Genealogy by Twitter

There’s a photographer on Twitter, Jim Havard, who often posts photographs of Congressional Cemetery. He lives in the neighborhood near the cemetery, and he gets some fantastically beautiful imagery of the old graves. I often look at his photos and wonder, “Do I know this spot? Do I see my family?” I did, after all,Continue reading “Genealogy by Twitter”

A Genealogical Find

A few days ago I bought In the Shadow of the United States Capitol: Congressional Cemetery and the Memory of the Nation, a history of the historic cemetery in Washington, DC, by Abby Arthur Johnson and Ronald Maberry Johnson. I didn’t know of this book before Sunday; then I received a email about a saleContinue reading “A Genealogical Find”

An Explosion of Trees

Last weekend I was in the Baltimore area. A former colleague from Diamond was holding a comics and toys show in Westminster, so I drove down to show my support. After, I drove down to visit the cemeteries, which I’d not done since Memorial Day. I was both glad and sad that I did. GladContinue reading “An Explosion of Trees”

Baseball Night in Lancaster

Last night I attended my first baseball game in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When I lived in Chester County twenty years ago, Lancaster didn’t have a baseball team. Harrisburg, Reading, Wilmington — those would have been the closest baseball teams to me, probably in that order. I never attended games at any of them, though I dimlyContinue reading “Baseball Night in Lancaster”

Memorial Day at the Cemeteries

No Memorial Day parade in Dallastown yesterday — a casualty of the COVID pandemic, no doubt — so I went down to Baltimore to visit the cemeteries of my grandparents and great-grandparents and leave flags. I hadn’t been down that way since March, when I lined up the old photograph of the trolley at LoudonContinue reading “Memorial Day at the Cemeteries”

2020: The Year In Review

Do I need to say that 2020 was an awful year? Must I? Let’s watch a Carl Sagan video before I get to my annual review of the first post of each month. This is not the “Pale Blue Dot” video I was looking for. I went through my blog archives, I went through myContinue reading “2020: The Year In Review”

Three Newspaper Clippings and a Genealogical Puzzle

On June 9, 1886, the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Maroons met at Swampoodle Grounds in Washington. That same day, a dozen blocks southeast of the ballpark, following a funeral service that morning in Baltimore, Annie Atwell was laid to rest at Congressional Cemetery in a family plot with the remains of her daughter.Continue reading “Three Newspaper Clippings and a Genealogical Puzzle”

Exploring Cemeteries in Lancaster County

Yesterday afternoon, since it was sunny and nice, I decided to go for a drive into Lancaster County and check out a cemetery. My great-great-great-grandparents are buried at the Millersville Mennonite Church, about twenty-five miles away, which is closer than Diamond’s offices, but I’ve never gone to look for myself. The reason? Lancaster isn’t farContinue reading “Exploring Cemeteries in Lancaster County”

Genealogy in Old Photographs

Facebook reminded me yesterday morning that I went to Washington, DC six years ago — July 4, 2014 — for a Washington Nationals game and A Capitol Fourth. That trip provided me with one of my most-trafficked blog posts of the past decade on why I didn’t stand for “God Bless America” at the NationalsContinue reading “Genealogy in Old Photographs”