The History of Me



the books

I have a dense family tree. Ten years ago, this began as a way to show my niece, Izabelle, her heritage. After she went to school for Heritage Day dressed as Pocahontas, brought an apple pie and was told she didn't follow instructions as it needed to be from another country. 

I took the information from the pile of family books my grandmother left me and drew a chart. It quickly became a tangle of fishing lines as the Virginia branch enjoyed marrying cousins. 

In my search for images of people in the chart, I found an image of President Chester Arthur's wife, Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, and was amazed at the resemblance to my mother, 100 years later. This also happened with an image of my great-grandfather when he was 18. I compared the images in Photoshop to determine if the facial structure was similar, or I was nuts. This led to a disturbing hobby of replacing a relative with me. I have one rule; I can only use an image of a relative. This is an ongoing project with new additions periodically. At some point, I may make a book, but for now these exist only online.


The Nine-Foot Tree with Four-Point Type


The Beginning of the Odd Hobby


The Ongoing Odd Hobby