RootsTech Connect 2021

RootsTech Connect 2021

Normally at this time of year, I would be in Salt Lake City, Utah, ready for the start of my favorite conference, RootsTech. In 2020 RootsTech was literally the last big event I went to before the entire world shut down. I arrived back in Connecticut after RootsTech on March 1st in 2020 and by…

Cruises and Grandchildren

Cruises and Grandchildren

My grandmother, Jeanette Shrum Willett, left us a wonderful handwritten manuscript of her life which she wrote in the mid-1980s. She was born August 4, 1897, in Bloomington, Indiana, and died March 3, 1988, in Salem, Massachusetts.  I have been transcribing her manuscript here. You can start from the beginning with Part 1. My grandmother…

Jenny, Merah and Fred

Jenny, Merah and Fred

My grandmother, Jeanette Shrum Willett, left us a wonderful handwritten manuscript of her life which she wrote in the mid 1980’s. She was born August 4, 1897 in Bloomington, Indiana and died March 3, 1988 in Salem, Massachusetts.  I have been transcribing her manuscript here. You can start from the beginning with Part 1. In…

Young Jenny Shrum

Young Jenny Shrum

My grandmother, Jeanette Shrum Willett, left us a wonderful handwritten manuscript of her life which she wrote in the mid 1980’s. She was born August 4, 1897 in Bloomington, Indiana and died March 3, 1988 in Salem, Massachusetts.  I have been transcribing her manuscript here. You can start from the beginning with Part 1. In…

The Manuscript of Jenny Shrum

The Manuscript of Jenny Shrum

  When my grandmother, Jenny, was in her 80’s, my cousin Leigh encouraged her to write down her personal stories so that the family would always have it. My grandmother wrote one journal for Leigh’s mother, Jean, and one journal for my mother, Lee. Always practical and thrifty, she used two old calendar books. The…

Seeing the Stars – at the Cemetery

Seeing the Stars – at the Cemetery

I came out to California for a few extra days before attending the Southern California Genealogical Society’s annual Genealogy Jamboree, because I was doing some genealogy look-ups for someone back home. That included visiting a few cemeteries. I love cemeteries, if you didn’t know. Fun fact about me. My task took me to Holy Cross…