Exploring the Past to Improve the Future
By Eilene Lyon Several years ago, my local book club read Death Comes for the Archbishop by one of my favorite authors, Willa Cather. It’s a fictional story of two real men, missionaries from France, who arrived in Santa Fe in 1851, not long after New Mexico became part of the United States. Cather calls... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon There’s an entire section of my family tree that I’ve neglected over the years. These are the ancestors of my great-grandfather, Sterling Price Davis. Just his name gives you a clue why. Sterling was born in Missouri and is named for the late Missouri governor, Sterling Price. Price was earlier a general... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon This “Found Photo” is not likely to find a family home, though it does have a name, date, and location on the back. It caught my niece’s eye when we were strolling through the local antique mart earlier this week. Maddie has been studying German for the past seven years and will... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon In America we tend to think of sauerkraut as a traditional German dish. It was also an important food to my 3rd great-grandparents in the Jenkins-Bedford line. Their heritage was Welsh-English, not German. Abigail (Bedford) Jenkins mentions it twice in her gold-rush letters to her husband, Henry Z. Jenkins. From August 1851:... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon Late last year I shared with you the story of Ann Jenkins Ransom, who was William C. Ransom’s first wife. He had five wives and an unknown number of affairs. He did not always bother with the nicety of divorcing one wife before marrying another. The wives are well-documented except Number Four.... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon Found Photo Project #12 I was surprised to find it’s been a year since I last posted a found photo project. This one’s a three-fer: two success stories and one enigma, all from a local antique mart. The two largest portraits, which have been successfully reunited with family, are both from New... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon Did you receive a big haul of cards this holiday season? Yeah, me neither. Of the seven cards gracing our windowsill, only two are from family. The remainder came from organizations we’ve donated to, or companies we’ve done business with. How many cards did I send, you ask? Well, just five, it... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon Last month I captured a fleeting phenomenon in the sky south of my house, seen in the header image: altostratus undulatus clouds. Trigger daily dose of awe! While I adore observing unusual cloud formations—mammatus, lenticular, mackerel—for our ancestors, watching the sky served an important function: weather forecasting. Whereas we now have weather... Continue Reading →
By Eilene Lyon Part 1 Part 2 1857–1863 Ann’s brother, Billy Jenkins, left San Francisco in the spring of 1857 to rejoin his daughter, Lizzie, and his parents in Jay County, Indiana. He purchased his parents’ farm and they all lived together there. Billy spent a year learning new skills at the Indiana School for... Continue Reading →
Human Created Content - Creative Writing - Australia
What I Wish I Knew Before I Retired
Life is a series of transitions, and so is the retirement journey.
Creative, non-monetary forms of payment
Random musings on style and substance
Where the locals go, because the locals know!
Internet home for Marie Zhuikov: Blogger, Author, Poet, Photographer
Reflections of an inquiring retiree ...
The opinions expressed are those of the author. You go get your own opinions.
A Blog of Retirement and Related Thoughts
I write about genealogy on this site. Come see what's going on!
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
The people, places, and things that make the Willamette Valley shine
Journeys Through the Second Half of Life
Doing the best I can to keep it on the bright side
Quips, Quotes; How To and How Knot To
Author, Speaker, Family Historian
thoughts about life from below the surface
Myricopia 