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Frederick J Stierwalt’s Kansas Homestead

The above photo was believed to have been taken in Mound Valley, Kansas sometime after 1891. During this period in the midwest, building a new home on your land claim was something to be proud of. After paying a small fee to claim a homestead settlers were given five years to build a home and farm the land in order to keep their claim. It was not unusual for families to feature their homes in photos during this time, but...

Maria Sequichie McIntosh Portrait

Maria Sequichie McIntosh (Wa lee yah)

The Life of Maria Sequichie Wa lee yah, also known as Maria Sequichie, was born to Charles and Martha Sequichie/Aquicha (Cummings) in the Saline District of the Cherokee Nation (current-day Oklahoma) in 1866. She was the granddaughter of Jennie Powell Sequichie who came to the Cherokee Nation on the Trail of Tears. Maria attended school at the Cherokee Female Seminary in Tahlequah, one of the first women’s boarding schools west of the Mississippi and then went on to Bacone University....

Marvin Gregoire in the CCC

A recruiting poster for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Marvin Gregoire (photo left) grew into manhood during the worst economic downturn of the industrialized world, The Great Depression, which began in 1929, when he was 14, and lasted into the late 1930s. As the younger son of a Marshall, Minnesota farmer, Marvin was not likely to have the opportunity to take over his father Joseph’s business, so he left home at the age of 18 to follow a different path...

Claude “Bus” Stierwalt: WWII Letter from the Front

Claude Stierwalt, known as “Bus”, was born in Oklahoma in 1920 to Claude and Nina (Sequichie) Stierwalt. In July of 1942, he joined the Army Air Corps, serving as a Staff Sergeant throughout World War II. Family Photos Before the War Before Claude left for service the family gathered to take photos. Letter from Italy 1944 In 1944, while stationed in Italy, Bus wrote a holiday letter home to the family. His sadness at missing out on the holidays is...

The Boudreau (Boudrot) Family: Our Acadian Roots

Expulsion of the Acadians by George Craig This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath itLeaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers,—Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts...

Old Photo Identification: Ove Tintypes Update

Nearly two years ago I posted about a set of tintype photos that were passed down in the Ove family. Unfortunately, the photos had no names, dates, labels or other forms of identification. I have shared them with many distant cousins in hopes that the individuals in the photos could be identified, with no luck. Identifying Individuals in Old Photos There are ways of identifying the folks in those old nameless photos with a little sleuthing. Here are some simple...

Quick Blog Update…Stay Tuned for More.

  • July 31, 2019
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  • Blog

Since I haven’t had time to update the blog lately, I thought I would post a quick update…so you don’t think I have lost interest in family research. It is actually quite the opposite. I have been working on an intense 15-week online Boston University Genealogy Certificate class all summer. The coursework has not left time for personal research or writing. I will be back with new stories this fall, in addition to a few surprises. Stay tuned!...

Property where the Shull family lived

Alfred Samuel Shull: The final years

(Above) Longhorn Cattle graze on the property where the Shull Family lived south of Strafford, Missouri. Nearly two years ago I wrote about Civil War Veteran, Alfred Samuel Shull: Kansas Jayhawker. Click the link to read about Alfred’s life in Bloody Kansas, an area so volatile, it became a flashpoint for the Civil War. Last month I was excited to journey to the area of Southwest Missouri where Alfred and the Shull children settled after his first wife, Elizabeth, died....