The Remarkable Coincidences of Ancestral Migration

Our father’s family came from Massachusetts, and our mother’s roots traced back to Alabama. They met in California and we all believed they were the first from either side to venture this far west—aside from our mother’s uncle, who settled in California after serving in the Navy during World War II. That belief began toContinue reading “The Remarkable Coincidences of Ancestral Migration”

Gunfire at the Shanghai Club: The Untold Story of Fanny Bruce and Sidney Shirvington

Several years ago, I connected on Facebook with a family of Shervingtons living throughout California’s Central Valley—from Inyo County to Sacramento and Modesto. I had grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area never knowing they existed. The surname “Shervington,” along with one of its variants “Shirvington,” is rare—thankfully making genealogical research a bit moreContinue reading “Gunfire at the Shanghai Club: The Untold Story of Fanny Bruce and Sidney Shirvington”