In genealogy research, you never quite know where a perfectly ordinary internet search is going to take you. I certainly wasn’t looking for Presidents the day I Googled the name of my 6X great grandfather, Samuel Dunham (1742-1824). I was simply doing what genealogists do – looking for anything I could find about another long-dead… Continue reading
Most of us learned a fairly tidy version of the Mayflower story in school. A ship full of Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in 1620 in search of religious freedom, landed in a strange new wilderness, struggled through a terrible first winter, and – with the help of the Native people they encountered – managed to… Continue reading
If you’ve ever wondered how much trouble two parents could cause a genealogist nearly 200 years later, allow me to introduce twin brothers, Leman and Lyman Smith. Same (very common) surname, nearly identical first names living in the same place at the same time. One of the twins, Leman Smith (1806-1888) is my 4X great… Continue reading
Imagine showing up to enlist in the Union Army during the Civil War and being told to open your mouth. The Army wanted to see your teeth. And not just because they were concerned about whether you could chew your dinner. Civil War soldiers carried ammunition in paper cartridges. To load a rifle-musket, a soldier… Continue reading
A few years ago I came across the story of Mary Bowser, a formerly enslaved woman who became a Union spy in Richmond during the Civil War. Bowser reportedly worked inside the Confederate White House, where Jefferson Davis lived with his wife, Varina, and passed information she gathered there to the Union. Naturally, that sent… Continue reading
John Brown remains one of the most complicated figures in American history. A fierce abolitionist who came to believe slavery would never be destroyed peacefully, Brown was willing to use violence against those who defended it. In 1856, during the bloody conflict over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state,… Continue reading
Some of the most interesting history is hiding in the most ordinary places – including the food we eat every day. While watching the History Channel’s The Food That Built America, I learned a fascinating little piece of fast-food history involving Dave Thomas, Colonel Sanders, a bucket of chicken and eventually, a Frosty. Dave Thomas,… Continue reading
Tiny Acorns & Mighty Oaks 