Edward A. Rueda
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mredwardrueda.bsky.social
Edward A. Rueda
@mredwardrueda.bsky.social
260 followers 650 following 450 posts
(1982-) https://mredwardrueda.wordpress.com
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mredwardrueda.bsky.social
Edward A. Rueda @mredwardrueda.bsky.social · 23d
#AI in #genealogy?!?? Oh yes, my #RootsTech talk shows how #FamilySearch LLMs and chatbots dig through business records, wills, and even colonial-era genealogies to uncover juicy, sometimes scandalous Latin American family history! ¡JUEPA JE! #Latino #Latinos #Colombia
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
redisclatinidad.bsky.social
Looks like 2026 is another Year of #BadBunny! As Benito celebrates his #Grammys wins and prepares for the #SuperBowl, listen to our episode on how "DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS" shaped 2025 for Latinos and the world: www.spreaker.com/episode/seas...

🐰😎 #PuertoRico #PfuckingR
February 2, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
marcusd.bsky.social
Full Bad Bunny speech
February 2, 2026 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
chapps.bsky.social
Chauvinart.com has some wonderful reconstructions of the Hippodrome, including the chariot race below, which is so like the Campana relief that I photographed, above. Of course, the sculptural relief on the spina, below the metae, should be painted. Gorgeous sunset shot, too. 🏺 4/
Closeup from the floor of the Hippodrome, with chariot teams racing around the end of the spina, with the golden metae above. The charioteers are whipping their horses, and the dirt from the chariot wheels is flying into the air; the crowd in the stands and the royal box can be seen in the background. Digital reconstruction of Byzantine Constantinope, the buildings bathed in a pinkish-orange light, as the virtual camera is on a boat on the Bosphorus. The Hippodrome, supported by massive artificial revetments, stands high above the city, like the prow of a ship. The church of Hagia Sophia is in the background, elevated above all else. Chauvinart.com
February 1, 2026 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
In case you had forgotten that time is fleeting & we will all die, this fellow from 1531 is here to remind you. Painted by Barthel Bruyn, whose day was today.
February 2, 2026 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
February from the Breviary of Queen Isabella of Castile. Gather lots of wood, folks! It's bloody cold this month.
February 1, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
barbdrummond.bsky.social
My #book on #WifeSelling describes how when young people moved to towns they often married in haste and fell out so some couples chose to sell the wife to her new #beau. Also describes the use of #ScoldsBridles. In all formats from physical & online stores. #WomensHistory #Familyhistory
Scolds bridle from Ashmolean museum Image of woman with halter round her neck on sale in market surrounded by men Book cover
February 1, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
Seven serious men and one fish: the Amsterdam militia company of Pieter Dircksz Hasselaer and Lieutenant Jan Gerritsz Hooft. Painted around 1600 by Pieter Pietersz., whose day is today.
January 31, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
merriam-webster.com
❤️
January 30, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
wychstreet.bsky.social
Scorsese was apparently facetiming his daughter when he found out. He posted this.
Variety graphic announcing Catherine O’Hara’s death Scorsese, in the FT window, looks sick
January 30, 2026 at 7:52 PM
mredwardrueda.bsky.social
Immensely funny. It's the saddest days in celebrity news when comedians die.
tcmtv.bsky.social Turner Classic Movies @tcmtv.bsky.social · 3d
We say goodbye to formidable comedic legend Catherine O'Hara.

A genius of improv and physical comedy, her bold choices made us laugh until we cried in a career that spanned over five decades.

Our thoughts are with her family and friends.
January 30, 2026 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
2/2 All vain! Not just the A+ table clock but your fab collection of miniature portraits.
January 30, 2026 at 1:09 PM
mredwardrueda.bsky.social
You're RIGHT, Ancestry, I need to chase down that religious Jewish marriage that would have never been recorded by Austrian officials... @pymundgenealogy.com
January 30, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
chapps.bsky.social
It’s amazing how changing the display of an antiquity in a museum affects how you see it. The lighting - natural or artificial - and the ability to see an item in the round or restricted to a frontal view. La Dama Fonseca, below, in two different settings. 🏺
This impossibly elegant woman with a swan neck has no known findspot, and given her pristine surface and features, it’s possible that she was reworked in modern times. Her skin is polished to a high sheen, and her high mound of curls are nearly complete. The rear of the bust shows the complex set of braids and up-combing required to make this hairstyle work. It doesn’t appear to represent a wig. Marble, early 2nd century CE. Gift from Father Fonseca to Pope Benedict XIV. Musei Capitolini, Rome (inv. MC0434) Side view of the same bust - La Dama Fonseca - showing how the enormous pile of curls atop the front of her head is completely different in the rear, which is made up of at least eight braids that are coiled up like a bun, and pinned.
January 29, 2026 at 2:45 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
marcusrediker.bsky.social
Publication day! "Brooke Newman has written a brave, brilliant, and essential book, telling truths that many will not want to hear. I hope [it inspires] investigations of other maritime monarchies as we reckon with the still-deadly legacies of human bondage."

