Christopher Padgett
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cornislandproject.org
Christopher Padgett
@cornislandproject.org
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Family Historian, Genealogist, Caregiver & Aesthete | Explorer of Roots, Ephemera & Forgotten Histories | 8th-Generation Louisvillian | Entdecker der Wurzeln & Geschichten 🌍🔎🌿💙🎨📷 🇺🇦 cornislandproject.org
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cornislandproject.org
Mediums. Séances. Spirits on call. Messages from the beyond. In the 1880s and 1890s, one branch of my Kentucky family tree wasn’t just touched by the American Spiritualist movement—they were the movement. This autumn, their story will be summoned on the www.cornislandproject.org. #genealogy
August 28, 2025 at 9:47 PM
cornislandproject.org
I found a thick booklet the 1930s that listed by Catholic parish in the archdiocese every donation by family. These used to be published and shared. They are a portal into socioeconomic status, census substitute, and way of locating what church someone attended. Found in an antique shop for $1
August 23, 2025 at 2:17 AM
cornislandproject.org
63 years ago today at Saint Cecilia in Portland, #Louisville—
He was 23, a boy from a log cabin in Garnettsville.
She was 21, born in the city at General Hospital.
They met at Western Lanes. She bowled three strikes.
He proposed. She said yes.
And my parents lifetime together began.
#genealogy
August 18, 2025 at 1:57 PM
cornislandproject.org
In 1914, Clara crossed the Ohio River from a Louisville orphanage to a marriage parlor. She was 17, her pen faltering at her birthdate. A century later, I crossed the same river—my pen steady, but the ink between us still linked our names.
www.cornislandproject.org/p/the-ink-be...
#genealogy
August 9, 2025 at 9:54 PM
cornislandproject.org
Six generations. One rare cactus. She blooms only at night — and only once a year. Tonight, she may open. And with her, a century and a half of family history. 🌙✨
www.cornislandproject.org/p/night-bloo...
#genealogy #familyhistory #ancestralplants
August 8, 2025 at 12:59 PM
cornislandproject.org
Floating past Schloß Schönbühel on the Danube feels like slipping into a legend. Built on rock, watching the river roll by for nearly a thousand years. It doesn’t speak—but it remembers.

#ancestorvibes #austria #danube #castles #familyhistory
July 17, 2025 at 5:04 PM
cornislandproject.org
He wasn’t on a rearing stallion. He rode a mule in bad weather. But history isn’t what happened—it’s what gets remembered.

Napoleon at the Great St. Bernard Pass.
Names etched in stone: HANNIBAL. KAROLUS MAGNUS. BONAPARTE.
Propaganda meets permanence.

#NapoleonicWars #genealogy #belvedere #vienna
July 17, 2025 at 4:35 AM
cornislandproject.org
Morning on the Danube. A lone cabin keeps watch while the river carries yesterday away. Sunrise like this feels ancestral…a reminder that the best stories drift in quietly. #Danube #MorningLight #AncestorVibes
July 16, 2025 at 4:44 AM
cornislandproject.org
Sunset on the Danube, drifting past the Hungarian Parliament — spires catching the last light, a longship full of people carrying stories downstream. Some cities never stop reminding you how much history moves with the river.

#Budapest #Danube #Hungary
July 15, 2025 at 9:23 AM
cornislandproject.org
Funeral in the Carpathians by János Tornyai (1869–1936), Hungarian National Gallery.
A quiet line of mourners winding through snow, their grief stitched into the hills and river below. Tornyai’s brush reminds us even in the deep cold, our stories carry us home.
#art #Hungary #museumdays #budapest
July 14, 2025 at 12:03 PM
cornislandproject.org
Visited Anonymous today — where heroes, poets, and rebels lie side by side, unnamed but never forgotten. Budapest always knows how to keep its secrets. #Budapest #Travel #History
The statue depicts an unknown chronicler (called Anonymus) who lived during the reign of King Béla III of Hungary in the 12th century. He wrote the Gesta Hungarorum (“Deeds of the Hungarians”), one of the earliest written records of Hungary’s history and legends. The statue shows a hooded, faceless figure sitting on a stone bench, quill in hand, ready to record the stories of the past. Its hidden face adds to the legend — he represents all those forgotten scribes who preserved the nation’s memory. Relaxing at the Széchenyi Thermal Baths — the largest medicinal bath in Europe! The warm outdoor pools and grand architecture make it feel like swimming in a palace. Exploring the elegant galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts. The light, the arches, and the stunning details were just as inspiring as the masterpieces on the walls. Stopped for coffee at the famous New York Café — often called the most beautiful café in the world. Even the outside is a work of art!
July 12, 2025 at 8:20 PM
cornislandproject.org
The Dead Are Still Here

