That Time My Uncle Robbed a Stagecoach
My great grandparents Sumner Dunham (1871-1947) and Cora Belle Ivans (1873-1963) were married on 8 July 1894 in Cummings, Mendocino County, California, with Cora Belle’s parents William and Mary...
View ArticleWho Is This Director?
My 2x great aunt Jovita García was the sister of my great grandmother Jesús García de Alvarado. Great Aunt Jovita was born 7 Mar 1893, probably in Ensenada, Baja California, the youngest of nine...
View ArticleUncle Josef Builds a Church
My fourth grand-uncle Josef Stoltz, together with a group of German immigrants who served in the Civil War, set up a cemetery and constructed the first Catholic church in Wright County, Minnesota. As...
View ArticleServing Up Drinks for 312 Years
On 24 September 1704, the Plymouth Colony Court of General Sessions granted liquor licenses to several colonists. Each deposited a bond (“surtie”) with the court to ensure orderly behavior of their...
View ArticleFrom Peril to the Pacific
During the Civil War, Missouri and Tennessee were claimed by both the Union and the Confederacy. The Union dominance in each of these states was achieved by a difficult struggle on many fronts, and my...
View ArticleWhere in the World Was Willard Wood?
Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses You been out ridin’ fences for so long now Oh, you’re a hard one I know that you got your reasons These things that are pleasin’ you Can hurt you somehow...
View ArticleA Dutch Romance
I recently came across one of the oldest family documents I have an image of: the marriage record of my 10x great-grandparents George Morton and Juliana Carpenter. And it’s the only one in Dutch....
View ArticleBreaking Down the Balderas Brick Wall
For some time I had been stymied in tracking the ancestry of my paternal grandmother Consuelo Chávez Stoltz (1904-1969). Part of this is due to the fact that her father, Carlos Marín, is said to have...
View ArticleAuriferous North
I have written previously about my great-great-grandfather Seth Dunham’s discovery of the quicksilver (mercury) lode that became the Redington Quicksilver Mine in then-Lake County. Recently I was sent...
View ArticleAn important Marín breakthrough for the Chávez and Stoltz families
I had previously detailed some of my ongoing research on my paternal grandmother Consuelo Marín (Chávez) Stoltz (21 Dec 1904-29 Sep 1969) and her mother, Simona Balderas Marín Chávez (1 Dec 1881-2 Oct...
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