Kim Stracener Zapalac

Thank you, State of Iowa!

To the descendants of people who lived in Iowa in 1906, thank you for your tax dollars! Now you may be wondering why I said that. Simple, your ancestor's legislation on March 30, 1906, granted $500.00 (about $20,000 in today's money) for "Erection of Monument Over the Grave of George Perkins."[1] George Perkins is my fifth great-grandfather, who was born in South Carolina and served in the militia of both South Carolina and North Carolina![2] The monument was in memory of and to mark those men w

Traveling the South: A Genealogist's Road Trip

For me, as a long-time genealogist, the American South is one big treasure map. But the South has been largely overlooked by mainstream historians. While history books have long celebrated the Northeast — even the great patriot societies — the South's rich and diverse heritage, shaped by Spanish, French, Native American, and African American cultures, has received far less scholarly attention. The burning of countless Southern towns during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War destroyed record