Cierra's Family History

Still here

2009-08-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I posted something on here. To say life has been hectic, would be an understatement. I haven"t had much of a chance to work on the genealogy, but I have not given up on it, as I do enjoy working on it.

If anyone is still reading this, bear with me for a little longer until things settle down a bit. By that point, I should have more stories and pictures for you.

Updates

2008-06-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

I apologize for slacking on this site, but I simply haven't had the time to post anything for quite some time.

I went back to school about 3 weeks ago to get all the requisite Microsoft Certifications to become a Systems Administrator, so that is taking up much of my time these days between classes and homework. I am hoping that I can balance time between my family and school as well as here, so I can keep things moving forward.

In addition, I am trying to learn a new genealogy program from Family Tree Maker which is the 2008 version. A while back, I bought this version of the software because it came with more bells and whistles, and it looked like it might make things easier. I was so far off on that, it wasn't even funny. While they did add newer features that the previous version didn't have, they took away ones that I did like. They are, however, slowly adding features back that are missing. I must say that this program is much more complex than the previous one. But, once I get a handle on how it works, it will be worth it because of the newer features, such as media integration.

To give you an idea of the program I was using versus the one I am now learning, take a look at these screen shots of the main page for each program. This first picture is the old 2006 version. It seems simple enough to use right? Well, it was. There wasn't much brain power required to master it easily, so I was flying in no time.

The 2nd picture is what the new version looks like. As you can see, the main screen is now broken up into 3 little windows. The far left part of it is the entire list of everyone in the tree. The middle is the current person's family, as well as their ancestor's tree. The right hand side is the main person that you are entering information for.

Children of Rose DeMartini

2008-06-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

My grandmother's father (John DeMartini) was one of 8 children born to Augustino DeMartini and his wife, Celestina Cereghino in Martinez, California in the late 1800's.

John's sister Rose's family is the subject of this writing. A few years back, I had the priviledge of running across the Great Grand-daughter of Rose Ann DeMartini, when our paths crossed while researching the same family. Annie is her name, and she helped me piece in the missing parts of my genealogy, and I, in return, did the same for her. I remember Annie saying that her mom remembered my grandparents (Tom and Mildred) from years before, and that she was even close with the family of Ray DeMartini (who I often visited when I was little) who lived over on Patio Drive in Campbell years back. However, neither of us believe that our paths in life have ever crossed before our mutual genealogical research.

Rose Ann DeMartini married a man by the name of Antone Paul Cantell on February 28, 1904 in San Jose, California. Together they had 6 children, one of which was Gertrude Agnes Cantell.

The following picture is of Gertude (Rose DeMartini's daughter) from Cousin Annie's collection. The date would be the early to mid 1920's.

Cal McLish

2008-06-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

I ran into an intersting person in my continuing research of my wife's side of the family.

This man's name is Cal McLish. Cal's full birth name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish. Yes, you read that right. That is a mouthful, isn't it. Cal once said the following concerning how he came into that name. He stated "There were eight kids in my family, and I was the only one my father was permitted to name, so I guess he figured he'd make up for the situation."

Cal was born December 1, 1925 in Oklahoma and is Chickasaw. As far as I know, he is still alive and well.

Cal was a professional baseball pitcher, as if the picture above didn't tell you that allready. In the 20 years (between 1944 and 1964) he played professional ball, he played for The Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Cincinatti Reds, Chicago White Sox and the Philladelphia Phillies. In 1959, he was on the All Star Team. He had a win / loss record of 92 and 92, with an E.R.A. of 4.00 and 713 strike outs.

Another notable highlight of his career, was when he set a major league record with 16 consecutive road wins. That feat was later matched by several players including Greg Maddux.

After retiring from playing, Cal went on to become a pitching coach for the Phillies (1965-1966), Expos (1969-1975), and the Milwaukee Brewers (1976-1982).

Updates

2008-03-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

As you can see, the site is back up. I have removed some information that had caused the problems which led me to take the site down for the time being.

