BALLING IN THE GRAND CANYON In 2011, we backpacked west of Grand Canyon National Park, into the Havasupai Indian Reservation. At the end of the trail lies the village of Supai on the valley floor of the Grand Canyon. It’s a short hike to the beautiful Havasu Falls, and you can...
ANCESTORS- MY MAYFLOWER ANCESTOR My 11th Great Grandfather, Stephen Hopkins (fl. 1579 – d. 1644), is my only Mayflower ancestor. Here are some interesting items about him: • He was one of 41 signatories of the Mayflower Compact • He was an assistant to the governor of Plymouth Colony through 1636. • He was first a...
GENEALOGY- A PLAY SURFACES AND IS PRODUCED 100 YEARS LATER I wrote in February 2025 Hurston about Zola Neale Hurston and the work we did gathering all their family information for their foundation meeting. I was excited to read an article about one of her “lost for 100 years” plays being...
ANCESTRY- CHRISTIAN LAND STEWARDSHIP One of our clients was recently honored by the Texas Department of Agriculture. In addition to her family history, we documented in a book the challenging path she took to restore her family's lands and then proceeded to donate land for a Texas State Veterans Cemetery. NEW BRAUNFELS,...
GENEALOGIST- THE MORMON ASSASSIN My niece’s husband’s ancestor, William Adams "Wild Bill" Hickman (1815 – 1883), married his first wife, Bernetta Burchartt, in 1832, at 17. While living in Missouri, Hickman encountered members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveling from Kirtland, Ohio, to their new gathering place...
ANCESTORS- CAPTAIN STARBUCK'S JOURNEY Back in 2023, I shared information on my wife’s 5th Great Grandfather, Hezekiah Starbuck Starbuck We learned more about him on a visit to Nantucket, where it turned out he had kept a journal recorded from 1770 to 1775, as a whaling ship captain in the Pacific,...
GENEALOGY- HE WASN'T SHOT IN THE WAR, BUT SUFFERED FOR 23 YEARS My wife’s three-times great-grandfather, Joseph Craig Needham, came to America at age 19 in 1841 or ‘42. At the age of 40, he left his wife and their four children, aged 14 to 3 months, at home, and enlisted for...
ANCESTRY- THE FIRST LADIES AND ALL OF THE OTHER LADIES One of the questions that people ask when we’re building books is “What about grandma?” Where’s her page? The reality is, until the invention of family planning and birth control, most of our female ancestors were busy raising a herd of...
GENEALOGIST- NOT YOUR GRANDPA'S MARCHING BAND My wife’s grandfather was a drummer in the Straughn, KS, Concert Band, standing to the left of the drum in the colorized picture below. My wife inherited the legacy and was in marching band in high school and college. Later in life, she joined the local...
ANCESTORS-GRANDPA AND THE GREAT CHAIN My wife’s 4th Great-Grandfather, Haynes Bartlett, was born in Newburgh, Ulster County, New York, on March 4, 1757, when the village was mostly comprised of rail fences. He learned the blacksmith trade in his early days in Newburg. He lived in Cornwall, Orange County, NY, when...
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