Author Archives: Diana - Page 4
Visit my New Online Shop for Photo Gifts
You are invited to visit my new Online Shop of cool products using my photographs. I have selected a few images from my collection that I thought would work well for phone cases and other products. I ordered an iPhone case using the hummingbird photo I took at my mom's house a few years ago. I absolutely LOVE it. Ever since Covid stopped my musician clients from performing, they can’t order CDs from me. So I…
Research and Biographies
Genealogy is more than just names and dates. It is about your family's story. I can turn your data into narrative and images that tell your story. I've been doing "genealogy" since I was 10, but until I wrote my first biography, it was just thousands people who had no form, no context, no connection, no humanity. Even I glaze over looking at my tree. So I started writing chapters for each of my ancestors…
Mr. Goad sent his photo to Bessie Sutphin
Around 1910, a young man dressed up in his best suit and bowler hat and had his photo taken. He sent it to Miss Bessie Sutphin in East Radford, ; The back had a message scrawled and signed by a D. Goad: “Please don't leave home when you see my photo haha. I have tried every day to get these and just got them yesterday. Will ans soon from your D. Goad” 110 years later…
John Wagner and the Texas Widow
My 2x great uncle John Wagner served alongside his two brothers, Henry and my 2x great grandfather William Wagner, in the Civil War. After the war he moved to Texas, and all I knew was that he had "married a Texas widow." I finally found his obituary, and it lead me on an amazing saga that could have been a movie. I'm still researching a few things, but I wanted to get this posted. Download…
Old Pittsburgh Maps
1910 map of the Point "The Pittsburgh Mapping and Historical Site Viewer provides a window into the past, allowing anyone to see how the city took shape over time. It shows how the city of 22,433 people in 1835 changes over time: how neighborhoods grow and expand, while others were planned but never built. Street names change over time, empty lots become buildings, and schools and churches open and close. The maps were made by…
I’m my own grandpa [video]
This is often how I feel when I'm researching my father's side of the family. Lyrics: Many, many years ago when I was 23 I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red My father fell in love with her and soon they too were wed This made my dad my son-in-law and really changed my life For now my daughter…
S.S. Columbia sailing [video]
A short video of the Columbia, the ship Rev. William Weiler came to the in May 1891 on, filmed only 3 years later in June 1902. It shows the ship as it gets under way in Hoboken, with waving passengers. I suspect the scene would have been similar when it left Hamburg. Bonine, R. Camera, American Mutoscope And Biograph Company, Paper Print Collection, and Niver. "Columbia" sailing. United States: American Mutoscope & Biograph, 1902. Video.…
Wagner Treasure Trove of Photos
Recently my cousin Ben Wagner sent me scans of over a hundred photos that were in boxes from his parent’s estate. I was thrilled to discover a photo of my great great grandfather William Wagner in his Civil War uniform. I had written an extensive chapter about him and his brothers, including a lot of information about their service. This photo is priceless! I updated the chapter to include this photo. Here are a…
Are we related to John Philip Sousa?
Yes! We ARE related to the famous American conductor and composer John Philip Sousa (1854-1932). Sousa is best known for composing the marches "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (National March of the USA) and "Semper Fidelis" (official march of the United States Marine Corps). John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, , the third of ten children of João António de Sousa (John Anthony Sousa) who was born in Spain, though of Portuguese ancestry, and…
Bill Russell, Cosimo Matassa, and the Musical Culture of the French Quarter
February 03, 2016 Robert Ticknor, reference assistant, The Historic New Orleans Collection ... Russell, born in 1905 in Canton, Missouri, became an indefatigable jazz-record collector after he found a Jelly Roll Morton record that one of his students had left in the classroom at the school on Staten Island where he was a teacher. His work for the Jazzmen book brought him into contact with Bunk Johnson, an old trumpet player who had fallen on…