She fought the scoundrel and won...

A while back I was doing a google search for "Colorado historical newspapers," but what my fingers typed was "California historical newspapers." I didn't realize my mistake until I clicked on the first hit. When I found I was at a California site I decided to run my standard list of research names. Little did I know that I would hit upon information I not only wasn't expecting to find, but it was information I knew nothing about. The first thing I learned was that my great-great grandmother, Minnie Prehn, didn't have an easy life (I'll write more on her life later).

One of the newspaper articles showed she was a woman with a lot of fight in her.

Don't underestimate the value of newspapers in family history research. You can find information there that you won't find anywhere else. Sites such as GenealogyBank, Newspaper Archive and Ancestry have put newspapers at our fingertips (but for a usage price).

Today I had lunch with some friends at a cute little tea shop.

At the end of our meal the check came with a small individually wrapped Dove chocolate for each of us. Inside the wrapper is something called a "Promises Message." I thought mine could be referring to genealogy:

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."

I will repeat this to myself every time I hit another brick wall.

A woman of substance...

Quite by accident (a random google search) I found that the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe had 2 boxes of items belonging to Reamy Fitch and his wife, Helen Klingler. Although Reamy is not my direct line, I was intrigued and we arranged to make a stop on one of our trips.

Among the items were copies of Christmas letters Helen sent out every year. Helen was quite an accomplished woman. Every Christmas letter included a poem she wrote. Here is one of her poems:

She was also a painter

I feel so blessed to have "happened" on these little pieces of Helen and Reamy's life. I would have enjoyed knowing them. I believe we were guided to finding this information. When I later checked to see if their work had been done, I found all had been done except their sealing to each other. Reading their letters, I could feel their love for each other, and know they would want to be sealed together for eternity.