Family History

RALEIGH, N.C. - A chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution in North Carolina is inducting its first black member, a firefighter who only recently learned his ancestor was freed from slavery after fighting for American independence. Chaz Moore, 30, is a descendant of Toby Gilmore, the son of a chieftain in coastal West Africa who was kidnapped at 16 and sold into slavery in Massachusetts. He gained his freedom by joining the fight for what would become the United States. "Growing up, I wasn't even certain that African-Americans even...

Ancestry.com Inc. will acquire rival family history website Archives.com for about $100 million in cash and assumed liabilities, the companies announced Wednesday. The two companies said they're combining their strengths and key employees but will maintain separate websites. Archives.com offers access to about 2 billion historical records, from birth records to obituaries. It has 380,000 paying customers. Ancestry has 1.8 million customers. It's the world's largest online family history resource, with 9 billion records.

Some 15 years after her Oscar-nominated role in "The English Patient," Kristin Scott Thomas is winning raves for both her screen and stage work. The 51-year-old actress is appearing in a production of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" in London through next month, and she has a leading role in the drama "Sarah's Key," now in theaters. The movie, an adaptation of a best-selling novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, tells of the roundup of French Jews during World War II. Speaking recently by satellite from London, Scott Thomas (who lives in Paris)

Who Elizabeth Myska What Myska, a Worcester attorney who is losing her vision to retinitis pigmentosa, took a self-defense course for the blind and has become a coach who trains other visually impaired people to defend themselves against assault. She recently went to England to meet with her teacher, Stephen Nicholls, who created the self-defense technique for the blind. Q. What is retinitis pigmentosa, and when were you diagnosed? A. I was diagnosed in December 2005 at Mass.

Two couples get together for drinks in the South End, and the talk turns to real estate. It's the late 1950s, and one pair, black and affluent, has a proposal for the other two, who are white, working-class, and in financial straits. We'll pay you, the Taylors tell the Donovans, if you'll buy the house we want in your suburb and sign it over to us. That is the catalyzing event in "The Luck of the Irish," a new drama by Medford playwright Kirsten Greenidge that has its world-premiere production starting Friday at the Huntington Theatre Company.

DeWitt Henry’s engaging new memoir opens with the most tantalizing of visions. Our young hero, whose father owns a chocolate factory, is set loose in the packaging department, its conveyor belts layered with booty. “We would take paper bags from the sample room and start working the belts and bins,’’ he recalls. “We bit into round, oblong, and square chocolates to find out what they were: nut chews, creams, marshmallows, mints (green, pink, orange inside), coconut, nougat, caramel, and syrupy cherries.’’ Talk about your childhood...

The following was submitted by the Abbot Public Library:  Want to find out more about your ancestors? On Wednesday, February 29th, at 7:00 pm, the Abbot Public Library will present "Beginner's Genealogy and Family History. " Michael Brophy, professional genealogical researcher, will present sources and methods for researching your family history. Among the topics to be covered are US military history records and how to use these to obtain information about our ancestors.

Two couples get together for drinks in the South End, and the talk turns to real estate. It's the late 1950s, and one pair, black and affluent, has a proposal for the other two, who are white, working-class, and in financial straits. We'll pay you, the Taylors tell the Donovans, if you'll buy the house we want in your suburb and sign it over to us. That is the catalyzing event in "The Luck of the Irish," a new drama by Medford playwright Kirsten Greenidge that has its world-premiere production...

(Patrick D. Rosso/Boston.com/2012) Patricia Maestranzi-Fisher, owner of Broadway Lock Company, showing off her family history in South Boston. By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent The raunchy parody video "The Real Housewives of South Boston" went viral recently and brought a bright light to Southie's unique culture. But now that a new reality show -- the real thing, not a parody -- is being discussed by TLC, South Boston has something to consider.

Famous Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. visited the New England Historic Genealogical Society on Wednesday to film footage for his new PBS show, "Finding Your Roots. " The show, which premieres March 25, will feature Gates (inset) helping celebrities research their family trees, including singer John Legend, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Bacon, and Bacon's wife, Kyra Sedgwick, who turns out to have some family history in the Berkshires. The Genealogical Society, on Newbury Street, has been getting plenty of TV attention lately thanks to Gates's program...

