Tag: Civil War
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GPS and Genealogy – Arlington National Cemetery
People’s willingness to share is one of the wonderful aspects of genealogy. A reader contacted me recently to provide further information about a common tangential ancestor — one not directly related to either of us but who had married into the larger family of Howder descendants — and for whom I’d had only the sketchiest…
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Festival of Maps – Chicago
The ongoing Festival of Maps in Chicago [link no longer works] features the combined efforts of more than 30 cultural and scientific institutions. It portrays the significance of and reflection of maps upon culture, exploration, discovery, and the world around us. Thus, the festival incorporates the physical display of maps along with lectures, seminars and…
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The Free State of Winston
It’s not possible to be more truly Southern culturally than the residents of the state of Alabama. That’s why it’s surprising to realize that one Alabama county did not support secession. Its residents refused to join the Confederacy willingly. Winston County is located in a hilly area in the northwestern part of the state. As…
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Virginia, West of West Virginia
West Virginia split from Virginia in 1863 during the height of the Civil War. It elected to remain with the Union while the rest of the Commonwealth remained firmly entrenched within the Confederacy. Tensions based on divergent economies, cultures and geography simmered between the western and eastern portions of Virginia for decades leading up to…