Tag: genealogy
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A Haunted House of Dreams
You are attached to a mystical tangle of ribbons–other people’s dreams and desires. A flirtation. A wedding. Children. A funeral. And all over again. With blue eyes running along one thread, alcoholism another. Love is tangled in there too. This is my 3x great grandfather’s house. I want to burrow into the collapse to find […]
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A Stolen Tombstone
Why would a person steal from a cemetery? At my favorite family resting spot in the middle of nowhere someone stole the headstone of a Civil War soldier who died of disease before seeing battle. It was early in the war, so his body was sent home. A couple in Florida found the headstone in […]
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Pray for the Dead?
Do you think it’s morbid to pray for the dead? Do you think they can pray for us? I accept that I may have an active imagination and we can’t know for sure if visiting cemeteries brings us closer to our loved ones, but I feel it can. I visited one of my Civil War […]
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Adoption Story (Pt. 10)
I’m passionate about American history — its flaws, its nobility. In a recent conversation online I asked to what extent my ancestors should be accountable for the fates of the tribal peoples of the continent. Here’s my unpopular take: ” … to be fair we would also have to look at what would now be […]
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The Past is Never Dead
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born.” William Faulkner
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The Unknown Soldier
One sharp pain. One utterance of surprise. Oh. He leaves no great philosophies. There are no medals, no headstone. Only a few strings left attached to this world. Letters in government files The sacrifice a mother makes to prove her relation to the boy whose life is opened up on paper for a pension she […]
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Family Histories: Family Traits Good and Bad
“They said in the D.A.R.E. class that since my real mother did drugs Then I probably would too.” (D.A.R.E. is the anti-drug class taught in many public schools in the U.S.) This is why too much information given to children may sometimes be a bad thing. Our newly adopted daughter is only mildly intellectually disabled […]
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Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Author/Blogger Promotion!
Yes, it’s a little too soon, but I wanted to offer all of you wonderful writers an opportunity to promote yourselves here in the next few months. 🙂 AUTHOR PROMOTION in two ways: 1.Family Histories I’m hoping to do a holiday edition of Family Histories. Those of you who participated in the past are welcome […]
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NewYork & The Civil War
A Dead Civil War Soldier Waldo Potter was a cousin of mine who perished on the battlefield the day before Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. It was only the beginning of April and in Upstate New York where his family awaited news of his whereabouts the earth was still barren of color and cold. […]
Author Adrienne Morris 