After months of exchanging emails, carefully inspecting family trees and sifting through countless birth records (in vain), my DNA-matched cousin “Kathie” and I finally know how we’re likely related. Kathie is my 9th cousin, 2x removed on my paternal grandfather’s side of the family. According to numerous pedigrees, our common ancestor was Henry Hollingsworth who was born in Ireland in 1598. The only… More →

Unless you lived under a rock in the 1980s, you’ve probably seen at least one episode of The Golden Girls. I’ve probably seen all of them at least once if not twice or three times. Rue McClanahan’s character, Blanche Devereaux, hailed from the Hollingsworth family. Southern to the core, the fictitious Blanche grew up at “Twin Oaks” under the watchful eye of her father and the patriarch of… More →

Finding the name of my great grandmother’s mother – Mary Emma Goodger – took some doing. But it was worth the effort because it’s revealed new and unexplored tree branches. One of these branches – the Veazey branch – has been remarkably well-documented by other family members. So, there’s not much more for me to do other than to reap the… More →

This summer, notable citizens continued to fall, not spring, from the Winter branch of my family tree. Edward Henry Winter, my 2nd cousin, 3x removed, was the 32nd Lieutenant Governor of Missouri. Elected in 1928 after a successful stint as Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, he would serve only one term before making a run for governor. That was not meant… More →

The name of my 4th great grandfather, Caspar Bruenstreip, was buried in the city cemetery records of Warrenton, Missouri alongside the name of his interred daughter, Mary Wessel. She died October 5, 1892 (coincidentally) and is buried next to her husband, William. Thankfully those cemetery records have now been digitized so the shovels I had taken with me to exhume information or bodies were… More →

Today marks the 96th anniversary of my paternal grandmother’s birth. Born Mildred Clara Pauline Dusenberg to parents Henry and Minnie (Biesemeyer) Dusenberg, she was the youngest of five children. Some of my most cherished memories of my grandmother involve her family’s gatherings in New Franklin, Missouri. The Dusenberg Family Reunions, which had been held for generations, were big events. Three or four folding tables… More →

Engineers, physicists, inventors. scientists, professors, educators. If I had a nickel for every time that I came across one in my family tree, it would not pay for the storage fees for this blog. But I might have a roll of nickels. Max Edwin Femmer, my 4th cousin, 1x removed, was a member of the engineering team at IBM that revolutionized data… More →

The untimely and tragic death of my paternal great grandmother, Lula Betty (Boren) Trantham, robbed six young children of their mother and a husband of his loving wife. After helping a neighboring and ailing family in need, Lula Betty contracted the illness herself and died on her 33rd birthday. Although Texas would become her final resting place, her heritage was firmly rooted in Mississippi, where she left behind… More →

The Baskets of Monroe Johnson most likely never appeared on any bestseller list. This unassuming 33-page booklet, which I found in the gift shop of the Warren County Historical Society, probably would have been overlooked by a lesser being but not I. In terms of baskets, my knowledge is limited to the Easter and laundry varieties. But as husbands of distant cousins go, I am quite the expert.… More →