This post card stuck out to me because the handwriting is so pretty and I imagine the writer, Mary, took her time writing it. If you look closely, you can kind of see pencil lines that were drawn, likely to help keep the words from slanting. Despite the lovely handwriting, the content of the card is a bit sad. I'm guessing that Mary's aunt had passed away recently.

Asylums and the history of mental illness has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Both of my parents worked at the state hospital in North Dakota until we moved to Alaska in 2001. I got my bachelor's degree in psychology in 2017 and have been working in the field since; including an inpatient mental health facility, ages ranging from 4 to 76.

Asylums and the history of mental illness has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Both of my parents worked at the state hospital in North Dakota until we moved to Alaska in 2001. I got my bachelor's degree in psychology in 2017 and have been working in the field since; including an inpatient mental health facility, ages ranging from 4 to 76.

The newspaper article below was featured in The Illustrated Police News, etc. London, Greater London, England on Saturday October 1st, 1870. According to Wikipedia, "The Illustrated Police News was a weekly illustrated newspaper which was one of the earliest British tabloids. It featured sensational and melodramatic reports and illustrations of murders and hangings and was a direct descendent of the execution broadsheets of the 18th century." It was founded in 1864 and was in print until 1938.

Paul Link is one of the veterans assigned to me as a volunteer story writer for Stories Behind the Stars. When given a story to write, a lot of details are already provided for you, but it's up to you to write the narrative and bring the veteran back to life. This blog post is a lot more subjective than the story I wrote for his Fold3 page because I kept jumping down rabbit holes and I felt like there was more to his story that needed to be explored.

Creator: Sebastien-Coell | Credit: Getty ImagesCopyright: Sebastien-Coell Simply put, St Mary Magdalene church in Taunton has been around for quite some time and a lot of work has been done on it to keep it as authentic as possible while making it accessible to the public and tourists. It was completed in 1508 in Early Tudor Perpendicular Gothic style. …

Norman Harold Lilly (1923-1944) Stories Behind the Stars is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. I've spent the last few weeks learning about Stories Behind the Stars, Fold3, and brushing up on my history and military knowledge. It's safe to say that I have a lot of work to do.

Rozair Joseph Amerman. Sometimes referred to as Joseph Rozair in official documents and affectionately known as Grandpa Joe to his grandchildren. I remember hearing his name a lot growing up and always thought his name was interesting. I appreciate it even more now that I'm older. I think it's the most unique name in my family tree currently. Rozair; and that's what I'll be referring to him as throughout this post.

I was sorting my postcards to find ones that I hadn't transcribed this and this one emerged from the pile. I had a hard time transcribing some of this one but I really wanted to post it because it was sent 70 years ago today. What are the odds?! This is what I was able to make out. It is terrifically hot out here in Minn.

This postcard was a little fun for me because I have spent the last 24 years living in Alaska and in the last 24 years, I have never been to Juneau. Definitely on my bucket list! Mendenhall Glacier was originally known as "the Glacier Behind the Town" or "the Glacier Behind the Little Lake before being renamed in 1891 in honor of Thomas Corwin Mendenhall.

Next to research I'm going to continue to comb through my tree to look for any hidden stories or documents that might still be hanging around. I want to start as recent as my grandparents and "scrub" the tree, removing hints that aren't related, duplicate documents, and just make it all easier to sift through. As far as research goes, I want to know more about the man below.

Earliest record The earliest record I have that I can trace back with 100% certainty is the naturalization record for my 4th great-grandfather Wolfgang Preisinger in 1867. On the hunt now for older records.

The front of the postcard (above) and the picture below are both from the Painted Desert in Arizona. I would love to put that and the Petrified Forest National Park on my travel bucket list, but I'm afraid I would melt in the heat. It is incredibly beautiful, though. Copyright: @ Peter Andrade The card itself talks about the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert, which are both in Arizona but according to the postage mark, it was sent from Merced, California, which can also be seen written at the top of the postcard.

6/27 - brick wall success6/28 - ancestor you'd like to meet I'd like to meet two ancestors. The first being my great-grandma Alida, on my mom's side. She was a spitfire with an incredible sense of humor. She also endured more than anyone should have to and I want to know more about that. I did get to meet her, but she had already moved into the nursing home and Parkinson's dementia had stolen her mind.

Recent discovery This discovery is as recent as it gets. I just checked my e-mail to find that my order from the Iron Range Research Center in Minnesota had been completed. A week or two ago, I requested a copy of a Declaration of Intent, which was the "first step toward naturalization for most persons seeking United States citizenship between 1795 and 1952." …

Residence: then & now Jamestown, North Dakota This is the house that I spent much of my childhood in. It looks smaller now. The light colored deck was not there and we didn't have a fence around the yard. We probably should have...our dog was not the nicest to strangers... The red brick-ish building you can see a little bit of in the background was my elementary school.

Criminal in the family Depending on how I look at this prompt, I see two options. The first is that I don't have a criminal in the family. When I think "criminal" I think serial killer. Bank robber. Gang member. Arsonist. Something like that. I don't have any of those in my family that I am aware of. The second makes me think of all of the people in my family that have experienced some kind of substance use who were arrested for driving under the influence, minor in possession, disorderly conduct, and manslaughter. In almost all cases, the drug of choice was alcohol. I will continue to hunt for the criminal in the family.

A family heirloom I wouldn't say that anything has necessarily been passed down to me through generations, other than all the family history work that my uncle has done and whoever had come before him. I think that is probably the most important heirloom. Knowledge. Other than that... I have my dad's army uniform that we didn't know he kept. A ring of my paternal grandfather's that my dad would probably prefer that I not wear, but I do.

DNA discovery When I first got my DNA results back from Ancestry, I was surprised to see that I was less Norwegian than I thought I was, and more German. At the beginning, the Ancestry DNA kits didn't give you a whole lot of information other than a breakdown of your ancestral regions. Fast forward from 2012 to 2022 and you can now see the breakdown by parent.

8/4/1948 Hi honey, We are now in St. Ignace, came over on this ferry. 80 cars on it. Very windy. On our way to Saint Ignace Marie. Hope all is well with you. Love, mom and dad. I was able to find a census report for 1930, 1940, that mention JoAnne, but when we get to 1950, she disappears and a son has shown up.

Oldest Photo I think these are two of my oldest photos. I can't be completely sure when they were taken. Above is Wolfgang "Frank" Preisinger (1830-1898). According to the person who uploaded this photo onto Ancestry.com, it was taken in the 1890's. Frank died at the age of 68. Below are Wolfgang, his wife Julianna, a another couple that I have not been able to track down.

Surprising discovery I've posted about him before, but this is Michael O'Laughlen (1840-1867). He is a somewhat distant ancestor of my work bestie's-husband and an Abraham Lincoln assassination co-conspirator. He was a childhood friend of John Wilkes Booth. He would claim that he dropped out of the plot to kill Lincoln, but he did end up being charged as an accomplice to booth.