By Eilene Lyon Following up on my post about the Bisti Badlands, these are some highlights from the rest of our tour of southwest New Mexico last October. From the Bisti, we continued south on NM 371 to I-40. Exiting at mile 89, we headed to a BLM campground adjacent to El Malpais National Monument... Continue Reading →
The Stepmother
Week 6: #52 Ancestors – Surprise By Eilene Lyon The Surprise My grandfather, Laurence M. Smith, wrote many stories about his life. I’ve already shared some on this blog. But there’s a big gap between the death of his beloved mother, Mary Lila Reams, and the beginning of his engineering career. All he said was,... Continue Reading →
The Found Photo Project
By Eilene Lyon A New Project Nothing thrills me more than finding photos of ancestors I’ve never seen -- the photos or the ancestors! Many are posted on Ancestry.com by distant relatives I do not even know. There are also angels out there who rescue abandoned or discarded family Bibles and photo albums, in hopes... Continue Reading →
The Huntington
Week 5: #52 Ancestors – At the Library By Eilene Lyon Before she died, my great-grandmother, Clara Ransom Davis, made a priceless (at least to me) donation to the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Why she chose the Huntington -- not the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley, the California Historical Society, or the... Continue Reading →
I Want Answers, Dammit!
Week 4: #52 Ancestors – I’d like to meet… By Eilene Lyon First off, my 4th-great-grandmother would probably not be pleased with that title – she was a deeply religious woman, after all. But I do know she had a sense of humor, which I’ll share with you later. Ann Widdifield Zane was born in... Continue Reading →
Blogging and Ancestry.com
By Eilene Lyon A disconcerting thing happened to me recently as I was perusing photo hints on Ancestry.com. Ancestry is a great place for people to share information about family. Old photos and excerpts from old books, as well as old documents, are all fair game. But things seem to be getting out of hand.... Continue Reading →
A Frontier Hostess and Midwife
Week 3: #52 Ancestors – Unusual Name By Eilene Lyon How my great-great-grandmother, Meltha Lucinda, came by her name is a mystery. There is a place name “Meltha” in the Domesday book. It’s located in West Yorkshire and now known as “Meltham.”1 It’s not a particularly common name.2 One thing is clear: Meltha Lucinda Painter... Continue Reading →
Crossing an Ocean with Kids
Week 2: #52 Ancestors – Challenge By Eilene Lyon Meet Eliza Jane Drake Eliza Jane Drake was the daughter of Samuel and Eliza Drake (b. 1792, b. 1794). The Drakes were of English descent and lived in the village of Killyleagh, County Down, Northern Ireland. Eliza Jane was born in 1822.1 Eliza Jane fell in... Continue Reading →
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
By Eilene Lyon When you think of wilderness, do you conjure a deep grove of majestic, old-growth trees surrounded by fuzzy pick-up-sticks of fallen mossy trunks? Waterfalls thundering and spongy, leaf-strewn ground cushioning your every step? Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is nothing like that. This is the Badlands. Some might call it barren, but that would be... Continue Reading →