As we come up on the 2020 Census there’s a bit of a judgment call about where to register. Our old place at The Wellshire or our new place at Yale 25 Station. The official date is April 1st. We’re still straddling the two. I think we’ll say we’re at the new place, although I…
Genealogical Fictions
I like to play with ideas about how we might explain the vagaries of “historical truth” to amateur genealogists. That’s not to say I think it’s possible; more that I wish it were. The further back you go, the spongier truth becomes. This is not an intuitive idea. People don’t understand it unless they’ve been trained…
2020 Census
I wrote a little piece called “American Identity” back in 2008, looking to the 2010 Census. Now here it is, almost the 2020 Census. If I hadn’t written it then, I’d want to write it now. Not changing a thing.
Warren’s Cherokee Ancestry
I was at coffee with a friend a few days ago when we got mired in a debate about Elizabeth Warren. I was struck by how much misinformation I was hearing. It doesn’t need to be this hard. There is a political narrative that says Warren lied about her Cherokee ancestry. That’s a story for…
Fan Fiction
There was a time when I was deeply concerned about genealogists adopting pseudo-history into their research. Most often I see people believing they are descended from Jesus of Nazareth through the Merovingian dynasty. Oh my. This kind of thing is entertainment, not serious history. Now I’ve found a simple way to describe the problem to…