The preface of "Women's Rights in the United States: A Documentary History," which Vivian Fox co-edited with Winston Langley, opens with a passage from an Emily Dickinson poem. The verse, friends said, captures Dr. Fox's enduring spirit. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all. "Vivian was everything that death is not," said Langley, who taught at Boston State College with Dr. Fox and now is provost of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Two couples get together for drinks in the South End, and the talk turns to real estate. It's the late 1950s, and one pair, black and affluent, has a proposal for the other two, who are white, working-class, and in financial straits. We'll pay you, the Taylors tell the Donovans, if you'll buy the house we want in your suburb and sign it over to us. That is the catalyzing event in "The Luck of the Irish," a new drama by Medford playwright Kirsten Greenidge that has its world-premiere production starting Friday at the Huntington Theatre...

Two couples get together for drinks in the South End, and the talk turns to real estate. It's the late 1950s, and one pair, black and affluent, has a proposal for the other two, who are white, working-class, and in financial straits. We'll pay you, the Taylors tell the Donovans, if you'll buy the house we want in your suburb and sign it over to us. That is the catalyzing event in "The Luck of the Irish," a new drama by Medford playwright Kirsten Greenidge that has its world-premiere production...

RALEIGH, N.C. - A chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution in North Carolina is inducting its first black member, a firefighter who only recently learned his ancestor was freed from slavery after fighting for American independence. Chaz Moore, 30, is a descendant of Toby Gilmore, the son of a chieftain in coastal West Africa who was kidnapped at 16 and sold into slavery in Massachusetts. He gained his freedom by joining the fight for what would become the United States. "Growing up, I wasn't even certain...

For a guy who comes from a big political clan, Joseph P. Kennedy III had no visible support from his family members when he kicked off his congressional campaign on Thursday. He strode solo into the Newton Centre MBTA station, tried to identify the commuters amid the campaign volunteers and reporters, and then, after shaking hands for a half-hour, plunged into his first media scrum. Uncle Jack, Uncle Teddy, Grandpa Bobby, and father Joe may have been there in spirit, but JoeK3, as has become his moniker, was on his own. That is not to say he...

Roger Ide The following was submitted by Revels: Revels' acclaimed 40-member touring ensemble of adults and children, Revels Repertory Company, brings the story of American immigration to life in this original stage production written and directed by Patrick Swanson with Revels Rep director Kay Dunlap.   Set on a crowded passenger ship in 1907, at the height of American immigration, the 90-minute musical production follows a group of Italian, Irish and Eastern European Jewish families who share...

Ancestry.com Inc. will acquire rival family history website Archives.com for about $100 million in cash and assumed liabilities, the companies announced Wednesday. The two companies said they're combining their strengths and key employees but will maintain separate websites. Archives.com offers access to about 2 billion historical records, from birth records to obituaries. It has 380,000 paying customers. Ancestry has 1.8 million customers. It's the world's largest online family history resource, with 9 billion records.

Photo/Michael Diskin Chef Tiffani Faison (Rocca, "Top Chef") will open a barbecue restaurant in late summer. Called Sweet Cheeks, it will occupy the Boylston Street space that was Cambridge 1. "It's the food I grew up with in a lot of ways," says Faison (above), who was raised in a military family that moved frequently. "I don't pretend to have a story that I was at my mother's knee making this food in the kitchen, but it's inspired by food my family ate. " Her family spent time in Oklahoma, Texas, and South Carolina, but Faison makes no promises about what region(s)

The following was submitted by the Abbot Public Library:  Want to find out more about your ancestors? On Wednesday, February 29th, at 7:00 pm, the Abbot Public Library will present "Beginner's Genealogy and Family History. " Michael Brophy, professional genealogical researcher, will present sources and methods for researching your family history. Among the topics to be covered are US military history records and how to use these to obtain information about our ancestors.

(Patrick D. Rosso/Boston.com/2012) Patricia Maestranzi-Fisher, owner of Broadway Lock Company, showing off her family history in South Boston. By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent The raunchy parody video "The Real Housewives of South Boston" went viral recently and brought a bright light to Southie's unique culture. But now that a new reality show -- the real thing, not a parody -- is being discussed by TLC, South Boston has something to consider.