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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

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…

woman's face with story behind her

Your Story in Your Own Words

One mistake that genealogists often make is focusing so much attention on our distant ancestors that we overlook the people right in front of us.…

Ewart's Hotel

John Ewart’s Golden Opportunity

Lured by the excitement of gold discoveries in America, Australia, and in the newly settled colony of New Zealand, my 4x great-uncle, John Ewart, and…

James Joseph McKnight

Poppy

On my last trip to New York, I visited a family member whom I hadn’t seen in a long time. Before I left, she handed…

Sophmore class at Springfield High School, 1929

Where’s Grandpa?

The Hendrickson family made Brooklyn and Long Island their home for at least 8 generations. So when I found my great-grandparents, Clarkson and Olive Hendrickson…

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.…

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