Category: genealogy tips

  • May 2026

    May 2026

    It’s May, the Lusty Month of May

    Lyrics from It’s May by Alan Jay Lerner from the Musical, Camelot

    It just happens to be the month of May which is where Chapter One of The Second Wife’s Story, The Dragon Makers, begins. Of course it was well over a millennium ago, but I finally found the not-boring history of the patchwork that is Wales and where the real Britons can be found. No offense meant to the remaining Brits in the UK who weren’t already Brits. Explanation forthcoming.

    That’s the story-telling process, and that’s why I love genealogy. Once you can connect history to real people, the stories make themselves known.

    I have a whole lot going on at Stories From the Past, including menu name changes, new pages, and weekly posts. Just to make things easier for me, I will be adding things to the lists below as they come to my ADHD brain.

    Watch for a large portion of the following changes and additions between now and June 1st. Refer back to this page regularly as I will link each change as they occur.

    I expect that the most apparent changes will appear as Newsletters on the first day of each month, and blog posts every Wednesday without fail. Both will be scheduled for 10 AM eastern time, except when the first of the month falls on Wednesday, when the newsletter will post on the last day of the previous month. For example, July’s newsletter will arrive on June 30, 2026.

    The Second Wife’s Story

    Chapter 1, The Dragon Makers
    • New landing page
    • Chapter one preface: addressing pedigree collapse
    • The Red Dragon of Wales
    • Additions to King Arthrwys ap Mor (attempts to identify reality and fun with the legends) myths and legends

    Dad’s autobiography

    Selected Stories approved by Dad
    • Burning Down the Garage
    • Sent to bed without any dinner
    • Shorty and the Bear

    a new menu

    About
    • Why We Tell Stories
    • The Original Untold Stories
    Stories
    • The 2nd Wife’s Story will have its own landing page
    • All short stories will appear as landing pages with links to the people and places involved
    • When I begin a new book, it will become a landing page under stories as well. I expect that book to be Mary Damron’s Story, but things could change.
    People
    • Cymry (plural for people)
    • Britons (original inhabitants of Britain, excluding Scotland)
    • King Arthrwys Ap Mor (probably who you think he is)
    • King Coel Hen (Old King Coel, yeah, he’s real too)
    • King Einion: brother to King Arthrwys ap Mor and why he matters
    • Tewdr :
    • What’s-His-Face Maximus
    • Cousin Connection: A way to find out to whom you are related and how.
    Places
    • Wales, UK: AKA Cymru, Ynys Prydain
    • Roman Britannia
    • Olean, New York
    • Plain City, Utah
    • Potter, Pennsylvania
    • Kobersdorf, Austria
    • Neunkirchen Austria
    • Maly Trostenets,Belarus (Maly Trascianiec, Belarusian: Малы Трасцянец, “Little Trostenets”)
    • My Bucket List (stories I’ve found in the 50 US States I’ve Visited so far)
    Unsolved Histories:

    Identifying photos and other mysteries that build walls in our search for people

    Brick Walls: Figuring out the hard things in genealogy
    • pedigree collapse (it’s how the Davis family is likely to be related to King Arthur)
    • primogeniture

    I recommend subscribing if you want to keep up!

  • Down the Arthurian Rabbit Hole

    Down the Arthurian Rabbit Hole

    King Arthur (Arthwys ap Mor of the Pennines)

    I had certainly intended to find out as much as I could about the history and culture of 19th century Wales, but I had not intended for my search of the Welsh identity to lead me down a path in and out of England, into the Dark ages, and strewn with kings, queens, sorcerers, dragons, fairies, epic battles, and sackings. Now I think I know how Alice found herself in Wonderland.

    Growing up in Wales means being raised in a culture steeped in Myth and Legend. Most specifically, tales of King Arthur and the immortal Red Dragon, protector of Wales. Mary Davis certainly would have heard the tales from parents, playmates and family members in her Welsh community, and probably further along the road to Plain City, Utah Territory from other British travelers and settlers she would have met along the way.

    While debate among historians continues as to whether or not an historical Arthur exists, there is much agreement that evidentiary artifacts and documents point to possible candidates for such a person, including the one I see as the leading contender: King Arthrwys ap Mor of the Pennines.

