Ancestors All

I wonder how many genealogy journeys begin at funerals? Mine was one such journey that began in the early 1990’s at my grandmother’s wake. After the services...

Week 15 is all about taxes. I recently came across an 1895 entry for Walter Norman Mague in the transcription of the Plainfield [New Jersey] Tax Receipt Ledg...

I am not especially comfortable writing about Week 12’s topic of misfortune. I think every life has times that seem either lucky or unlucky. Still, sometimes...

This week’s topic is “Lucky” and the one person I can think of who was really lucky was my maternal grandmother, Big Grandma, who I introduced last week. Her...

When I read that the Week 10 topic was “Strong Woman” my immediate thought was that all the women in my family have been strong. Maybe I should just make a r...

Week 9, “Where there’s a Will,” brings to mind a story of family and friendship. The good thing about my great, great grandfather, Sebastian Conrad, was that...

Week 8 of the 52 Ancestors challenge asks about “heirlooms.” This is difficult simply because I have so many inherited mementos, it’s impossible to pick a fa...

Week 7 is all about Valentines. My great grand aunt, Josephine Conrad (1839 – 1905) had her own personal valentine … her husband, Valentine Ott.[1] We don’t ...

Week 6 is all about your “favorite name.” There are many that could fall into this category for me, but I don’t think I’ve any way around my maiden name of “...

Week 5 has us thinking about the Census; one of the key resources for any genealogist to track family composition and change through time. While the census i...

Week 4: This week’s inspiration is “out to dinner.” The topic reminds me that we do not have a strong food tradition in my family on either side. Food was a ...

Week 3: This week’s inspiration for the 52 Ancestors blog is “Longevity,” something I’ve never really thought much about in genealogy. Now I realize how litt...

Week 2: Inspiration this week was "Favorite Photo." This created a bit of a dilemma because of my commitment to feature collateral lines. There were fewer ph...

Week 1: This week's inspiration for 52 Ancestors was "Start," so I'm starting with some of the sweet treats found in the Candy Box File. *** Phoebe (Gilbert)...

This year I am participating in the 52 Ancestors challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. I'm writing primarily about my collateral lines ... those family members a ...