GENEALOGY POST #70

I thought that the Look-a-Like Meter and the Celeb Meter were a lot of fun. It turns out that I split even between my mom and dad and didn't look more like one or the other. The same thing happened when I tried myself with my husband and one of my daughters. We have always said that no one in the family looks related to anyone else in the family so I guess that confirms it! The Celeb Meter was funny. I resembled Angela Lansbury. It was hilarious when I tried a picture of my 83-year-old mother. It came up with Larry King! (I didn't tell her!)

Footnote was interesting; however, the member comments were so wide and varied. I may try a subscription for a year along with my ancestry.com subscription to see just how helpful it might be. Definitely looked worth a try.

Genealogy #69

I tried going on to Heritage Quest Persi and looked up "Kercheval" to see what I could turn up. I have a great-great uncle who wrote the History of the Valley of Virginia. I did find a listing for him! He was listed in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography V. 67 Issue 3 in July of 1959. I think I'm going to have to order a copy of that one!

Genealogy Post #68

I became interested in oral histories when it was too late to do much about it. Most of the relatives that I would have liked to get an oral history from were no longer alive when I started doing research. I definitely would consider it is I had anyone to go to. The only living relative I have is my mother so I will probably pursue that before it is too late as she is now almost 84. I am most interested in her mother's family; however, my grandmother did not want to talk about her family so I have hit a deadend there.

The cemetery I looked at is in the Barnes Community Cemetery in Indiana where my paternal grandparents are burried. The oldest grave belonged to Thomas Stonehouse. The date of death was illegible except for 19, 1841 ; however, since the stone stated "months 18 days."

Genealogy #67

I have been doing genealogy for a number of years off and on. When I first started, there was one particular person that I was looking for who was our family's "black sheep." I was determined that I would find him no matter what it took. I looked high and low for that scoundrel for several years and decided to give it a rest. I worked on other family trees for several years before I decided to try again. The two things I learned in all of this that I would like to pass on is

#1 Don't give up! When I decided to take a break, my search had met dead ends in many states and places and was beginning to appear to be an impossible task. Ultimately when I returned to searching I met with success.....at last!

#2 What kept me from being successful in my pursuit was that I kept trying to find him as a head of household. The sad truth is that he was hiding in plain sight....or pretty close. Once I got it out of my head to pursue males as heads of households and I tried his sister, Lucy. Low and behold....there he was! He left his family and moved in with his sister across town while they lived under a cliff. Nice guy! The interesting thing in all this is that as I progressed in my search I found out that his uncle had written The History of the Valley of Virginia. Both his father and uncle were well respected lawyers. I have a family member who corresponded with Abe Lincoln and one with letters from Thomas Jefferson that are actually in three genealogy libraries! Didn't see that coming from the family of this guy that was a scoundrel! Just goes to show that genealogy can be a really interesting hobby that is full of turns and twist.