Tomorrow I will be speaking at Hennepin County Library‘s annual Family History Fair on “Finding Female Ancestors.” During my talk one of the topics will be women’s historical household roles, including cooking, sewing, and needlework, and what recipes and crafts can tell us about family history. While I was...
In June my husband and I drove from our home outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, to my family’s summer cabin in northeastern Pennsylvania in order to spend a few weeks with my mother before attending the Advanced DNA course at the second session of GRIP–the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. On...
Continuing our virtual visit to my family cemeteries with my great-great-grandparents, let’s start with my mother’s side, where we’re coming to the Civil War generation. Her paternal grandfather Roland R. Neifert’s parents were Martin Neifert (1840-1912) and Harriet (Gerhard) Neifert (1939-1915). Martin is buried in Christ Church Cemetery, Barnesville,...
On Memorial Day it used to be the custom to visit family cemeteries. As a young girl, my mother did so with her grandparents, and I’m sure my father did as well. When I was a child, my family did not live close to the burial places of any...
Never believe that something will never happen if it doesn’t happen right away! I just received an email message from a distant cousin I have never met, sent in response to a letter I wrote to another distant cousin I have never met. Commendable, but not very remarkable, right?–until...
