I didn’t know my Great Aunt Julie very well. I met her a couple of times as a child. Then when I started doing my family tree, we shared a few phone calls and letters. But, what I knew, I admired. My conversations with my Great Aunt took place while she was in her 80s. …
Category: About My Ancestors
Newspaper Clipping File: McSwegan
One of the families I know very little about is the McSwegan’s. My Gr Gr Gr Aunt, Catharine Kelly, married Thomas McSwegan sometime in the 1870s. They’re children were Hugh, Nellie, Joseph, Catherine, Alice, Arthur, and Ellen. The family lived in various areas of San Francisco. I know that Catharine lived with several of her…
Impossible Places to Research: the Hawaiian Islands
Another installment in “My Area’s of Expertise”… Now, let me tell you about Hawaii, that beautiful island paradise. In Hawaii, I’ve experienced a similar problem but for different reasons. Hawaii was very isolated until the 1830s. When outsiders started seeing the potential to make money, Hawaii became much like a super sonic boom town. Things…
Impossibly Places to Research: San Francisco Pre-1906
My other main research expertise is finding alternative records when the normal records may not exist. You see, I am dogged by places where the official records have been wiped out or official record keeping was haphazard because things were happening too quickly. Take my Kelly and Dolan clans. Why in the world did they…
A Woman Called Nanny
As I remember Nanny, she was a sweet old woman (probably only 60 at the time!) Nanny was my Great Aunt, Maria (Pacheco) Correia. I had no idea at the time what a life Nanny lead. Now that I know, I have so much more appreciation for the wonderful person she was. Maria was born…