I had played around with different ways of bringing information to you, with a minimal amount of hassle, but none of them were efficient enough. Most required you to have a special log-in username and password, but from previous experience with that type of system, those are usually lost or forgotten, especially if you don't visit all that often.

So, from here on out, all information on here will be concerning people from several generations ago.

Anyway.........

Welcome back to the site, and I hope you like what you see.

Some Old Family Photos

2008-03-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

The time has come to share some old family photos again. These 5 photos can be found on the internet and all of them are descendants of James Logan Colbert.

As always, all images are copyrighted by their respective owners. If I have the wrong owner of the photo's mentioned, please let me know, so I can correct the error

The first photo is of my wife's 4th Great Grandfather Cyrus Harris. Cyrus was the first Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. He was born on August 22, 1817 in Pontotoc, Mississippi. It is currently unknown who his father was, as it appears that the father abandoned his family when Cyrus was a baby. However, Cyrus' mother was part Chickasaw (through her mother, Molly Colbert) and part Cherokee (through her father Christopher Phillip Oxberry). The image is copyright by Oklahoma State University.

The next photo is of a gentleman by the name of Harry Harvel White. Harry was a grandson of the above mentioned Cyrus Harris. He lived between the years of 1875-1958. In the photo, you can clearly see the Native American features in his face. This image is copyrighted by D.B. Mathes from this website.

This next photo is a bit older. It appears to have been an artists drawing of Rhoda Gunn (1818-1876) and her husband, Joseph Brevard Potts (1820-1862). I am not sure who owns the Copyright on this. But, it might be Oklahoma State.

And this last photo is from about 1896. It is a picture of the Staff of Bloomfield Academy in Indian Territory. Of note is the gentleman in the back row center. His name is Douglas Henry Johnston. Douglas, in addition to being the Superintendant of the Bloomfield Academy, was also a 3 term Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. His wife, Nellie Bynum (not pictured) was a Great Great Grand Daughter of James Logan Colbert. Douglas Henry Johnston was born on October 16, 1856 within the Choctaw Nation, while his wife Nellie was born on October 20, 1859 within the Choctaw Nation. The photo is copyrighted by Oklahoma State University.

Loren Thomas (Buck) Harris

2008-03-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

One of my wife's Great Great Uncles was named Loren Thomas Harris. Loren Thomas (who went by the nickname of "Buck") was brother to my wife's Great Grandfather, Hindman Harris Sr.

The other day, when doing research on Buck, I ran across an article in a newspaper called "The Daily Ardmoreite", from Ardmore, Oklahoma. The following was written in celebration of Buck's impending 100th birthday on July 31, 2001. The photo is also from that article. The original article was published by The Daily Ardmoreite on June 24, 2001

Buck was born on July 31, 1901 in Tishomingo, Indian Territory (Oklahoma did not officially become a State until November, of 1907) and passed away on October 23, 2002 at age 101.

"Soon-to-be centenarian Buck Harris qualifies as more than a senior resident approaching 100 years old. He's a page of Chickasaw history.

Officially named Loren Thomas, Buck has the distinction of being one of 52 original Chickasaw enrollees with the Dawes Commission still living. He's also a great-grandson of Cyrus Harris who was elected in 1856 as the first governor of the Chickasaw tribe. Cyrus served as tribal governor five terms during a pre-statehood era when the headquarters was located in Tishomingo.

Tribal history, though, was secondary Saturday at Elmbrook Nursing Home when relatives, Chickasaw leaders and several friends gathered to recognize Harris who will turn 100 on July 31. In addition to the family gathering and fellowship, the reception centered on the presentation of a silver medal by Kennedy Brown, special assistant to Gov. Bill Anoatubby. The medal was struck as a tribute to original enrollees and has 2654, Harris' enrollment number, engraved on the back side. He was enrolled on May 21, 1906, in Tishomingo, Indian Territory.

Sharing the ceremony were granddaughters LaVanda Rhynes, Pat Fowler and Deborah Kraus of Moore and Nela Hickey of Oklahoma City. Third- and fourth-generation family members from the six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren also attended. Beverly Tallbird from the tribal headquarters emceed the brief program.

