2024-04-05 00:15
The SmithsFirst of all, I thought I'd better put up a reference tree for the cousins to check out before I launch into my new discoveries. I was contacted on Ancestry by a cousin. My t… Read More
Blog Directory > Friends & Family Blogs > leaf twing and stem friends-and-family Blog >
2023-10-28 04:21
In my continuing search for the members of Cassandria Hooper Harrington Rogers Kauffman's birth family, I'm always trolling for new records. Here again is what know about her. All her… Read More
2023-04-17 22:32
You may remember that I blogged about this story in 2014. To my mind it was a lesson about not taking the family legends too seriously. A story had made its way through the family about a ch… Read More
2022-09-12 20:58
Edgerly School Second Grade- 1931My mom came from a mid-sized factory town in central Massachusetts. Fitchburg was almost past its best days even when she was a girl. But a university was es… Read More
2022-08-28 17:09
Cora ElizabethThis is Cora Elizabeth Rogers, née Smith. She was my great-grandmother. I am reminded of how the women in our past still shape our lives. By the 1920's she would be marr… Read More
2021-11-07 15:57
This is the famous Quincy Market in Boston. On the left in 1904 and a current photo from Mr. Google. Long ago the street was closed off and made a walking street, but I remember going… Read More
2021-10-22 23:18
Long before I became motivated to actually ACT on my curiosity about the Tapply family, Mark Tapply and Jon Tapply were on the case. Jon has shared with me some of the correspondence which I… Read More
2021-09-27 17:49
In 1940, the Blitz was going on in London. Bombers were flying over the city and the surrounding area every day. It must have been terrifying. My mother would have been sixteen. She go… Read More
2021-08-28 13:48
Just an image with a brief description today. (click through to look closely) This is a document I've never seen before. Obviously, it was preprinted as boilerplate to be distributed to all… Read More
2021-05-08 21:26
The grave of Cassandra and Asher BlissWhen I first began working on my genealogy, I hit a lot of brick walls pursuing people by name. One example is my great-great-grandmother Cassandria Hoo… Read More
2021-04-21 05:17
Charlie and Bob Tapply outside Tapply LumberOver the years, there have been a few pictures posted to the family Facebook group of the Tapply Lumber Building on Culley Street. By the wa… Read More
2020-10-01 13:25
Katie Cooke Fitzgerald We've heard the story of Katie's birth in Ireland, her immigrant family, and some tales of their life in Boston and Charlestown. This is a much later story. After… Read More
2020-09-15 18:36
Montgomery Street, San Francisco, 1850This year, 1850, was about the time that Michael Stinson Cooke arrived in the United States from Ireland. He spent some brief time in New York and then… Read More
2020-08-13 16:06
The California Midwinter Exhibition of 1894The California Midwinter Exhibition of 1894 was held in Golden Gate Park, just steps from Mary Ann Cooke Piratsky's parents' home. It was held from… Read More
2020-07-21 04:19
Go to full screen if the size bothers you Read More
2020-06-09 20:56
One of the five pontoon bridges being laid across the RappahannockFor the Battle of Fredericksburg, we have to rely for and account of movements on the historic record. No doubt, Winslow B… Read More
2020-05-05 23:42
Sister Columba (Belinda Cooke) probably on an celebration of her vowsMeet Belinda Cooke. Belinda would be my first cousin, twice removed. She was my great-grandfather Michael's niece… Read More
2020-04-05 20:58
From the Plague Doctor series-https://www.katherine-rhodes-fields.com/What could be more appropriate today than a plague doctor in his mask? It is certainly nothing new in the history of man… Read More
2020-03-26 22:33
This is Ann Cooke, the widow of Michael Stinson Cooke in front of her home at the corner of Geary and Cooke St.. (San Francisco) I don't know the year, but Michael died in 1897 and she died… Read More
2020-02-01 12:37
Clarke at Hanover St. in Boston's North End about 1893-courtesy of the photo archives Boston Public LibraryThis is Boston's famous North End neighborhood, just before the turn of the century… Read More
2020-01-23 22:39
Isaac D FullerBack when I was updating all the military record for my Ancestry tree, this photo popped up as a hint. "Ah, a terrible war injury", I thought. Isaac had enrolled in the Company… Read More
2019-12-03 00:59
