The following excerpt is from an article posted in the April 4, 2013 edition of IllinoisTimes.com: The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency has balked at a demand from the National Archives to return a page torn from a ship’s log so that the damaged document can be restored to its original condition. The page in question [...]
The following excerpt is from an AP article about the gravesite of the little-known doctor who cared for President Lincoln’s feet. LONDON — He may just be a footnote to history, but Dr. Isachar Zacharie is having a posthumous mini-moment, thanks to the Hollywood-sparked surge of interest in the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Zacharie was [...]
A group of folks from NPR went over to the Supreme Court to retrieve a suitcase a while back. The suitcase belonged to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and in it was her family history in photographs. They spent time in the kitchen in Justice Sotomayor’s chambers during her lunch break. The Justice ate a [...]
The following News Release is from NARA: Washington, DC… This year marks the 100th anniversary of the births of two Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon (January 9, 1913–April 22, 1994) and Gerald Ford (July 14, 1913–December 26, 2006). To mark the occasions, the National Archives will debut a special display and online teaching [...]
The following excerpt is from the November 4, 2012 edition of hecklerspray.com: This week, an expert at Ancestry.com revealed that George Clooney and Abraham Lincoln are distantly related. And the timing is just oh-so perfect, as ‘Lincoln’ is set to hit theaters in limited release on November 9. Apparently, George is a half-first cousin five [...]
The following infographic was provided by Tom Kemp, with GenealogyBank: Did you know that the 2012 U.S. presidential candidates President Barack Obama & Governor Mitt Romney are related to each other? Get the skinny on who’s who in Obama and Romney’s family trees. Find out how the 2012 U.S. presidential hopefuls are related and learn [...]
The Elizabeth Warren Cherokee ancestry controversy continues – and I’m betting it will right up to election day. The following excerpt is from a piece written by William A. Jacobson, Associate Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School. In his article, Jacobson documents how Cherokee genealogist, Twila Barnes, has been harrassed about her genealogical findings. I [...]
According to the news release posted at the NARA website, the National Archives’ George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum has posted a new website. I surfed a bit within the site, and am very exited about the amount of data (including documents) already posted there. You might wonder why I care… Well, George W. [...]
Mitt Romney has released his birth certificate, proving that he was born in the United States – thus making him eligible to run for the U.S. presidency. Following is a copy of his “State of Michigan Certificate of Live Birth – courtesy of Reuters. Note that his mother was bon in Utah, while his father [...]
It’s not often that we run across family histories of state-level politicians in our newspapers or on their Internet websites. However, this afternoon I ran across an interesting and detailed article about the intertwining family histories of two men squaring off in a run for the office of Attorney Geneeral in Vermont. The article is [...]
SANTA MONICA, California, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ Barack Obama is one of history’s three greatest political leaders with Irish ancestry, according to an international poll. John F Kennedy, however, is voted the greatest such leader, ahead of Ronald Reagan second and Obama third, in an online poll of over 4,000 Americans and Britons conducted by [...]
Whoops – we posted a blog a few days ago in which Christopher Child at NEHGS stated that proof of American Indian ancestry for Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren did exist – even if it did show she was only 1/32 Cherokee. Now it seems that NEHGS says no such proof exists… The following excerpt is [...]
Now we find out that Elizabeth Warren really has minority status after all – that is if being 1/32 Cherokee makes one an American Indian… This reminds me of an excellent novel I read in my college years titled Kingsblood Royal, by Sinclair Lewis. The following teaser is from the USnews.com website, dated May 2, [...]
The following was received from my good friend, Dan Lynch: It seemed only fitting that I should find President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 Census, enumerated exactly 72 years to the day from when he appears to have provided the information for his household. He was, after all, also one of the 132 million [...]
Several weeks ago, my friend, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, sent me a copy of her new book. It’s titled “Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing.” I finally got the chance to sit down and read it cover to cover. Megan knows how to write, with several successful books behind her. However, in my humble opinion, this [...]
