This weekend, I went to visit my sister and her family. They live in O’Fallon, Illinois. While I was there, I decided to take a day trip to Pike County, Illinois, where my Cadwell ancestors lived from about 1830 – 1846, when they came to Navarro County, Texas. Pike County is only about 100 miles…
Category: Genealogy
Der Stammbaum
Finally, after more than three years of on-and-off work, I’ve completed revisions and published the 2015 edition of Der Stammbaum der Familie Brunnemann. The Stammbaum traces my Brunnemann family from 1640s Pomerania to 1905 in Flatonia, Texas. This is the type of genealogy I enjoy the most – it’s literally history in your hands. It…
Grave Matters
As I’ve noted before, I have an affinity for cemeteries and graves, particularly medieval and 17th/18th century burial grounds. Our recent trip to New England was a gold mine for the latter. The first one I ran across was the Central Burying Ground on the Boston Common, across the street from our hotel. Unfortunately it…
Thanks, Matthew Brady!
Genealogist are beholden to folks like Matthew Brady who really served to popularize photography in the mid-19th century. I’m particularly fortunate because my third great uncles, Moses and Aaron Cadwell were so taken with photography that they opened the first studio in Flatonia, Texas, in operation from the early 1870s through about 1910. Having a photographer…
Genealogy and the Moral Dilemma
So I ran across an interesting article last week on Slate – George W. Bush’s Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather was a Slave Trader. The article traces the genealogical research establishing that this progenitor of the Bush family was, in fact, Thomas ‘Beau’ Walker, a notorious English slave trader during the last quarter of the 18th Century. Notwithstanding the…
Cemeteries Are Fun!
So I’m a rabid genealogist and cemeteries are like my second home. I think this has become a trend in recent years – findagrave.com seems to be growing exponentially. Tracing the different fads and fashions in headstones through history is fascinating. We’re going to Boston in October and I’m really hoping to go to the…
The Runcible Existentialist 