Exploring the Past to Improve the Future
Week 18: #52 Ancestors – Where There’s a Will By Eilene Lyon William Zane Jenkins barely knew what hit him. Suddenly blind, deaf and numb, in a dark hole deep in the bowels of Mother Earth, his life took on new meaning. He’d always been a taciturn, pessimistic, Eeyore of a man. For some reason,... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon The Slide Years is a series in which I select an image my dad took from 1957-1982 with Kodachrome slide film, then I write a stream-of-consciousness essay – a sort of mini-memoir. The freight-train rumble woke me out of a sound sleep at 3:04 a.m. on February 4, 1976. Wait a minute,... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon We picked up a rental car at the New Orleans airport and headed to our hotel – a reasonably priced national brand right on St. Charles in the Garden District. For our brief stay in the city, we could take the trollies wherever we needed to go. We took the St. Charles... Continue Reading →
Week 17: #52 Ancestors – Land By Eilene Lyon I’ve written about my great-grandmother’s homestead in Idaho in earlier posts. Clara Pearl Ransom moved to Moscow, Idaho, when she was still in her teen years. Her older brother, Arthur L. Ransom, encouraged her to take up a homestead claim in the Clearwater region when she... Continue Reading →
Week 16: #52 Ancestors – Air By Eilene Lyon This pre-Memorial Day story honors 2nd Lieutenant Jack P. Laird, my mother’s 4th cousin on the Ransom family tree. Born John Paul Laird in December 1919 in Klamath Falls, Oregon, Jack’s parents were Thomas W. Laird and Sylvia Lee Rackleff. He had one sibling, a brother... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon The Drought Diaries has been on hiatus, but the issue is at the forefront of my mind once again as we head into another season of extreme drought here in the southwestern U.S. Runoff from the area snowpack is expected to occur quickly and at a lower volume than average. There has... Continue Reading →
Week 15: #52 Ancestors - Fire This story was written by my grandmother about an event she recalled from her early childhood. A cousin and I have tried to verify it, but without success. The Fire By Clare Ransom (Davis) Smith Our little house on the farm was just 3 rooms – kitchen, living room... Continue Reading →
Week 14: #52 Ancestors – Water By Eilene Lyon Priest Lake, near Canada in Idaho's panhandle, has long been a popular recreation area. In the 1920s, actor/director Nell Shipman "discovered" the lake and established Lionhead Lodge and her own film production company there. Though she stayed only a couple years, her movies introduced the country... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon Since we won't be traveling in the foreseeable future, I decided to look back at a trip we made in April 2012 to Louisiana - our first visit to the "deep South." It coincided with the migratory bird festival on Grand Isle. And since this past Saturday was World Migratory Bird Day... Continue Reading →
Fun With Genealogy
Discover and re-discover Mexico’s cuisine, culture and history through the recipes, backyard stories and other interesting findings of an expatriate in Canada
Navigating the second half of my life
A history of the people of the Willamette Valley as revealed through their structures.
Doing the best I can to keep it on the bright side
You might think you understand what I said, but what you heard is not always what I meant.
A New Twist on the Old West
Author, Speaker, Family Historian
thoughts about life from below the surface
tiny histories
... stories of significant others in the Allery, Cutting, McCulloch and Robertson tribes ...
Celtic, Mythical and More ...
Illuminating the Ancestral Journey
Tracing The Faces
Uncovering Family Legacies One Stitch at a Time
Adventures in Genealogy
Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana Blog
visual stories: fine art, artist books, illustrated gifts
Night Thoughts of a Literary Agent
Myricopia 