www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
The Crown's Silence
For readers of Annette Gordon-Reed and Nikole Hannah-Jones, the shocking untold story of the British royal family’s centuries-long investment in slavery and...
www.harpercollins.com
January 27, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
Boats are frozen in place but humanity is moving all around them. Love woman selling snacks from inside barrel on left! By Hendrick Avercamp, born OTD 1585.
January 28, 2026 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
chapps.bsky.social
The article below adds some fascinating detail to the rule of the #Thracian king Seuthes III, whose bronze portrait head, greaves and helmet I've photographed, below. He straddled multiple cultures, as the treasures from his tomb attest. 🏺

📸 me #ancientbluesky

flic.kr/s/aHBqjBSifK
The slightly over-life-size bronze head of a bearded man was found ipropped up on the ground of a rich Thracian tomb. As can be seen from the ragged edges of the bronze's neck, the head was crudely separated from the body of a statue, of which no trace was discovered in the tumulus. The excavators have speculated that the comprehensive equipment of the tomb with royal accoutrements despite the absence of human remains, together with the deposition of a reused partial portrait statue, suggests a symbolic rather than physical interment of the king. His body was not in the tomb. The hollow-cast bronze itself is in an exceptional state of preservation. The surfaces of both the hair and the flesh parts display a noble patina, in a palette between malachite green and dark chocolate browns. Most extraordinary, however, are the composite eyes, made from various materials, including alabaster for the sclera and glass in contrasting colors and opacity levels for the pupils, irises, and lacrimal caruncles. The eyes are inserted into open sockets of the hollow bronze, where they are framed by eyelashes cut from thin sheets of copper. The translucency and reflectiveness of the irises are such that the eyes retain their literal sparkle, giving the portrait an intense gaze that has rarely failed to stun viewers in the twenty years since the portrait's discovery. The image of a mature man is characterized by an ovoid skull, with a rounded forehead, wide-set eyes under bushy eyebrows, a large and aquiline nose, long handlebar mustache, and an untrimmed, scraggly beard - spade-like and jutting forward. In the combination of these iconographic and physiognomic details, the head is unlike any known portrait of a Greek man, including philosophers or rulers. The context of the head's discovery in the tomb of Seuthes Ill makes it more than plausible that the portrait indeed represents that Odrysian king. 3/4 view of the front, with its shaggy beard jutting forward. The slightly over-life-size bronze head of a bearded man was found ipropped up on the ground of a rich Thracian tomb. As can be seen from the ragged edges of the bronze's neck, the head was crudely separated from the body of a statue, of which no trace was discovered in the tumulus. The excavators have speculated that the comprehensive equipment of the tomb with royal accoutrements despite the absence of human remains, together with the deposition of a reused partial portrait statue, suggests a symbolic rather than physical interment of the king. His body was not in the tomb. The hollow-cast bronze itself is in an exceptional state of preservation. The surfaces of both the hair and the flesh parts display a noble patina, in a palette between malachite green and dark chocolate browns. Most extraordinary, however, are the composite eyes, made from various materials, including alabaster for the sclera and glass in contrasting colors and opacity levels for the pupils, irises, and lacrimal caruncles. The eyes are inserted into open sockets of the hollow bronze, where they are framed by eyelashes cut from thin sheets of copper. The translucency and reflectiveness of the irises are such that the eyes retain their literal sparkle, giving the portrait an intense gaze that has rarely failed to stun viewers in the twenty years since the portrait's discovery. The image of a mature man is characterized by an ovoid skull, with a rounded forehead, wide-set eyes under bushy eyebrows, a large and aquiline nose, long handlebar mustache, and an untrimmed, scraggly beard - spade-like and jutting forward. In the combination of these iconographic and physiognomic details, the head is unlike any known portrait of a Greek man, including philosophers or rulers. The context of the head's discovery in the tomb of Seuthes Ill makes it more than plausible that the portrait indeed represents that Odrysian king. Right side view, showing the hooked nose in particular. Excavated from the Golyama