The man I remember as my great grandfather was a fit, bespectacled man with thinning white hair and a kind smile. Wearing a starched white shirt, black pants, and a dark tie, he sat on the grass in a lawn chair one hot, muggy, Wisconsin afternoon, proudly watching his children and grandchildren enjoy spending time together. Even over-dressed for a…
Genealogy
The Complexity of DNA
It felt like I was a liar. All my life I had been telling people I was half German, possibly more. After all, my mother’s family and ancestors were all German for hundreds of years, and there was also German on my father’s side of the family. The other side of my family was mainly English and French. When my…
More Childhood Photos
I’ve spent months going through my late father’s boxes and boxes of photos, slides, and negatives. There were so many that it was overwhelming to even consider trying to scan them and convert to digital media myself. We sent them out in groups of about 1000 each to be professionally scanned and, in some cases, restored. I found a few…
Radio Waves
Recently I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Greg Thomas S., Public Affairs Host of “Conversations” which airs Sunday mornings at 6:00 a.m. on KNDD, KISW, KKWF, KHTP in the Seattle, Washington area. We talked about one of my favorite subjects, genealogy, and how it impacted the story line in Braha. Greg was so delightful to speak with, and…
Where in the World
I recently had a DNA testing done through Ancestry.com. As an avid genealogist and the family historian, it seemed like something I should do to validate my research, proving—as much as that’s possible—my roots. When I first thought about it, it didn’t seem seem like there would be much variety in the results. I am half German from my mom’s side of the…
Down the Rabbit Hole
Genealogy research is a messy endeavor. I started out with the mantra that my research would be thorough and complete, and that my pedigree chart would only contain the most accurate information available. Somewhere down the road the latter part changed to probably mostly accurate information available. Now, if it looks like it could be good information but needs to be…
Photos from the Past
Fresh from our family archives is a photo of the village of Grimm, Russia, taken from the side view of a typical home. I suspect the home belongs to a relative of ours, although I cannot confirm that detail. In the foreground, the roof of the home is in disrepair, with part of it actually missing. A small mud and…