A French Boy Who Returned as an American Doughboy

One of the best surprises in my family history research has been the story of my wife’s great-uncle, Marcel Rogissart. At first glance, his records seemed straightforward—a French immigrant who settled in Massachusetts, served in World War I, and lived a quiet life after returning home. But as military records, transport manifests, muster rolls, and…

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Pierre Parant: The First Confirmed Ancestor to Reach North America

Every family history has a beginning. For the Parent family in North America, that story starts with Pierre René Parant, one of the earliest  confirmed immigrant in our family. His arrival in New France around 1650 marks the first documented step of our family’s journey on this continent—a journey that now spans nearly four centuries.…

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The Mystery of Sarah Brown Drake: Who Were Her Parents?

One of the oldest unsolved mysteries in our Drake family history concerns Sarah A. Brown Drake, wife of Samuel C. Drake and mother of a large branch of Drake descendants living today. Despite years of research by several family historians, including recent DNA analysis, we still do not know who Sarah’s parents were. Yet over…

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