[Editor’s note: This blog post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 29 June 2015.]
Over the years I have had the chance to discuss the subject of ethnicity (and identity) with avid genealogists and..
Continue reading[Author’s note: This post concludes the series of excerpts from the Regina Shober Gray diary which began here.]
Many years ago, during a visit with my wife to her maternal grandparents, her grandfather asked if we could deliver some books which he had sold..
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My maternal grandparents were born in 1932: they were just nine years old at the beginning of World War II. They grew up blocks from each other in the Bronx: Nana in The Alley, and Papa on the other side of..
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Over the centuries, families have kept their own records of their history – by writing it in family Bibles; by sewing it into samplers and other needlework; by having it engraved onto objects; and sometimes by writing it into preprinted..
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I have sometimes mentioned how much stuff I inherited from my mother and her family. Mother left it all to me with the cheerful instructions that I was to figure out what to do with it.
For years, decades, I have intended to catalog and arrange, describe, and account..
Continue reading[Author’s note: This series of excerpts from the Regina Shober Gray diary began here.]
It may surprise you to read (or not, if you’re family) that I have squirrels in my closets. They nest in bins, and hide under papers, books, or textiles when I want to find one, or shout for attention when I don’t. But I like living indoors without wildlife, so these..
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A nice example of genealogical good fortune came my way as a result of a past blog post I wrote regarding my search for family photos.
The comment, written nearly a year afterward, was from Nancy Chapin:
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