-
Strong Women: What My Grandmothers Left Behind
I have always called it the “strong women” photo. It was taken three days after I was born: four generations of women in one frame. Even before I…
4 min read
-
My Childhood Home in Lynbrook, New York
My childhood home in Lynbrook, New York wasn’t the oldest house in my family’s story — that distinction belongs to the Brooklyn duplex my great-great-grandparents bought in 1905.…
4 min read
-
Litmanova Immigration: The Girl Who Followed Her Parents to America
In August 1901, a thirteen-year-old girl boarded a ship in Bremen, Germany, and crossed the Atlantic alone. She came from Litmanova, a mountain village in the Kingdom of…
4 min read
-
WWII POW Aftermath: The Haunting Collapse of a Promising Army Officer
In January 1940, Stephen Marcisak walked into a recruiting office in Fort Bliss, Texas, and enlisted in the Regular Army. Within two years, his commanding officer described him…
4 min read
-
Her Secret to Family Survival? Keep the Door Open
My great-grandmother Mary Plunkett Dowling lost her mother when she was about five years old. She spent the next forty years making sure no one else in her…
4 min read
-
The Truth About Oäkta in some Swedish Birth Records
The first time I found oäkta in Swedish birth records, I felt something close to embarrassment. My ancestor’s story, I assumed, was one she would have wanted hidden.…
4 min read
