I have a vague memory of my mother showing me this letter from “our relatives in Ireland” that may or may not have been real. It was probably sent to her by her brother, Hugh Simmers, who may have been pulling her leg. Brother Bill recently did a good job of reading it in authentic Irish Brogue. […]
Archives for May 2010
Margaret Thompson Biddle’s Furs Barely Escaped the Bombs in Poland
The furs of Margaret Thompson, whose second marriage was to U.S. diplomat Anthony Biddle, Jr., were lucky to escape unharmed from German bombing in Poland in 1939, according to a diary she kept of what was apparently a very unpleasant evacuation ordeal.
The Magnate Came Up Largely Empty Handed in His Genealogy Research
Stop the digital press–this blogger recently obtained copies of genealogy reports commissioned by William Boyce Thompson that shed light on the family’s distant past. Unfortunately, researchers working for The Magnate ran into the same dead-ends that befuddle family researchers today. That said, The Thompson Reports include some exciting new information. H.H. Plate, Thompson’s secretary who in 1923 was sent on a fact-finding mission to […]