Finding My Roots (Part III)
This past April (2018). I took myself on a little vacation. Perhaps a vacation is not the best word, for the primary purpose of my trip was to visit my father’s grave, something I...
Finding My Roots (Part II)
Now (if you’ve read the first entry in this series) you know a bit about my mother’s family and the difficulty in finding out more about my maternal Greek ancestry. Invasion, massacre and civil...
Verbal Family Histories
All the advice for people starting to research their family history says to go and ask family members what they know. I was lucky that my grandparents provided me with a lot of information...
The Importance of Family
As a professional writer, I typically work from home. Writing is a very solitary profession, and I find that, unless I am interviewing someone for a book or article, or visiting a specific location...
Is That You, William? How Do You Know When You’re On The Right Track?
Brick walls – every researcher has a couple. They sometimes stand for years, those annoying barriers between you and that elusive ancestor you have been chasing for what seems like forever. Now and then,...
Exploring Heraldry
A few years ago, I went into a shop with a girlfriend. It was called The Coat of Arms Shoppe and was dedicated to heraldry. For those who don’t know, heraldry is the creating...
The Colorful Ones
I love a good skeleton in the closet. Bring me tales of your scandalous, your salacious and your ne’er do well and I’ll be transfixed. I want to hear all about that bigamist, the...