    I personally have seen enough to make up my mind; there is a real King Arthur, or more likely, several characters in history who contributed to Arthur’s legendary exploits, whether Arthur-like individuals, or figures playing significant roles in his stories.

    I include in my people database, a page devoted to the Arthurian Dynasty, centered around King Arthrwys ap Mor of the Pennines. This is not meant to be a definitive answer for millennia of debate, but a staging point for British and Welsh researchers and/or Arthurian enthusiasts.

    While this particular ancestral page is already filled with links and speculations along with stories and literal possibilities, I have no intention of coming to any kind of definitive conclusion. I already have far more information than I need for The Second Wife’s Story, so I will continue to add to King Arthwys’ page as I go but I won’t be adding much more than I already have.

    It has been a great journey, but it’s time for me to get back to Mary’s story. I hope that Historians, Arthurians, and knights of the Round Table will find much to add to their repertoire of evidence. If you find any more than you already have, please leave me a comment. I would seriously love to see more inroads leading to definitive answers.

    I really don’t know if I’ve added anything new, but it’s all new to me, but I still have to know! I’m looking for the bottle that says “drink” me; it’s time for me to get back to The Second Wife’s Story.

  • To Think I Thought Cymric History was Boring

    To Think I Thought Cymric History was Boring

    Why I Couldn’t do Wednesday, but I Could do Wales

    I took so long trying to force myself to finish a post about my first day in Austria 2019, that I couldn’t focus on finishing my organization of Mary Davis’s family in Wales. And I must admit that I had an ongoing battle between King Arthur, King Henry VII, King Einion, and a handful of other Welsh kings that The Second Wife’s Story was getting lost. To be honest, I just could not find enough interest in the Cymry until my epiphany in June of last year. I needed to find those kings to make a connection to the family that Mary Davis, the Second Wife, came from.

    But now I can’t stop myself going down the British rabbit hole, so at midnight last night, I decided to divide my hyperactive focus into landing pages, so I could publish it and come back to it later if I needed to. That way I can get Mary out of Wales and into her adventure across the ocean.

    If you are a Davis family descendant, a fan of King Arthur, interested in the Tudor Dynasty, or just a fan of British history like I thought I was but really wasn’t until I learned the truth about the Brits, then you’ll find some fun in digging into stuff about King Arthur, King Henry VII, King Einion, and other medieval kings. Beginning with King Arthwys ap Mar. I’d love to get your input to see if you can see what I’m seeing, or you can tell me I’m just seeing things.

    You will be notified every time a new page or an update is added to my quickly growing database, including my Wednesday focus on The Second Wife’s Story coming on Wednesdays in the near future. You should see King Arthwys ap Mar/Mor’s page by Monday, and hopefully my bridge to chapter one on Wednesday! Thanks for reading/ See you then!

  • I Will. Have. Order.

    I Will. Have. Order.

    With apologies to Dolores Umbridge, while in complete disagreement but feeling her frustration.

    If you are not a fan of Harry Potter (You’d better not be a fan of Professor Umbridge.), the screenshot of just five sets of files that I’m currently working with should at least be a clue of what I’m talking about. I expect that anyone who looks at it can figure out what Dolores was going through.

    The lists of events, people, places and ideas are an electronic visualization resembling Umbridge’s wall of educational decrees at Hogwarts. I really don’t want to try to visualize what’s going on in my brain right now. Spontaneous combustion frightens me.

    These five PPT files are evidence of my scattered research over the past decade. It will probably surprise you that at least four of the PPT files represent people, places, and events from Wales before Mary even existed and there is plenty more representing Mary, her family, friends, places and events. But there is a method to my madness, and it will be revealed soon. Everything that comes before sets in motion the series of events and even thought processes that set Mary’s life on the path across the ocean and into America’s “Wild West”.

    This is my chapters one through four. I’ll be ready to write once I have compiled them into two files: one a chronological list of events, people, and places, and the other a bibliography of research in the order it appears. Those two files will be separated by chapter as events and people begin to appear along Mary’s path. Every detail will be found in its correct order while I further compartmentalize information before, during, and after Mary’s lifetime.

