WordPress.com stats team prepared a 2014 annual report about my blog: Here's an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog's audience viewed Our Heritage... about 16,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at the Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people … Continue reading 2014 in Review
Month: December 2014
Our Deaf Heritage, Part 2
Our Deaf Heritage Last January, I posted Our Deaf Heritage, that confirmed deafness in the Boling/Bolling/Bowling and Randolph families' ancestors from the 1700's in England and Virginia, and how they were responsible for founding the first schools for the hearing impaired in America, and later, the infamous Gallaudet University in the District of Columbia. Gallaudet was established in 1864 … Continue reading Our Deaf Heritage, Part 2
Family Connections and Christmas Letters
Family Connections and Christmas Letters Yesterday, I received a surprise Christmas letter from John and Deidra Doan who had just returned home from his 28th season of Holiday concerts and second year of calling it “Christmas Unplugged – Reclaiming the Holiday Spirit.”John's timing was uncanny and I feel as though we are both ancestrally and spiritually connected, though … Continue reading Family Connections and Christmas Letters
Ford and Lo-Lathrop Families Among Puritans Who Ban Christmas in MA
December 25, 1659: Christmas Celebration Outlawed To put this story in context, Massachusetts was home to many of the Lo-Lathrop family, my maternal grandmother's ancestors and significant leaders in the making of the "New England" in America. My 9th great grandfather, Rev. John Lathrop, was one of the first and was the founder of Barnstable, … Continue reading Ford and Lo-Lathrop Families Among Puritans Who Ban Christmas in MA
How’s Your Pre-Christmas Spirit?
Have You Been Scrooged or Is Family Your Focus? How's your pre-Christmas spirit going this year? Have you just about had it with all the hustle and bustle that leads up to the big day? Has your focus been on the reason for the season or has societal pressure and extreme commercialism pulled you in? … Continue reading How’s Your Pre-Christmas Spirit?
Odd Christmas Customs From Newspaper Archives!
"Old Christmas fare did not include the turkey, now the modern Christmas bird. In olden days, a roasted peacock took its place on the festive board." Last week I wrote about the great newspaper archives at fultonhistory.com. I promised I would go back and take a closer look. So I searched for the word Christmas … Continue reading Odd Christmas Customs From Newspaper Archives!
A Renaissance Christmas Dinner – Published 1660
It has become a tradition in our family for the past 10 years or so (passed down from my maternal grandmother, Loretta, my mom, Norma, as they got older) that my daughter-in-law and I shop and prepare food for about 30 loved ones on our special holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Despite her full-time career, … Continue reading A Renaissance Christmas Dinner – Published 1660
Old Wounds Reopened…
When asked about how I feel about the August+ events in Ferguson, Missouri, that now have festered and exacerbated old wounds among our people, my only answer can be; "I'm having flashbacks to the happenings in the 1960's, equal rights movements, and the 1990's in Los Angeles and around the United States after the Rodney … Continue reading Old Wounds Reopened…
27 Million Newspaper Pages Digitized in a Living Room!
Original Article About Tom Tryniski was written by Jim Epstein at Reason.com If you have ever searched through newspaper archives you know just how tedious, time-consuming, sometimes costly, and most importantly, how iffy a find can be. But back in March 2013, Jim Epstein at Reason.com, profiled Tom Tryniski, an eccentric retiree who digitized about 27 million … Continue reading 27 Million Newspaper Pages Digitized in a Living Room!
A Time for Everything…
Ecclesiastes 3:1-9: A Time for Everything 1There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and … Continue reading A Time for Everything…
Together Again–Four Generations of the Chambers Family
Four Generations of Chambers-Boling Family Lost and Found For years, I thought there were no pictures of my dad as a little boy and especially none of his mother Helen Louise Chambers (1911-1944) born in Philadelphia, daughter of Frank Maynard Chambers (1864-1967) from Marion, Pennsylvania and Lottie Taylor (1890-1962) from Culpeper, Virginia. I had totally … Continue reading Together Again–Four Generations of the Chambers Family
Our Unbounded Heritage: 12th Century & Beyond 