The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: relatives

  • Pieces of Family Stories

    Tales of who you were will eventually be overtaken by a swirling fog.

  • Neanderthals: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

    No hard feelings, ancestor!

  • The Fellowship’s the Thing

    I had a very unique Thanksgiving this year. It wasn’t about turkey or relatives. No family tension. Since Thanksgiving has forever been my favorite holiday, I always kind of feel a spike in anxiety just before the day. Will I be spending it alone? I can think of nothing worse. When I came to this…

  • Generational Changes

    Recently I had the good fortune to meet a distant cousin. Her maternal great-grandfather and my paternal great-grandfather were brothers. And all this time she’s lived about 5 miles from me. Talk about a small world. That part of the family comes from France, and as we talked over lunch, a few things struck me.…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Shovel Friends

    My mother used to say that you can’t pick your relatives, but you can pick your friends. And among your many friends, there are always a few who stand head and shoulders above the rest. I call these “shovel friends” because they are the kind you can call up at three in the morning and…