The Twig That Knocked Down A Brick Wall

None of the descendants of Hiram Anderson had been able to find his ancestry.  A single scant clue to his lineage was in the note stating that he was born ‘on the north branch of the Potomac River.
Single individuals and cousin groups had searched for the meaning of this phrase for years.  Finally, two cousins [...]

Read Full Post »

1,000th Cousin Contact

1,000 extended cousins have now contacted me after finding my websites.  Years ago, I wondered if the effort to create the sites was worth the investment of time.   I wish all of my investments had such fantastic returns.
The contacts have been mutually beneficial for all of us.  I share information that I’ve found about [...]

Read Full Post »

Finding Thomas Farrar ~ Attacking a Brick Wall

Little was known about my 2nd great grandfather, Thomas Farrar.  Time and location had separated his descendants.  Family stories and memories died over the generations. 
A cousin recorded a few notes about Thomas that she’d heard over the years and passed them on to my mother.   She related that he was from England, that his [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ll Surround Them

I started looking for my ancestor, Thomas Farrar, in 1968 thinking that finding him and his lineage couldn’t be that hard.  That attitude was repeatedly slapped down .. hard .. over the next 36 years. 
You know the story in some form because you undoubtedly have ‘brick walls’ on your own pedigree chart.   We [...]

Read Full Post »

Finding Charlie Stone

Brick walls or other missing information in your ancestral research are common to all of us. Frequently, the information we need is fairly close to us in time, yet seems to be as elusive as the exact birth date of an ancestor born in 1582.
Our ancestor was born or died in a sparsely populated [...]

Read Full Post »