    Until I have a sequence of events by chapter, I can’t write.

    For now, my goal is to pare down and combine at least two lists a day. That way, I’ll be ready to go for next week.

    In the meantime, watch for new profiles and a new “places” page for the following people and places:

    People

    • Rudolf ABELES
    • King(s) EINION
    • Mary EYNON
    • EYNON surnames and polities
    • Johannes “John” KWIATKOWSKI
    • King Arthwrys ap MOR/MAR
    • Peter SZADLOWSKI
    • King Henry VII, TUDOR 1457-1509
    • JORDANOWO, Inowroclaw, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Prussia/Austria/Russia/Poland–depending on time frame and politics

    Places

    • Brooklyn, New York, American Colonies/United States–depending on time frame and politics
    • Brunn bei Pitten, Niederösterreich, Austria
    • D
    • Historical Llanelly/Lanelli, Carmarthenshire, Cymru\Wales, Great Britain/United Kingdom–depending on time frame and politics
    • Olean, Cattaraugus, New York, United States
    • Pitten, Niederösterreich, Austria
    • Tupadły, Inowrocław, Kuyavia-Pomerania, Prussia/Austria/Russia Poland–depending on time frame and politics
    • Wharton, Potter, Pennsylvania, United States

    Please remember that I am currently restructuring Stories From the Past, and these items are listed in alphabetical order. They do not necessarily relate to one another at all, and many of them have no connection to the Second Wife’s Story. Names and Places will likely be re-spelled, reorganized, and rewritten depending on the historical sources I pull from.

    Stories will be linked as they are posted.

    Personal knowledge of places, people, stories, input, and suggestions are welcome.

  • Friday is NOT the New Wednesday

    Friday is NOT the New Wednesday

    I am so frustrated that I am still trying to figure out how to get a cohesive blog post written the day after the post was promised. It would be nice to say it’s not my fault, but I feel that would be enabling, so I’m not going there.

    There are, however, mitigating factors affecting my ability to get these posts out, and personal as they may be, I feel like I can do more good by sharing than keeping my mouth shut. Along the way to preparing for today’s post, I discovered several things to keep things moving. So what you get for today is a list with a plan.

    What the hail is wrong with me:
    • Adulting with ADHD.

    Approximately 80% of all adults with ADHD are undiagnosed. Technically, that includes me. I figured it out nearly 30 years ago, but I have never asked for a diagnostic screening.

    • Chronic Vestibular Migraines.

    These are migraines accompanied by vertigo; more specifically they are migraines preceded by vertigo. More recently, they are preceded by excessive ear-ringing. A physical therapist added a second diagnosis–cervicogenic migraines. These are brought on by bad posture affecting a very old neck injury from early adolescence.

    • Access to reliable cybersecurity.

    In the past, I had a combination of Norton and McAfee. Moving made money tighter than ever, so when it came time to renew, I let it lapse. This resulted in a computer virus requiring money to repair. My son-in-law loaned me his laptop, but his security has run out too. I am worried about infecting the borrowed laptop, so I am limited to time at the library when I am feeling good enough to be there.The money situation will get better soon, but it could be a couple of weeks or a couple of months.

    I was so excited to find my beginning, that I put my research links on whatever file I was working on so I ended up with several timelines in several different folders. I have spent the last two weeks finding my links and putting them into one timeline and revising my bibliography. I was sure I’d be done by now, but I can’t always make it to the library and there’s more to be done than the preceeding factors will allow.

    What I plan to do about it:

    • Adulting with ADHD.

    It’s time to take this bully by the horns. Yes, I meant bully. I have several helpful ways to manage this, but our recent move has compounded the problem making my life management skills look like my research calendars for Mary Davis Skeen. I am organizing everything into a website so I can access it all in one place. Hopefully my progress and insights will help others dealing with similar situations, including marriage on the autism spectrum.

    • Migraines

    I am already managing them well enought to get four hours a day of pain and fog free work in. I’ll be sharing my solutions on my new website.

