Today I joined this web site in hopes of learning more about my family through connecting with more "cousins" and friends of our families. I am going to try and add information about people in my family, their stories as I have learned about them. I hope you will join me in reading about their lives, adventures, thoughts and times.  

My father's side of the family, though with plenty of questions and mysteries, is a much easier (and I use that term lightly) to find and…

I' have a blog entitled: The Grimke-Drayton notes. All you have to do is type the name in the search engine, and you will be linked with the blog. It's a mixture of poetry and introduction to my genealogical research. Check out my website - http://www.grimke.co.uk - for information on my family's roots in South Carolina. I'm hoping to post on the blog articles with information on the families on which I've been researching.

I'm going to be in the…

Do you have days when you wish your interest in documenting your family's history had sprouted and put down roots when you were ....oh, about 10 or 11 years old?  I certainly do.  Why didn't I notice that we never seemed to talk about my dad's side of the family in our home?  Why didn't we ask his parents all those great questions like "how did you meet?" or "what were your brothers and sisters like?"  Perhaps because my maternal grandmother lived with us and the fact that she was actually…

I was at a Bat Mitzvah this past Saturday and the presiding rabbi gave a sermon on the gift of time. He had seen an ad for a famous jewelry company that depicted a graduate in cap and gown, with a new watch on her arm. The caption was, “There Is No Present Like The Time”, which of course, is a twist on the old idiom, “There Is No Time Like The Present” to show that the watch was the gift of time. But the watch is also a metaphor for the larger definition of time. I wish I had the sermon to…

  Starting in the Middle of the Page for Genealogy.  

  Now have you ever done that? Leapt in with both feet and landed in the middle, the choice to go forward or to go back wards.  Do we look to the future generations or do we look at the past generations?  It makes for an interesting tilt to your research.  

  Some times unorthodox methods shake the tree and good fruit falls from it. 

  Some say that I am out to collect the most relatives I…

With regards to a blog posted by Patricia Aceves Wyble comments on Jesus Echeverria:

On July 20, 1889, Jesus Echeverria of Warm Springs sold 32.58 acres of land to my grandfather, Antone C. Alvernas (Alvarnos, Alvarnaz).  Snr Echeverria was a grantee of the land from Tomas (thomas) Higuera son of Fulgencio Higuera grantee of the Ranchio Aqua Caliente (adjacent to the Los Tularcitos grant of Santa Clara County.

As an additional point of information:  Fulgencio…

Disasters Week

Disasters were the fire, after I moved. Tornado when I was a Junior in the High School. Floods many times we had floods. Fortunately it damaged only the foundation and out buildings and we have had to reset the one corner of the house a few times. The house sets on a rock base and only one corner is not. Large old style timbers make the base of home very strong sturdy. Winds and water was the most normal damage we would have. Trees blown over and road blocked were a…

Radio and Television    

We listened to lots of Radio and did not have a TV until I was 13 plus. We could not watch it but on Friday night and Saturday evening Talent shows and Sunday news early.  Later we watched Sky King and other events.

Ed Sullivan Show, was popular. I loved the detective shows on radio. 

Toys Week 

Toys, well we had dolls, cowboy boots, guns and bows and arrows.  We built Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets.

 We did a lot of games…

  Family Traditions on New Years Eve.

  Yes, we gathered family together, near and not far and had food and played cards and games.  Dad and I would make eggnog and Mom would have with our help made pies and brownies. Family and friends that came would bring a dish or dessert also. Dad liked to make homemade eggnog that way no chemicals in his drink or eggs. We lived on a ranch and chemicals were coming into play big time in feed mill plants to increase growth and production…

I am a descendant of brave men & women who endured great hardships in an effort that their offspring have better opportunities.  My paternal heritage is largely from Kildonan Parish, Sutherland, Gunn, MacKay, Matheson, Bannerman, Sutherland, who came to North American in 1813 on the ship 'Prince of Wales'.  The passengers were put out prematurely in the Hudson Bay where they endured illness and a harsh winter before travel south to the Red River settlement in 1814.  Other Kildonan…

This is an update to an earlier post "What Do You Do ?" where I talked about finding a gedcom online and not knowing the resources or who posted it. Well I contacted the "poster" and got a reply,but he didn't exactly elaborate on his sources or the work overall. The answer's I was looking for sort of went "unanswered". Kind of makes me suspicious but hey,genealogy…

**The following is a press release from F + W Media, they publish Family Tree Magazine.  This press release has to do with a book that I am writing for them.

March 31, 2011

For Immediate Release

Contact: Jacqueline Musser

(513) 531-2690 x 11467 or

jacqueline.musser@fwmedia.com…

In the news yesterday is a story about a couple who are engaged and planning to wed soon. What makes this story really unusual is that they have the same name, Kelly Hildebrandt, and they met on Facebook.

One night (female) Kelly was bored and typed her name into Facebook to see what came up. Up popped Kelly Hildebrandt but it was a guy and he was in Lubbock Texas. She sent him a note that said “Hi, We had…

I've learned from my research over the last two years that my paternal great great grandmother Catherine Josephine Connelly Jones was a survivor of the first degree.  Born in County Leitrim, Ireland, about 1829, she endured the Great Hunger.  A letter found in her Civil War Widow's Pension file came all the way from Mohill, County Leitrim, from the priest who married Catherine and her husband James R. Jones in 1849.  Nearly 15 years later, her remebered them both well.  The information that…

Mary Elizabeth Elam

Herman Palis Elam

Richard Henderson Elam

David S. Elam

Reps Jones Elam

Solomon Harmon Elam

William Elam

That is as far as I am sure of but I think the following are also in my ancestral line:

John Elam

John Elam, Sr.

Martin Elam Jr.

Thomas Elam

James Elam

 We just received this information in our mail and I wanted to share since we are also promoting various holiday and veteran events.  I am biased my husband and my brother and many cousins were Vietnam Vetersans

The US Congress has designated March 30, 2011 as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” in remembrance of March 30, 1973, the day all military personnel were ordered to depart…