday people to uncover their family mysteries. A good deal of negative feedback for …
Genealogy Roadshow Season 2 Premiers January 13th Read More »
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, …
If you like staying up to date on history news, you’ll probably love the new app from New Historian. We checked it out today and found that they had some really fascinating topics, including several recent articles that would likely be of interest to family historians. Here’s some information they’ve shared with Family History Daily: …
App from New Historian is a Fun Way to Get Your History Fix Read More »
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 »
At some point or other in their research, every family historian will likely discover the sad fate of the 1890 census. A critical time of population growth and change in America’s history, the 11th census of the United States should have contained the detailed records of more than 60 million individuals. But instead, we have but …
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, …
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 …