    • Cybersecurity

    This is a money issue, and super uncomfortable talking about it. Suffice it to say that it has to do with all of the above with a spouse on the autism spectrum thrown into the mix,

    ADHD and chronic migraines are a huge handicap to job performance and autism compounds the focus on financial discipline. I anticipate a personal budget plan and a home management page on my new website will help.

    We’ll get a new PC or fix the old one when we get our tax returns. Cybersecurity and site based training will be included with that.

    • The goll-danged rabbit hole.

    You might have noticed that StoriesFromThePast.com is in a bit of disarray. I hadn’t looked at it for a while and I noticed that I have 25 unfinished blog posts waiting to be finished. Several of them are from my missing travel report when I visited Austria in 2019. That was just a few weeks before I lost control of my migraines.

    Besides the Austria reports, I am still working on landing pages related to family stories from the past including all family stories I have been working on besides my own.

    On the days when I don’t have enough progress for a post on The Second Wife’s Story or my Dad’s biography, I will complete one of my daily reports from my Austrian trip and have it ready for that Wednesday.

    Looking at all my other projects, I have renewed the idea of a monthly newsletter. The first Wednesday of every month will be a newsletter updating my progress on my dad’s autobiography, The Second Wife’s Story and landing pages of all other family history projects I am updating. This includes Mary Damron’s story and any other family stories I encounter along the way.

    Yay!

  • Mired in too Much Information

    Mired in too Much Information

    Do you remember DOS? I do.

    DOS was the early system for home computer operations which allowed users to do all sorts of really basic things, with instructions written in Medieval Martian. I never did figure out the language, and I was totally relieved when my five year-old daughter took a hairbrush to the keyboard virtually destroying the whole computer. It was useless to me and took up way too much space.

    Later I bought a simple word processor. It was a step up from a typewriter and a step down from a 1990’s PC. I didn’t have to go looking for the correct program or battle with programming. All I had to do was type and watch the words on the tiny screen to correct mistakes as needed. It was a big help.

    The biggest struggle I had with historical writing was that I was limited to libraries and card catalogues. If the library didn’t have the resource I was looking for, I had to apply for an interlibrary loan, which often weeks before I could either get a copy of the information I needed or get the actual book through snail mail.

    When I went back to school fifteen years after graduating high school, I was finally introduced to the wonders of Windows and the internet. I could save so much time looking if the information was available online. I felt lucky to have found most of the Second Wife’s information on the internet in 2002, giving me a structure for her story. New information was being posted daily from all corners of the world and exponentially speeding up research results .

    Fast forward to 2025. It was the year we finally bought a house in Kentucky and nearly the same month when I had my first epiphany. I did have a lot of roadblocks to my research at that time due to lack of internet for about a month, and later, another broken computer. But when I could get to a computer at the library, I was astonished to find that I could get answers to nearly every question I had and then some.

    That wasn’t good for my ADHD. I would find an answer and come up with two more questions before I could get the link to the first answer into my research table. My biggest frustration was that many of those questions were relevant to me but completely irrelevant to my subject. I had to leave several pages open on the browser while finding the correct files to store every piece of information with AI making more suggestions causing me to leave even more pages open.

    But enough was enough. I had to stop. The strange timelines created by my scatterbrained method of research caused the same information to be saved to several different locations or the wrong location, and occasionally the wrong external drive. Once I realized I finally had enough information to begin writing, I also realized that I would have to sort through more than a dozen files to get things into better order.

    It took a while, but once I could place everything into chronological order for the first three chapters, I announced that I was ready to write.

    Nope.

    I opened the PPT I had moved Chapter One’s information to and began writing my first bridge; by this time yesterday, I had come to the conclusion that I had so much information that my bridge to the first chapter had taken on a life of its own and that I needed to do some heavy editing before I could come up with a rough draft ready to proofread and publish

    In short, I had too much information to publish yesterday’s blog post on time. That is why you will get yesterday’s post next Wednesday and this post in place of what should have been posted yesterday.

    My goal is to have several posts scheduled for posting ahead of time so I can proofread and publish just before the Wednesday deadline.

    If you find strange errors in today’s post, you can thank ADHD combined with TMI and AI. I didn’t have time to proofread but I was determined to post; so I did.

