Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Thoughts On A Silversword

 


The Silversword plant mirrors the human tale. At least to me.

The silvery hairs, fleshy leaves and low-growing rosette form the Haleakala Silversword ('ahinahina in Hawaiian) and grows only in hot, dry cinder slopes......... like the Haleakala Crater on Maui. These plants live between 3 and 90 years. They flower once, sending up a spectacular flowering stalk and then soon die, scattering drying seeds to the wind.

We humans are rather like this magnificent plant. We start as seeds, we grow in special locations for an allotted span of years and then we die. Our progeny, like Silversword seeds, have scattered to the wind.

If you go to Maui, do drive the twisty road to the top of Haleakala and take a stroll on the cinder paths among these fantastic plants.

 

Friday, October 10, 2025

Georgia's Virtual Vault

 


If you have Georgia research to do, you must investigate the Virtual Vault, an online feature of the Georgia State Archives. This is where records of interest to genealogists are digitized and made available for research. 

The masthead of the website states that this is "your portal to success to some of Georgia's most important historical documents, 1733 to present. The Virtual Vault gives access to manuscripts, photographs, maps, and government records. 

My research interest lies in Troup County. When I entered that into the search box, some 600 entries appeared before my eyes! I also need info from Wilkes County; wouldn't this make your fingers twitch??

How about this category (one of 53 collections/categories):


If you have Georgia ancestry, do check out the Virtual Vault!


Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Archaeology Magazine

 

Archaeology Magazine is the bi-monthly publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Subscription cost is under $20 which is half what you'll pay for the issues at a newsstand. I really enjoy this magazine and learn so much history from it!

The July-August 2025 issue had a bit, "Legend of the Crystal Brain." This relates how in the 1960s the skeleton of a young man about 20 years old was found covered in ash lying on his wooden bed in the doomed city of Pompeii. In 2018, doing a more thorough study on this "man," some "fragments resembling obsidian" were found in the man's skull. The poor man's brain had been turned into glass by the extremely high temperatures of that volcanic ash.... over 950o! The scientist was quoted as saying, "We were looking into the brain of that young Roman who lied 2000 years ago---a brain that, perhaps, held his last thoughts before dying." How sad. 

Another fascinating bit was this:  "Cats curl up on couches in 1/3 of all American households. However, domesticated felines are not native to the New World but were introduced by Europeans. The earliest known cats in the present day U.S., an adult and a kitten, have been identified in the wreck of a Spanish ship that sank in Pensacola Bay in Florida at 1559. Cats were likely brought aboard to feast on rodents."

This magazine has articles of historic and archaeologic interest from all over the world......... from where our ancestors lived and still live all over the world. Try it; you might just like it. 

Friday, October 3, 2025

Civil War Research

 


Tomorrow is the EWGS Fall Workshop with the spotlight on Civil War Research. F.Y.I. Family Tree Magazine offers this 8-page, laminated, Cheat Sheet to help you "find military records and study the history" of the Civil War. Cost for this is $14.95, + p/h. This Cheat Sheet offers

5 Steps to Trace Your Civil War Ancestor:

1. Search the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors (CWSS) Database.... a free National Park Service site which indexes over 6,000,000 soldiers and 18,000 African American sailors. 

2. Obtain service and pension records (explains how).

3. Find burial information. (National cemeteries were established in 1862 for the Civil War dead.) 

4. Seek additional records (explains what/where).

5. Broaden your knowledge (gives great ideas). 

This Cheat Sheet then gives two pages explaining in more detail what the records contain. Also a map of the U.S. during the Civil War (Did you know that Oregon remained loyal to the Union?) and a Civil War Timeline (helps greatly to understand that conflict). The final page of this Cheat Sheet lists 17 websites and 24 books for your further study. 

One resource listed was The Civil War, a film by Ken Burns. I've viewed this; it's worth a second time around, especially if you have ancestors who participated in the Civil War.