BEFORE THERE WAS WOKE THERE WAS WIDE AWAKE, ARE THEY PART OF YOUR ROOTS? The Wide Awakes were a youth organization and later a paramilitary organization cultivated by the Republican Party during the 1860 presidential election in the United States. The organization introduced many to political participation through popular social events,...
THE GRAYBEARDS OF THE CIVIL WAR In the last edition I mentioned from my family tree, my three- times Great Grandfather, John Van Vliet (pictured) of Brighton, Iowa, enlisted on December 27, 1862, at age 58 in Company H, 37th Iowa Infantry Regiment. The unit was the Graybeard's regiment, as you...
THE 14TH AMENDMENT, THE SOUTHERN CLAIMS COMMISSION, AND GENEALOGY We’ve heard much lately about the 14th amendment and the barring of insurrection officers from serving in the government. It made me take another look at my southern ancestors whose attempts to rejoin the United States as citizens in good standing were...
HOW MANY TIMES WAS THE VICE PRESIDENCY VACANT? The Society of Presidential Descendants Panel highlighted that there were long periods when we had no Vice President since both Taft and Truman inherited the Presidency. The vice presidency has been vacant 18 times, totaling 38 years. The occurrence was due to the...
GENEALOGISTS VISITED THE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS MUSEUM NEW YORK – February 25, 1983- Tennessee Williams' younger brother said Friday he believed the famed playwright had returned to a life of drugs just months before he died. Reached by telephone in Collinsville, Ill., shortly after his brother died in a Manhattan hotel suite, Dakin...
AMAZING: THE SOCIETY OF PRESIDENTIAL DESCENDANTS This past week, we had the opportunity to watch a panel of Presidential Descendants at the Truman Little White House in Key West. Left to Right above are Kurt Graham, Moderator and Director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum; Clifton Daniel, Harry Truman's...
ANCESTORS- DURING WWI, A GERMAN OFFICER TRIES TO BLOW UP A BRIDGE AT THE U.S.-CANADIAN BORDER AND IS SENTENCED TO ONLY 30 DAYS IN JAIL Ancestors ask about the railroad bridge over the St Croix River between Vanceboro, Maine and McAdam, New Brunswick, was an essential link on the Grand Trunk...
THE SUTTON-TAYLOR FEUD AND YOUR GENEALOGY The Sutton–Taylor feud arose from a growing animosity between the Texas Taylor family—headed by Pitkin Taylor, the brother of Creed Taylor (a Texas Ranger)—and local lawman William E. Sutton, who moved to DeWitt along with his mother when she married a man named William McDonald....
MY UNCLE, A DEVELOPER, AND A HOBBY GENLEALOGIST TOLD ME THAT, GENERALLY, THE NORTHWEST PART OF CITIES WAS THE NICEST He said that was because the prevailing winds blow from northwest to southeast in North America, barring barriers like mountains. So, the bad smells of the affluent and the less all...
ANCESTORS OF THE WHITE HOUSE BABY Esther Cleveland was born on September 9, 1893, in the White House, to the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, and First Lady Frances Folsom. She remains the only child of a president to have been born there and was nicknamed "the White House...
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