  • From Snail Mail to Book: My Dad’s Story Unveiled

    From Snail Mail to Book: My Dad’s Story Unveiled

    I can’t remember a time when my dad wasn’t my hero. Like most kids, I thought my home and family were just normal. I had a mom, a dad, siblings, a house, pets, neighbors, and church. Didn’t everyone live like that? As I grew, I came to understand that I was fortunate because I had all those things; but it was more than just good fortune for me.  My parents had very different backgrounds and shared tales of their youth in bits and pieces, which are both worthy of publication on a biographical level, but as the stories were told of a tough upbringing, poverty, independence at a young age, fire-fighting, military, a life-changing decision made aboard a military warship and missionary service, all before he met and married my mom, I began to see my father as a hero. When I reached adulthood, my deep regard for him continued to grow and change. Although he still remains my hero, I’ve come to understand the human side of him.  When my dad asked for help putting his story into book form, I eagerly accepted.

    Now that I’m an old lady myself, and I still have an 85 year-old mom and a 91 year-old dad, I’ve come to see the urgency in getting as many of these stories of common heroes told before it is too late. Mary’s story is more than ready to be told, and I have no intention of putting her off any longer, so I’ve got to take the time to put Dad’s story together while keeping both at priority level. You’ll be seeing updates and opportunities to help for both stories on a regular basis.

    I am currently plugging Dad’s story into a timeline while fighting technological lag, (living in a high-tech world, without high-tech training). He lives in Utah, and I’m in Kentucky. Dad has a degree in Civil Engineering, but he doesn’t use a cellphone or trust the internet. (Can’t blame him.) Although mom didn’t work outside of the home much after she met dad, she does have a cellphone and uses it for more things than I know how to do with the device, that’s not a whole lot of help. I was lucky that I entered college as the internet was entering its childhood, but the lag is real for me, too. Dad does have a laptop, but he uses it mostly for reading Facebook and word-processing, so I’m getting a lot of printout and pc photo scans by snail-mail. I called my son in Utah an hour-ago and hopefully talked him into meeting with Dad on a regular basis to send the scans and docs by email. If I have to, I’ll get my brother involved. (Don’t make me call your uncle!) We’ll get this thing moving.

    Dad’s story will be put into book form, but this is his biography, so my role will be more of a ghost-writer/editor than a third-party observer. I don’t know how the publication will work; that depends on Dad. For now, his biography is planned for private publication, but don’t you worry, I have plenty of third-party observations to be made. As they are approved you will be able to follow along and help, if you can and are willing, as his story is told.

    Just like Mary’s story, Dad’s story is fascinating and compelling. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

  • Introducing My New Pen Name and Writing Progress

    Introducing My New Pen Name and Writing Progress

    The Second Wife’s Story is coming together, but I had to quit working on it for a couple of months. I’m now two months behind, but I’m back on track and working on a second biography as well. There’s so much to tell, and I’m so excited to share my progress with you!

    Many of you know me personally and many others have known me by my birthname on Facebook and other social media sites. Here on WordPress, I have gone by Too Many Hats for too many years. Some of those hats have come off so it’s now time to change, not just my profile name, but my pen-name as well.

    I chose my pen-name many, many years ago, when I decided that someday I would become a writer of books. That someday has been a long time in coming, so the name change is finally underway.

    I began looking into that name on Facebook about a month ago–just to see how many individuals might be affected by my choice and just a couple of weeks later a profile with that very name showed up as a friend request. This was very suspicious to me at the moment, so I immediately blocked the request. I was concerned that someone, or some-thing, was trying to take over my professional identity. Since then, I have realized that it was most likely a Facebook generated suggestion and not an attempt to steal anything. I’ve since tried to figure out how to unblock the suggestion so I can send an apologetic friend request, but to no avail.

    I thought I’d better go public soon, anyway, so at least my readers won’t get as confused as I am. I hope this helps. You may see me here on WordPress and on other social media by both my given name and Mari K. Flowers, an English variation on my given name. Either way it’s still me, and you will be seeing much more of both of me in the near future!

