Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

On 6 July 1936, my maternal great grand-aunt, Mary Lucretia (Dixon) Stalnaker, who was a widow, married her 2nd husband, Thomas Gilmore Hogg, in West Virginia. She was 43. He was 33 and had also previously been married. Tommy worked as a hired hand for the Dixons. The two had flirted with each other at the store owned by Mary's mother. Thomas was quite a different match from her first husband, Walter, who was 26 years her senior. This time, she'd be the older, wiser one of the relationship. Tommy and Mary (Dixon) Stalnaker Hogg, 1936 In a previous blog post , I wrote about the supposed suitors that Mary had, due to the sheer number of postcards she had received and kept from eligible bachelors back in her prime, before she was married. But many blogs previous to that one, I wrote of a "Spanish influenza" victim in my family tree who just happened to be photographed in front of a big brick house belonging to Mr. Thomas Hogg. To my surprise, Tommy Hogg's niece, Nan...

  DECEMBER 20, 2021 Week 51: Holidays I have a pair of twin treasure chests that sit underneath the stairs in my house. They belonged to my maternal grandparents, and they’re filled with family picture frames, wartime correspondence, loose papers, little trinkets and other ephemera. A lot of the stuff that fills the chests has been placed in them at different times, so most of it is completely random and unrelated to the other stuff, which makes it even more fun to sift through, because it’s one surprise after another. Mary Dixon, “Post Cards”, scrapbook, Sutton, West Virginia, ca. 1908; privately held by descendant Kira D. Foltz. One such item is a very old scrapbook whose cover is pre-printed with POST CARDS. With a quick scan through the pages, it’s clear the collection belonged to Miss Mary Dixon of Sutton, West Virginia. Mary Lucretia Dixon was my great grandmother Beatrice’s older sister. She was born 30 November 1892 in Wadestown, Monongalia, West Virginia to Nathan and Eliz...

  OCTOBER 30, 2021 I come from farm people. As a genealogist, this is not the most exciting fact. When you seek out federal census records and eagerly scroll to the field of occupation to see how your ancestors made a living, let me tell you, it’s a total let down the moment you see “farmer” in that box. Does it mean you’ve reached a dead end in terms of records? No, not necessarily. There are agriculture schedules, local mercantile store ledgers, deeds, and plenty of other options of records you can explore to learn more about your farming family. But is it as exciting in comparison to when you find your doctor, local sheriff, or lawyer ancestor? Definitely not. Dixon family on wagon, 1904, West Virginia, (left to right) Nathan Dixon, Walter Stalnaker, Mary Dixon, Elizabeth Rockwell, Emma Dixon, Beatrice Bethel Dixon, Elizabeth V. Dixon. Week 37: On the Farm That said, running a farm is an entirely respectable career, and all of my farming ancestors get mad props from me, because ...