I actually did discover on an Internet search there is a person with that name, but I’m talking about the flowers. In my book, Grace’s Pictures, the woman Grace works for, Alice Parker, adores coral bells. She is an avid gardner, but she doesn’t have these flowers in her garden, and she plans to plant…
Author: Cindy Thomson
Win an Autographed Copy of Grace’s Pictures
Experience the Ellis Island Museum Right Here!
This is an excellent video for anyone wishing to experience Ellis Island but can’t get there. It may just make you schedule a trip, though! Did you know over half of Americans can trace their roots through Ellis Island? [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-6r5D7Samg] These kinds of stories inspired my Ellis Island Series. Grace McCaffery hopes that the…
Growing Up Climbing the Family Tree
This is an awkward post for me to write, but I’m doing it because I want people to understand me better…or more likely, I want to understand myself better. When you read it, you’ll probably wonder what the big deal was. I’m not uncovering skeletons or confessing a sin. It will seem that way to…
Five Things About Irish Poorhouses You Might Not Know
Ruin of a workhouse in County Kerry, photo by terryballard 1. Forty years before the Great Potato Famine, Ireland was so impoverished that more than a third of her population were starving. Before the government got involved all they could do was beg and ask for charity. The workhouse system had been set up in England…
What’s An Irish Biddy?
In Grace’s Pictures Grace McCaffery goes to work as a domestic servant. A vast many young Irish immigrant women were employed in the households of middle class families, like the Parkers in my story. This was the era of the Industrial Revolution, and it came to housewives as well. Once a family could afford to…
The Ellis Island Photographer
Italian immigrant photographed by A. Sherman, NYPL file. From the NYPL file, photograph of Scottish boys taken by Augustus Sherman It wasn’t an official duty, but Augustus F. Sherman, Ellis Island Registry Clerk in the early part of the 20th century was responsible for many of the iconic photographs of immigrants you’ve seen on web sites and…
Top 20 Twitter Influencers on Historical Fiction
This is today’s list of the top influencers.
Ellis Island Faces
If these were your ancestors, you’ll be interested in Grace’s Pictures.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfDS1BQarmo?list=PLnc6blOUFJf-bQ03ajm7bheT8lGOCzuMy]
That Puzzling Brownie Camera
French Brownie ad showing a child using the camera. While the Brownie’s operation was made to be pretty simple, today there are things about them that are not so intuitive. After all, what’s more simple than what we have today? We don’t even mess with film! There are many Brownie’s out there for sale on…
