The ghost of Christmas past haunts me regularly as the calendar winds down from December 1 to the 25th. Like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’ timeless classic, that ghost shows me happy times: family dinners, birthday cakes for Baby Jesus, toys, and a state of sustained chaos starting around 4 o’clock Christmas morning and lasting throughout … Continue reading The Ghosts of Christmas Past
Making peace–perhaps a way forward in a chaotic era
The night before my brother-in-law Sgt. John F. Collins’ funeral, we gathered for dinner at Bubba’s in Killeen, Texas. John died suddenly June 1 at the age of 72 at his Copperas Cove home. Eight of us squeezed into a large booth, and John’s longtime friend, Army veteran Dan Motill, ended up sitting across from … Continue reading Making peace–perhaps a way forward in a chaotic era
A Handkerchief from Aunt Rose
Not long after my grandmother died in 1998, my mother brought me her family Bible. Like many old family Bibles, it was more than a book. It was a miniature archive, a place where people tucked away the things they could not quite throw away and did not want to lose. Inside were religious bookmarks, family records, and … Continue reading A Handkerchief from Aunt Rose
A Life Well Lived: Remembering Catherine ‘Kate’ Lapham
All people die, but not all people live. My sister Catherine lived. Most of the world knew my sister as Kate. That was the name she used when she left home, went out into the wider world and reinvented herself. But to us, she was simply Catherine. For the last few weeks of her life, … Continue reading A Life Well Lived: Remembering Catherine ‘Kate’ Lapham
What We Carry From Siena
An academic hood is a curious thing unless you know what it means. Draped across the shoulders, it marks a degree earned, its colors showing the graduate’s school and field of study. At many colleges, hooding is reserved for master’s and doctoral candidates, though some schools, including Siena Heights, also hood baccalaureate graduates. But this … Continue reading What We Carry From Siena
Death by his own hand
The record does not ease you into it.It simply states that on April 8, 1925, William B. Lapham—a Civil War veteran and my great-great-great-uncle—took his own life. The line appears on a scanned image of his death certificate, found in the Ancestry archives. Even behind a screen, it carries the faint blur and shadow of … Continue reading Death by his own hand
Church history and ancestry journeys Downriver Detroit
Family history doesn’t always begin with a dramatic discovery. Sometimes it begins quietly — with a marriage record that names a priest but not a church, a census that lists neighbors before it lists occupations, or a familiar street name that appears again and again under different ward numbers. For me, that place of beginning … Continue reading Church history and ancestry journeys Downriver Detroit
Ancestral journey down the river uncovers new connections
Genealogy has a way of handing you a mystery and then—if you’re patient—quietly solving it for you. It also helps to have a subscription to Ancestry.com, where some mysteries are solved by the solid evidence of data and others by history itself. At first, this particular mystery was geographic. The families of both my parents … Continue reading Ancestral journey down the river uncovers new connections
A great-great-great-grandma’s unlikely life
Genealogy has taught me that when a woman’s name keeps changing in the records, it usually isn’t because she’s confusing — it’s because her life was hard. As I revisited my Lapham ancestors this winter, one woman kept resurfacing under different names: Deborah Davis. Deborah Stephens. Deborah Lapham. Even, briefly, Deborah Baker. Each name marked … Continue reading A great-great-great-grandma’s unlikely life
A Death on the Rails: Remembering my great-great grandfather
He was killed by a train in Springwells Township on an October afternoon in 1902. Charles B. Lapham, my great-great-grandfather, had spent the months before his death doing what many men of his generation tried to do late in life--settle things. He wanted to leave a legacy, help his children, and protect his wife. The … Continue reading A Death on the Rails: Remembering my great-great grandfather
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