My Dad's Birthday

My dad celebrated his birthday this past weekend. My brother, who lives out of state, surprised him with a visit. We had four generations in attendance over the weekend, and I don't think we ever took photos! How awful is that? Terrible, on my part! Maybe we can recreate some of this over Christmas holidays!

Two Weddings, a Funeral and Several Birthdays

The middle of November is not usually when I think of weddings, but this weekend, we have two to attend. It looks like the weather will be beautiful. A long time friend passed away this past Sunday after a 9 1/2 yr. battle with Alzheimer's. His memorial service was yesterday, and then 3 birthday events are spread over today and Saturday.....all dates that will be important to someone's family genealogy. While getting ready for the funeral yesterday, I happened to look in an old box of stationery. Imagine my surprise when I found a letter from my husband....one that was written in 1965, just 2 weeks after we began dating. It seemed so stilted and proper. Here's the last sentence of the letter......."Hurry and come home because I think that you add quite a lot of symmetry to the surrounding area". I read this letter to my husband last evening when he came home from work. We had a great laugh! :) This past August we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.

Genealogy of Politicians

"Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you." Mark Twain

This quote appeared in the weekly ancestry.com article on Sunday. It made me laugh! :)

DAR Applications

This is the first DAR application that I've worked on....assisting someone else to join. It seems to be taking forever, and I'm sort of groping my way. We still lack 3 pieces of proof. We can find them, I think, but it is taking more time than I thought. I will be so happy to see this finished!

The weather today is overcast and less than 70 degrees. It actually feels like an autumn day! Yea!!!!

Just Call Me a Wilcox Landlubber

In this morning's email from a Wilcox cousin, I received a good bit of information on our common Wilcox ancestors who lived in Virginia in the late 1600's. Some of these Wilcox men were sea captains, and they would probably shudder to think that they have a multi great granddaughter who prefers not to sail the high seas! Evidently, I didn't inherit that gene! :)

Ancestry.com

Summer, 2007, was when I became motivated to search for more ancestors. One of my friends has a husband who is heavy into genealogy, and he suggested to me through her, that I should invest in a membership in Ancestry.com. Very wise advice!

Several times over the ensuing months, distant cousins have contacted me through Ancestry.com's "connection service". Just today, I heard from a distant cousin on my mom's side. His information concerns ancestors from Livingston County, KY. It will be interesting to see where he is currently residing. I hope he is near Livingston County, KY!

Covington, TN the first weekend in May, 2008

My dad's hometown is Ripley, TN, but quite a number of his kin on his dad's side of the family reside in Covington, TN. Daddy had not visited Covington in a long time, so we spent several days there. Friday afternoon, May 2nd, was supposed to be spent shopping on the lovely town square, but a supercell tornado that passed through Earle, AR, passed just to the northwest of Covington. We stayed in our hotel until the all clear was reported. That evening, while having delicious barbecue sandwiches at a cousin's home, I saw a framed photo of my Fleming great grandparents for the first time in my life! Here I am almost 60 yrs. old, and I never remembered seeing them before. Their names.... Napoleon Fletcher Fleming, a Baptist minister and his wife Susan Laura Feezor Fleming. The next morning, we visited the nearby cemetery and found their gravesite. My brother and I walked that cemetery for about 2 hrs. before a cousin came to our aid and showed us the location.

Napoleon and Susan Fleming had 8 children, with my grandfather being one of the younger children. One of the older daughters inherited excellent photos of the parents, and I was so thrilled to have access to those photos. Keep looking for gravesites and cousins with photos. It will finally pay big dividends! :) We hope to visit again!

Generations

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Generations....isn't that what ancestry is all about?

Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs....For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:2,5

The Time Traveler's Wife

Monday, October 6, 2008

Today, I am about one half through the book The Time Traveler's Wife. My daughter suggested that I read this intriguing book by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a selection for my daughter's book club, and it has become her favorite book. Wouldn't it be great if we could time travel in order to research our ancestors? :) The movie version is set to come out around Christmas (I think) with Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana.

Bells of Bells, Tennessee

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Success was achieved by searching a microfilm reel ordered on interlibrary loan from the Tenn. State Archives! This afternoon I found the will of one of my great grandfathers, Walter Bell. His will was on the microfilm of Haywood County (a burned county) wills volume E, May 1852 to Oct 1888, p. 100. His wife must have predeceased him as she is not mentioned. Children mentioned are:
William B. Bell
John Bell
James B. Bell
George D. Bell
Margaret A. Scott
Dorcas D. Shearin (my gg grandmother)
Sarah F. Bell
Rachel Charlotte Bell
Mary Jane Bell

My dad, who is 88 yrs. old, has told me that he knew there was a Bell family connection to his West family, but he wasn't sure how the connection was made. It was exciting to solve this piece of my family history!
Update on 10/24/2008--Last night while searching Google Book Search, I stumbled upon a reference to "The Bells of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania" in the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, v.29, no. 1. It has my great great grandmother Dorcas D. Bell Shearin listed with her ancestors. This is great! Extremely pleased to find this!