Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

One branch of the tree that appears destined for battle was the Hinman clan. Perhaps it was a matter of time and place for this family. They settled in Connecticut from around 1650-1810; a region that witnessed many wars and skirmishes throughout that span of years. The Hinmans originally hailed from England, but Edward Hinman first brought the line to the Americas, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts on the William & George of London ship in June of 1650 as a crewman, refusing to reboard and return to London.  It's alleged that either he or his father (who also carried the given name of Edward) served as Sergeant-at-Arms in the body guard for King Charles I and had to flee during Oliver Cromwell's reign as Lord Protectorate. King Charles I had been executed the year prior, so the timeline of his emigration would appear reasonable. The Dutch records of Albany, New York reported that Sergeant Edward Hinman and Captain John Underhill offered their military services to Governor ...

On 19 August 1961, William Martin Cole married Beatrice Bethel (Dixon) Dean in Lawndale, Los Angeles, California and officially became the step-father to her five grown daughters, one of which was also getting married that very same day in Palos Verdes! He would from then on be known as "Pop" Cole. William Martin Cole arrived in the world just one year and one day after his parents, Jessie Washington Dillon and Alach Henry Cole, were married. He was born 16 May 1893 in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. His younger sister Margaret was born five years later. Margaret Ellen Cole, undated. The Cole family rented a cabin on Big Wheeling Creek, near where the Deans lived, so William grew up alongside Chester Dean (Beatrice's first husband) and the two men were friends. This is how William and Beatrice first met organically, while they were each married to their first spouses: William to Wilma Strautman and Beatrice to Chester Dean. William was known to the Dean family as Wi...

Family history research in Australia is quite foreign to me. As far as I know, I have no lines that extend into that part of the world, and I've never travelled there, so I haven't gone looking for anything down there. However, my paternal uncle (who I only met once in person a few years before he passed away) did spend a short time in southern Australia in the 1970s teaching in the state of Victoria. We only have one photo of him at Orbost High School during this time that he sent back home to his parents: Orbost High School, ca. 1973 It wasn't even exactly clear upon initial examination who he was in this photo. None of the males stood out as being the main subject of the photo, and he wasn't clearly marked. We assumed him to be the seated man in the tie toward the top, center of the photograph (next to the standing man with his hand up to his temple). His beard and mustache were two other features he hadn't been known for in previous years, and his writing on the...