Harris' life in and around Tishomingo was the primary focal point as he shared a busy day with family and friends. Interviewed about approaching his centennial birthday, Harris was slightly impish in a fun-loving way.

Recalling life in and around Tishomingo, he "didn't do much" as a young man, other than "farmed a little." One has to learn from other sources that he owned upwards of 800 original allotment acres at one time.

He married Mae Hatton and raised a step-son, Neal Everett. Both are deceased.

While he lived near Milburn, less than a mile from his Johnston County birthplace, Harris had a variety of jobs, primarily as a truck driver. He talks about working the oilfields in Oklahoma and Kansas. In work, as well as retirement, his primary goal was "to keep busy."

"Raising gardens" became his primary interest during retirement, according to Fowler. Harris and his gardening were featured in a 1991 newspaper article talking about a 91-year-old resident who worked almost daily with a rototiller and used a tire mounted with a bicycle "to prepare the ground for the garden, which surrounds his house and runs into the nearby woods."
He was innovative -- designing a homemade irrigation system. He pulled water by hand from a well and poured it into a large barrel to feed a hose flowing to terraces. Variety was another garden feature -- sweet corn, peas, beans, onions, tomatoes and cabbage, plus other fruits and vegetables.

"I ain't satisfied just sittin' in a rockin' chair," he said. "People do that, and pretty soon they can't get up."

Life may continue at a more casual pace for Harris today, but be alert for his subtle wit."

James Harris Guy

2008-03-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

In my recent searching, I ran across a gentleman by the name of James Harris Guy. Now, Jim Guy, as he was known, was a descendant of James Logan Colbert.

James Guy was a Deputy U.S. Marshall in what was known as the Indian Territory of Oklahoma back in the late 1800's. It was in his line of duty, that he was brutally gunned down by members of "The Lee Gang" on May 1, 1885.

Now, James Guy was also an accomplished poet within the Chickasaw Nation. In fact, he was considered the leading poet of the Chickasaw Nation. You can find some of his writings in a few books that can still be bought through Amazon.

The purpose of this post is to share with all of you, one of his poems concerning an old Fort in Indian Territory called Fort Arbuckle.

Here is the poem. It is believe to have been written just previous to James Guy's death in 1885.

Ft. Arbuckle: by James Harris Guy

The day has been long and dreary;
I halt with the sitting sun
To gaze on the open world
And the work the years have done;
And a vision rises before me,
Of the past as it hath been,
And all the rolling hills have heard,
And the bright-eyed stars have seen.

Full many a thrilling story
Could the echoing rocks repeat,
And methinks I hear in the forest
The tramp of hurrying feet.
The yells of the great Comanche
Ring once more in my ear
And files of the ghostly warrior
Appear and disappear.

I see the dusky phantoms
Rise from their graves to-day,
With the war paint still upon them
As they started for the frey;
They scorned the white man’s promise
And refused to be his slaves,
But their ranks were few and feeble,
And the sun sets on their graves.

Once more from the hills above me
The painted warriors ride,
And fall upon Ft. Arbuckle
Like rocks from the mountain side;
But now the bow and the quiver
Give place to the plodding plow,
A bible, a hut, a handful of corn
And a Christian’s broken vow.

Oh, Mystical Ft. Arbuckle
The sun is falling aslant,
And a friend stands out in his doorway;
God speed thee Thomas Grant;
For thou hast ever a seat at thy board
And thy heart a place,
For him who would sing the wide world o’er
The songs of a ruined race.

The Colbert Family

2008-03-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

While I was on my forced vacation (due to a fractured foot), I started working more on the family tree. I had decided that if I was ever going to get this thing done to my satisfaction, I had to quit bouncing between one family and the next, and just focus on one family until it reached completion. Then, I could move on to the next.

The family tree has several families in it that are quite large. They include the Incardonas, The Van Keurens, The Freers, The Deyos and the Colberts.

