Courtesy of PicPick Unknown Unknowns US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once famously said There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know.  The three realms of knowledge which Rumsfeld cited are what we can explore by creating research reports for our ancestors and others such as members of the FAN Club, F amily, Friends, A ssociates and N eighbors. Last Monday, MaryLynn illustrated the value of researching more of the FANs of your ancestors, in The Shot Heard Round The World .  At the beginning of the year, I wrote about my plans for 2025 genealogy research , including research reports for my closest 52 ahnentafals, one every week. I'm a bit behind, and many of the "reports" are just placeholders, I've already found so much. I anticipate that the rest of this year will be full of discoveries of pr...

Photo by genibee,  CC BY-NC 2.0 Have you ever had an old memory surface at the oddest time? I was in the dental chair having an implant screwed into my jaw, and there was so much pressure! When they were doing something else, I said, this feels just like the first time I ever put on a girdle. I was giggling about it, and nudged the assistant, and said, you know what I'm talking about! She was giggling too, and then she said to the doctor, you do NOT know, but ask your wife! The silliest thing about it was that I was in seventh grade! Who needs a girdle ever, much less in seventh grade? It was not about the boys; they never looked at us then. And really, we all thought the other girls were noticing, but I think all of us just wanted to fit in. For the record, let me just say that while I can't recall the last time I squeezed myself into a girdle, I do not miss that pressure one bit! Why mention this weird old memory? Well, it paints a picture of adolescent life before pantyhos...

  Another year, another memory? What memories will you make this year?  Get ready to share them! Vecteezy obtained 12-28-2024 " Martha, w hy do you do so much cooking and baking every holiday? Don't your daughters and daughters-in-law take over that work?" I overheard this question from among a group of ladies at a senior center several years ago. Martha's answer has always stuck with me and brings up an interesting viewpoint. "One of my most cherished memories of my grandmother was that she always made the most wonderful foods for each holiday. Yes, my mother and aunts cooked and baked, too, but Grandma's foods had that special ingredient of love, because of her extra effort. Grandma always cooked for the holidays. " I want my grandchildren to remember me that way , that I always cooked for the holidays." Vecteezy obtained 12-28-2024 Once, when my son was about 25 years old, he told me he remembered that, when he was a kid (5 or 6 years earlier), ...

 Go There! Generated by BingImageCreator AI 'April 19, 2024 How times have changed in family history research! Traveling to your family's homeplace or writing letters to genealogy or historical societies, courthouses, local libraries and archives used to be the first step in beginning family history if there were no published books or periodicals we could consult.  Later, we had access to microfilm, which required traveling to where that microfilm was. Now, our first step is often to see what's online at Ancestry.com, other pay sites, and free sites such as FamilySearch.org . But as we know, no matter how fast these services add new databases, only a small percentage of records are or will ever be online.  Why Travel? Beyond records, though, why should we travel to gather our family history? Two reasons: everywhere is different, and only by going there can we experience that. Reading about the history, geology and social forces that shaped the community is one excellent w...

Generated with Bing ImageGenerator, February 4, 2024 at 1:54 PM Some years ago, Lowell Tuttle led a family history writing group which met at a local library, where the writers swapped ideas and drafts of their writing. Over time, health issues etc. caused the group to dwindle. Months ago, Lowell wrote to me (Valorie) with some rough drafts for which he wanted feedback. I wrote back with a few suggestions and asked if we could use part of what he had written here in the blog. Recently he wrote back, giving us his permission to do so. Note: While we have not been able to rekindle the Family History Writing group, we do have an online group:  https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Family-History-Writing . While it has not taken off, it is a place to send your drafts and ask for feedback.  Introduction Dear Readers:  My name is Lowell Allyn Tuttle. This is a Pep Talk on why you should write your or your family's stories. There are  hundreds of sources on HOW to write your or your fa...

Generated with AI (Microsoft Bing Image Creator) ∙ January 7, 2024 at 12:54 PM Jones Family Tree: Sanford Talbert Jones and Ethelyn Stephens At the end of 2023, I had a wonderful surprise and wrote about it here: Piggy-back . Antoinette has been generous, sharing family photos and history, which really led to breakthroughs in my son-in-law Jason's tree. Researching families outside of my "own" has been enriching, and I learned so much researching the family of  Ethelyn Stephens, Jason's great-grandmother. She married Sanford Talbert Jones the first, who was a laborer for the City of Los Angeles at the end of his life. To the right is a part of a photo of their son Sanford II (in the middle) in an old fire truck, from a great article about Black firefighters in Los Angeles. [1]  Sanford Talbert Jones II and Ruby Alexander Sanford carried on his father's experience in working for LA city. He  married Ruby Alexander who was born in Louisiana, possibly in New Orlea...

Ten years ago the SoKingNews (newsletter) theme for the year was What's YOUR Story?   That question is still relevant today; let's make it our theme for 2023. Reprinted from SoKingNews, Volume 28, Number 4, January/February 2013 One of the most difficult hurdles to writing a story is putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard in the modern genre) and getting that first sentence or paragraph flowing. The creative juices do not always gush; sometimes they barely drip! In a recent radio interview of a creative writing teacher, it was suggested that, for an exercise, to take a common object and write a paragraph about it. The steps she outlined were very simple: ·   Select your object ·   Think of all the ways you have encountered that object ·   Select one occurrence and answer these questions Where are you? Who is with you? What is happening? What are you feeling? In the interview she offered “the kitchen table” as the common object. Following the st...

 Thomas McEntee recently asked "Do you remember when your grandparents retired?" [1] Thomas Cowan 1890 - 1970 I do remember, because they threw a party! My grandfather, Thomas Cowan, had had a stroke a couple of years before, and once he almost completely recovered, decided that it was best to retire while he could enjoy it. I do not remember the date, although there is an article we found among my father's papers from his union newspaper, describing his history, career and property out in Issaquah. We lived just up the road, in walking distance, so I saw them a lot; basically any time I wanted to. The party was fun, and I got to show up to some of the older boys who were there, sons of co-workers I suppose, about where the fishing holes were in the creek. Once I caught my little trout, I paraded up the hill and past the party and those boys, with my pole on my shoulder and the little fish still on my hook. I walked home and cleaned it there. Yum, was it delicious! But on...