kellytf via pixabay.com: Public Domain Have you ever discovered something shocking in your research? I've found terrible tragedies, murders, accidents, and such, but not often something that blindsided—jolted me physically. To be "blindsided" means to be caught completely off guard by an unexpected event, particularly one that is harmful, distressing, or leaves you unprepared to react, according to Dictionary.com. Google adds that the term originated in sports like football—referring to a blindside tackle, a hit delivered from outside a player's field of vision. I shouldn't have been shocked to find Alexander Hamilton (not the famous one) in this place and time as a slaveholder, or to see his name in the 1850 Slave Schedule in Grainger County, Tennessee. But my research there so far had turned up little evidence of slaveholding, so I'd neglected to seek out those records. I'm not alone—few other researchers on Ancestry, FamilySearch, or WikiTree had li...

  Soundside is a radio show and podcast about the Pacific Northwest, produced in Seattle by KUOW . There I heard a story about "One Book, One Coast" which intrigued me— "Seattle Public Library is one of 140 library systems up and down the West Coast joining in the 'One Book, One Coast' program. Dubbed the “largest book club on the West Coast,” the program is uniting libraries to explore an often erased chapter: When more than 110,000 Americans with Japanese ancestry (mostly in our region) were imprisoned in incarceration camps during World War II. The club’s first book pick: “They Called Us Enemy," according to their daily newsletter.  Links led to  https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/authors-and-books/one-book-one-coast where I navigated to King County Library System to check out the book, They Called Us Enemy by George Takei. Not only have I loved Takei for years, beginning with his role as Sulu on Star Trek, but my father had personal experience ...