It's day 16 of the Family History Writing Challenge and I'm feeling grateful that I'm not a vegetarian. It's bad enough to have to face the dire fates of various family members while exploring the past; I'm not sure I could cope with feeling guilty about the fact that they were butchers. My ambivalence --nay, blatant hypocrisy -- when it comes to meat eating is a topic for
Vienna butchers
The Return of Martin Kornmehl
It's hard to believe a year has passed since last February, when I took the Family History Writing Challenge. It was a terrific focusing tool and I highly recommended it -- though I'm going to have to pass this go round. That said, I have stories of two close family members, a great uncle and a great aunt, that I have yet to tell. It would be wrong to give them short shrift
In Memory of a Twice-Lost Cousin, Gigi Michaels
Once upon a time -- a little more than a year ago -- I believed I had far more friends than I had family members. My parents are both long gone, and I thought my sister and my nieces were my only blood relatives. No paternal or maternal cousins were on my radar. I regretted that a bit, but never thought much about it. I figured that's how it is when you're from a family that