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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

Painting depicting Moving Day

Moving Day Madness

I just moved. It seems like I have done a lot of that, especially over the last ten years. This time was more painful than…

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.…

Elizabeth (Madden) McKnight and twin boys John and Frank. |

Photogenetic: My Earliest Known McKnight Ancestors

Elizabeth (Madden) McKnight and twin boys John and Frank. | Photo on right altered for clarity. | Photo provided by Ann Dalton. About the Photo…

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…

collage of Viola and her vital records

Viola’s Vital Records Vitally Misleading

Vital records are often the first documents researchers turn to when investigating family history. These records are crucial to genealogical research because they document significant…

78 & 102 N.Y. Infantry Monument at Gettysburg

A Moment of Remembrance

For many Americans, Memorial Day signals the start of summer. It’s a day off from work, the day we open our pools, have backyard barbecues,…

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