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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

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…

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…

countdown to certification

I’m on the Clock!

The countdown has begun — I’m officially on the clock! I submitted my preliminary application to the Board for Certification of Genealogists, kicking off the…

Graves of McCulloch and Hendrickson Families

An Unexpected Connection at Green-Wood Cemetery

Have you experienced any strange coincidences in your family tree? By definition, a coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal…

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…

portrait of unidentified woman

Unsolved Mystery: The Woman in the Window

Old family photos are some of the most treasured records in a family history, capturing fleeting moments in an ancestor’s life. I’m fortunate to have…

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