Ancestor Animation, part 4: Looking out for their own
I can’t remember my Gramma Leta Bertram ever telling me a story about her past, her parents or her sisters.
Category: Family History
Ancestor animation, part 3: The fateful importance of grandparents
This is the only photo I have of my paternal grandfather’s parents, Robert August Bertram and Flona Agnes (“Aggie”) Murphey, together. They look like a fairly sedate older couple, though the light reflecting off their glasses makes their faces hard to read. Yet their meeting was just as unlikely, and required as much daring, as...
Ancestor Animation, part 2: “Mama was a Yankee, and Daddy was a Rebel”
The proud young parents in this photo most likely would never have met were it not for a specific piece of Federal legislation.
Ancestor Animation, part 1: Inevitable
William and Lizzie were destined to meet.
Social media of the 1980s
My connection to the Battle of Peach Tree Creek is not what I thought it was.
Technology, competition and cousins: or, How my grandfather learned to tat
I don’t have any clear memories of my maternal grandfather, who died when I was two. He was born in 1884, grew up in the small town of Paw Paw, Illinois, got a medical degree from Northwestern in 1908 and practiced until the 1950s, when he retired from his position as Medical Director of the...
Jennie, part 2: “She was my ideal”
What came in between the grim look on her face in the picture last time, and this triumphant grin?
Jennie, part 1: The Defalcation
In the summer of 1892, my great-great-grandmother's first husband made the national news.
Diary 1862: The complete text
I hope you enjoy Catharine's voice as much as I do.
Diary 1862, Part 4: War, Words, and Silence
At first glance, only one entry - the last - makes reference to the Civil War. But looking at the word frequencies in Catharine's diary hints at another, more oblique, more personal story.