  • Epiphany Part II

    Epiphany Part II

    About that Industrial Revolution . . .

    A few months ago, I began researching and preparing to re-open Stories from The Past with a fully fleshed out version of The Second Wife’s Story written written as a series of posts to be prepared for publication by 2027. As I neared the end of 2025, and the holidays approached, I found it necessary to focus on home and family for a few weeks. . I had come to the end of my research topics and was already organizing the very large set of files into chapters and putting details into the timeline. I wasn’t worried, though, by November I only had to tie up a few loose ends and thought I could take my time doing it.

    I planned my new year beginning with my Epiphany post and clarification. The Rebirth of Stories From the Past was set to begin on the Christian Holy Day of Epiphany because the connection between finding something important and the significance of the day were filed in my memory waiting to be fleshed out some January when I would explain the connection. Thanks to the 2025 “Super-flu” which extended into the new year, that post was only partially completed and not in the least well-explained when it automatically posted without my knowledge, a day late.

    Oops.

    To be fair, I was on my third week of battling the aforementioned flu and I still didn’t know I had it. I just thought I had overdone it, bringing on a vestibular migraine that that reused to go away and was steadily getting worse. On top of that, I thought I had caught a bad cold. In fact, on the very day my Epiphany post published, I was in the emergency room with a mindboggling set of symptoms. When you’re that sick, you don’t know to think of course I have the flu!

    So the holidays came and went with their usual fanfare thanks to the fact that I’d prepared well, but The Second Wife’s Story and blogging were left untouched. By the time I knew I had the flu it was too late for all of that. I just figured I’d get caught up when I finally started feeling better and thinking straight.

    That was yesterday; the day I found the accidental Epiphany post.

    You might be wondering what Epiphany has to do with Mary Davis. I’ll have to say a whole lot and not much at all, depending on how you look at it.

    The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: a-plump-female-writer-wearing-sunglasses-and-a-baseball-cap-1.png

    As far as Mary’s story is concerned, my epiphany was just those two words: Industrial Revolution. It was the sudden realization that Mary’s life was inextricably and intimately linked to the beginning and end of the first of several industrial revolutions. My research following that first epiphany led me down the proverbial rabbit hole, but the continuing epiphanies coming out of that one revelation, led me to understand Mary better, and even more importantly, the human conditions leading the Skeen Family, and later the Davis family, down the Mormon Trail. Six months later I had my story from beginning to end.

    The day of Epiphany showed up as the perfect day to revive Stories From the Past along with a lost tradition, so I focused on that day. Unfortunately my body had other ideas and the day came and went. But I’m back now and only a couple of weeks behind.

    I guess I’ll have to flesh out a new Epiphany post next holiday season. I’m not even sure if it will post to this particular blog. (I have others.) I’ll be sure to link it to Stories From the Past for those who want to follow along.

    As far as the Industrial Revolution and it’s accompanying epiphanies go, I’ll have that list along with my plans for Stories From the Past ready for preview next week.

    Thanks for sticking with me. It’s good to be back!

  • Epiphany

    Epiphany

    It came to me in early June, just after we bought our beautiful new-to-us home: How to start Mary Davis’s biography. We’d been packing, unpacking, cleaning, and everything else that goes with grandparenting, moving, and dealing with a chronic disability. It had been staring me in the face for years, but I couldn’t see it. I don’t remember if it happened during packing or unpacking, sleeping or awake, cleaning our apartment or our home, or even in casual conversation, but there it was; just two words: Industrial Revolution.

    I already knew the what and where of every significant stage or event of Mary Davis Skeen’s life. She was born in Llanelly Wales, joined the Mormon pioneer movement, and settled in Weber County, Utah. She lived her whole adult life and died there.

    I’ve had Mary’s story in my brain for nearly 24 years now, I studied everything I could find: genealogy records, local histories, maps, websites, photographs, blogs, videos, podcasts, and anything else I could get my hands on. I knew some things about Wales even before I found Mary’s story, but I just couldn’t pinpoint a good starting place.

    I thought that I should just get back to my blog and put the story aside for a while, but those two words remained firmly in place: Industrial Revolution.

    So I got back to work.

    To Be Continued . . .