Category Archives: American-history

When You Have Touched Those Records

Some people might plan a trip to New York City to see a Broadway show or go shopping. For me, my true thrill is hopping the ferry and visiting Ellis Island.

As the ferry was docking on my first visit, I had tears in my eyes. Though I don’t personally have any ancestors..

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A Complicated Legacy at Freeman Beach

According to his death certificate, Rufus Freeman of Myrtle Grove Sound in New Hanover County, North Carolina died on 26 September, 1923.1An autopsy was done in James Walker Hospital by the coroner G. S. Holden, who confirmed Rufus Freeman’s cause of death: “shot by..

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The Unsolved 19th-Century Mystery in the Parking Lot

When George Washington Flint was buried in 1873, I doubt anyone suspected that in little over a century, his final resting spot would one day be the parking lot of a Dunkin’ Donuts.

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Stories of People in Poverty: The Trail Continues

1864 Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Records #21827 and #21828 for Margaret Kellaher and John C. Kellaher.

I wrote about Margaret (Mulligan) Kelleher and her infant son John Cornelius Kelleher a few months ago in a previous Vita Brevis post. While I thought the trail had..

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A Kingdom of No Ends

The truth is, I’ve rewritten this post about five times. Who really wants to lead with an image of a German royal in official Nazi dress? What could a guy like this possibly have to say? Lately, though, I have been looking for something bigger in the "unusual..

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Uncovering Stories of People in Poverty

The old administration building at Tewksbury Hospital, formerly the Tewksbury Almshouse.

I recently visited the Boston City Archives, located near the Charles River in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. The city archives house city departmental records, school records,..

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Crossing Barriers: Barbara May Cameron

Screenshot of Google's "Doodle" May 22, 2023

Perhaps you can relate: the other day, when Google flashed up their daily doodle with an homage to a lady by the name of Barbara May Cameron, I was prepared to ignore it completely. I don’t usually pay much attention to..

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The Tale of Christopher McNanny’s Left Foot

My interest in genealogy sprouted at an early age, when my father would tell me stories he heard as a child about my great-great-grandfather, Christopher McNanny. He recounted that Christopher served as a drummer boy during the Civil War, and endured the amputation of..

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Woonsocket, Rhode Island: The Most French City in the United States

While reviewing my family records recently, I found myself remarking to my wife how interesting it was that my grandmother’s baptism record from St. Ambrose Church in Albion, Rhode Island, was written in French—despite the fact that, as far as I knew, my grandmother..

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George Albion Paine: A Teenage Civil War Veteran

Observance of Memorial Day always compels me to think about the members of my extended family from Block Island who served in the Civil War, and the long-term effects of the war on their lives. This carte-de-visite photo of eighteen-year-old George Albion Paine, taken..

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