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What to do now??

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 What do you do when you find something in your family memorabilia that you'd just as soon not have?   I have been posting items to my Wiki Tree Free Space page: From the Gawdawful , and I'm now going through and writing about them. I want the provenance and meaning of the things to be carried forward. So, I've been researching and finding out some stuff that ... well ... isn't quite as open-minded as one might wish for one's ancestors to be. I know there was racism in my grandparents, some they'd admit to, some they wouldn't quite "see" as racist, but, y'know, the times they were what they were ... but that doesn't quite work anymore.   This is a pin from the IORM. Improved Order of Red Men.  Yep. That's the name of the group. The TOTE at the top stands for Trust, Order, Truth, and Enthusiasm.  I'm fairly sure this comes from my paternal grandfather (or his side of the family) as he was also a Mason (similar fraternal group).  The ...
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A Legend is No Longer

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What do you do when something you learned about as a child and were rather proud of, even telling several classes of 5th graders about it, turns out to not be true? The story of Helen Seavey and her wedding dress is one that has been passed down through my family for many generations. Apparently, Helen, who married in May of 1777, donated her wedding dress to make the stars for the flag destined for the  Ranger , one of the ships captained by John Paul Jones. He was the founder of the American Navy and this flag would be the first American flag to be seen in a European port. The flag was sewn at a quilting party in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The source material, a book by August Buell,  “Paul Jones: Founder of the American Navy”, even mentioned several other young ladies at the gathering. Well, he apparently was not the most accurate of biographers.   Anna Farwell de Koven later disproved much of his writing. She was researching John Paul Jones herself when Buell's b...
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A Brick Wall - Revisited

From WikiTree, The theme for Week 14 is “A Brick Wall Revisited.” Sometimes it takes a set of fresh eyes to solve a problem. Has that happened with you in your genealogy? (Of course, there are other ways to interpret this theme. Any bricklayers in the family? My answer (on WT): posted on March 30: I've gotten quite a bit of help here and from Reddit u/genealogy on finding out more about my great grandmother [[Fox-28400|Nellie Pearson]]. Still haven't completely broken down the wall, but we're getting there! Another "wall" I'm having trouble with, I mentioned in response to another person's post that women often make the most brick walls (marriage, name change, etc): That is so true - my two major brick walls are my great grandmothers (one on each side!) My male brick walls are crumbling, it's just that "why are there so many Lyman Harrises?" and "why did you name everybody James Crooks?" A few I've been able to clear up...
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A Place for ... stories and photos and more

A place for stories and memories of my families. Also a place I can post photos and stories so that my brothers will hopefully be able to see them!
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Location: Portland, OR 97229, USA
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