And other family secrets in the daily news.
Decades ago, when I’d ask my mother questions about her grandmother’s brother, I’d get the same answer everytime—Edward Forshay was an actor and his wife was a famous actress.
Orson had had enough. Bedridden and depressed, he had lived the last few months of his already-long life tied to an oxygen tank. His pain was almost intolerable. He seemed to have given up. Then someone unexpected came along.
That someone was Cathie English, an English teacher at Nebraska’s Aurora High School who walked into Orson’s room at the Hamilton County nursing home.
Hitting the road? See just what a family historian needs to turn a home on wheels into home sweet traveling home.
Say you’ve decided which RV suits you—trailer, camper, fifth wheel, or motorhome. Now it’s time to pore over brochures, really visit the models. Does this one have enough closet space? Sufficient outside storage?
The morning was not unlike other mornings that Adele Marcum had spent with her grandmother. Together, they worked in the kitchen creating homemade bread, while Adele’s grandmother regaled her with stories about their ancestors. But this time their conversation would lead to a special discovery—a famous ancestor in their family tree.
What force of nature makes us shun attainable goals and propels us toward the single family line that just seems so impossible?
Most people have black sheep in their family trees. I have a black hole.
Here’s the story:
One day, my father’s father disappeared.
You may not realize it, but two ancient cultural forces that have been at odds with each other for centuries—work and play—are finally starting to bury the proverbial hatchet, at least in the Western world.
Consider the following:
I was hiking with my friend, a doctor. We were an hour from the city, surrounded by trees, bugs, and sunshine. It was a holiday weekend, and we were there to relax.
Kelli Estrella
Artisan Cheese Maker
Estrella Family Creamery, Washington
Kelli Estrella remembers when her cheeses started to become “special.” It happened shortly after she convinced her husband to knock out a section of the floor of their new home so she could dig out a cheese cave, a place where her homemade cheeses could mellow and ripen better than in a refrigerator.
What’s the shortest distance between two—or 20—points? An electronic map of your ancestors’ migration.
American families rarely stay in one place. Whether your ancestors were early colonial settlers or 20th century immigrants, your people were on the move.
Just as maps were vital to explorers and travelers in the past, they are indispensable to us today.
If the concept of squatter’s rights seems more like lore and legend than like something legal, you may want to rethink your view—squatter’s rights are very much a fact of land law today, just as they were 50, 100, and 200 years ago.
I don’t know anyone who likes moving. The packing up is hard to fit into a modern schedule, and if you’ve lived in the same place for any time at all, you’re bound to step on a dozen emotional land mines that will stop you in your tracks.
Relocating might seem like a modern concept, but our ancestors moved plenty—the census shows it.