The Story of Byrne Bros Hardware, Pt. 3
Byrne Bros was a fixture on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz during the first half of the 20th century. But as the family went their separate ways, the days of the hardware store were numbered.
Trains in the Family
Every family has a train nut. This family has several, including one who designed some of the largest steam locomotives in history.
The Story of Byrne Bros Hardware, Pt. 2
The story of how the Byrne brothers, George and Walter, built a thriving hardware and plumbing business in the growing town of Santa Cruz.
Falling For the Pulliams
A family bible from an unknown family branch leads to a shocking and sad story of death in a Fresno motel.
The Story of Byrne Bros Hardware, Pt. 1
Two early Santa Cruz pioneers, Charles Byrne and Lucien Heath, established a successful hardware and plumbing business that would later evolve into Byrne Bros.
The data privacy threat lurking on your family tree
If you keep your genealogy research online, you’ve probably got a data problem. But unlike banking sites or Facebook, simply changing your password or deleting your account won’t solve the issue. That’s because the world’s largest for-profit genealogy services (the vast majority of sites exist to make money) are using your family-tree and DNA data … Read more
Fernald Byrne’s deadly roller coaster ride
The first death on the Giant Dipper roller coaster at the Santa Cruz Beach & Boardwalk. Fernald Byrne was a bright, promising young man whose life was tragically cut short.
Simpler times and pleasures in my mother’s letters
I was a chubby kid. Borderline fat. From around age 3 until puberty, when I shed baby fat like a discarded chrysalis, my annual visits to the pediatrician recorded height in the 50th percentile, while weight rarely dipped much below the 75th percentile. These stats are stated with great certainty, for my mother dutifully reported … Read more
Broom handles and traitorous china
My 10th gr-grandmother measured penises with broom handle. In the 1630s. It’s on Wikipedia, so it must be true, right? But this one’s been well-documented by other historians, so I tend to believe it’s not a complete fabrication. Genealogy reveals some strange things about what constitutes fame. When people find out it’s my hobby, they … Read more
Visualizing my family’s migration
Genealogy applications and software have gotten a little boring lately. With all the fascinating technologies surrounding data visualization, machine learning, and otherwise, most people choose the path of least resistance and hand their data over to Ancestry.com. And while Ancestry has some interesting visualizations for family trees and relationships, the closed-platform nature of it pretty … Read more