This is a brief post about a not-so-close relative who qualifies as a black sheep. (his wife would be my first cousin 8 times removed) Truly things don't change much over the years as you sh… Read More
2019-11-17 16:54
This is a post I had meant to make back in November or December, but the research involved overtook me. November was the 100th anniversary. You may have heard about Peter Jackson's new film… Read More
2019-09-15 21:48
Eugene H Rogers- Sign painter by trade, fine art painter by avocationWhen I look at the old photos that people add to their trees, I can often tell so much about the person by looking at the… Read More
2019-06-20 01:17
As I teased in my last post, David Webb does an amazing job documenting old postcards of the Houston area. I asked him to describe his process because I thought it would be instructive in ge… Read More
2019-05-29 12:56
The Princess's Theater- LondonEvery once in a while, I run across a story that piques my curiosity. This is one of those stories. It concerns a more distant branch of the Tapply family. Mary… Read More
2019-05-26 21:00
As you can see, this is the town square of Spencer, Owen County, Indiana sometime in the late 30's or early 40's. (according to the database) I was noodling around again in Ancestry on the "… Read More
2018-07-11 02:11
General Ambrose BurnsideIf you know your American Civil War history, you know that General Burnside has by now assumed command of Union forces after McClellan failed to act. Wikipedia yiel… Read More
2018-06-17 13:08
From the archives of the Christian Science MonitorTomorrow will be a day of parades. Here in Houston, it's Juneteenth. That's the day slaves in Texas received word that they had been freed… Read More
2018-06-04 21:21
For my blogiversary, a treat from YOUTUBE. I found this old film just full of old images of Fitchburg, Massachusetts from about 1941. (note: there are some problems with the picture in the f… Read More
2018-01-26 16:15
Michael Cooke's business stationery-courtesy of Ralph LaneOne of the things I enjoy about finding records, notes, letters and newspaper stories about the more distant ancestors is that it gi… Read More
2018-01-26 04:35
Ann Cooke, Mary Ann Cooke, Michael Stinson CookeThe pictures of their parents were taken earlier, in their thirties, perhaps. Mary Ann is about 20 in her photo.Meet my latest discovery in my… Read More
2017-12-21 04:47
Of course, I had grand ideas of collecting all kinds of family stories of Christmas traditions past....and no one particularly wanted to "play". Oh well, the holidays are fraught and people… Read More
2017-10-26 13:08
Melissa, Melanie and Holly Jones on the steps in Lunenburg some time in the late 50's. For my cousins, here's how we are related.Another cute picture from the Tapply cousins and very timely Read More
2017-10-15 03:21
From the left: Cindy Tapply Letarte, Susan Tapply Ingraham, William R Tapply Jr. and Joyce Tapply BinghamTo me, this photo looks like it ought to be a promotional photo for a classic TV sitc… Read More
2017-09-03 22:54
The uniform of a sapper with the Royal EngineersThis is the dress uniform of the Royal Engineers for a sapper. A sapper was responsible for building and repairing roads and laying and cleari… Read More
2017-08-15 01:21
Aquia Creek - the quartermasters officesFrom what I can figure out, it was Aquia Creek where the mail and packages came to for the troops in Maryland and Virginia. W. B. mentions this place… Read More
2017-07-08 17:23
The Cooke family homestead, sometime in the 50's. We don't know who these people are.I've been hearing regularly from my cousin, Ciaran Brett, in Ireland. Ciaran has made a firm connection b… Read More
2017-06-18 20:39
The Dunker church on the Antietam battlefieldThe regimental history I found for the 36th Massachusetts records this note about the month of September:"On Monday, September 15th, Colonel Bowm… Read More
2017-06-03 17:34
Tapply Family 1927Yesterday, was the four year anniversary of this blog. Of course, it completely slipped my mind. I know there must have been something over at GeneaBloggers, but I missed t… Read More
2017-05-16 12:47
Charles and Ellen Tapply, White Horse Beach, 1931You may recognize this picture from a previous post. I'm posting again today because the time period is right for what I'm sharing. Lon… Read More
2017-04-02 16:45
The Steamer MerrimackBy the end of August, the 36th Massachusetts was as trained as they were ever going to be. A history of the 36th tells us that on September 2nd, they boarded train cars… Read More
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