So, I started in earnest in piecing the Colbert Family together from all my notes and contacts with various descendants of that family, that I have been in contact with. A big thanks goes out to Kerry Armstrong, who provided the foundation for my work with his own thorough research.

In the last 3 months, I have been able to put together the descendants from 4 of James Logan Colbert's children. While I do still have a ways to go, it is a huge step in gathering the right information from the best sources possible in order to paint an accurate picture of this important family within the Chickasaw Nation.

Once, I have all the names and dates in my software program, I will go back through it again, to fill in the missing information, such as personal biographies along with pictures of many of the people involved.

When completed, I don't want this family tree to be viewed as being anything like all the others out there. While a few researchers stand out from the crowd (such as Kerry Armstrong), most are only interested in downloading someone else's research (without making sure the info is correct in the first place) and importing it into their own family tree. To me, it seems as though most people on the genealogy sites are more interested in collecting names, rather than providing correct information. This can be easily seen on various sites, when someone has a family tree that contains 500,000 names. I know very well, that there is no possible way for all of that information to be correct, as it does take quite a while ( if researched by yourself) to input the information into your family tree.

As it stands right now, after starting the tree in 2000, I have about 10,000 people in there. In 8 years, that is as far as I have progressed. Can you imagine how long it would take to put in 500,000 names and dates, if done correctly? That is impossible without taking someone else's research and importing into your own tree, sight unseen.

When I started the research back in 2000, I was fortunate enough to run across people who took the research seriously. People who were more interested in gathering the best information possible, rather than just names. Those people have helped me along this path, and I am forever in their debt for all they have taught me about how and where to find the records I am looking for. So, a big thanks goes out to Cousin Lee Eckert (for help with the Eckert line), Cousin Paul Incardona (for the advice, and the nudge in the right direction in finding old Sicilian records on the Incardona family), Cousin D.G. Van Curen (for his research and book on the Van Keuren Family) and once again, Kerry Armstrong, for all his work on the Chickasaw Colbert's.

So for now, all the updates you will see on here, will be about various descendants of the Chickasaw Colbert's

R.I.P. Lee Eckert (1927-2008)

2008-03-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Eight years ago, when I first started working on my families genealogy, I had posted what little information I had, on a genealogy website, in the hopes that someone would see it, and contact me, thereby making a connection with other family that I never knew of. That information just sat on the site for about a year, until I got an e-mail from a gentleman by the name of Lee Eckert.

My dad's mother was part of the Eckert clan, which originally immigrated from Germany in the late 1600's, and evetually settled in Ulster County, New York. As it turned out, Lee was my grandmothers first cousin.

Over the years since I first met Lee, we had bounced ideas on that family back and forth between each other, in our mutual pursuit of learning about them. Lee, was what would be desribed as "old school" when it came to his research, meaning that everything he did, was done with a pencil and paper. For the life of me, I could never fathom working on the genealogy in that way, as the Eckert family is much too large to keep track of, with anything other than a computer program. Once Lee had realized how big the family was (through another distant cousin that we found), he had asked me about the software, and which one was the best, so that he could keep better track of things, and not have to worry about losing a sheet of paper with inportant information on it.

Lee was a really sweet man, who was there for me through the death of my mother, as well as the birth of my daughter. Over the years, we had traded photos of our families, and he watched my daughter grow up through them, and at times, was even the recipient of some of my daughters art work on Christmas cards. Yet, sadly, Lee was quiet about his own health. He never once mentioned that he had been diagnosed with cancer about 5 years ago. He had gone through treatment for it at the time, and it appeared (from what his daughter Kim has since told me) to have gone away.

This past October, Lee's cancer came back; metastizied melanoma was the term the doctors used. Lee had been in the hospital since Christmas Eve day, after the combination of chemo and medications made him very ill. He had started the road to recovery from that, and was doing better, when he decided that he did not want to go through more treatments, as they did not hold much hope that it would do any good, since the cancer was completely taking over his body.

