TheAncestorFiles

While working on my Eminent Women series, I started on a tangent about some of the early black pioneers in Utah Territory.  Today I...

It's a warm and an early spring and we're starting to think about plans for Easter — Awake, thou wintry earth—   Fling off...

My children live far from Utah and have only been there on brief visits.  Last year, one of my children took place in an elementary sch...

Sometimes life intervenes, and blogging moves lower on the list of things to do. This is one of those times. I will return to the...

The most easily identifiable person is the woman to the right. She has very distinctive facial features. Anyone familiar with the Tan...

There is a bright region above,  We long to reach its shore.  To join with the dear ones we love,   Not lost but gone before.  T...

Despite all efforts to identify the people in this picture, the bottom line is is that we can't know the details for sure. It is un...

The history of photography is too complicated to describe here, but the first photographic images of people were created in 1838 or 1839,...

Let's consider the possible identities of the people in the daguerreotype. For purposes of identification, we will assume that the ...

This is the first of an extended series. There has never been a known picture of Mormon pioneer John Tanner, but with a family of his ...