Vita Brevis

Editor's Note: For Black History Month, we are sharing some of the ancestor stories that our researchers have uncovered as part of our 10 Million Names project. Learn more about 10 Million Names here. 

21 Chestnut Avenue, Boston, in 2024

Our neighbors affect us in direct and indirect ways. Whether you’ve only ever lived in single-family homes or you have experience residing in multi-family dwellings, you can likely remember your neighbors and the ways you impacted..

Postcard of the S.S. Romanic, created between 1903 and 1911

If you’re old enough to remember the popular ABC TV series The Love Boat which aired during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, you will no doubt still be able to hear in your mind its melodic opening theme song (“..

Cover of Bible photographed by Carol Kimball Stahl

Frank Caleb Stowell’s American craftsman home in Medford, Massachusetts, circa 1911-1920

In September, I had the distinct honour and privilege of serving as Patron of the Patrons Speech at the 36th International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences, the first such congress hosted in the United States of America. The congress takes place..

Mural in Oswego, Kansas, depicting the Osage village of White Hair circa 1841 (via Wikimedia Commons)

At the turn of the twentieth century, Mary True Randall set up a photography studio with a dark room in her father’s house opposite Pittsford, Vermont’s Village Green. For almost 20 years, her camera captured children in formal poses and at play, quaint scenes of rural..