The Sad Story of the John Rogers Family: Part 2
In The Sad Story of the John Rogers Family: Part 1, I wrote about my great-great grandparents, John and Sidney Rogers - how they met, how they had a young,…
Genealogy is a real family pastime in our world. Even those of us who don’t do the research love to talk about history & family stories.
Here you’ll find some of our favorite stories that we’ve uncovered over these years of putting together ancestral family trees (specifically Dilley/Hanson, Meydam/Reinecke & Phalen/DeMars).
We’ll also include links to interesting historical info for more background. Heck, we might even include a history blog we’ve written ourselves from time to time. After all, we love history!
The Sad Story of the John Rogers Family: Part 1
When I was a teenager, I remember my mother researching my grandmother’s family tree. I heard a lot of speculative stories about my great-great-grandparents, and I remember thinking that if…
A Sudden Immigration to America
This week I've been sorting through old boxes full of outdated Family Tree Maker© files. What an overwhelming job! Yes, they're outdated, but I have to make sure the information…
A Big Brick Wall: When the Family Story Doesn’t Match the Records
I was very hopeful that I would solve another one of those genealogy mysteries this past month, and now I’m very frustrated that I haven’t quite done that. Many of…
Small World: The Family Link
When I was in my early 20s and attending college in Madison, Wisconsin, I worked at Lake Kegonsa State Park, near Stoughton, Wisconsin, for about a year. Along my commute…
The Story of Dilleys Road
Did you ever wonder how some roads get their names? Many of them are named after the people who lived on them, building their homes and their lives on the…
In Search of Erik Bergstrom Part II: The Dig
You might have read In Search of Erik Bergstrom, Part I a few weeks ago. To recap, it covers the tragic story of my great-great-grandma Emma Hagberg and her short,…
The WWII Bridesmaid’s Dress… Made of Parachute
There are countless love stories about World War II sweethearts. Couples enduring distance, economic hardship, and an overwhelming sense of the unknown. Handwritten letters full of vulnerability and hope back…
In Search of Erik Bergstrom Part I: The Story
“Was great-grandma a hooker, or just stupid?” That was blunt, teenage me asking my mom a rather rude but absolutely serious genealogy question. While I have no ground to stand…
Bootlegging in the Kentucky Hills
My great-grandma Lillian Phalen turned 100-years-old in September 2020! To put this number into perspective for my 12-year-old daughter, I asked her to recall what she’d learned in history class…