Favorite Find is this week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. I’ve had these vintage photo packs for years. They belonged to my parents, Charles L. HEISER (1913-2001) and Gladys MARTIN HEISER (1921-1999). I’d flipped through them enough to know the photos were from a 1951 trip to Florida. The photo packs went into the ‘later’ pile after that….
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A Moving Story: When The Martins Left South Carolina
A few months ago, I completed the daunting task of prepping my house for sale, selling it, and moving to a rental. Often over the 4+ years it took to get this done, I’ve thought about when my mom, her four siblings, and their parents left South Carolina for Winchester, Virginia. My grandfather, Joel Daniel MARTIN (1886-1955) was a farmer…
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Favorite Photo: Posed v. Candid
Several weeks ago Favorite Photo was a prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Here’s one of my favorite photos. I’m actually showing two photos, and you’ll see why below. A little background Theodosia Marie “Dosia” THOMAS MARTIN (1893-1954) was my first cousin, twice removed. Her father, James Renatus “Renn” THOMAS (1865-1949) was the only brother of my great-grandfather, Jeremiah…
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Don’t pinch me! I’m not Irish! Or am I? (A St. Patrick’s Day story)
Kids can be mean. When I was in elementary school, every St. Patrick’s Day meant a day of being pinched if you weren’t wearing green. I wasn’t Irish (or Catholic), so I didn’t pay much attention to St. Patrick’s Day. But I lived in a neighborhood with many Irish and/or Catholic families, and those kids did pay attention. If I…
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Dogs, drinking, dancing…and other distractions for nineteenth century farmers
A few weeks ago, I read something written by A. B. Simpson (1843-1919) that made me think about my farming ancestors and the Bright Shiny Objects in their lives. A Bright Shiny Object (aka BSO), for those unfamiliar with the term, is anything that distracts a person from the task at hand for more than just a short time. Simpson,…
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Closing out 2020 and ‘Keeping Grandma Alive’ in 2021
2020 was a trying year, to put it mildly. Everyone’s life was, and still is, disrupted. Some more than others. I already worked from home, and I don’t have kids in school, so much of my day-to-day routine wasn’t turned upside down. Of course I was affected by the shortages of paper goods, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, meat for a…
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