Yesterday, I was looking at a roll of microfilm. All I was trying to do was locate a will and get a list of grandchildren that I thought I would find there. This will I knew would be buried in the minutes of town council meetings. Eventually, after stumbling upon a few useful tidbits in […]
You Never Know Who Is Hiding in those Details Read More »
History is a fluid thing. The past is whatever was once the present—whatever once happened. The past does not change but history changes. New evidence is found. Old evidence is reevaluated, old biases are removed and new ones often take their place. We may overemphasize something to correct for all the years it was ignored.
One of our physicist friends dropped in to visit last week when she was in Chicago for meetings. It’s always nice to catch up with someone you don’t see very often and also with what is happening in physics. As usual one thing reminds of another and eventually I find myself thinking about genealogy. Sometimes
Building an Ancestor Read More »
I think almost every genealogist has or will have at least some interest in the lives of ancestors that goes beyond learning the facts necessary to find the next ancestor. For me their music is one of those aspects of their lives that holds a special fascination. I’ve always loved old music. One CD I
Researching to the Oldies Read More »
We think of names as normally fixed and, wandering spellings aside, unchanging. Our names are what they are. They are in our passports, driver’s licenses, company IDs and credit cards. All those items must have the same name upon them if we are to be able to navigate our everyday world. Not only that but
Not Quite All in the Family Read More »
When I mentioned the reuse of the names of deceased children in a recent post (Geneanthropology), it got me thinking about naming patterns. As genealogical evidence goes, I wonder if evidence from naming patterns, onomastic evidence, isn’t both one of the most underutilized and most overly valued indications of relationship. It is valuable if given
Making Names for Ourselves Read More »
I’ve recently been reminded of a few things that seemed to fall together into a somewhat oddly named post. What is the Logic?—Begging the Question First, I was reminded of the logical fallacy that goes by the name “begging the question.” Nowadays, that phrase is often used to mean a statement that seems to demand
Begging the Citation Read More »
Though we think of hope as something for the future and memory as something of the past, they are entwined and entangled. Our dreams are imprinted by our past and our memories are shaped by our desires. Hope springs eternal, so the saying goes, and eternity is not only the future, it also includes the
What’s Hiding in a Place? Read More »
So many years ago that I don’t quite remember where this took place, I was in an art museum with a friend or two and we came across a strange family portrait. I happened to know why it was so strange and so I got a chance to play tour guide, if only for one
Like many bloggers of yore (in internet terms I suppose “yore” means more than a year or two ago), I’m shocked to discover that my blogiversary is upon me. It has been exactly one year since my first post. At the end of this post, I’ll celebrate a little with links to some of my
1st Blogiversary and The Power of Negative Thinking Read More »