David McCarthy 1805–1881 and a life held in recordsThe obituary of David McCarthy (1805–1881) is more than a notice of a death. In this family archive, it brings several remembered lines into the same frame:…South family stories and the Underground RailroadThe South family papers sit within a wider archive of poetry, family histories and photographs assembled by Allen and Loni Hackworth. Alongside the Tidwell,…The Brighton family's 1879 plat map of Indiana landThe Brighton family's 1879 plat map of their land in Indiana is more than an old drawing. It is an information-dense record of how land was divided, described…The lace tablecloth from the McCarthy wedding chestLoni’s prose on the lace kept in the McCarthy wedding chest begins with a small disturbance: the scrape of a lid, the resistance of folded cloth, and the faint…Reading cemetery stones to confirm Telford family datesA cemetery is an archive made of stone, paths and surviving registers. For a Telford family history, a headstone can supply a name, years or an age that…The flintlock rifle that hung over the South fireplaceAllen’s essay, The Flintlock Rifle That Hung Over the South Fireplace, treats an inherited object as a doorway into the South family’s past. The firearm was…The Tidwell family's 1862 letter from a soldier at ShilohAmong the Tidwell family papers is an 1862 letter written by a soldier associated with Shiloh. It survives as more than a battlefield document: it is a piece…Mary Ann Tidwell Brighton, 1832–1910Mary Ann Tidwell Brighton lived from 1832 to 1910, and her obituary compresses a long life into a few public sentences. The notice is valuable because it fixes…The shadow of the elm tree in the Telford yardOn Allen and Loni Hackworth’s personal website, original writing lives alongside family histories, photographs, obituaries, chronologies and archival records.…How Loni Transcribes Obituaries from Old NewspapersAn obituary is often the first written account of a relative’s death, but it can also reveal a crowded life. A short death notice may identify parents,…