About

Updated/Edited: 13 Feb 2015

I love history! I am one of those people, you know, the ones who want to pull over at every historical marker while on a road trip. 😉 I had to grin while writing that because of the many times I had my husband back the car up because he went flying past a marker! He eventually learned.

I nearly drove my kids crazy when we vacationed in England for three weeks in the summer of 2006. Everyday as we were driving I was yelling at them to “quick, look out the window” and see that Norman church or that Roman aqueduct, or that beautiful manor house, etc., etc. They would look and then roll their eyes, and say, “Mommmmm!”

My love of history is a big reason why I love genealogy, family history research and traveling. I don’t just want to collect facts about my ancestors, I also want to know their histories, their hardships and triumphs and failures. None of them were saints, they were real flesh and blood people with hopes and desires for the future. There were some “bad” characters and there were some “good” ones who tried to make a positive impact. I think most were pretty common, honest and hard-working. We have a few ancestral royals in our line and we have a cousin-connection to the current royal family, but most of our “people” were of the ordinary type that persevered through immigration, exile, economic and physical hardships, some more graceful than others, but they have all left their impact on the world through their descendants today.

The world is a big, wonderful place, full of amazing people, places and cultures and this blog is my attempt to share some of our family’s contribution to it!

My name is Teresa (Hamilton/Pepper) Rust.  I’ve been married to Brad Rust for over 39 years and we have four children ages 19 to 29, two lads and two lasses. I am also the proud “gran” to our first grandchild, Aidan Bradly.

I have spent nearly 37 years, off and on, researching my family history.  My ancestry is primarily Scottish, Irish, and English, with some German and a small amount of Swiss and French thrown in! A typical American ancestry!

Besides my family…my other interests include: reading, writing, history, knitting and traveling. My favorite places in the world are Scotland, England and Ireland. My favorite literature is British especially of the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Below is a photo of myself with my four children in the summer of 2006 when we house-swapped with a family in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England. This photo was taken on the estate of Burghley House, near Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.

Top: Ethan and Nate. Bottom: Rachel, Teresa and Abbie