Western Cemetery listens. A quiet field in Louisville’s West End—once a public graveyard, now mostly erased. But the dead are still there.
A story of forgotten graves, faded maps, and hands that brought the names back.
#genealogy
www.cornislandproject.org/p/louisville...
May 20, 2025 at 2:03 AM
cornislandproject.org
When La Marseillaise filled the room, it echoed more than music—it echoed Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. A shared dream that still binds us, 200 years after Lafayette’s visit. #Lafayette200 #FrancoAmericanFriendship #Louisville #France #Lafayette
May 11, 2025 at 12:57 AM
cornislandproject.org
200 years ago, #Lafayette came to #Louisville. Today, we honored that visit with dinner, dance, remembrance, and gratitude for the friendship between #France and America. History wasn’t just remembered—it was relived. #Lafayette200 #LouisvilleHistory #AncestorVibes #Genealogy
A Toast to Friendship Beneath chandeliers and gilded trim, a crowd gathered in reverence and gratitude. Speeches honored the Marquis, but the room honored something more: the fragile miracle of international friendship—and the memory of a Frenchman who stood with us when it mattered most. Echoes of 1825 on the Ballroom Floor With elegance and joy, dancers in period attire brought history to life. Every turn of the reel seemed to stitch past and present together, reminding us that celebration is a form of remembrance. Across Generations, Across Time In a circle that spanned ages, today’s participants followed the rhythm of an 18th-century ball—just as citizens might have done to welcome Lafayette himself. Hands joined, music flowing, the past became motion. A French-American Legacy Rekindled Two centuries after Lafayette walked these streets, we gathered to honor the enduring ties between France and Louisville. Pictured here: a moment of reflection beside the tricolor—symbol of the alliance that helped birth our nation.
May 11, 2025 at 12:53 AM
cornislandproject.org
Louisville’s namesake is hidden in storage—a king who backed our revolution, now mostly forgotten.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
#Louisville
Statue of King Louis XVI
May 8, 2025 at 10:18 PM
cornislandproject.org
Louisville’s namesake is hidden in storage—a king who backed our revolution, now mostly forgotten. This story isn’t about royalty. It’s about memory, nuance, and what we choose to bring back into the light.
www.cornislandproject.org/p/why-is-lou...
May 4, 2025 at 10:49 PM
cornislandproject.org
A quiet marvel tucked away in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky: This Tiffany-designed grave marker glows with artful restraint. It’s one of the hidden gems you walk right past—until the light catches just right. #cemetery #Kentucky #Louisville #TiffanyStudios #genealogy
A Tiffany designed grave marker in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky; Photograph by Christopher Padgett
April 23, 2025 at 2:37 AM
cornislandproject.org
Floodline
How the Great Flood of 1937 brought two Kentuckians — and the family that followed — to higher ground.
www.cornislandproject.org/p/floodline

#genealogy #familyhistory #GreatFlood #Louisville #Kentucky
#OhioRiver #blinddate #CornIslandProject
April 22, 2025 at 3:37 PM
cornislandproject.org
In 1937, #Louisville flooded. My grandfather paddled a canoe through the city to rescue the woman he’d just met.
They’d go on to build a family 76 strong.
New story on Substack: Floodline
A love story born in rising water.
www.cornislandproject.org/p/floodline
#genealogy #familyhistory
April 21, 2025 at 10:39 PM
cornislandproject.org
St. Mary Major in Rome — ancient, aching, eternal.
Soon the final resting place of Pope Francis,
a shepherd who walked with the people.
These images I shot last month can’t capture the silence inside, but they come close.

