Archives And Old Newspapers Speak Volumes About Ancestors

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day To Our McDaniel Clan! I discovered a timely treasure trove of ancestry hints and vintage newspaper clippings while researching my family's history. The path that opened up to me was too tempting to pass up. The Scottish-Irish McDaniel family line of my son-in-law Brian goes back to his 10th Great-Grandfather, Sorley …

Ancestors, Life, and Other Stuff

As I sit here today, eight years last week since my first blog post, I am reflecting back across 366 stories that I wrote about "stuff".  And, this past weekend at church the message to parishioners was about "stuff."It strikes me that I had initially so very little information about my ancestors beyond my maternal …

Christmas Traditions in Our Nation’s Capital

One of my former colleagues posted this article from a pamphlet he picked up at the Mary Surratt House Museum titled, “Christmas of Yesterday: A History of Our Treasured Traditions and Holiday Customs.” (If you recall, Mary Surratt was an alleged member of the Abraham Lincoln assassination conspiracy and holds the dubious distinction of being the first …

Keep Calm and Carry On–It’s More Than a T-Shirt Logo

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that it's become so much more than the stories and histories of my family.  It truly is about Our "unbounded" Heritage. Meaning, that these posts cover a vast array of enlightening, informative, and unbridled themes and content intended to help us better define who, …

Missionary on Horseback–Key Builder of a Nation

In the past, many of my blog posts have focused on my ancient British relatives and their descendents from the Boling/Bolling/Bowling, Chambers, and Taylor branches on my paternal side, to the Lathrop/Lowthropp and Ford families on my maternal side. Geographically,  all of these families resided primarily on the east coast in the earliest colonies--from North Carolina …

A Woman Before Her Time: Loretta Alice (Lathrop) Ford

My Role Model -- In memory of my maternal grandmother, Loretta Alice (Lathrop) Ford (1895-1968). She would have been 121 years old today--a woman before her time--god loving, pioneer-spirited, and up to any challenge despite her age, gender, social status or physicality--MY ROLE MODEL. I loved her dearly and daily life events keep her ever-present …

Ancestry to Retire Family Tree Maker

I responded to Ancestry the very instant I finished reading their announcement to retire Family Tree Maker.  If, after reading this story, you feel compelled to do the same I encourage you to do so at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/08/ancestry-to-retire-family-tree-maker-software/. Our Families and their Untold Stories Posted by Susie Higginbotham on December 10, 2015  The genealogy community is all …

Dogs Are Family, Too– Part 5 “Lord Jacob of Calvert (Jake)”

To once again borrow a few words from my good friends at Google, “the loyalty, affection, and exploits”of my dogs throughout my years on this earth have inspired a rich body of true, sometimes hilarious and sometimes sad stories that have only added to my life events.   And today, unfortunately, it is with heavy hearts …

100 Years of Men’s Hairstyles

One of my daily social media reads is the Mental_floss Magazine.  Mental_floss describes their magazine as:  "an intelligent read, but not too intelligent. We're the sort of intelligent that you hang out with for a while, enjoy our company, laugh a little, smile a lot and then we part ways. Great times. And you only …

The Lee’s–a Historically Significant Virginia and Maryland Political Family

Colonial America and Prominent Lee Family Members Many prominent members of the Lee Family are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military.  This family first became prominent in Colonial America when Richard Henry Lee I arrived in Virginia in 1639 and went on to become possibly the richest man in Virginia by the time …

Civil War Dogs Are Part of Our History and Heritage, too!

As my regular blog readers know from several of my posts, I am an animal lover--I especially love dogs--all breeds and mixes.  And I love them for a variety of reasons: foremost, they love me unconditionally, they are life-long companions, they listen to me whenever, wherever, and without interrupting when I am feeling blue or just need to …

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 …

Honoring our Family’s King–from Car Park to Cathedral

Over Two Years Earlier... This writing follows up on my post in February 2013 about my Royal and sometimes controversial Plantagenet family and whether I would choose to claim them.  That article was sparked by the forensic archaeological discovery of King Richard III‘s remains under a parking lot in the English city of Leicester.  Now, 25 months later, all the forensic studies have …

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, …

Thanksgiving Invites–Anyone Dead or Alive

Who's On Your Guest List? How many times in life have you been asked; "If you could invite anyone dead or alive to dinner, who would be your quests?"  And sometimes this question has a follow-up or two: "Why?" And, "What would you say to them?" My Honored Guest List: I would first invite Jesus Christ …

More Than a Few Names or Mere Numbers

As an addendum to this week's post What's In a Name?, I revised my Surname Report in Family Tree Maker™. This report shows that our family's tree (including my spouse's family) has 10,772 persons in it.  Of those persons (living and dead), 52 percent of them are male; making my database's percentage of males three percentage points higher than the …

We Just Didn’t Make This Stuff Up…Or, Did We?

Facebook Post on Origins of Expressions This morning my daughter shared a September 3, 2014, Facebook post created by Dan Steele (Dan Balam) of Norfolk, Virginia.  His post was an easy and fun read that got me to questioning whether the origins of the terms and phrases actually had been proven true or were myths …

Native Americans, White People, and Scottish-Irish Emigrate to North Carolina

Native Americans A recent blog post focused on my maternal great-grandmother Mary Susan MORRIS's family--our Native American heritage through the Morris branch--and the freshly fallen bricks of a wall I had been up against for years. White People Not abandoning this wall, but continuing on, I returned to my maternal great-grandfather--Grandmother Susan's husband, John Carpenter Ford's (1864-1961) family. Similarly, I found …

You Little Dickens!

My mom has told me a story about my relationship with my Cherokee maternal great-grandmother, Mary Susan Morris Ford, ever since I was old enough to talk. Unfortunately, I was only 14 months old when Grandma Susan passed at 73 years old. The story goes like this.  My great-grandmother went to sleep one night and when she …

157 Years Later: CSA Sgt. Gideon W. Morris–Our “Battle of Antietam” Survivor

Freshly Fallen Bricks of My Morris Family Wall After searching to uncover more information about my maternal great grandmother's (Mary Susan MORRIS Ford) family, I once again stumbled and fell upon freshly fallen bricks of a wall I had pushed against for many years.  Until now, I primarily had focused on the origins of my Native American heritage through the Morris branch.  And then, …