The Life and Shadows of Mary Jane Thomas Gaden: A Story Waiting to Be Told
If I were a fiction writer, I’d already have a novel on my hands. This story has all the elements: a strong protagonist, mystery, wealth, betrayal, spiritualism, social reform, crime, and ruin. But it’s not fiction—it’s the real-life story of my 2nd great-aunt, Mary Jane Thomas Gaden. And I’m piecing it together, fragment by fragment, […]
4 min read
Follow the Women
Where I started over two years ago in genealogy research and where I am now are two very different places. My skill set for this work has steadily progressed. Still, I catch myself in frustration when I try to locate evidence of my female ancestors. When I spent a month in August of 2024 in […]
4 min read
Harris Neck
The name “Harris Neck” first entered my consciousness when I was a young girl visiting my grandmother. It was mentioned during trips near Savannah until her passing in 2009. Yet, as far as I can recall, I never set foot on the land of Harris Neck. Still, it had been a part of my identity […]
4 min read
Land
Part of learning about my family history has focused on learning the counties and towns/cities where past generations lived. My grandmother told me the earliest stories of places, but I couldn’t get a grasp beyond Savannah,GA and Hilton Head, SC: the two locations I remember the most when visiting my grandmother. On trips to Savannah, […]
4 min read
Starting with my Grandmother
Putting together a family “tree” is more complicated than I thought. Especially to someone who struggles with basic Excel skills or doesn’t know exactly how to manipulate a plug-in for a website (yet). After attempting some screen shots of trees from the genealogical sites I use, I decided to use Adobe Express to see if […]
4 min read
Operating Instructions
Whenever I unbox a new gadget, I often ignore the operation manual. I usually fumble around, perform a bunch of unscripted tactics, and voila, I figure it out. Or not. Then, maybe, I pull out the instructions to witness the breadcrumbs of predictable mistakes I could have skipped had I considered the proper steps, all […]
4 min read