52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Disaster

Welcome to Week 9 in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks’ writing challenge. This week’s theme is Disaster. When I saw this writing prompt, the first thing I thought was “large loss of life” and “extreme weather.”

Sadly, the disasters I will be sharing involve both.  However, before I address this week’s theme, please allow me a moment to explain how my family came to be in an area where these tragedies occurred.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Prosperity

It is Week 8 in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks’ writing challenge. This week’s theme is Prosperity. Prosperity usually means a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, particularly in financial respects. This word derives from the Middle English word prosperite, borrowed from the same Old French word which came from the Latin word prosperus, meaning favorable or fortunate, as in luck.

When I first saw this writing prompt, I immediately thought of the many wealthy ancestors found throughout our families’ trees, specifically in my Cole-Marriner and Watts-Stark lines. Although I have written about several of these ancestors in past posts, a part of me wanted to write about someone not so wealthy and much less famous. So, I thought a bit outside the box. Instead of people who were wealthy or successful by nature, what if I focus on someone whose surname IS this week’s theme?

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Favorite Discovery

For more than 20 years, I have been actively researching and documenting our families’ histories. Over the course of two decades, I have learned lots of interesting historical facts and made quite a few interesting and/or noteworthy discoveries.

So many, in fact, that this week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks’ writing prompt, Favorite Discovery, has proved more difficult for me than I thought. With so many from which to choose, how am I supposed to select just one favorite discovery?

Book Review: Finding Lady Enderly

If you had the opportunity to improve your life and all you had to do was pretend to be someone else, would you do it? The book, Finding Lady Enderly, written by Joanna Davidson Politano, asks this question of both the heroine and readers.

Same Name

As children, my sisters and I really, really loved riddles. The sillier and/or more annoying they were, the better. One of our favorites was this old standby:

Pete and Repeat sat on a wall. Pete fell off. Who was left?

Repeat.

Pete and Repeat sat on a wall. Pete fell off. Who was left?

Repeat.

Pete and Repeat sat on a wall. Pete fell off. Who was left?

Repeat…

After a while, this riddle would start to grate on my mom’s last nerve:

“Girls, if you know what’s good for you, I highly suggest that both Pete and Repeat get off that $!#@ wall… NOW!”