family

  • Interesting Record These letters have been edited to make the handwriting easier to read. It was done in pencil so parts of it are quite faded. It is in surprisingly good condition to have been written in 1903. I have transcribed it and fixed some of the spelling and grammatical errors. The letter reads: Sep

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  • 30 Days of Genealogy: Day 1

    Favorite Ancestor I can’t pick a favorite ancestor. There are a handful that take turns for the top spot and right now I would say it is my great-grandma, Alida Sophia Amerman (Bartl). My mom had a very special relationship with Alida, her grandma. Instead of Bethany Marie, I was almost an Aletha Sophia. Out

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  • Memory Monday: Memorial Day

    I’ve always had an interest in my ancestors and where they came from. I spend most of my time working on my mom’s side of the family (usually the Martin’s and Amerman’s, but Bartl, too) partly because I grew up sitting around a table with the adults playing pinochle and listened to all their stories

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  • Memory Monday: 5/19

    Memory Monday: 5/19

    I know having many children was pretty common back in the day and my maternal grandfather’s family was no exception. John David and Kathryn Susannah (Trumbauer) had 13 children, 11 surviving. The man in the back row on the left is my 2nd great-grandfather, Charles Romig Martin. He had a reddish tint to his hair

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  • Memory Monday: 5/12

    Memory Monday: 5/12

    The Martin/Amerman families. Three generations in one photo. Adults from left to right are LeRoy Martin, my grandpa. Next to him holding the baby is Anna, his wife. I’m unsure of the older balding man – awaiting confirmation from my mom on who that is. The older woman and man on the right are Alida

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  • An unexpected death…

    I didn’t realize how large my moms side of the family was until I started working on the family tree. I knew my grandpa LeRoy was 1 of 17 children born to Charles and Ida Martin (nèe. Waldo), but it looks a lot bigger on paper, once you add spouses, children and grandchildren. When I

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  • Mom’s Request: part 1

    Mom’s Request: part 1

    A few weeks ago, my therapist asked me if I thought I would move back to the midwest after we spent some time exploring what brought me to Alaska at 11 years old. “Yes.” I said. “At some point.” I could feel her eyes on me through the screen (we meet virtually). “I want to

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  • Finding Your Roots

    Finding Your Roots

    Researching family history has been a hobby of mine since my late teens. There are times when I take a break, and I can leave it alone for several months, at most a year or so, but it always pulls me back and there are usually new documents that have been uploaded during my time

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  • That darn thyroid…

    That darn thyroid…

    Dear Freda, Thanks very much for the invitation but we are stopping in Phila for dinner so I do not know just when we will arrive home so I would not want you to wait. Love, Bess. I couldn’t narrow down any Bess who would have sent this postcard from New Jersey, and there isn’t

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  • Postcard project: 50 states

    Can we get all 50 states? Currently at 7/50 (not up to date)

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