A parentage search for my 3^rd great-grandfather, Willard Wheeler (1805-1883) of Whiting, Maine, steered me towards another Willard Wheeler (1804-1888) of Sudbury, Massachusetts. I decided to put my great-grandfather on hold and pursue the alternate Willard, as I found..

On 1 July 1656, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin arrived in Boston from England, entering the Massachusetts Bay Colony through Barbados. It was a long journey for the pair, with Ann Austin leaving behind five children. With them were nearly one hundred books that they were..

“There is a superlative that we use for those that go to sea out of this port, the ones that we hold up high, the ones that we honor, the ones whose legacy we treasure…. We call those people the finest kind.” – Massachusetts Senator Bruce E. Tarr.

This kinship chart is something I have been trying to determine for almost thirty years! As teenagers, my friends and I would watch Late Night with Conan O’Brien. We watched an episode on October 23, 1996 with guest Denis Leary, who told Conan that “my grandfather and..

As the holidays come and go, I often find myself reflecting on the family members who have shaped my life and the stories that connect generations. Of course, I think of my mother, but also of my maternal grandmother, Marylynn Moore Hickey. My grandmother was an..

If you are ever in Essex County, Massachusetts, there is an interesting cemetery within the Maudslay State Park in Newburyport. It is a pet cemetery and features seven gravestones of beloved pets that once belonged to the wealthy Moseley family. 

Every now and then my research takes me into the murky corners of history, inter-personal drama, and catastrophic tragedy, making it suddenly feel like I’m watching a binge-worthy Netflix series instead of doing my job. That’s when I reach for my phone or turn to my..

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

1863 print depicting American artist Washington Allston

I have lived in Allston, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, for about three years. For most of that time, I never gave the area’s name much thought. I assumed that it was either the name of a town back in..

Illustration of a home in Freetown, Massachusetts, circa 1895