If Only Geographic Borders Didn't Change!

It certainly makes it easier to do genealogy if your family lived in the same place for hundreds of years, doesn’t it? Well, maybe. The reality is that over time, borders are always changing. As America became more settled by non-native people, the borders of cities, counties, colonies, and then states were forever shifting. In Europe, centuries of disputes over who ruled what and where meant that stability was the exception and not the norm. What do movable boundaries mean for those of us trying to research our families?

Got Vikings in Your Family History? A Surprising Number of People Do!

Long before the world had Spiderman and Wonder Woman, many people’s idea of superheroes looked like larger-than-life Viking warriors. These remarkable people seemed to have been everywhere in the ancient world, conquering and pillaging before settling down in a myriad of locations. They left their genes behind in children with light eyes and light hair, and they left place names, runic writing, extremely advanced artisanal skill sets, and long-buried treasure in a stunning number of places.

As the young folks in your life don their Halloween costumes this year, let’s look back at these precursors to our Marvel heroes to see who they were and how they affected all of modern history, including many of our own families.