Member Blogs

I recently got back from a 10 day trip to China where I visited the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. I had a really great time although I haven’t finished organizing and tagging all my photos and hope to get that done soon before I forget all the finer details of where each photo was taken. As I go through notes and photos I’ll be adding some thoughts to this “China Diary” over the next couple of months.

People have been asking me if I went to China for work or pleasure. In many e

My friend Maureen Taylor, aka www.maureentaylor.com The Photo Detective, just published her newest book, “The Last Muster.”

“A remarkable work of documentary history, The Last Muster is a collection of rare nineteenth-century photographic images—primarily daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and carte des visite paper photographs—of the Revolutionary War generation. This extraordinary collection of images assigns faces to an un-illustrated war and tells the stories of our nation’s founding fathers and mot

It fascinates me to find connections between different branches of my family tree, possibly because I’ve always known there was a connection between my parents (besides the obvious).

Before you start thinking “cocktails in Appalachia,” I should explain that this is not a close connection. My father’s (maternal) great-grandmother is my mother’s (paternal) first cousin twice removed. . . . → : CONTINUE READING

I received an email from Ancestry today with “Possible record matches” in the subject line. Those of you who use Ancestry know that they give you hints, with little green leaves indicating some sort of match in their records, whether it be in another tree, a historical record, etc. This email contained three such hints. Sometimes . . . → : CONTINUE READING

Monteville Roberts owned and operated, with the help of family, the combined business establishment of a mill for grinding corn into meal and wheat into flour, a blacksmith shop, and general repair shop, all of which were vitally essential to the people. The combined enterprise, in Hamilton County, Tennessee, provided a flourishing business a home . . . → : CONTINUE READING

A story for the Fourth of July!

Fifteen or twenty years ago, when my daughter was in elementary school, we visited Philadelphia Pennsylvania. We toured the city, saw the Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin’s house, and ate some cheese steak sandwiches. Of course we didn’t miss Independence Hall, either. The tour was guided, and when we came to the room where the Continental Congress delegates met, my daughter raised her hand and asked to see in which chair Matthew Thornton sat. The guide smiled and sai

I visited New Prospect Church Cemetery on Saturday. I knew that some Tuckers were buried there, because I had found headstone photos on Find-a-Grave for Churchwell Branch Tucker and his wife Rosamond. I also had found a listing last week for E. M. Ellis on the Murray County Cemeteries website; the dates were very close to . . . → : CONTINUE READING

David S. Butler was my great-great-grandfather. I know that he was in Murray County, Georgia in the 1900s. Working backward, he died in 1938, and I have census records for 1930, (research gap: I don’t have 1920), 1910, and 1900. Each census gives Georgia as his place of birth. I have nearby Adairsville as his birthplace, . . . → : CONTINUE READING

Two hundred years ago my Ellis relatives were in Jackson County, Georgia, South Carolina, and possibly North Carolina.

Walter Ellis (5x great-grandfather) is my oldest Ellis relative who was alive in 1808. He and his wife, Mary (Parker) probably were in Jackson County, Georgia. In 1805, he appeared on the Jackson County land lottery list and in 1817, . . . → : CONTINUE READING

Pine Grove Cemetery, Winnacunnet Road, Hampton, New Hampshire.

William Lane, junior. and his wife Sarah Webster were my 8x Great Grandparents. Their names are on a 1681 list of the members of the 2^nd Church in Boston, and sometime after that they removed to Hampton, New Hampshire. Sarah was William’s first cousin. They lived near Sarah’s father, Thomas Webster, near where Hampton Academy now stands. William Lane was a tailor. Deacon Joshua Lane was his son. I descend through his brother, Samuel

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery." - Jane Austen

A heavy fog infiltrated my creative mindset ten days ago. I became discouraged and frustrated. But I was not alone, others felt it too. On Saturday, I followed a hash tag (#writers) on Twitter and found a steady stream of negativity:

• 20 warning signs your content sucks (my favorite)
• 5 biggest mistakes writers make
• How not to write a novel

Their doom-y nature played perfectly with my mood. I laid down my pen (well ok, I turned off my monitor) a