#PopeFrancis #Rome #StMaryMajor #SacredPlaces #TravelPhotos
Exterior facade Stained glass window and artwork at the entrance View looking towards the entrance by the altar Painting held by two angel statues
April 21, 2025 at 7:12 PM
cornislandproject.org
The Shoemaker Who Might've Met Lafayette
substack.com/@christopher...
#genealogy #lafayette #Louisville #Kentucky #Germany #France #CornIslandProject
April 13, 2025 at 8:38 PM
cornislandproject.org
Just published: The Shoemaker Who Might’ve Met Lafayette —
A Napoleonic veteran, a Harmony exile, and the quiet legacy they left in Louisville.
No monument, just memory.
#Genealogy #Louisville #Kentucky #Lafayette #Ancestors

open.substack.com/pub/christop...
The Shoemaker Who Might've Met Lafayette; headline above portrait of Marquis de Lafayette
April 11, 2025 at 4:14 AM
cornislandproject.org
Dad. Born July 4, 1939, in a real log cabin in Garnettsville, Kentucky.
Married to Mom for 50 years. Oldest of eleven. Father of six. Grandfather of seven. Banjo player. Took me to the public library every week. Union member for 50 years. #FamilyHistory #Genealogy
April 2, 2025 at 2:11 AM
cornislandproject.org
This is Ida Marie, my grand aunt. She died of measles in 1936, just shy of her first birthday. Her photo is hard to look at—but it's part of our history. As measles resurfaces in the U.S., I think of her. What once was rare grief for a parent is now at risk of returning. #genealogy #familyhistory
Ida Marie in her mother’s arms, 1936. She was just shy of her first birthday. This was their final moment together, captured in quiet grief. These portraits weren’t uncommon then—but they were never easy. A reminder of the cost of illness, and the depth of a mother’s love. Ida Marie’s death certificate lists “measles” as the cause. A disease nearly forgotten in living memory—until recently. One line on a form, but a lifetime of sorrow for those left behind. The vaccine would become available decades later in 1963. Ida Marie is buried near her parents and many other siblings at the Howe Valley Cemetery in Hardin County, Kentucky.
March 29, 2025 at 4:08 PM
cornislandproject.org
I wasn’t prepared for how much Munch: The Inner Scream at Palazzo Bonaparte would stir up in me. These four paintings stayed with me—each one echoing something I’ve felt while walking cemeteries, sitting with memory, or just missing people I never got to meet. #ancestorvibes #Munch #TheInnerScream
The Artist’s Studio I lingered at this one longer than I expected. It’s Munch’s studio, but it could’ve been any room I’ve walked into after someone’s gone. Familiar furniture, quiet figures, time moving differently. Grief doesn’t always look like sorrow—it can feel like a room remembering. #ancestorvibes #Munch #TheInnerScream Deathbed Scene This one shook me. All those faces, gathered around a deathbed—but no one’s really looking at each other. I’ve seen this kind of quiet in my own family. You don’t always know what to do with grief when it arrives. So you just… stay near. #ancestorvibes #Munch #TheInnerScream Figure on the Bridge (Melancholy variation) The stillness in this painting felt familiar. That inward gaze, the world still moving behind you while you carry something heavy. I’ve felt this while walking through old cemeteries, trying to piece together a story that doesn’t quite want to be told. #ancestorvibes #Munch #TheInnerScream This is Campo Verano in Rome—Munch painted it while visiting the city in the 1920s. I stood in front of this and thought about how cemeteries can feel strangely alive. The color, the light, the trees. It reminded me of walking through burial grounds back home—reading names, feeling watched over. #ancestorvibes #Munch #TheInnerScream #CampoVerano
March 29, 2025 at 1:59 AM