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The Ghosts of Christmas Past

The ghost of Christmas past haunts me regularly as the calendar winds down from December 1 to the 25th. Like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’ timeless classic, that ghost shows me happy times: family dinners, birthday cakes for Baby Jesus, toys, and a state of sustained chaos starting around 4 o’clock Christmas morning and lasting throughout … Continue reading The Ghosts of Christmas Past →

Church history and ancestry journeys Downriver Detroit

Family history doesn’t always begin with a dramatic discovery. Sometimes it begins quietly — with a marriage record that names a priest but not a church, a census that lists neighbors before it lists occupations, or a familiar street name that appears again and again under different ward numbers. For me, that place of beginning … Continue reading Church history and ancestry journeys Downriver Detroit →

Ancestral journey down the river uncovers new connections

Genealogy has a way of handing you a mystery and then—if you’re patient—quietly solving it for you.  It also helps to have a subscription to Ancestry.com, where some  mysteries are solved by the solid evidence of data and others by history itself. At first, this particular mystery was geographic. The families of both my parents … Continue reading Ancestral journey down the river uncovers new connections →

A great-great-great-grandma’s unlikely life

Genealogy has taught me that when a woman’s name keeps changing in the records, it usually isn’t because she’s confusing — it’s because her life was hard. As I revisited my Lapham ancestors this winter, one woman kept resurfacing under different names: Deborah Davis. Deborah Stephens. Deborah Lapham. Even, briefly, Deborah Baker. Each name marked … Continue reading A great-great-great-grandma’s unlikely life →

A Death on the Rails: Remembering my great-great grandfather

He was killed by a train in Springwells Township on an October afternoon in 1902. Charles B. Lapham, my great-great-grandfather, had spent the months before his death doing what many men of his generation tried to do late in life--settle things. He wanted to leave a legacy, help his children, and protect his wife. The … Continue reading A Death on the Rails: Remembering my great-great grandfather →

Dutchess: Queen of the ‘heilan coos’

Nestled among the rolling hills near Banchory in Aberdeenshire, is a Highland cattle farm where the stars of the Scottish countryside graze—long-horned, shaggy-haired, and unmistakably charming. Inside the barn is Duchess, a Highland cow with a touch of celebrity. She’s graced calendars, appeared on cooking shows, and even turned up in documentaries, her photogenic fringe … Continue reading Dutchess: Queen of the ‘heilan coos’ →

Sr. Jeanne O’Laughlin, O.P. and her legacy of love

When Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin died in 2019 at the age of 90, the world was already starting to feel the rumblings of what has become a time of perpetual division, short tempers, and quick—sometimes nasty—judgments. It seems fitting, and more than a little necessary, to return to her voice now, because her message feels even … Continue reading Sr. Jeanne O’Laughlin, O.P. and her legacy of love →