Faced with an early termination fee for my mistakenly purchased annual Adobe Premiere Pro subscription (that is, annual paid monthly), I decided on a new video project instead of canceling. I’ve dubbed it “A Plan 9 From Outer Space”—If you know, you know.. The project involved restoring and then animating a series of old photographs using Adobe Firefly, with the final video edited in Premiere … Continue reading The Making of ‘Night Gallery’
A few years ago, my brother Patrick, while on a business trip to Atlanta, paid a visit to our great-grandfather’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and there he bought me a book titled “A Short History of Cobb County in Georgia” by Sarah Temple. Several chapters of the book are devoted to the details of what occurred in Cobb County in the spring and early summer … Continue reading Marietta July 1864
I have written about my great-grandfather’s family and their experiences at the tail end of the Civil War in a number of blog posts on this site. In the construction of the book, Gathering More Leaves, those blog posts became the foundation of a chapter that detailed the events experienced by my great-great grandparents in the final year of that horrible war. While reviewing the … Continue reading A Problem Timeline
I’ve written several times about my 5th great-grandmother, Theodosia Beck Beazley, wife of John McMullan. (See “Bad Grandma” and “The Legend of John McMullan – Gathering Leaves.“) Recently, new information about Theodosia has come to light from Gayle, a distant cousin who descends from one of John and Theodosia’s daughters, Catherine Schifflet. In response to “Bad Grandma,” Gayle wrote: “You probably share DNA with a … Continue reading News of Theodosia
Growing up in Texas, I experienced an identity crisis. Because I wasn’t born there, I felt disconnected from the state’s rich history and culture. Looking back, if I had the understanding then that I have now, it would have profoundly impacted my self-perception and my place in the world. While this morning’s discovery may seem trivial, I strongly believe that this knowledge would have made … Continue reading My Texas Roots
Here is another question for ChatGPT Also in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind there is a scene where Rhett Butler refers to the Georgia State Guards as Joe Brown’s Pets. What was that all about? The reason why I asked this question is because my great great grandfather David Judson Dobbs was in the Georgia State Guards during the time depicted in the novel … Continue reading Joe Brown’s Pets
For years, I’ve been trying to unravel the mystery surrounding my mother’s great-grandfather’s civil rights status at the close of the Civil War. I believed I had finally solved it: Was he among the thousands denied property and civil rights due to specific criteria? These categories included former Confederate civil and military officers above a certain rank, individuals who had abandoned U.S. government or military … Continue reading Reconstruction Recall
Aside from being a national holiday, the Fourth of July is extra special for my family. It’s the shared birthday of my maternal grandfather, James Monroe Dobbs, Jr., and his father, James Monroe, Sr. Here is an excerpt from Gathering More Leaves, Part I: Chapter One It came like a long-forgotten letter finally delivered. In the spring of 2022, when the U.S. government released the … Continue reading My Maternal Grandfather
The Civil War era saw a significant but overlooked resistance against conscription, particularly among fathers determined to protect their sons from battle. This struggle, deeply rooted in love and familial bonds, played out in areas like Holmes County, Ohio, where groups protested the draft, leading to armed conflicts and legal consequences. Continue reading Resistance Runs in the Family
Katherine Talbot married Nicholas de Eyton, Sheriff of Shropshire (Nicholas Eaton).[1] John Talbot, the father of Katherine Talbot, was the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury during the reign of Henry VI and the Hundred Years War. He was born in 1384 and died in 1453. Although Katherine Talbot does appear as the daughter of the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury in Treswell’s The Visitation of Shropshire (1623) and in The Visitations of Essex … Continue reading PART X-CHAPTER SIX
Gathering Leaves 