Speaking as a historian, a tremendous work.  Excellent.”

–Catherine Emerson, Niagara County Historian, New York

This story started with one old photo in a box, and includes hundreds of proper names, surnames, and locations, fleshing out dry facts into stories about people and their lives.   

One writer’s path through archives and public records, through memorabilia and memories, tracing a family from The Netherlands in the seventeenth century, to New York’s Hudson River Valley, and along the Erie Canal to the Midwest.   Deep research, stories, and photographs combine to reconstruct the particulars of historical lives.  Many children and sibling names included, and many sources and references cited, with particular attention paid to women. Written by a direct descendant curious about lives that came before, and the times in which they lived. Context, the author believes, is critical to understanding the past. Includes an extended section tracing a Civil War soldier through regimental histories, battles and subsequent years of disability.

Looking for direct connection?  Entirely word-searchable.

Van Wagner, Van Wagoner, Van Wagenen, Jacobsen, Dutch migration, Hudson River Valley history, colonial life, Atlantic crossing, Pels, Kingston New York, Wagendal, Niagara County, Dutchess County, Lockport, Somerset, Sojourner Truth, Julia Wilbur, Third New York Volunteers Cavalry, Civil War, Battle of Balls Bluff, Van Alen, Perkins, Sunday School New York State Civil War period, Portland Michigan, Civil War disability, Ahern, Tiffany, Chicago, Muskegon.