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August 29, 2026

The Day I Accidentally Found Barack Obama in My Family Tree

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

a little history you didn’t ask for, maternal history

barack obama, berkeley county virginia, dunham, powers, watson

“The creation of a thousand forests is one acorn.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Welcome! My name is Lisa, and I’m a family historian, storyteller, and unapologetic history nerd with a deep love for discovering the ordinary people, places, and stories that came before us.

What began as curiosity about my own ancestors has grown into a passion for researching, preserving, and sharing the stories, photographs, documents, and places that connect generations across time. Along the way, I’ve discovered that some of the best stories aren’t necessarily found on my family tree. Sometimes they’re hiding in an old newspaper, a forgotten recipe, a historic place – or some random bit of history I simply can’t resist sharing.

I believe every ancestor – whether they left behind a diary or only a name on a census record – deserves to be remembered. My hope is that this site not only preserves my family’s history for future generations, but also celebrates the fascinating, surprising, and sometimes wonderfully everyday stories of the past.

Because history is everywhere. You just have to be curious enough to look.

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berkeley county virginia

The Day I Accidentally Found Barack Obama in My Family Tree