See my lecture at the National World War One Memorial & Museum in Kansas City, MO on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Hear how the illness affected the war and the homefront.
See Video /*One hundred and five years ago today the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was rocked by the largest non-nuclear, man-made explosion with … Continue reading "The 1917 Halifax Explosion"
On April 8, 1918, the Bank of Florence was founded by a group of local businessmen in Florence, Missouri, a town of approximately one hundred men and women. The organization was formed with H.A. Bremer as president, F. H. Rasa, vice-president, and P.W. Buehler as cashier.Continue reading "Fred Rasa & the Bank of Florence"
November 5th marked the 135th birthday of Carl Christian Siegel, my maternal grandfather. To celebrate I wanted to highlight one of the things I have noticed while digitizing family photos- grandpa liked cars! There are many photos of Grandpa and his family with cars so I … Continue reading "Grandpa Siegel & His Cars"
Fifty-five years ago today, a woman named Corrillie Spencer passed away when she was eighty-six years old. She was the second wife of Richard Allen Spencer (1881-1973), my great grandfather. Recently I have begun to research Corrillie’s life. She was known to my family and many others as “Aunt Rillie” and I had no idea … Continue reading "Corrillie Fletcher Ray Patterson Percival Spencer (1881-1967)"
One of the first rules of genealogy, long neglected by genealogists is to write down your own stories. On this German Unity Day, as falling leaves and temperatures finally reach Alabama, memories of my Year of Firsts, thirty (!) years ago flood my mind. But the beginning of the story, like so many tales, requires … Continue reading "A Year of Firsts"
