“Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.”Betty Smith. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn A stoop is a staircase ending in a platform leading to a house or apartment building entrance. In Brooklyn, a stoop is so … Continue reading Three Generations of Brooklyn Stoops
Kelly Family
Memorial Day Remembrance: Sidney Kelly and Sons in the Great War
Note: Sidney John Kelly, Sr. was my great grandfather. My mother is the daughter of Sidney Kelly, Sr.'s youngest son, Bernard L. Kelly. What follows was brought together from source documents I have acquired from the National Archives, The Naval History and Heritage Command, and the library system of the National Defense University, specifically the … Continue reading Memorial Day Remembrance: Sidney Kelly and Sons in the Great War
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I am getting back to work here
I have not posted on the blog since last summer. In the interim I have been working on my other blog. If you know about that blog, you know about it. If you don't, let's just say I do not want to cross contaminate between the two blogs. This is the lighter of the blogs, … Continue reading I am getting back to work here
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Serendipity, Thy Name is Goat
The text of the email read as follows: "Don't ask how I got to your page but I may have what you are looking for..." Sometimes the universe surprises me. Something incredible happens, and I have no explanation for it. My father would call that a miracle. I will call it serendipity. We all have … Continue reading Serendipity, Thy Name is Goat
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Brooklyn Tour
It was my youngest sister's idea. In recognition of our parents' 60 years of marriage, we would return to where it all started. Brooklyn! The plan was pretty simple, Mom and Dad would come down from their home in Massachusetts with my sister and meet up with the rest of their children in Brooklyn. I … Continue reading Brooklyn Tour
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What I Found in a Photo
While enrolled in a basic genealogy online course through Boston University I discovered that you can tell a great deal about the lives of people from looking at old photos and analyzing the objects around them. Nothing is meaningless. To test my research skills I decided to work with a favorite photograph of my maternal … Continue reading What I Found in a Photo
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Fred Goat Remains Ellusive
Yes, I am still chasing Fred Goat. In a blog post, In Search of Fred Goat, last November I began the search for a photo of the Fred Goat Company Logo that once adorned the rambling company buildings at the corner of Dean Street and 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. After the NY Municipal … Continue reading Fred Goat Remains Ellusive
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“Money Cake”- Tales from 4th Street
As a child in Brooklyn, the first notable event in my family that came after the Christmas and New Year's Holiday was my maternal grandmother's (and her twin brother's) birthday. This year will mark the 111th anniversary of their birth on 23 January 1906. At a family reunion back in October, my mother and her … Continue reading “Money Cake”- Tales from 4th Street
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The Perils of Disproving Family Legends
I am knee-deep in genealogy paperwork this weekend. A package from the National Archives containing the military records of my great-grandfather, Sidney J. Kelly, Sr. spilled over 100 photocopied pages across my table that probably have not been disturbed since the 1920's at a time when his widow was seeking assistance with pensions and death … Continue reading The Perils of Disproving Family Legends
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Sliding through time
It arrived about a week ago. A box, from my father in Massachusetts, full of rotary slide trays. Weighing in at about 20 lbs with all the packing and trays. More importantly, for me, the trays yielded over 1,200 slides covering family subjects from the mid 1950's through the mid 1990's. As the unofficial family historian … Continue reading Sliding through time
