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A Brick Wall Revisited: Ten Hours, Seven Suspects, One Direction
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The mystery of Clifford Max’s father has been one of my most stubborn brick wall revisited genealogy cases for years. Clifford was born June 18, 1929, to Myrtle June Thompson in Edwardsville, Illinois. His father was never named on any record. DNA testing points clearly to the Pitts family of…
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The Family Pattern I Didn’t See Until Now
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The theme for Week 13 of the #52Ancestors challenge is “A Family Pattern.” I have been turning that phrase over since I first read it. Naming patterns are everywhere in my family tree. Occupations repeat. Migration routes repeat. But none of that is what has been on my mind. What…
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Strong Women: What My Grandmothers Left Behind
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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 had the language for it, I understood what I was looking at. This week’s StoryTeller Tuesday prompt asks about inheritance — the…
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My Childhood Home in Lynbrook, New York
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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. But it was the first place I remember. A white clapboard house on the south shore of Long Island, where I lived…
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Litmanova Immigration: The Girl Who Followed Her Parents to America
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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 Hungary, and she was following the wave of Litmanova immigration that had already carried her father, her neighbors, and her community toward…
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WWII POW Aftermath: The Haunting Collapse of a Promising Army Officer
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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 as “highly intelligent,” “direct,” and “forceful” — a natural leader destined for greater things. By December 1942, he had earned his commission…
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Her Secret to Family Survival? Keep the Door Open
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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 family would face that kind of unmooring. Hers is a story of family survival, practiced quietly, year after year. No newspaper headlines…
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The Truth About Oäkta in some Swedish Birth Records
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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. I was wrong. Sissa Andersdotter was twenty years old when her son Sven was born in 1867 in Näsum parish, Sweden. The…
Our Growing Family Tree
Adding family, one branch at a time.
Beautiful autumn landscape in Litmanova, Slovakia. ID 78946638 © Sitriel | Dreamstime.com
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