GENEALOGY- DID GRANDPA INVENT THE POTATO CHIP? In a couple of recent editions, we covered the legends surrounding Tom Smith. His father, John Addison Smith IV, had his own amazing stories that I discovered while working on their genealogy. According to legend, Addison was a dreamer, a gambler, and an inventor. It...
ANCESTORS- YOUR 3X GREAT UNCLE DIES, AND HE'S REPLACED BY A LINCOLN CONSPIRATOR Suppose you were planning to visit Dry Tortugas National Park and were interested in whether you would come across headstones, gravestones, markers, or cenotaphs. In that case, this is the response you would get from AI: The only...
ANCESTRY- THE SOCIETY OF PRESIDENTIAL DESCENDANTS GATHER AGAIN A year ago, we attended a panel of the Society of Presidential Descendants on President’s Day weekend at the Truman Little White House- 2024 Society of Presidential Descendants We enjoyed it enough to go again this year. In addition to the descendants of Truman,...
GENEALOGIST- THE ANABAPTIST PRESIDENTS In our last edition, we discussed Anabaptist beliefs and our visit to the Behalt Anabaptists Now, we will visit which presidents were raised as Anabaptists and how their early spiritual lives may have influenced them. There were three presidents all Republican from Hoover through Nixon, and their terms...
GENEALOGY- WITH THE SUPER BOWL COMING, WE WONDERED WHICH PRESIDENTS HAD PLAYED FOOTBALL? Dwight D. Eisenhower (Army): Before he went on to his military career and then the Presidency, Ike served as both a running back and linebacker in the Army, starting on both sides of the ball. Dwight Eisenhower said,...
ANCESTOR- “IT’S LIKE MAKING YOUR EX D.J. YOUR WEDDING,” JIMMY KIMMEL SAID OF KAMALA HARRIS PRESIDING OVER THE CERTIFICATION OF TRUMP’S WIN” There had to be some awkwardness at Carter's funeral with the seating arrangements (above). However, as Kimmel pointed out, lots of attention was given to the awkwardness of Vice President...
ANCESTRY- MORE OF HENRY CLAY'S EXTENDED FAMILY William Campbell Preston Breckinridge (1837 – 1904) was a prominent lawyer and Democratic politician from Kentucky. He served as a U.S. Representative from 1885 to 1895. He was part of the esteemed Breckinridge political family, the grandson of Senator John Breckinridge and a first...
GENEALOGIST- ONE KILLING LEADS TO ANOTHER 20 YEARS LATER We’ve all seen various lithographic recreations of Lincoln’s assassination. We know the stories related to the fates of the President, the First Lady, and John Wilkes Booth. What about the other two people in the image? Future Brevet Colonel Henry Rathbone (1837-1911) and...
GENEALOGY- BRAVE ABOLITIONISTS CARRIED THE MORAL ARGUMENT FORWARD AGAINST SLAVERY. WHAT ABOUT THE ECONOMIC DILEMMA? When Britain abolished slavery in 1833 through the Slavery Abolition Act, it essentially "bought the freedom" of enslaved people by paying a large sum of compensation, amounting to £20 million, directly to the slaveholders. This represented...
IN CASE SOUTH DAKOTA NEEDS MORE MONUMENT HERITAGE I wrote an article in 2023 called Dejavu at the Ballot Box . Dejavu election that showed the number of times we had the same choice for president on the same ballot. Of course, with President Biden dropping out, that did not happen. We...
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