
Exploring the spaces where psychology, genealogy, and history converge.
One story at a time.
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Your Storied Life: Unique Biographical Portraits
If you don’t recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.
Featured Blog Posts
In 1936, Leo Marcus Amen (1912-1994), a Nebraskan farmer, was faced with the unenviable task of using a jackknife to amputate his own finger that had become caught in a plow. He is my 3rd cousin 2x removed. This is his story.
Who was Minnie? And her mother, Sue H. Leig, presumably from Reading, PA? Can you help me find and tell their stories?
A family stands in front of their bucketed harvest. Can you help me find and tell their stories?
Here is a lovely cabinet card photograph from Kaukauna, Wisconsin. The back says “Mr. Gustav A Gust to ? L. Rentschler”. Can you help me find and tell the stories of these men?
Stolen Apples Taste Better: The Defiant Joy of Thelma Earle Hoye (1906-1973) and Her Granddaughter Elaine
The baptism of my grandparents first grandchild happened on the same day humans stepped on the moon for the first time. Here is that story.
Handsomely dressed in a suite, tie, and tweed overcoat turned up at the collar, Themistocles sports a well coiffed head of dark Grecian hair and a toothbrush mustache. Can you help me find his story?
Are you overwhelmed with your genealogy “to-do” list? Here are five genealogy tasks that you can complete in under five minutes!
Hannah Mortensen sends a postcard to Amelia Naukee of Detroit, Michigan. Here’s what it says. Can you help me find and tell their stories?
I recently discovered that our family’s 1970s Kodak XL360 Movie Camera still had a reel of used but undeveloped Super 8 film it it! Here is what I did with it and what I hope to find.
This woman’s downward stare is melancholy and intense. She’s forlorn. perhaps in mourning. Her face and eyes hint at an emotional story. What could it be?
Happy New Year and a big THANK YOU to you all for being part of The Psychogenealogist community! Here are some reflections on 2018 and plans for 2019.
My great grandfather, Adam Pawlowski (1879-1959) was known as “Dziadzio” by my mother and her generation. He was a quiet man, perhaps because he spoke little English. His hands seemed permanently yellowed from cigarettes and he had false teeth that he kept in a glass next to his bed. This is his story.
Well, we’ve done it! Two years straight! This is the 104th installment of The Psychogenealogist Pic of the Week series. I hope you’ve enjoyed them. Here’s a beauty with links to all the other.
Genealogy blogging led me to the discovery of this beautiful photograph of my 3rd great grandparents, Carl Schmidt and Ernestina Zenner Schmidt (d. 1922), and their 8 children. Here is how.
Postcard (1910): “Wish one and all a Happy New Year. Suppose Santa Claus came to you heavily loaded. Was very good to me. I am very busy now preparing to be bride-maid for a wedding. How are you standing this cold weather? Love to all. Anna L.”
Eerily similar tragedies befell the Costlow family of Johnstown, Pennsylvania on June 15th of 1930 and November 3rd of 1958. Anthony Joseph Costlow (1897-1930) and his son, James J. Costlow (1921-1958), were both electrocuted while working in the same steel mill. These are their stories.
Here is a beautiful cabinet card photograph showing the store of “Albert Wiedman, Manufacturer of Fine Confectionery”. That is probably Albert standing with his wife and son. Can you help me find and tell their stories?
Alma Ratz Hanley (1894-1979) was one of my paternal great grandmothers. She is also the subject of this 49th installment of my 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks family history blogging challenge. I hope you enjoy this photo essay about her life.
James J. Halvis (1896-1987) was my 1st cousin 3x removed. Until now there had been an unclear connection between his family and my own Halvangis line. Here is the story of how this Greek mystery was solved.
Hunched, paint brush in hand, this older man casts his own shadow on the side of the building he is painting. Who is he and what is his story?
Dewey Loudermilk (1898-1957) was my 1st cousin 3x removed. He has, perhaps, the coolest name in my family tree. This is his story.
If born just a few weeks earlier than her February 17, 1900 birthday, Ida Rhoads Sears (1900-2002) would have achieved the rare distinction of having lived in three different centuries! This is her story.
A lovely family portrait, this cabinet card appears to be the family of Moses (1844-1917) and Fannie Raisor Devore (1855-1926). Can you help me find and tell their story?
James William Halvangis (1920-1973), my maternal grandfather, was the only one of my four grandparents who died before I was born. I’ve enjoyed “meeting” him through photographs. I hope you will too.
An early 1900s postcard sent between cousins. Can you help me find and tell their stories?
The beard of David Costlow (1853-1924) is a soft and greying cloud in active weather. David’s calm eyes rest contemplatively above a yard that teeters tenuously between kempt and neglect.
This is Bernice Smith of Springfield, Missouri. She’s the daughter of Elmer and Lizzie Smith; sister of Thelma. I found her photo. Can you help me find her story?
“I Christopher Adkins, of Epsom, in the County of Daviess, and State of Indiana, merchant, being of sound and disposing mind and memory …” - I believe this to be the last will and testament of my 4th great grandfather, Christopher Adkins (1825-1887).
Featured Video
We did it! Once a week for all of 2017 we posted a Pic of the Week. Here they are, all 52 of them!
Mary Hunscker gets her photo taken by the photographer Zelner in Mauch Chunk, PA. Can you help me find and tell her story?