Kosmatka tumulus (burial mound) in 2004, these bronze greaves were among the opulent grave goods associated with the Thracian King Seuthes III. The armor found in the tumulus - a bronze helmet, this pair of decorated bronze greaves, a gorget-pectoral, and fragments of a composite (leather?) corselet - was all highly decorative and probably ceremonial. The greaves were cast in separate molds for the right and left legs, and additionally forged and chiseled; the knees are decorated in high relief with heads of Athena wearing an Attic helmet with three crests, supported by figures of a sphinx (the central one) and griffins (the lateral ones). Bronze, late 4th century BCE. Kazanlak, Iskra Historical Museum, Bulgaria. Photographed by me at an exhibition on ancient Thrace at the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, California. From the Golyama Kosmatka tumulus near the town of Shipka, Bulgaria. The tomb inside is believed to be associated with the Thracian king Seuthes III (ca. 330-300/295 BCE). A rich assembly of luxury objects and armor were found in the burial chamber, including this bronze helmet and several silver vessels bearing inscriptions with the king's name, as well as a few bronze coins of Seuthes. The archaeologists did not, however, find any human remains or other evidence of an actual burial. This helmet is of the so-called Chalkidian type, with fixed cheekpieces, and belongs to the "Thracian group" with an outwardly curved nape guard. In the middle of the pediment-like frontal part, there is a dotted inscription: ΣΕΥΘΟΥ, "(belonging to) Seuthes." Soldered above the inscription is a gilded-silver appliqué depicting the frontally facing head of the goddess Athena wearing a winged helmet terminating in a swan's head at the top. Two silver plume holders were attached above the temples. Late 4th century BCE, bronze and silver with partial gilding. Kazanlak, Iskra Historical Museum, Bulgaria. ______ Photographed at the Getty Villa Museum, part of the 'Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures from Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece' exhibition.
January 26, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
2/2 Riches, wisdom, power, the arts... everything you most desire is fleeting and frankly you should just give up. The ever cheerful Evert Collier, whose day is today.
January 26, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
kawulf.bsky.social
Just because I saw and loved this last week.
18th century book frontispiece with a single elaborately penned word "Book" with a flourish and a decorative bow swirled underneath.
January 26, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
serbiaireland.bsky.social
This fresco depicting the Crucifixion of Christ from the 14th c. Serbian monastery Visoki Dečani, Kosovo, has some strange details, in top corners, enlarged below
September 8, 2025 at 6:31 PM
mredwardrueda.bsky.social
Finally getting around to skimming Witzel's "Origins of the World's Mythologies," so give me all the naturalistic symbolism:
serbiaireland.bsky.social oldeuropeanculture @serbiaireland.bsky.social · Sep 10
A lyre player from "The Standard of Ur", a Sumerian artefact dated to c. 2550 BC. These bull headed lyres were ceremonial instruments. This is obvious from the fact that the Sumerian sign for lyre also means "to praise." But praise who? And why?
From:
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2024/09/lyre...
January 25, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
serbiaireland.bsky.social
Thread: Ahhhh...You might find this interesting.

In this 2020 article, oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2020/03/lege..., I proposed this:

Is it possible that the "Combat agate" was worn by a Minoan warrior to commemorate a once famous Minoan victory over Mycenaeans?
September 13, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
2/2 Frigid winter. Can anybody really be having fun? Jan van de Cappelle doubts it, and today is his day.
January 25, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
Can you believe this is from 1670? Bats, by Flemish painter Pieter Boel, equal opportunity animal painter. Not just the cute ones! Wishing you a good night.
January 25, 2026 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
marksology.bsky.social
Free Online United States City Directories

An excellent source of #genealogy info is Historical City Directories. They provide substantial info between censuses, such as addresses, occupations, spouse's name, etc.

For the country, there are 27,870 Free City Directory Collections

buff.ly/vVGxIYr
January 24, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Edward A. Rueda
marksology.bsky.social
Visit the Newspaper Research Academy at buff.ly/su8jH2o #genealogy
January 24, 2026 at 8:41 PM