April 27, 2018

Archive

A May Day Tradition: New York Moving Day

“Never knew the city in such a chaotic state. Every other house seems to be disgorging itself into the street; all the sidewalks are lumbered with bureaus and bedsteads to the utter destruction of their character as thoroughfares, and all the space between the sidewalks is occupied by long processions of carts and wagons and vehicles omnigenous laden with perilous piles of moveables.” -The Diary of Templeton Strong (Cover Photo: May Day in New York, Harper’s Magazine, 1850) Moving Day…packing...

Finding Jacob Ove: Researching Norwegian Ancestors

Jacob Ove (left) with an unidentified person (right) My memories of visiting Great-grandma and Grandpa Conlin while growing up are primarily connected to sweets — namely butterscotch candies and fig newtons. Grandma needed those candies to keep Grandpa sweet…or so she said. When I grew older and began genealogy research there were plenty of stories and information passed down about Grandpa Conlin’s Irish Family and Grandma Conlin’s mother’s Norwegian family, but when it came to her father, I only knew two things:...

John Joseph “JJ” Carroll: Overcoming the Odds

(Illustration above: New York City in 1851)  “What place is this, to which the squalid street conducts us? A kind of square of leprous houses, some of which are attainable only by crazy wooden stairs without. What lies behind this tottering flight of steps?…This is the place; these narrow ways diverging to the right and left, and reeking everywhere with dirt and filth…See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl...