#90: Restoring a Name to the Silence | Annie Strahle

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (2026-30): Free Space
The weekly prompt is provided by www.amyjohnsoncrow.com. The prompt for the week of July 20 is "Free Space."

As genealogists, we often go searching for milestones: the marriages, the homesteads, and the long lives that built our family trees. But sometimes, we uncover a life cut short—a story that simply slipped through the cracks of family memory over the past century and a half, lost to time until records bring it back to light.

In this post, I am rediscovering and sharing the forgotten story of my great-great-grandfather’s sister, Annie Strahle, 137 years after her death.

#86: A Hard Choice | Alice Lorensen

#86: A Hard Choice | Alice Lorensen

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (2026-26): A Hard Choice
The weekly prompt is provided by www.amyjohnsoncrow.com. The prompt for the week of June 22 is "A Hard Choice."

#81: Tombstone Tuesday #4 | Rudolf Soltis

As genealogists, we are often left to piece together the final chapters of our ancestors' lives through a scattered trail of ink and paper. Sometimes, those records don't just tell us where someone lived—they reveal a dramatic, heartbreaking story of risk, transition, and a family's final show of deep respect. For Rudolf Soltis, a span of just six years captured by federal and local records tells a story of hard labor, transition, and a final, permanent resting place that speaks volumes about his character and work ethic.

#69: A St. Patrick's Day Birthday Dance for Marjorie Voorhees

This weekend I was cleaning up and organizing my genealogy files. Part of that collection included a cache of newspaper clippings I had downloaded during a free weekend on Newspapers.com. It turns out that my wife's grandmother, Mary Marjorie Voorhees (born March 16, 1908), was frequently mentioned in the Richmond Times-Dispatch during the late 1920s and '30s. One of those clippings, a delightful society notice from 1927, really caught my attention and I knew I had to write a post about it to share it.