A few years ago I was researching my Duff line in Ireland, and I came across an interesting occupation for one of my ancestors. My third great-grandfather, Bernard Duff, was listed as a publican and farmer in the 1901 census.¹ Despite the heavy demands of agriculture,..

A young woman repairs a bicycle while three others watch and help, c. 1895. From Montana State University Library, via Wikimedia Commons.

Along the rutted, moonlit roads just north of Leeds, England, a cyclist in skirts pedals to her local pub. After a pint, she..

Map of Boston in 1870. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been researching the lives and descendants of Irish immigrant Bostonians Edward J. Costello (1866-1926 [?]) and Mary Josephine Maloney (c. 1872-1943). This genealogical journey has taken..

Lincoln County Courthouse, Kentucky. Photo by Russell and Sydney Poore via Wikimedia Commons.

In July of the summer of 2013, my husband and I took a driving trip through the back roads of Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri, so I could visit courthouses and see documents..

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..

My great-grandmother Kathleen never spoke much about her childhood, but she always wondered what happened to her little brother Joe.

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.

For many years, my family’s brick wall stood firm at the unknown parentage of Betsey Doty, who married Ebenezer Besse in Plymouth on 26 September..

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..

I have been researching a group of Irish folks who came to Buffalo, New York by way of Montreal. Although the State of New York did not mandate vital registration until 1881, the..