Tag: Quaker genealogy

  • Living Up to a Surprising Family Legacy

    Living Up to a Surprising Family Legacy

    I have an impressive role model. Seven years ago today, I spent the day in New Castle, Indiana, paging through musty books, peering at microfilm newspaper articles, and digging through gigantic, bound court record books. My son Ted Shideler and I were just starting my second Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship Award project. For the past…

  • Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Time Moves On, But Human Nature Stays the Same

    Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Time Moves On, But Human Nature Stays the Same

    From the 1866 diary that inspired my first novel: Sunday, May 20, 1866 Milton, Lizzie & I went to Elmgrove to meeting. Got there before the Sabbath school closed. I read the 46th Psalm at the close of school; several were at meeting, no preaching.  After meeting we went to N Gause, took dinner, then…

  • Who are your people? Google them!

    Genealogy has had an oscillating presence in my life.  Sometimes its fan blows straight at me and keeps me cool and comfy; sometimes it blows in another direction, and I just catch a slight waft of the gentle breeze. Over the years, it’s depended on the amount of time I’ve been able to invest in…