Category: Pottawattamie County, IA
Families that lived in the county and research done there.
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Mary McCullough saw some hard times, but otherwise led a quiet life. One can only speculate how she felt about it all.
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When we look back at the lives our ancestors led, how much do we project our lives onto theirs? How do they compare? And how much of that comparison holds up to scrutiny?
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I only know the outlines of most of Merilyn’s story – fuzzy outlines, with a few small details. The one thing that looms largest was the worst thing that happened to her.
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Some relatives are so infamous within a family, that their story is unignorable. And yet, because they were unforgivable, you can’t ask about the details.
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If you have an image in your head of the Midwest grandmother, she probably looks a lot like Grandma June.
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The family of George and Polly Callin largely remained in Huron County, OH, when much of the family moved away from Milton Township. Their legacy was inspiring.
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A challenging part of the tree: writing about people I didn’t know, but who living people DID know. Doing the job properly without being annoying – that’s the challenge!
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Telling the story of immigrants is complicated – why they came, where they went, and who they became. This Danish family’s story is complicated by the different ways surnames were rendered before and after the 1856 naming law, and the variations between English and European spelling conventions. But “complicated” doesn’t mean “impossible”
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There are challenges to researching immigrant ancestors who came to America from Europe, but with luck, patience, and practice, you can assemble a reliable picture of their lives in their original homes.
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The burden of proof requires more evidence The most important question in any research is: “How do you know that?” If you’re lucky, the answer prompts you to say, “Huh, that’s interesting…” and you learn something new. If you saw last week’s post about William and Oscar Martin or the original “Family Reunion: Martin” post…
Mightier Acorns 