This week’s prompt for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is “Another Language.” Continuing with my theme this year – telling the stories of my generation – I’ve decided to share why I chose German as the foreign language I would study in school. My mother came to this country from Vienna, Austria, with […]
Read MoreMother’s Day is a time for children to show their moms how much they are loved. I’m pretty sure that was the motivation behind this “lovely” masterpiece I gave to my mother. And moms show their love by displaying these masterpieces as if they were the Mona Lisa – no matter how sad the artwork is. […]
Read MoreI love it when my “worlds” collide! This week’s blog prompt for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge has provided me the perfect opportunity to combine my two favorite hobbies: Genealogy and Dollhouse Miniatures. In this post, we take a “close up” look at some my favorite pieces. I’ll also show you how to […]
Read MoreGilbert “Gerry” Goodgion passed away on August 29, 1991, just a few months short of his 48th birthday. Gerry (pronounced “Gary”) was an officer in the Navy, serving two tours in Vietnam and retiring from the Naval Reserve as a commander. Exposure to the chemicals used during the Vietnam War may have been a major factor in causing […]
Read MoreMonday, July 10, 1989, was just another summer day. After I finished my day teaching summer school, I picked up our daughter Caitlin from her grandmother’s house. Cait and I headed home, a 6 ½ minute ride. Once home, I noticed the wind was picking up and the sky was clouding over. It was about […]
Read MoreMy memory is seriously failing me. Last week, I realized I had “misremembered” the origin of the punch-needle rugs my mother made in the mid-1960s. This week, I was all set to write my post on the topic of “taxes.” It would be an easy write – I had all of my tax returns since […]
Read MoreOkay – this is admittedly a real stretch for this week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks blog prompt, “Maiden Aunt.” I was struggling to think of who I could write about, not having any maiden aunts. In fact, I have no aunts at all anymore. Nor are any of my siblings “maidens.” So – I […]
Read MoreIn March 1959 we were living in a two-story garden apartment in New Haven. I had just turned 4. One sister was not quite 3 years-old and the other had just turned 1. My mother was exhausted from running up and down the stairs all day and insisted on moving to a new home – […]
Read MoreI could have used this story for last week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge as it truly ended up a story about luck. But, since most people would consider losing the top floor of their home to fire, it fits this week’s theme of Misfortune, pretty well. Julie Chen with Meg and my mom Those […]
Read MoreThis week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks topic is “Lucky” – in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. I was planning on writing about how lucky I have been “employment-wise.” But then I discovered March 14 was National “Write Your Story” Day. I remembered writing a lengthy autobiography as part of the Genealogy Do-Over I started in 2015. […]
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Who We Are and How We Got This Way 