Tag: Rufus Allen Spann

Pat Ryan: Family Stories and Our Obligation to Share Them

February 6, 2026

Or, Subtitled: “Everywhere in the world people led their lives unrecorded”~ Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything (NY: Random House, 2024), p. 79 Stories; stories handed down in families; family stories: these are precious gifts that demand to be shared, if not in our family circles, then more widely, since stories told within a family circle … More Pat Ryan: Family Stories and Our Obligation to Share Them

Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (9)

April 11, 2018

This will be my final posting in this series about Patrick Ryan (1846-1893) and his Civil War pension file. If you’re just discovering this blog, you may want to read the whole series of which this is the final piece. What I want to do now is provide some footnotes to  previous postings in the … More Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (9)

Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (3)

March 17, 2018

And now to that missing eye: though I have not spelled this out, it has probably become obvious to you if you’ve read the first two installments in this series that it is, in part, an extended essay about the importance of family stories in genealogical research. It’s a foray into understanding how family stories … More Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (3)