Genealogy, History, Heritage, How To
Geography is important in genealogy. Knowing where your ancestors lived at any given times provides context to your family tree. But, people cannot be in two places at the same time. How is this possible? Online family trees, of course. Through the power of creating one’s own narrative, my relatives manage to be in California…
A few years ago, a cousin sent me a photo that showed her Lounibos relative in front of his liquor business with a man named Antoine Lassalle. It was taken around 1900 in San Francisco, California. He was thought to be a cousin, but the connection was not clear. I had no Antoines in my…
The desire to link people of the same surname from the same region is strong. After all, how many families with the same surname in a small Portuguese village? The problem is that Portuguese surnames are fluid, they evolve, they come out of thin air (or so it seems). Five children might use five different…
A cousin shared some of her unknown photographs with me. One was taken around 1915-1920 and was labeled “My nephew Freddy with his first pair of short pants”. We almost missed identifying little Freddy because the real relationship with the person who owned the photograph was different than the note implied. In order to solve…
It pays to randomly search the internet for your relatives. No, not to spy on them. For genealogical purposes, of course! I do this periodically and sometimes come up with a gem. I uncovered a lost part of my grandfather cousin, Ellen Figg’s, story. She was a Navy WAVE! Who Was Ellen Figg? She born…