Sunday, June 26, 2016

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of my maternal grandfather taken on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey in August 1979.  He was 61 years old.

Paul Branyan, Sr.
(1917 - 1986)

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Remembrance of First Holy Communion

This certificate was given to my maternal grandfather to commemorate his first holy Communion on 3 May 1925.  It is falling apart, but it is pretty awesome to find something that was given to my grandfather 91 years ago.  It must have been important to him because he kept it for the rest of his life.


Sunday, June 12, 2016

Family Tree Rough Draft

My dad remembered doing a family tree project when he was in school, and he thought that it may still be somewhere in his family home.  I have yet to find it among the boxes of stuff I have, but I did find a rough draft that my grandmother wrote for his project.

As I looked over what she wrote, I was happy to see that it confirmed a lot of my own research. There's even some new clues that I am excited to follow.  It is so nice to know that my grandparents knew so much about their family tree and that their family history meant so much to them.

I feel so blessed to have found the this rough draft, but I would love to see the actual family project that my dad did.



Bills of Repairs September 24,1904

 This cover sheet is found in the Civil War Pension File of my paternal third great-grandfather.  The bills were submitted by a pension atto...