I have to chuckle at the image above, showing a U.S. Navy man during World War II. Inside the car behind him, his younger sister is doing the 1940s version of the photobomb. The look on her face is priceless: “Gotcha!” Ah, the small details that can be found in vintage photos! We used a … More Vintage Photos Make Great Postcards
Cemeteries should be timeless venues where descendants can visit the resting places of their ancestors. Lichens, black mold and airborne pollutants wage a silent assault on the grave monuments that pay tribute to the dead. But with a good, careful cleaning, these stone remembrances can be saved from eventual destruction. Today’s cemetery headstones are better … More Save Historic Gravestones with a Good Cleaning
Originally posted on The Hanneman Archive:
In 1946, my grandfather wrote a charming article for the Wisconsin State Journal about the English wife of a U.S. soldier who came to Mauston, Wis., to find a fully furnished home waiting for her. It seems the story of Charles Grinolds and his new bride, Margaret, got noticed…
The sky was brilliant and clear as Michael Grzegorski, his wife and five children set off for midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1918. He urged his children to look up at the central Wisconsin sky. “Look at the stars in the sky and see if you can find the Star of Bethlehem,” he said. As the … More Farmer Dies on Way to Midnight Mass
I recently met a woman tending to her grandparents grave, a bit frustrated by the misaligned bricks that formed a border around the headstone. I asked her a few questions about the bricks, and she told one of the most touching stories I’ve ever heard. Her grandmother died in 1963. Her grandfather visited the cemetery … More Cemeteries Have Great Stories to Tell
Oral history is one of the most important arrows in the historian’s quiver. Source documents, photographs, databases and the like offer their own advantages, but audio and/or video interviews deliver information not available with other types of media. It’s one thing to read about someone and the details of their life. But being able to hear … More Preserve Oral History, While You Can
Orignally published on LinkedIn. The Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero understood the importance of how lives of the present are linked to those of the past. More than a half-century before the birth of Christ, Cicero wrote, “For what is the worth of a human life, unless it is woven into the life of our … More Six Reasons Genealogy is Worth Your Time
We just created a promotional video to give the world a look and feel of what Treasured Lives is all about. The HD video runs about 40 seconds and can be viewed in the embedded player below via Vimeo. Genealogists and family history buffs are increasingly using video to help bring stories to life. They … More New Treasured Lives Promo Video
This image from the early part of the 20th century has the hallmarks of the Midwest frontier. The young woman tending the steed has a serious look of determination. Was she a ranch hand or a hard-working farm wife? We don’t know, since there are no notations on the front or back of the print. Based … More Eye on History: Ready to Ride
For a child growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, big adventure often came in small packages. Like many boys his age, David D. Hanneman (1933-2007) was an avid collector of Big Little Books. These chunky mini-books allowed adventure-seeking children to follow the action of Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Tarzan and other characters. All … More Big Little Books Delivered Pint-Size Adventures
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