Tag Archives: letters

I hope my great-grandmother isn’t mad at me

Posted on July 22, 2019 by

Dear Great-grandmother Mary, I hope you’re not upset. You might actually be flattered that I used you as the model for Abbie Bergholtz, one of the protagonists in my historical novel, To March or to Marry. In 1911, Abbie joins … Continue reading →

Posted in genealogy, history | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Election Day romance

Posted on October 26, 2016 by

Before the commercialization of Christmas took hold, before the Easter bunny was born, and before Thanksgiving became a pig-out, Election Day was America’s big, festive holiday. Amid the Election Day celebration of 1899, my great-grandparents’ courtship began. The history of … Continue reading →

Posted in genealogy, history | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Playing games with the ancestors

Posted on May 6, 2016 by

Flinch, a game played with a custom-made deck of cards, was invented in 1901 by A.J. Patterson. He grew up on a farm in Michigan and graduated from high school at the age of sixteen. After working at jobs in … Continue reading →

Posted in genealogy, history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The insane asylum next door

Posted on January 15, 2015 by

In a letter to my great-grandmother in about 1941, her sister, Emma Davies Sharp Smith, sketched her memories of their childhood home in Columbus, Ohio, where they lived on Marion Street: It was a dead end st. at both ends … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil War, genealogy, mental health | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments