Forgotten Lives

I've been doing genealogy long enough to know that not everyone is excited to learn about pedigree collapse in their own family tree. It can feel uncomfortable, even alarming, the first time you spot it - two lines on your pedigree chart that should stay separate, quietly merging into the same ancestor. But here's the thing every genealogist eventually learns: pedigree collapse isn't a scandal. It's math. What Pedigree Collapse Actually Is In theory, your family tree doubles

While tracing the experiences of Jewish families in Germany during the Nazi era, I repeatedly encountered references to suicide shortly before deportation orders were carried out.

Glen Eyrie Lodge, Colorado Springs. House of William Jackson Palmer after remodel by Peabody and Stearns. c1885. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glen_Eyrie_Lodge,_Colorado_Springs,_1885.jpg As genealogists, we often focus on dates, places, and relationships. Occasionally, however, a name itself becomes a clue. Such is the case with Philip Weidemaier's son-in-law, Glen Eyrie Martin, born in 1887. The name immediately caught my attention. Today, Glen Eyrie is one of Col

Evergreen Cemetery (Colorado Springs, Colorado), Philip Weidemaier (1862-1907), Mary L. Weidemaier (1867-1961), Glen E. Martin (1887-1971), Hazel W. Martin (1891-1970), and John M. Diebold (1909-1969) monument inscription. When most people walk through a cemetery, they see names and dates. Genealogists see questions. Recently, I found myself standing before the gravestone of Philip Weidemaier in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs. The stone appeared straightforward enough