All posts by Zachary Garceau

Finding royal roots

Representations of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile at Lincoln Cathedral. Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

In lineage societies, the frequently-used term ‘gateway ancestor’ refers to an ancestor who has a known lineage which can be traced back to a person of prominence...

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Baseball's Biography Project

Courtesy of Wikimedia.org

A total of 18,337 men have taken the field throughout the history of Major League Baseball (18,663 if the National Association is counted as major league, a point of contention among baseball historians).[1] Under their “Baseball Biography..

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The evolving game of football

Walter Camp. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

On 6 November 1869, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the Rutgers Queensmen[1] defeated the College of New Jersey[2] Tigers by a score of 6 to 4 in what is regarded as the first college football game ever played.[3] College..

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The last survivor

The remains of San Francisco's City Hall, 20 April 1906. Courtesy of WIkimedia

“It was 5:14 o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, April 18 [1906]. Nearly half a million people on the western edge of the American continent awoke suddenly with a roaring in their ears..

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Chaos in the streets

Moving Day, 1831. Images courtesy of Wikimedia.org

As many genealogical researchers know, tracing your ancestors in major metropolitan areas can prove difficult, thanks to the use of similar names, confusing address patterns, and, often, changing locations. In New..

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Devil at the crossroads

One of only two confirmed images of Robert Johnson in existence.

Rock and roll icon Eric Clapton once described Robert Johnson as “the most important blues musician who ever lived.”[1] Despite the fact that Johnson influenced musicians decades after his death, his..

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Westerly, 1900

Author's collection. Westerly, ca. 1905-1937

One day nearly two years ago, I entered a bookstore in my hometown of Westerly, Rhode Island. I had heard the store would be going out of business soon and wanted to take one last look around. After a few minutes, I came..

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Border crossings

Line house in Canaan, Vermont/Hereford, Quebec. Courtesy of Matthew Farfan, The Vermont-Quebec Border: Life on the Line.

As many genealogical researchers know, it is hardly unusual to have a person listed as born in one state on a census record, then ten years..

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The introduction of photography

Boulevard du Temple, Paris. The solitary man having his shoes shined is at lower left. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Perhaps more than any other event, the introduction of photography altered how individuals were memorialized and are remembered. While portraits have been..

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Unintended consequences

After the turn of the nineteenth century, the number of medical schools around the world increased significantly. While the increase in these institutions led to monumental developments in the medical field, it also had previously unforeseen consequences. One such..

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