About two weeks after following up with Mike Burke with the proper Wilson ancestor information, and approval from Sacred Heart Hospital’s general counsel, I received this email message: Well, there it was: An official hospital record indicating Emmett was an alcoholic. But was that enough? In research, one has to […]
I dug into the Milligan family genealogy right away. With note-taking, it took two days. It’s basically written as a conversation from the author, John Evans Wilson, to his children and descendants. Emmett’s family story is on the second to last page. Here’s what John Evans Wilson said […]
I remember Saturday, June 8, 2013, as one of those glorious late Spring days in Maryland — the sky was clear blue without a cloud in sight, the temperature around 72, the trees were (finally!) all full with fresh green leaves. The plants I’d set out a few weeks earlier […]
Emmett’s funeral was, apparently, a big deal for Pensacola, particularly since folks were ‘surprised’ and ‘shocked’ that he was in failing health. But I wonder about that — I mean, his family and friends were able to put together a large funeral at a big church within 36 hours of […]
By the end of July, 2013, Emmett’s research was in its third month, and I was reaping the rewards of having mass contacted Wilson family descendants, as well as Emmett’s neighbors, friends, political allies and foes. I reached out to descendants of his congressional office staff, to hospitals where he […]
Research into Wilson family records continues, even though I’ve started drafting Emmett’s story. This morning, I found a new item courtesy of the Church of Latter-Day Saints database, familysearch.org. It’s hard to read, but these are all the records of Emmett Wilson’s family members with death records recorded with […]
For 17 years, my husband and I owned and lived in a 98-year old row house in Washington, D.C. about 10 blocks from the U.S. Capitol. We loved our neighborhood — the Victorian (and older) row houses had history and character despite the fact the neighborhood was sketchy, the front […]
Sometimes I catch myself wondering what the hell I’ve been doing with Emmett, who has taken over my research life for the past six years. I did not go looking for Emmett; rather, years ago before Emmett, I’d started out writing about someone else, Rosa LeBarte Countryman, my great-grandmother. When […]
I have a fool-proof information gathering strategy that has been tremendously successful in every single research project: Isolate the topic Search all easily/readily available information via basic search engines Read everything (this can take weeks) Journal during the search/reading time Reflect on the information Organize the information Consult with a […]
Before I contacted the Pensacola Historical Society to find out more about Emmett Wilson, I made copious pots of coffee and immediately dissected the three articles sent to me from Peg Vignolo of the West Florida Genealogical Society. Newspaper articles are rich with information — it’s not only the details IN […]
Tell my story. 