I've spent fourteen years on this platform, writing about my family's trees. I've written about postcards and photographs, pension files and census lists. The most satisfying posts connected people to details in humanizing ways. Of course not every entry succeeded. I am much more discriminating about pressing "publish" these days, so fewer posts are getting … Continue reading Family Herstory
women’s history
Grandma Serena Had A Cat
This week's #family history challenge--What's Your Favorite Discovery--from Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors52Weeks sparked a vivid memory. In mid-January 2009 I discovered first hand what our nation's capital is like in winter. Washington, D.C.'s humid air wraps your body in a vise; a cold breeze off the river increases its grip. I walked briskly from the … Continue reading Grandma Serena Had A Cat
Amanuensis Day: The Last Will and Testament of Happy Stone
North Carolina, wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 for Happy Stone, Franklin County; accessed digitally on ancestry.com, 20 August 2021. On a Tuesday morning in March three springs before her death, Happy Stone sat with H. H. Davis and Robert Mannas and dictated the terms of what should happen to her farm and estate upon her … Continue reading Amanuensis Day: The Last Will and Testament of Happy Stone
Recipes and receipts: A 1970(ish) Texas Sheet of Chocolate Deliciousness
Our dinner table in southwest Virginia was always full. Mother and Daddy at either end, us four kids seated two across from two on each side. In the center, sat two vegetables, a starch, a meat dish or casserole, to be passed to the left until all were served. At each place was a glass … Continue reading Recipes and receipts: A 1970(ish) Texas Sheet of Chocolate Deliciousness
A Civil War Legacy Continues: Serena Sayles Makes A Claim
Ira Sayles died Friday, 15 June 1894, and was buried on the Sayles' Mecklenburg County farm before the sun hovered on the western horizon that evening. If you have ever served as executor of someone's last wishes, then you know how incongruous the days following a death can feel. There are all the emotions roiling … Continue reading A Civil War Legacy Continues: Serena Sayles Makes A Claim
Shoots, Roots, and Leaves 