Are/Were Your Parents Frugal to a Fault?

My answer would most definitely have to be a big resounding "YES!" To this day, the thermostat needs to be kept on 78 degrees because the gas company advised that this is the most economical setting--despite how much water and sweat is flowing from guests foreheads and armpits; keep all doors and windows closed and …

I Grew Up In Forestville, MD

It’s been very cold outside these last few days of 2017.  Like many others, I have been staying inside and browsing my favorite sites on the web.  For example, one of the several groups I belong to on Facebook is called “I grew up in Forestville.”  It has about 1,500 members.  And many memories posted …

Back From the Future – Part 2

 A Quote from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, June 2014: Christopher Columbus never reached the shores of the North American Continent, but European explorers learned three things from him: there was someplace to go, there was a way to get there, and most importantly, there was a way to get back. Thus began the European exploration of …

John Rolfe Letter to Governor Thomas Dale, 1614

Continuing to further document and understand the lives of our earliest ancestors - emigrants from England to Jamestown, Virginia, I have included below, the 1614 letter  (transcribed and updated to today’s word usage and spellings by me--I made no changes to word choices or punctuation and kept present-day English spellings).  My  11th great-grandfather, John Rolfe, …

May 13, 2017: Jamestown Colony’s 410th Anniversary

Four hundred and ten years ago today (May 13, 1607), one hundred colonists (dispatched from England by the London Company) arrived along the west bank of the James River.  The next day they founded the first permanent English settlement in what is now the Virginia, known as the"James Fort." As I have written in other …

Immigration — A Hot Topic!

The Joy of Discovering New Information Some of you may know that I am a retired career employee from the U.S. Census Bureau.  I love my family and sharing the statistics and data that make up my heritage, family history, and the perpetual stories that keep coming from new discoveries.   Although retired now for nearly …

“Snuffing Out” Tobacco in Southern Maryland

Tobacco's 17th Century Beginnings in the Colonies Maryland's tobacco growing farms date back to the 17th century. Upon their arrival in 1634, Maryland settlers quickly hopped onto the tobacco bandwagon which the Virginians had started at the beginning of the century in Jamestown, Virginia. Borrowing seeds from my 11th great grandfather, Captain John Thomas Rolfe's (1585-1622) …

My Genealogy Story

My Desires to Know and to Learn One day my dad and I were talking about his young life, the absence of his mother early on and her mysterious death at age 32 that had left him and his family with unanswered questions. We also visited my paternal great grandmother about once a month for …

Addicted to Genealogy

For the Love of a Dear Sister After many years as an Ancestry.com (the world's largest online history resource) subscriber and enthusiastic supporter, I went looking for a similar but free resource for a friend of 40 years (who's like or better than a biological sister to me) who has never been consumed like me by …

And, together they danced…

The Month for Lovers Continues... My niece, Caitlyn Boling (daughter of my brother John Arthur and his wife Joyce), and her new husband Anthony Rubio, honored my parents' (Frank and Norma Boling) 70 years of marriage together (2/5/1946) at their wedding this past Sunday, February 21, with an Anniversary Dance especially for them. As some …

Let him have his memories…

The picture below is just one of several taken at our home in Capitol Heights, Maryland.  It was a New Year's Eve Party  hosted by my parents Frank and Norma Boling on Thursday, December 31, 1953. (And, in less than a week, I would turn 7 years old.) Among their guests were close knit family and …

February is for Lovers…and that Includes Our Parents

Just two days ago, on the one year anniversary of my blogpost "Hope, Love, Peace, and Tomorrow" I updated it.  The original post began with: “and they lived happily ever after.” "February is the month for lovers and hopeless romantics who like me believe in love at first sight, true and everlasting love, and fairy tale …

“It Shines Like Liquid Gold–Sparkles Like Amber Dew”

Many of the men in our family in their younger days were beer drinkers.  Today, not so much.  In fact, at our family gatherings for the past 30 years we have had only non-alcoholic beverages. The Beginning of My Family's Beer Drinking Days My dad was an attractive but scrawny child, who in 1949, three years after …

40th Anniversary – Fall of Saigon: April 30, 1975

The Swinging 60's and the 70's Disco Era As a member of the Baby Boomer Generation, I have so many memories of  The Swinging 1960's and the 1970's Disco Era--specifically the years surrounding the Vietnam War. Many of my high school classmates either enlisted or were drafted immediately following graduation to serve their country in Vietnam. …

20 Reasons Why You Should Write Your Family History

The following article was published February 9,2015, by the New York Public Library. I have re posted it here because it best describes my blogging's purpose, reasons, and experiences. The information I've gathered, the places I've been and the very kind people that I have come into contact with through my research and writing adventures …

Genetically Speaking, Could We Be Cousins?

Hard to believe, but we just might be near or distant cousins or cousins once or more removed.  When I started my genealogy research about 35 years ago we may never have been able to answer my question about being cousins with any certainty in a single lifetime. However, 11 years after my initial genealogical research, the …

Update: Chi-Town –The Wedding Weekend, Part III

Saturday - May 10, 2014 - Four Weeks Later...Again From Facebook: The couple's not legally married according to the Illinois Department of Vital Records!  Will they have to pay to purchase a new license?  Have they been living in sin because of a clerical error?  The conversation continues on Facebook....but--- It's just another glitch, a …

How Well Does Your Family Know It’s History?

How well do you think you know your family's history? More importantly to me, I'd like to confirm that there is practical value in my documenting and sharing my family’s story.    I sure hope so, because this blog site, as my legacy to future generations of my family, is intended to provide accurate reflections …

Our 28th President, His First Lady Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, Pocahontas, and Me

In Celebration of November -  Native American History Month President Woodrow Wilson - husband of my 3rd paternal cousin Edith Bolling Galt Wilson Edith Bolling Galt Wilson was the 35th First Lady of the White House. President Wilson's daughter, Margaret Woodrow Wilson served as First Lady for a brief period following the death of President Wilson's …