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“Everything is relative except relatives,
and they are absolute.”

-Alfred Steiglitz

Family history is a way to bring our ancestors to life.

This blog details my journey as a genealogist and is a means to record my notes, recent discoveries, and the stories of my ancestors. The goal of Relatively is to inspire other family historians to preserve and share their own family stories.

RECENT POSTS

Citizen Alfred Knowles

Citizen Alfred Knowles

It’s unclear when most of my ancestors became American citizens. Some immigrated to the U.S. before the American Revolution, while others arrived as late as…

family tree diagram for Charles Robinson Hendrickson and Mary Ann Pearsall

Bringing Ancestors to Life with Never-Before Seen Family Photos

As researchers, we have the incredible advantage of being able to conduct genealogical research right from the comfort of our homes. There is so much…

Carlton Hendrickson Sr. and Dorothy McKnight

Love Me Two Times: Carl and Dot

My paternal grandparents, affectionately known as Grandpa Carl and Grandma Dot, proved that sometimes lightning strikes twice—they married each other in 1939 and again in…

photo of McKnight Family

Love and Victory: Photo of the McKnight Family

About the photo: The first thing that caught my eye in this photo of my great-grandmother Matilda (Goettisheim) McKnight and the first five of her…

David R. Caywood and Susan Hendrickson

Photo Friday: My great-great-great-great-great aunt, Susan Emily Hendrickson and her husband in 1909.

Sometimes you find things when you’re not even looking. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this photo of an ancestor going back six generations.…

Comparison Photo. Hazel (Knowles) Ewart's Work Badge

Trying to Preserve Your Family Artifacts? Don’t Do What I Did.

During World War II, my maternal grandmother Hazel was a glassblower for scientific glassmakers E. Matchlett & Son in New York City. When my mother…

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