Pocket watch is link to family past
I have been thinking about and connecting with Sarah’s post this week about “guilt items” - those things you keep out of guilt or a sense of duty, even though you don’t want them. I can be absolutely brutal when it comes to tossing or giving away items that I’ve personally acquired, but it’s harder for me [...]
Starting your genealogy project: a basic tip sheet
Earlier this week I promised a beginner’s tip sheet on launching a genealogy project. Remember that genealogy is both the search for documentation about family members as well as the gathering of recollections and stories. Larry Lehmer has much better advice than I on the latter, so I’ll focus on the basic tools of gathering [...]
Mustered in and conjured up
Every time we drive east on Euclid Avenue, on the bridge over the Des Moines River, we look down at the bike trail that winds along the river’s edge, expecting to see two tired Civil War veterans walking in tattered uniforms with their muskets. Why? Because one day a few years ago, my husband actually [...]
An Independence Patriot: General Hugh Mercer, 1726-1777
Happy Independence Day!
I considered writing a post full of celebratory sentiments, but decided to go another route instead. I mentioned previously that one of the many “distractions” in my genealogical journey has been the possibility that I may be a descendent of General Hugh Mercer, a Revolutionary War patriot. I thought it might be interesting to [...]
Family reunions mean great storytelling
Larry Lehmer notes that summer time is family reunion time which can lead to great stories. We never did family reunions when I was growing up - there just weren’t very many of us on either side since both my parents were only-children and my dad’s family was all in Pennsylvania. I do remember several [...]
Stone hunting for Bardricks in Adair County
Larry Lehmer has a great post about rural cemeteries this week, and it got me thinking about one of my favorite stone-hunting stories.
Grandma Verdie told me that her mother’s parents were buried “in Pitzer Cemetery” in the general vicinity of Winterset and Earlham, Iowa. Wanting to find the gravestone and see the burial site of [...]
Veering off the main road
I learned one of the core lessons of genealogy very early on: it’s easy to get distracted.
In a moment, you can wander off the main path (looking for direct blood-line ancestors) and start down any number of secondary trails that lead to aunts, uncles, cousins, skeletons-in-closet, or just historical context. One of my primary distractions [...]
Interviewing relatives is difficult for me
One of the things that’s really hard for me to do in genealogy is to “interview” relatives. I’m actually an experienced interviewer of other people, having been a radio show host and a freelance business writer in previous decades. But those situations are different - you’re expected to get right to the point because everyone’s [...]
Ten years and counting: my genealogical journey
It occurred to me this weekend, as I traipsed around Winterset Cemetery looking for a needle in a haystack (because the plat office was closed - CLOSED! On Memorial Day!) that I’ve been a genealogist for ten years. I have photos from my first trip (as an adult, anyway) to this very cemetery in the [...]
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