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A Birth Announcement I Once Took at Face Value
A 1929 newspaper birth announcement seemed ordinary: a proud father, a healthy baby boy, nothing more. For most of my life, I read it through the family story…
4 min read
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A Hard Choice When Your Heart Wants Everything
This week’s #52Ancestors theme is “A Hard Choice,” and for once, the hard choice isn’t my ancestors’ story, it’s mine. Between a thirty-year paralegal career, genealogy certification coursework,…
4 min read
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Great Aunt Ida – The Ancestor Who Stays With Me
Some ancestors stay with you. Ida Svensson is the ancestor who stays with me. In 1998, a letter arrived from Sweden. An attorney in Kristianstad was settling the…
4 min read
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The Possibilities Clifford Never Had – and the Truth Still Waiting
What does unknown parentage genealogy look like when the DNA points one direction and the records haven’t caught up yet? That’s exactly where the Mystery of Mr. Max…
4 min read
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A Ticket, a Harbor, and a New Life — The Place That Matters to Me
A harbor on Sweden’s west coast became the place that matters most in my family history, even though I have never set foot there. In November 1926, my…
4 min read
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Paraskevia: The Powerful Meaning Hidden in an Ancestor’s Name
I almost missed her. The first time I worked through the parish records from Leluchów in Austrian Galicia, I noted the mother’s name with a question mark and…
4 min read
