Thanksgiving Week 2009

Psalms 79:13
So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture
Will give thanks to You forever;
To all generations we will tell of Your praise.

My dad (age 89), myself (age 61), my daughter (age 29), and my granddaughter (age 4), all enjoyed Thanksgiving together this year. That is 4 generations.
We had tossed green salad, strawberry pretzel salad, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, sliced smoked turkey, sliced cranberry sauce, cornbread dressing, Sister Schubert dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, and chocolate cake. Sometime later in the week, I will make turkey soup with the leftover turkey.

September 11, 2001

It has now been 8 years since the major attack on the World Trade Center. I spent much of last night watching shows on The History Channel or Fox News which commemorated this event. There are some amazing stories of survival surrounding this event, but even more than that, there are some amazing examples of bravery in the face of such a devastating circumstance. We must be on our guard for the evil out there that wants to destroy our country and our families.

Forty First Anniversary

August 17, 1968....the date we married.....I'm thinking that I really need to look at calendars, daily reminders, and see if I can recreate a list of all the things we have done on our anniversaries through the years.

In the news this year, we are hearing a lot about our first anniversary in 1969. Hurricane Camille slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast with wind speeds about 190 mph and a storm surge of 24 ft. high! Robert and I had planned on driving my aunt back to Tennessee that day, so we were just a few hours ahead of the storm when it got as far as Jackson, MS and then curved and went on toward Virginia.

Also, right about that same time (August 15th to 18th) the Woodstock Music Festival was about to come to a close in New York.

Just one month prior, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon for the first time with "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".
Milestones....

Summer Hiatus on Genealogy

Wow....I did not realize that it had been so long since I have posted! This summer, I have been concentrating on the current and future generations of our family while babysitting our 3 year old granddaughter. Also, there is a new grandbaby on the way.... March 4th is the due date. Ancestors will just have to be patient for me to locate their information. Tomorrow is my last day to babysit on a regular basis. I'm hoping to get back to my research very soon!

Reunion for My Husband's G G Grandparents

Hopefully, we will be attending this reunion in the fall. It is so funny that they are my in-laws, and I am more interested in attending than my husband is! The planners are doing a wonderful job. If I ever plan a reunion such as this, I hope I can learn a lot by going.

More Serendipity

I received an email today from a Jones descendant. Included in the email is a list of Andrew Jones and Elizabeth Johnson Jones descendants. The list did not come with sources cited, so I do NOT know if it is accurate. However, the list shows that my great great great grandfather William Jones had an older sister named Mary Jones. It shows that she is married to John Ross. John Ross is my gggg grandfather on the Ross side! The info I had was that he was married to a Mary Unknown from SC. It seems all the Jones, Rosses, Perkins, Sullivants, and probably more families came from SC to Caldwell County, KY.

Finding a Reference to a Kentucky Court Case

Yesterday, by using Google Book Search, I found a reference to a Court of Appeals decision in a Livingston county court case which involved my ancestor William Jones. His brother in law, Moses Perkins, brought the suit. I'm hoping to find more of the actual testimony with names of those testifying. Surely hope it identifies some elusive family members!

Always Surprised by Surpsies

Two years ago, I sent a letter inquiring about information on my grandmother's death certificate. Someone called today, saying they had just found the letter stuck in a desk. This person was new on the job, and they must be diligent to have called me after all this time. They answered my question.....not the way I wanted it answered.....but they answered it! THANK YOU for following up on my request!

Finding some answers

Here are a few things I would like to learn...

1. The significance of the Lamay name in Granny Fleming's name.

2. The lineage of Napoleon Fleming.

3. Proof of the death dates of the ancestors in Lauderdale and Tipton counties.

4. The last names of several great grandmothers.

More later.

Scrapbooks from my Husband's side of the family

Last evening, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law arrived in town with two large scrapbooks. The scrapbooks have been lovingly prepared by the oldest daughter of the oldest son in the Arledge line. In the two years I have been searching, sometimes it seems the oldest daughter might get the most info.....however, that might be too much of a generality. Anyway, today, we will be trying to figure out the best way to copy these scrapbooks. We certainly can't dismantle them, so I guess photographing them will be the best way. I just hope we can preserve this family's history!

William Maxwell

On Feb. 12th, I found 13 pages on William Maxwell's application for his Revolutionary war pension. It is very hard to decipher, but it did give me the name of his father, his wife, and his children! The application indicates that his father, James, was also in the Revolution. So, I may have found 2 new patriots. I have to prove the link of one generation. Earlier today, I went to the closest LDS genealogy library and ordered 6 rolls of microfilm for 2 Tennessee counties. It will be interesting to see if these rolls of film reveal some new information. Happy Valentine's Day!

Unexpected Genealogy Emails

December 30th and January 19th both brought 2 emails from unexpected sources. The two in December came from my husband's distant cousins wanting information on the Brown family in Georgia and Mississippi. The two yesterday were from my mother's Wilcox side of the family. One cousin has all the paperwork ready for a new DAR patriot. Not sure how long it will take to have those papers approved, but once they are, it will most likely make it easier for me to add that ancestor as one of my DAR patriots! The other request was concerning the Mutlow family. I know very little about them....only that I have a great great grandmother with the Mutlow name. The 1790 Personal Property tax list for James City, VA lists at least 4 Mutlow names. Possibly some of those are the ancestors that eventually moved to Livingston County, KY.