Guildhall

Imagine finding a physical description of your 6th great-grandfather living in London back in 1725. Fascinating.  Samuel Wethered: “He is a thin Man, of a smooth Face, pale Complexion, dark Eye-brows, about five Foot eight Inches high, and appears to be 23-24 Years old, speaks French, and generally wore a light Wig and light colour’d

Parmenter’s Ordinary

My immigrant ancestors are what this series of drawings is all about. I track them down by book and by foot—traveling back in time and over to towns and neighborhoods that I’ve never visited before. I walk the streets with my sketchbook. For me, sketching is a form of research. With my drawings, I try

Roots

The story of my family is one of immigration, as it is for all white Americans. In my current drawing project, I draw at the places of my ancestors and am quite surprised to see how fruitful my research can be, and how lucky I’ve been to find that so many of my ancestors lived

The Ferryman

This is Stage Neck in York, Maine, and right here, at the place of this rotting old wooden bridge, is where my 8x great-grandfather William Moore worked as a fisherman and ferryman in the 1600s. I believe William came here in 1851 as an immigrant from southeastern England. In 1653, he married locally-born Dorothy Dixon,