The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: genealogy

  • An Open Letter to a Professional Genealogist

    From one of a dying breed who is desperate to keep the candle burning.

  • Let’s All Participate in the Census

    Your participation benefits all of us.

  • Shards of the Past

    So much of our history is oral.

  • Does Cancer Run in Your Family?

    I hate to say it, but there’s rot in my family tree. Generation after generation, people are dying of breast and ovarian cancer. A lot of good people died too soon. After a while, it becomes obvious that this can’t be a coincidence. Past generations had to fly blind, which is part of the reason…

  • Service of Bibliomaniacal Proportions

    According to Wikipedia, and contrary to popular belief, library usage is on the increase in spite of, or perhaps because of, our kindles and our nooks and our laptops. Unfortunately many local governments still target libraries first when they need to make budget cuts. The services a library provides can seem intangible to the public.…

  • Sealed Without Your Consent–Mormon Ordinances by Proxy

    The LDS Church performs a wide variety of ordinances, some of which are called saving ordinances, which they believe are required for salvation. One such ordinance is called sealing, and it seals you to spouses and other family members for all eternity. Fine and dandy and more power to them, I say. Everyone is entitled…

  • Time out of Mind

    I’ve been watching this great series on the TLC channel called “Who Do You Think You Are?” in which celebrities trace their family trees. In one episode, supermodel Cindy Crawford discovers she’s a direct descendent of Charlemagne. No one in her family knew this. The question is, how on earth is that possible? I mean,…

  • Our Expanding Family Tree: Cousins Coming out of the Woodwork

    One of the largest and oldest organisms on earth is Pando, a Quaking Aspen clone in Utah that covers over 106 acres. Looking at it, you’d assume that it was just a bunch of individual trees, but it’s actually one organism, and it’s thousands of years old. We didn’t know that until recently. I think…

  • Sins of the Fathers?

    I have a very unique last name. So unique, in fact, that only 3 people in the United States have it. The two others, my uncle and aunt, are in their late 70’s, so eventually I will be the only one. I’m past child bearing age, so once I’m gone, unless my cousins in Canada…