I was reading about the nature of happiness the other day and it got me thinking about what makes me happy as a family historian. What makes one happy has a lot to do with where effort gets placed so I think that it it an interesting question. Stuff and gadgets might make me happy […]
Puzzle Piece Happiness Read More »
This week I’m taking a break from seriousness and posting something just for fun. I’ve always loved writing parodies and when this popped into my head on December 22nd, I decided that I had a blog post. So with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore here we go— Twas the night before Christmas and all through
Twas a Genealogist’s Night Before Christmas Read More »
What is “research”? It seems like a simple question but it isn’t. What does research look like? What properties should it have? Research takes many forms, has many entries in the dictionary and can mean slightly different things in different fields. It can involve experiment, observation, testing, fact finding and theory development. In my old
Research, Rinse, Repeat Read More »
Purely by coincidence I happen to be researching a family connected to the Salem Witch Trials. Honestly it has nothing to do with the approach of Halloween. I’ll confess that I’m writing about them now rather than later because of Halloween but that is another matter. I’m not going to write about the gory details
John Q. Tangential is one of my favorite people in genealogy. He married a great-aunt or bought land next to a third cousin once removed. Then he moved west and was found in the census on the same page as another family of interest that wasn’t supposed to be related to him in any way
The Genealogists Friend, John Q. Tangential Read More »
By all accounts, Kurt was a strange man, insane eventually. He was paranoid and his life came to an end when he starved himself, fearing that he would be poisoned. Kurt was also brilliant. Not many people took their evening stroll from work at The Institute of Advanced Study with Albert Einstein. Kurt was a
Down the Rabbit Hole Read More »
When Steve Jobs passed away a few days ago, the news popped up on my Mac and I read his obituaries online. Somehow that seemed both natural and fitting. There were many, many angles in those obituaries. He was a CEO, technology visionary and showman but what struck me were all the mentions of his
The Hard Part is Knowing What to Leave Out Read More »
I’m not a great gardener but I always enjoy gardens. Sometimes gardens are simple beds of flowers but they can also be carefully thought through botanical spaces with rock walls, trellises, and paths. Some of my favorite memories of historical homes, castles and palaces are the formal gardens and private parks sometimes found there. They
A Garden of a Forebear’s Five Senses Read More »
Our ancestors are more than people. They are slices of times and places that we would know little or nothing about without them and we shouldn’t remain ignorant of those times and places despite them. They are our tour guides. We receive private showings of times and places that most people only vaguely realize exist.
Docents for Descendants Read More »
Today we look back on a moment when America and much of the world went into shock. Just about everyone old enough to have understood remembers what they were doing and where they were when they heard the news. I was living in Sweden then. Because of the time difference it was late in the