Chapter 11840s-1900s2 min read
River & Desert
An orphan's Atlantic crossing, a wagon trail into the desert, and the water that made towns possible.
EnglandUtahArizona
The Narrative Spine
The Epic Saga
Six narrative chapters chronicling five generations across two continents, from nineteenth-century immigrant voyages and frontier canal building to Viennese medical scholarship and modern East Valley healthcare.
Chapter 21870s-1920s8 min read1 connected story
The Widow's Store
A widow sells her only cow, a boy becomes a teamster, and a handcart captain's descendants meet the Goodmans in the Arizona desert.
ArizonaUtah
Chapter 31920s-1960s6 min read6 connected stories
Townsite & Enterprise
A pharmacist couple, a five-term mayor, and the ostrich feathers that went to the Chicago World's Fair.
MesaChandlerWashington D.C.
Chapter 41890s-2020s10 min read2 connected stories
Medicine & Service
Four generations of medical practice, from a frontier doctor's butcher-knife appendectomy in the 1890s to a modern OB/GYN group delivering seventy babies a month.
ArizonaTexas
Chapter 51880s-1990s8 min read11 connected stories
Global Paths & Homecoming
A missionary from Arizona knocks on a door in Hamburg. Behind it: three generations of Viennese scholarship, a father who served in the Wehrmacht, and the woman he will marry.
ViennaBerlinHamburgArizona
Chapter 6Retrospective7 min read
Legacy & Living Memory
What connects a tuberculosis patient's wagon to a pineal gland extract to a women's health clinic, and why any of it matters to the people left standing.
All
Genealogy & Lineage
Open Family Tree →Trace the Family Tree
Explore nine generations of ancestors across the Goodman, Hofstätter, Ellsworth, and Platt lines in an interactive pedigree map.
Chronology
Open Historical Timeline →Explore the Timeline
Examine over two hundred years of documented milestones, marriages, migrations, and civic leadership set against historical events.