I have made it half way through the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. Woo Hoo! Usually I’ve given up by this point because life interferes. I’m behind a week, as usual, but at least I am still here! It is the halfway mark, so I’ll write about an ancestor I’ve researched only half way. …
Category: About My Ancestors
Happy Independence Day and a Gift from Ireland
I would like to wish everyone a very Happy 4th of July. This day signifies the signing of our Declaration of Independence and the revolution that lead to this great nation. I don’t have any colonial ancestors. I don’t even have a colonial “uncle of the wife of my 6th cousin twice removed”. As yet,…
52 Ancestors Week 24: I Wish I Had Their Bango
This week’s theme for 52 Ancestors is heirloom. One item I would really like to have is the bango tags of my great great grandparents is their bango. Do you know what a bango is? No, it is not a drug reference and I didn’t misspell a musical instrument. The word comes from the Japanese…
Recovering Family Photographs through School Yearbooks
I have very few photographs from my maternal grandmother’s side of the tree. While there are plenty of photographs of my grandmother, Anna (Jackson) Shellabarger, there are only a handful of her siblings. I have four of her mother and none of her father. There are no photographs of her many relatives from San Francisco….
52 Ancestors Week 22: My Mom was the First Graduate in My Tree
I had to put on my thinking cap (or was it my mortar board?) for this week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. I wanted to write about the first graduate in my tree, but I wasn’t sure who that was. I was aware that the majority of my immigrant ancestors were illiterate. Only the…




