familyhistory

  • Shout out your favorites! My maternal grandparents will always be my favorite. I spent so much time with them growing up. They were a very important part of my childhood. My first two tattoos were to honor them. A puzzle heart with a missing piece for Grandpa because he loved doing puzzles and a yellow

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  • 30 Days of Genealogy: Day 8

    A soldier in the family “We don’t talk about Vietnam.” A phrase that I’ve said for as long as I can remember. I had grown up knowing that my dad had been drafted into the Vietnam war and had fought in it. I knew he was angry his entire life for having to do something

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  • Earliest birth date We already took a look at Henry Trumbauer (headstone above) on day 3, earliest burial site. For the earliest birth date, we look at Henry’s father, Andrew Trumbauer. Andrew was part of the first generation of Trumbauer’s that were born in America, his parents being from Germany. He was born in 1717

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  • A grave you’ve visited I enjoy visiting cemetery’s. I find them eerily calming. I always make an effort to go visit the graves of my ancestors in North Dakota when I’m back home. It doesn’t make me sad. I look forward to it. Okay, sometimes it is a little sad… I’ve visited the Forman Cemetery

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  • 30 Days of Genealogy: Day 5

    Famous Ancestor I guess this one is kind of up for interpretation and what your definition of “famous” is. I don’t think I have any famous ancestors in my family tree. At least none that I can find. Instead, I looked at a tree I’ve been working on for my co-worker. Her husband’s family is

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  • 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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  • 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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  • A Golden anniversary…

    A Golden anniversary…

    It’s been about a month since I researched one of these postcards. I never expect to find anything right away but newspapers.com delivered. When I started inputting names into the search field, I immediately got some hits. Yay! This postcard appeared to a to Mrs. C. A. Harrison in Minnesota from Mariann (?), who sent

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