Vita Brevis

One of my family lines that I love exploring is the Siegel family. My great grandmother Matilda Siegal was born in Focsani, Romania. She came to the United States as a little girl of 10 years of age in 1905. She lived with her older brother Isidore and then moved in..

The last of grandmother’s first cousins, Alma Rhodes of Westerly, Rhode Island, died on 4 August 2019 at the age of 96. She belonged to that increasingly rare group of individuals..

Many researchers find the Mid-Atlantic region intimidating. However, with so many of our ancestors passing through at some point, it really is worth going through the effort to find resources. The Mid-Atlantic region..

On a hot morning in July, Thomas Lester, the archivist at the Archdiocese of Boston, and I walked to Chinatown to meet Joe Bagley, the Boston city archaeologist. We wanted to talk to Joe about his..

At the North Carolinian Piedmont, in the cemeteries of Davidson County, sunlight breaks through perforated soapstone, creating a lattice-like design in the shadows cast by the many tombstones. These grave markers are probably the earliest “pierced” gravestones in..

We are heading into a beautiful season for visiting the three northern New England states. Should your research take you to New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine, you may really enjoy stopping by their state historical..

If you live in the Greater Metropolitan area of Boston, your water travels a long way to get to your tap. And your palate thanks you! Boston water has a reputation for being straight from the spigot drinkable. Its origin..

For many of us, Labor Day is synonymous with the last celebration of summer—a time for cookouts, sporting events, and a final day off before the school year begins and autumn arrives. The very existence of the federal holiday (established..

One of the many benefits of pursuing genealogy is the chance to meet long-lost family members. In addition to the possibility of finding old photographs,..

Between the dawn and the daylight, while the Keurig was doing its “wackadoo wackadoo wackadoo” thing brewing my morning coffee carafe, I read an article about how climate change is affecting current agricultural practices. This was nothing new to me because I’d seen..