Welcome to LookingBackwards, a personal and genealogy website.
A personal and genealogy website chronicling our family’s pastimes, passions, and peculiarities.
The primary purpose of LookingBackwards.net is to serve as a central repository for the family history of the combined Mitchell and Vanderpool families. But like any good archive, it’s more than dusty records and sepia-toned photos—it’s a living, evolving reflection of the people behind the names. You’ll also find documentation of our hobbies, creative pursuits, and the occasional rabbit hole we’ve gleefully tumbled down.
Our site is constantly undergoing revision and rearrangement (because perfection is a moving target). If a page is temporarily unavailable, we invite you to revisit in a week or two—chances are it’ll be back, possibly with more flair.
All Our Relations
LookingBackwards at our Family History
To register for an account, please complete the New User Request Form in the Genealogy section. You’ll need to identify an ancestor in our database to be approved for family access. While registration isn’t required to explore most of the site, registered family members gain access to additional information about living relatives.
Our ancestral lines include:
Mitchell, Clark, Jones, Moore, Allbright, Albright, Albrecht, Robinson, Phares, Brough, Vanderpool, Gibson, Guinn, Campbell, Brashears, and Brazil.
House Amberwood
our Household within the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
House Amberwood chronicles our adventures in the SCA, a medieval reenactment society where history meets imagination. It was through the SCA that we first met—introduced by mutual friends—and Ashleigh’s association dates back to 1973.
Our Amberwood pages recount the founding of the former Shire of Darkwell (where now the Barony of Wintermist in the Kingdom of Caid exists), as well as awards, background, and stories from members of the Household and Shire. More recent activities in the Kingdom of An Tir and the Canton of Porte de l’Eau are noted by Renée du bois d’Ambre. For related blog posts, search the tags Amberwood or SCA.
Weregaming
or ‘they were dead before we met them …’
Weregaming: a term Ashleigh created circa 1976 when the gaming group at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, California, was looking for a name for their unofficial organization.
There was already a wargaming group, who focused on SPI’s games such as War in Europe, War in the East, War in the West, and War in the Pacific (among many others, but you can grasp the concept).
As “our” group focused on the newly emerging Role-Play Gaming, epitomized by TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons, I called the bunch were-gamers. Clever pun, yes? No? Ah, well. You can find blog posts about our gaming by search for the ag “weregaming”.
Yesterday and Tomorrow
or, The Musings of a Social Brown Recluse
Formerly known as Musings of a Social Brown Recluse—a nickname lovingly assigned by my youngest, who clearly understood that “introverted with a bite radius” is a whole personality. Now renamed Yesterday and Tomorrow, this blog lives on LookingBackwards, which feels fitting: because if you don’t watch where you’re going, you’ll only see where you’ve been⁴.
I’m reclusive by nature but allergic to isolation, so I’ve created this blog: a neurodivergent haven where genealogy and family history meet caffeinated chaos. Because let’s be honest—there’s nothing more thrilling than deciphering 18th-century documents written in flamboyant cursive, in a language you don’t speak, by someone who thought vowels were optional and punctuation was a personal attack¹.
And while we’re here, let’s acknowledge the original linguistic control freaks—Nathan Bailey, Robert Cawdrey, Noah Webster, and Samuel Johnson—who tried to wrestle English into submission with sheer willpower and a dictionary². We honor their efforts. We ignore their rules.
Expect occasional detours into medieval reenactment (SCA), tabletop roleplaying games (D&D, GURPS, DragonQuest), and video games. For deeper dives into those rabbit holes, visit:
🧙♀️ DragonQuestFrontiers.com for DragonQuest nerdery
📚 AshleighWritesBooks.com for my author life (yes, I write books. Yes, I’m still surprised too.)
Welcome to the archives. Mind the ink stains, and don’t trust anyone who alphabetizes for fun³.
¹ Especially great-uncle Bartholomew, whose handwriting resembled a drunken spider doing calligraphy.
² Johnson once defined “lexicographer” as “a harmless drudge.” We feel seen.
³ Unless they also color-code. Then they’re probably fine. Or terrifying. Possibly both.
⁴ And if you’re lucky, you’ll trip over a box of old letters and discover your great-great-grandmother was a scandalous legend.