“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
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…
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…
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…
Great-Grandpa’s Big Invention
My great-grandfather, Clarkson Valentine Hendrickson Jr. (1890–1964) was a mechanical engineer or draftsman as I remember my father describing his occupation. But I never had…
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.…
Hendrickson Y-DNA: Update
We have another match! DNA testing rarely solves a family mystery all at once. More often, it reveals patterns over time. A while back, I…
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