Getting to Know Hannah Lathrop Keith: Family Sources

How do you find more information on your ancestors, besides just names and dates? Here’s how I did this with one of my ancestors, Hannah Lathrop Keith, using family sources.

My Ancestor’s Struggles with the Civil War Pension Office

As I write our series of tips about how to do Civil War genealogy, I think regularly about my own ancestors in the Civil War. My great great grandfather, Newell Elijah Gile, comes to my mind very often. He fought hard to receive an adequate pension for wounds he received during the conflict. I imagineContinue reading “My Ancestor’s Struggles with the Civil War Pension Office”

When Your Family History Connects with History

First flight, 120 feet in 12 seconds, 10:35 a.m.; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Source: Library of Congress On this day in 1903, the Wright brothers successfully flew an airplane for the first time in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The following year, after repairing their airplane, they conducted flight tests in Huffman Prairie, just outside theirContinue reading “When Your Family History Connects with History”

Little Jonnie Lathrop, or, Child Deaths in Great Plains Genealogy

This is my great-great-grandmother, Caroline Jane (Webber) Gile. I love this picture. Usually in pictures this old the people don’t really smile. Old photos of babies usually have them by themselves or in mother’s lap. Half the time baby is blurred out because she is moving too much for the camera to focus. But inContinue reading “Little Jonnie Lathrop, or, Child Deaths in Great Plains Genealogy”

The Handwritten Past

My Grandpa lives in a little brick house in a small town in Kansas. Just outside of town is the land where his grandfather first built a Kansas homestead. Grandpa has driven us grandkids around on those dirt roads in Kansas and showed us that old homestead. On that homestead lay the ruins of theContinue reading “The Handwritten Past”