Exploring the Past to Improve the Future
Week 9: #52 Ancestors – Females By Eilene Lyon I’ve written briefly about my great-grandmother, Mabel Pearl (Cutting) Halse, in relation to her husband and children. It’s a case of having a lot of photographs, but not really knowing her. Unlike her mother-in-law, Lucy Halse, Mabel didn’t get her name in the papers or history... Continue Reading →
Week 42: #52 Ancestors – Proud By Eilene Lyon The prompt brought this photo to mind almost immediately, though it seems an odd choice. No one looks particularly happy in this image of the Halse family taken about 1912 in Codington County, South Dakota. Back row: Inez, Everett (my grandfather), Hazel, Howard, LloydFront row: Mabel,... Continue Reading →
Week 37: #52 Ancestors – Back to School By Eilene Lyon Today, schools are frequently named for presidents, famous politicians or war heroes (more often than not men). Back in frontier days, naming a school was often a prosaic affair – if you built a schoolhouse on your property, it generally became known after you.... Continue Reading →
Week 23: #52 Ancestors – Wedding By Eilene Lyon Ogden and Mary (Kew) Casterton of England immigrated in 1852, shortly after their marriage. They settled for four years in Illinois, then permanently relocated to Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1856. In their long marriage, they produced a robust family of ten children. The Casterton holdings grew... Continue Reading →
Week 22: #52 Ancestors – Uncertain By Eilene Lyon After I posted my story about Nancy Self, I realized I made a series of errors. It happens when we make assumptions. Nancy’s obituaries stated that of her twelve children, five had died in infancy. But my tree had eight adult children. Um, basic arithmetic says... Continue Reading →
Week 21: #52 Ancestors – Tombstone By Eilene Lyon Nancy (Ary) Self’s tombstone looks rather ordinary, except that it seems to indicate that she lived to a remarkable age: 105. It isn’t true, but according to her obituary she outlived all twelve of her children, so that makes it pretty easy to claim you’ve reached... Continue Reading →
Week 45: #52 Ancestors – Rich Man By Eilene Lyon This really isn’t about a rich man, or even a poor one, or actually, even about a man, though it starts out with one. Robert J. Halse was born in Highland Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1860.1 Along with most of his family, he relocated... Continue Reading →
Week 32: #52 Ancestors – Sister By Eilene Lyon My great-great-grandfather Richard D. Halse had two sisters, one older and one younger. Richard, his widowed mother, and all his siblings moved from Iowa to Dakota Territory around 1880, except for the younger sister. Her name was Elizabeth Sorby Halse and she married a couple years... Continue Reading →
Week 16: #52 Ancestors - Out of Place Drake Family Chronicles: Part 1 Drake Family Chronicles: Part 2 By Eilene Lyon The Iowa Delegation Samuel Drake, Jr. clearly saw land as the key to achieving the American dream. The patents he purchased in Highland Township, Winneshiek County, totaled 320 acres.1 The rolling, forested terrain had... Continue Reading →
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 parenting and 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
Family and local stories and history, favorite books
A History of the Famously Interesting and Mostly Forgotten
Sharing stories from my family history
Things That Interest Me
Writing about experiences of women and girls in the North American West.
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