1914: My 3rd Cousin’s Husband Proclaimed Mother’s Day a National Holiday

A Presidential Proclamation On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson (husband of my third cousin, Edith Bolling Wilson), issued a presidential proclamation that officially established the first national Mother's Day holiday to celebrate America's mothers. But, there are two lines of thought about where and when the idea of Mother's Day was first brought up. Julia Ward Howe 1) …

Two Pocahontas Descendants Became First Ladies: Pocahontas 1595-1617, & Edith Bolling Wilson 1872–1961

Strong Women and Role Models for Young Girls.It is not uncommon for young girls to claim to be descendants of Pocahontas. I didn't know much about my ancestors or my connections to them when I was a child, but now I do and I am very grateful for learning more. For this reason, I write …

150th Anniversary–Battle of the Wilderness

My second great-grandfather, Lawrence T. "Larl" Boling married Sarah Tapp, daughter of the now famous Catharine Dempsey "Widow Tapp," (making her my 3rd great grandmother) because she had the misfortune of living on the land that became known as the "Wilderness Battlefield," in Fredericksburg, Virginia, during the Civil War. On Friday, May 2, through Sunday, May …

History of Easter

In under 4 minutes, the story of Easter from History.com

ISO my Family’s Sociological “Big Bang!”

According to my most recent research into the Bolling-Chambers-Taylor families, I am descended from an ancient line of folks who were known to be bald, short, fat, stammerers, and some even barbarians! At my eldest grandson's wedding in Chicago last weekend,  my third eldest grandson approached me for genealogical help. For his college sociology class, his assignment …

Chi-Town Bound: The Wedding, Part I.

A Whirlwind in Chi-Town This weekend was a whirlwind of emotions, events, and changing environments.  On Thursday, April 10, husband, Bob, daughter, Jennifer, and I (representing the Maryland-based Boling-Dickinson-McDaniel families) departed from Reagan-Washington National Airport headed for Chicago, IL., to meet up with our Lynchburg-based Dickinson's for our eldest grandson, Joe's, wedding on Saturday. Food, Glorious …

A Girl Jekyll and Hyde Who Embezzled $110,000

I subscribe to World Explorer Ancestry.com which gives me full access to everything Ancestry has available, including Fold3.com, the military records site, and Newspapers.com, which includes unlimited access to more than 50 million pages from more than 1800 newspapers across the United States with billions of articles, obituaries, and announcements that may contain stories of my …