I recently wrote a blog about how the jewelry I’ve collected over the years from other family members can trace our family history through the decades. I can also trace my personal history the same way, starting with the baby… Read More ›
family history
ORGANIZING THE PAST – BY ELLIN CURLEY
I just spent three weeks with my 34-year-old daughter, Sarah. She lives 3000 miles away, in LA, so this was a rare treat. We have so many interests and views in common, we never run out of things to talk… Read More ›
CHANGING THE PAST – BY ELLIN CURLEY
This blog was the first blog I wrote and published on Serendipity in November of 2015. I have written a large number of blogs since then, many of them recounting personal stories from my own life as well as the… Read More ›
AHEAD OF HIS TIMES – ELLIN CURLEY
Most of us believe that our current beliefs have been our beliefs forever. Of course we know that germs cause disease and that the earth is round. But people didn’t always know these concepts as “facts”. We once thought the earth was flat… Read More ›
FREUD AND MY FATHER, PART 1 – ELLIN CURLEY
(All quotes are from my father’s book, “My Analysis With Freud, Reminiscences”, by A. Kardiner, M.D.) My father’s first contact with Sigmund Freud was a letter he received in 1921 accepting him as a student of Freud’s in Vienna. My… Read More ›
INHERITANCE WITHOUT MUCH VALUE
It was my anniversary present — from me to we. I am not searching for my ancestors because I more or less know who they were. Interesting, not fascinating. Not the kind of things you write very long saga tales… Read More ›
MyHeritage DNA – THE LEAST EXCITING DISCOVERY OF 2017
It was my anniversary present — from me to we. Garry and I don’t need much, at least not much I can afford. The big things are out of our price range — new toilets or a chair lift anyone?… Read More ›
MY MOTHER, THE PARTY PLANNER – BY ELLIN CURLEY
In the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s in New York City, social life revolved around the dinner party. Anywhere from six to twelve people would gather at someone’s home for drinks, appetizers and a sit down dinner. This was in addition… Read More ›
A HARMLESS LIE, A HARMFUL LIE – BY ELLIN CURLEY
Growing up, my parents lied to me about a lot of things. To ‘protect’ me. The biggest lie was about my parents’ ages. They knocked almost twenty years off my father’s age and a few from my mom’s for good… Read More ›
MY FATHER AND FREUD, THE TEACHER – ELLIN CURLEY
(All quotes are from my father’s book, “My Analysis With Freud, Reminiscences”, by A. Kardiner, M.D.) My father’s first contact with Sigmund Freud was a letter he received in 1921 accepting him as a student of Freud’s in Vienna. My… Read More ›