Week 48’s topic is “Troublemaker”. I think of my grandfather’s cousin, Ward. Ward was a troublemaker, mostly to himself. Born in 1895 to Thomas Barber and Laura Butcher, he was their only child. In March of 1918, he was drafted into the Army and served as rank of private. He married a woman named Lillian…
This Ancestor Stayed Home
The topic for week #48 is “This Ancestor Stayed Home”. This topic makes me smile. I have a friend who tends to always text me when I’m driving. She gets my “driving with focus on” message. Her response is “Of course you are driving!”. I’ve always been one to be busy, and pre-pandemic, you would…
This Ancestor Went to Market
The topic for week 46 is “This Ancestor Went to Market”. I come from a long line of farmers and farm workers. All my grandparents ended up in the same community where the land is called the mucklands. It is excellent land for growing onions and potatoes. Other crops are hay, corn, and cabbage. My…
War and Peace
This week’s blog topic is “War and Peace”. I’m writing this a week after Veterans Day. War has been a present topic my entire life, and even before that. I, like many of us, have ancestors who came here before the American Revolution and others who have served in other conflicts. I thought I would…
Dig A Little Deeper!
I love the topic for week 43, “Dig a Little Deeper”. Ads for online family history sites often make it look easy to find answers about our ancestors. Often, it takes a little more investigation. My Barber line is well-documented as my ancestors came over in 1637. My Tompkins line, not so easy. I’ve written…
Friends
Hello! This blog is a little later being published. I traveled to Cleveland with a friend to attend the Eagles/Steve Miller Band concert on October 17th. It’s timely considering this week’s topic. The friend I traveled with is like a sister to me. We’ve known each other since we attended college together and had the…
Travel
Our week 41 topic is “Travel”. I love to travel – I have one coming up to Australia and New Zealand. I am looking forward to it. It was supposed to happen in 2020, but well, we know how that year rolled out. I love to look through old newspapers. They are a treasure trove…
Longevity
I’m a couple weeks late writing this blog about Longevity. I am feeling much better and just returned from a trip to Cleveland, Ohio, to see the Eagles on their Long Goodbye tour. It’s the third time I’ve seen the band. I was not disappointed. 52 years- that is some musical longevity! I also went…
Surprise
Well, I’m a bit behind on my weekly blogs. The topic for Week 39 is “Surprise”! The surprise I received was getting Covid mid-September (right around my birthday). Not the surprise I was looking for. I’m on the mend and feeling much better!l Often, as we genealogists do research, we do have surprises. Sometimes we…
Adversity
Our #52Ancestors Challenge topic for this week is Adversity. The weather has been so pleasant here that I found it a little hard for me to focus on the topic! It’s not hard to find examples of adversity our ancestors encountered, whether before they immigrated, during, or after. There was adversity for those who already…