...blog, stories of conversations & connections...

...left behind

Nov 29, 2021

As often happens we start out with one thing in mind for project, a meet up, a session, and whatever the “thing” is turns out to be a shift, a pivot and 180 degrees in the opposite direction of what you “thought” you were heading toward, such was a meet up with a client a few weeks ago.I’d been contact by the wife of a man I used to work with, one of my officers. He was retired as I hit about the halfway mark of my career. Coincidentally we retired to the same ...

…what’s in a name, Mr. Brown?

Sep 12, 2021

…what’s in a name, Mr. Brown? Hmmm is this a rhetorical question? We are identified by our name, some of us choose our name perhaps later in life, but most of us are “given” the name or names chosen by our parents or family members. Does changing our name change our identity? In the society we live in, often women take on the name of the man she’s marrying or clan to which he belongs. I’m smiling as I remember how I used to try to practice writing my ...

...hidden treasure, we don't know what we don't know...

Jun 18, 2021

We don’t know what we don’t know?As a family historian and genealogist, I marvel as I learn about the lives of our ancestors. Where did they live, how’d they get there, who were the immigrants, in what country were they born? The mysteries uncovered, layer by layer, page by page, with each document a new discovery. Every family has stories, grains of truth within, and passed down from one generation to another. . . Often I hear “we don’t know anything, our parents ...

The Photograph

May 28, 2021

During the summer and fall of 2007, I was corresponding with a new-online-cousin. (How I found her is for another blog post.) We were getting to know each other via email as we confirmed the relationship, we believed existed. Coincidentally, she lived in my own hometown of Livermore, California. Shelley Parks Covey was the gr-granddaughter, and I was the gr-gr-granddaughter of Mary Ann Adams Brown Parks, (1849-1940). We shared only the Mary Ann half of the married couple, ...

...a grain of truth

May 09, 2021

grain of truth in every story…1917 the family mystery... January 12th 2016 I solved it … almost 99 years…solved the mystery.The story came from my Grandmother’s family, she was one of 8 children, all born in San Francisco from 1898-1914. When I grew up I was fortunate to know most of them. One of my uncles, Lee, wrote down the family birth and wedding dates…and the death date of their brother Robert H. Edwards. He was born June 1, 1900, and ...

...my friend B

May 01, 2021

…my friend "B""B", aka Barbara, lived on the road behind my home in the mountains. She’s a walker, twice a day most days, sometimes with her daughter, sometimes with her grand dog…She stopped to chat the first few days after we moved in, told me of the couple who’d lived in our home. Told of the fire which had taken the house to the foundation in 2006. She knew them well … Our conversations, much like Facebook, were snippets of our lives … she talked ...

...the little old lady from Pasadena

Jul 08, 2019

…doesn’t every mystery start with a question? This one did… from my Mom, she sends this picture in an email to me, and our cousins Anke and Jan. Do we know who the woman is on the right? The young couple are my maternal grandparents, Ruth Elinor Edwards 1910-1983 and Jurgen Cornelius Jurgens 1907-1979. Mom, Virginia Jurgens Brown, sent the email just over a year ago, May 2018. She wondered, well of course then I wondered.I thought, hmm…, the era is right to be ...

...turn it over

May 25, 2019

…I’ve posted her once before on Facebook, but here is the rest of the story…. I’ve had the copy of the National Geographic Magazine, which had been in a box of my grandfather’s belongings. Story was that his grandmother is the woman in an article about the Friesen Islands after WWII. Last week I had a visit with my cousin Anke, her father and my grandfathers were brothers. As we were going though items, I pulled it out, she said “oh we don’t need to ...

...would you know?

Jul 07, 2017

Would you know? That person you see in the coffee shop, meet at a friend’s home for a party, weekend BBQ, or simply walking down the street in any big city, could they be your cousin? ...And yet that simple thought, leaves one pondering the possibilities, so I’ll tell you a story. I’ll start with this; I’m an avid genealogist & family historian. I’ve been working on one family of mine for over 20 years.Bear with me as I fill in this background for a ...

...sweethearts

Jun 26, 2017

We were high school sweethearts...Terry graduated from Livermore High in 1961 and I graduated 1962. After Graduation Terry attended San Jose State College, I had one year left of high school. Terry proposed to me and we were engaged the night of my high school graduation. The wedding was planned for July 20, 1963. We were so young I was 18 Terry was 19. It was a traditional Italian wedding, a very warm day, and the reception was at the Pleasanton ...