[Author's note: This series, on Mrs. Gray’s reading habits, began here.]

These entries, from 1860–61, focus less on Regina Shober Gray’s [1] reading than on the successive deaths from..Continue reading →

[Author's note: This blog post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 19 August 2015.]

My grandfather died almost 25 years ago, and sometime before that he gave me a box of “family papers.” The box itself is rather striking: a metal strong box, easily portable, with my..

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Recently, the New England Historic Genealogical Society participated in “Free Fun Friday,” a yearly summer event sponsored by the Highland Street Foundation for no-cost admission to cultural..

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[Author’s note: This series, on Mrs. Gray’s reading habits, began here.]

In May 1860, Regina Shober Gray [1] was visiting her family in Philadelphia.

245 South Eighteenth Street, Wednesday,..

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[Author’s note: This post concludes the series of excerpts from the Regina Shober Gray diary which began here.]

Mrs. Gray’s [1] summer was winding down, and while autumn impended she could..Continue reading →

My photography collection recently took a decided step into new territory when I started acquiring vernacular photographs – images characterized, generally, by their lack of provenance and offering..Continue reading →

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..

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[Author’s note: This series of excerpts from the Regina Shober Gray diary began here.]

By the third week in August 1880, Mrs. Gray [1] was comfortably settled in New Hampshire, where she had..Continue reading →

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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Many family history researchers are hard-pressed to find personal information, photographs, memorabilia, or heirlooms to treasure and preserve. I am not one of them, and yet I seem to have a remarkable supply of “memories of things..

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