Our Binkley line was Mennonite, of course, among the Pennsylvania Dutch of Lancaster County. Among our ancestors in this line is a distinguished personage: Jacob Engle, known as "Yokeli", who co-founded the River Brethren--a sect that survives today as the Brethren in Christ. Our descent from Yokeli comes through my...

James Edwin ("Ed") Humes, my great-great-uncle, served in the Missouri State Guard in the first year of the Civil War, then (like most of the Guard) transferred to the Confederate army. He was a sergeant in the 2nd Missouri Infantry until Vicksburg; after that he appears to have returned to...

The entire backrun of the New York Times is now available online, if you belong to an institution that has licensed it (check your public library!). I've been pulling out a number of family-related stories, including this about first cousin five times removed, Henry Kent McCay (1820-1886).