When Life Gives You Lemons: Widows In the Civil War Love stories come with all kinds of surprising twists and turns. Handed down through my own family is the fascinating story of a Civil War widow – with a quirky happy ending. As the tale goes, Sarah Jane Dukes […]
Ever heard of ‘Bastardy Bonds’?
Ever heard of “bastardy bonds”? I certainly hadn’t. Not until I was researching my own family history, when TMCC genealogy librarian Sue Malek helped me discover a whole book about North Carolina Bastardy Bonds (with, yes, a few family surnames inside!) Turns out bastardy bonds were an early way […]
Forgotten Victoriana: Stickaline
You gotta love forgotten bits of Victoriana. I was scrolling through a Scribner’s Magazine from 1880 when this ad for Stickaline caught my eye. The label graphics are just so Gilded Age. But what was this stuff? Turns out Stickaline was a simple adhesive and it was cheap: just 20 […]