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When Survival Required Remarriage: Anastasia Bosak’s Difficult Choice
In 1874, Anastasia Bosak faced an impossible choice in Austrian Galicia: remarry quickly or face destitution. Her first husband Stephanus Dubnianski had died, leaving her with young Jacobus…
4 min read
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When Genealogy Stops Being Solitary: The Ellen McAuliffe Story
This post explores genealogical collaboration between the author in Cincinnati and a DNA cousin in Brisbane, Australia. Together, they’re researching whether Ellen McAuliffe (Brooklyn, 1857) and Margaret McAuliffe…
4 min read
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StoryTeller Tuesday Challenge: An Ordinary Day in the Plunkett Household
At 418 Van Brunt Street in Brooklyn’s Red Hook waterfront neighborhood, an ordinary day for the Plunkett household began with the sounds of dock work in January 1875.…
4 min read
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Beyond the Barbed Wire: What Stephen Marcisak’s POW Journal Reveals About Survival
On April 29, 1945, Lieutenant Stephen Marcisak watched a Sherman tank roll through the gates of Stalag VII-A and wrote in his POW journal: “ALLIES TAKE OVER -…
4 min read
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Declaring My Bold Genealogy Goals 2026: Accountability Starts Now
After a successful first year as a genealogy blogger—including selection for Robin Stewart’s GenStack Anthology—I’m declaring my bold genealogy goals for 2026 with public accountability. This year focuses…
4 min read
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Storyteller Tuesday Challenge: A Turning Point: When Everything Changed at No. 6 Östad
Sometimes a turning point doesn’t announce itself with fanfare—it arrives quietly, in the realization of an unexpected pregnancy. In the spring of 1866, two nineteen-year-olds lived and worked…
4 min read
