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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

Family Heirlooms

Why Write this Blog?

My thoughts about starting a blog started last summer. I took a course “Mastering the Art of Genealogical Documentation” at the Genealogical Research Institute of…

tree in a field of grass with overlay of a DNA helix

Y-DNA Mystery: Hendrickson or Henderson?

One mystery that has plagued me over the years is trying to unearth our Hendrickson family origins. Faced with the challenge of tracing our direct…

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…

Carlton Hendrickson

Memories of Dad

Ten years ago today my father Carlton Hendrickson passed away. Instead of remembering his death, I would much rather remember some of the things that…

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…

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…

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