Leaves & Branches

I have been pouring all of my genealogical efforts into preparing for my upcoming trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and I am getting sick of it!  I am going to force myself to have a totally genealogy-free week before my trip to refresh myself.  I had a nice break on Sunday, though, when I spent a little while researching another family. It started when I heard my mom and sister discussing "Frieda's cookies."  Frieda and Joe Greenstein were my babysitters and Frieda made the most delicious butter cookies known to humankind.  Rectangular shaped with a fork mark across the top, crisp, sweet, and buttery, these cookies are the stuff of legend.  We have tried a number of butter cookie recipes, but have never found the right one. Frieda was much more than a wonderful baker.  She and Joe were wonderful people.  I never remember them raising their voices to me.  I remember one time that I did something I shouldn't have and hid und...

My blog posts have been few and far between recently because I have been preparing for my trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in a few weeks.  However, each week as I travel on the bridge over the Little Miami River in Milford, Ohio, I get to view my favorite genealogical scene and feel like waxing poetic about it. As I look north as we cross the bridge I see the river surrounded by thick shrubbery and trees.  If I can block out the cell tower, utility poles, cars, and modern buildings, I can envision how the area might have looked 200 years ago.    I especially like this view in the winter when steam or smoke is rising from distant houses. I can almost smell the 19th century wood smoke coming from the homes of my ancestors, the Price family, and their neighbors.  My fourth great-grandfather, Jeremiah Price, lived on the Milford side of the river and his brother, Nimrod, lived on the Camp Dennison side of the river.  T...