A Family Tapestry

  Two weeks shy of an exact twenty one years after Effie Woodworth sent her grandson a letter lecturing him on his lack of respect for a fa...

  Every so often, tracing the trajectory of an ancestor's life story leads us straight into the midst of conflict—the kind of conflict w...

  Sometimes, family history research takes the form of speed searching. That certainly was the case when I took a whirlwind tour through the...

  Sometimes, the answer we're seeking to our family history research question is buried in the details. Right now, I'm wondering jus...

  When a death-dealing malady strikes many members of a family, the question may evolve: where did it come from? In the case of Marilyn Sowl...

  Anybody who has arrived early in a doctor's office to complete requisite paperwork before that first consultation will be able to rela...

  On the morning of December 24—Christmas Eve—Joseph Ijams must have taken abrupt leave of his family. That, at least, is how the Knoxville ...

Luther C. Fischer arrived in 1871 as the firstborn child of widow Sarah Rainey Smith and her second husband, Hartford C. Fischer. Growing u...

Most of the time, genealogists believe they are preoccupied with the details of lives lived centuries ago — or at least decades ago. The th...

If one had just arrived in paradise, what could possibly induce a soul to want to leave again? The move to the Broad River area of Georgi...

Have you run into any famous names as you push your way into the unknown of your family’s past history? I thought it rather notable wh...

…I was disabled and had neither horse nor money to regain my command . When examining the timeline and narrative of Charles Edwa...

Receiving a copy of the February 15, 1917, obituary for Mrs. Anna Creahan, for me, was a delight. Not only was it effortless to obtain the...

When I recall all my memories of Lydia Melnitchenko, I can’t think of her without seeing the shadows in her life. Likewise, when I’ve sear...

When Luther Kite signed his name—with a flourish—on the draft registration card in June, 1917 , he claimed an exemption from military serv...

Sometimes, in researching our family history, the data dump can morph into an avalanche of dull, dry dates, places and names. With the inf...