Hi All!

I am a volunteer too. I have been researching my family for just a short time, since last winter, and have become completely addicted to it. Like Vicky said, it is much like putting a puzzle together. A piece here and a piece there until you can see the whole picture.(Though I doubt we will ever see the whole picture.)

I started out knowing quite a lot about my mother’s side of the family because they had been written up in several books. But my father’s side was a totally different matter. No one seemed to know anything beyond my great grandparents names. Not where they came from, or what their parents names were, nothing. I’ve learned so much about this side of the family it is unbelievable!

I’ve met a lot of new "cousins" that I didn’t know existed and new family names that no one had heard of before. It has been so exciting. I am hoping that my excitement will brush off on to the students I work with.

I live on the beautiful coast of Oregon, in Florence. I retired last November as Administrator of a mental health agency, and I married a little over a year ago.

I am working on a family history book which has grown way beyond my wildest expectations. My husband has been such a great help in both my research (he was director of the Eugene Family History Center a few years ago.) and in his expertise as an editor and printer.

My family came from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana and all relocated eventually in the Ozarks of Arkansas, in Newton and Scott County. Some were originally from England, Wales and Ireland, and some were here when the others got to this country. Several served in the Civil War, both for the Union and the Confederacy.

The more I find out about my family the more I want to know about them.

What made them who they were? They must have been very strong people to survive as they did. I have a deep respect for them and I want my children to know them and to feel the same love I have for them. I want them to realize that those long ago people are a part of them and will be a part of those who come after them.

The family names I am researching are