Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

  AUGUST 08, 2021 I’m always interested in hearing the backstory of one’s name. Nowadays, parents tend to spend a good chunk of energy in determining the names of their offspring, and I question if the trend was as big an ordeal in the past as it is the present. Week 31: Favorite Name On my father’s line of the family tree, we have very deep roots in America, stretching all the way back to the first few decades of the original colonies. The Crandall line can be traced back to Elder John Crandall who was born in England in the early 1600s and traveled to Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1635. John’s great granddaughter is my 5th great grandmother. She was born 28 January 1743 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut. Her parents, who had rather normal names of Samuel and Sarah, granted her the special name of Desire Crandall. The name Desire calls to me, because it stands apart from most other common names in my family tree. And because I consider myself a dreamer, it really tugs on m...

2020's Got Nothing on Genealogists: The Journey Into Joining the D.A.R.! AUGUST 20, 2020 While there are a plethora of options of lineage societies to join, for me, it wasn’t even a choice! I’ve known since high school that I would one day apply for membership into DAR, because I learned at an early age that my paternal great grandmother, Ethel E. (Hinman) Eggenberger, and my great aunt, Vera Madine (Eggenberger) Wicke, had both been members of a DAR chapter in Kansas. In fact, Vera’s DAR application form has been the only record I have found in existence, as of yet, that has indicated what her mother’s middle initial of “E” stood for – Eulala! Not even Ethel’s own DAR application form had spelled out her middle name, and maybe for good reason…because where the heck did Eulala come from?? Unfortunately, my path to membership did hit a few bumps in the road, when I submitted my short form application and learned that the documentation proving lineage from my great grandmother to our...