I knew nothing of this until I got an e-mail from Lee's daughter Kim a few weeks ago, explaining the situation. I have since talked to both of Lee's daughters trying to find a good time when I could go out and visit him in the hospital he was in, in the Bay Area. I also got a chance to speak with Lee last weekend very briefly, as he was worn out, but as always, it was nice to talk to him all the same. I had told him that we would like to come out this weekend after my cast came off, and as always, he took the spotlight off of him, and was more concerned about my broken foot, rather than his declining health. But, that was Lee; always concerned about those around him, and always willing to lend a helping hand (or ear) when needed.

Sadly, I will not have that chance. Lee passed away in his sleep, around 4 a.m. this morning. My heart goes out to his daughters Kim and Julie, as well as their own families at this difficult time. I know all to well what they are going though, and my thoughts and prayers are with them at this time. Lee was a great research partner with me, as well as a very beautiful, kind-hearted individual, who will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.

In Memory of: Leland Etienne Eckert ( December 18, 1927-January 24, 2008)

Merry Christmas

2007-12-19T15:03:00.000-08:00

I am sorry I haven't updated this site in a while. So much has been going on that I haven't even had a chance to work on the genealogy at all.

We are in the process of moving up to Washington early in the New Year, so all the planning for that has kept us busy. Besides those plans, we have been dealing with the usual suspects of work, and school for our daughter, who started in the 1st grade this year.

My new truck also crapped out on me about 2 weeks ago. The short of it is that Ford built an engine that was not quite up to par between the model years of 99-04, when they finally had enough complaints to prompt them to redesign the engine. The problem with mine is that there weren't any boots around the spark plugs to stop water (or moisture) from getting past them, and damaging the ignition coils which severely messes up the performance of the truck. I took it in, and they replaced two damaged coils, all the spark plugs, and added boots to prevent moisture from getting in again. But, here's the catch. Being that there is no recall on that problem, Ford would not cover the repair costs. So, $870 later, I got my truck back, but it appears that I might have to take it in again, because it feels like another coil or two have gone bad. That's okay this time, because all work will be covered under the previous repair bill.

Then on Monday night, I slipped and fell. I know, I am getting more gracefull in my old age. So, now I am now hobbling around on crutches, because I not only severely sprained my right foot, (it's all black, blue and purple right now), but I also tore some tissue inside of it. So, needless to say, I got a longer Holiday Vacation than the usual 4 days around Christmas. I should be out of work about 2 weeks, which I guess gives me more of an opportunity to work on the genealogy, since I shouldn't be putting too much pressure on that foot just yet.

The funny thing about the fall was that I remembered something that happened about 20 years ago. Me, my grandfather "Pa", and Grandmother "Pee Wee", were walking through Vasona Park in Los Gatos, when we came upon a little hill where you could walk down to get to the other side of the park where the picnic tables were. Pee Wee went first, and promptly fell on her ass, sliding the rest of the way down. When we got down there, Pa made sure she was okay (she had sprained her ankle), then smacked me, and said "I told you not to push her so hard".

So, by the time we had arrived at the Emergency room for my foot, I was telling everyone who would listen, that my wife pushed me down. To me, that sounded better than saying I slipped and fell in the shower. By the way? I killed the shower in the process as well. The way I see it, if I am going to hurt myself by falling, I am going to cause as much damage as I can on the way down.

We have sent out Christmas cards this year, so you should be recieving yours in the mail soon, if you haven't allready. But, for those of you we don't have addresses for, or for the casual visitors to this site, we wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. May you, and those close to you, be blessed now, and in the coming year.

With our love,
Brandon, Michelle, and Cierra

Immigration Records

2007-11-10T11:14:00.000-08:00

On some genealogy websites, you have access to literally hundreds of thousands of immigration records. These include the main port of Ellis Island. But, there are, however, other points of entry that an immigrant could use to get into the country. One of which is is Philadelphia.

Some immigrants used other areas of the country to come through, such as the border between the United States and Canada. My grandfather Cardona's grandmother on his mother's side came to the United States from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for example.

I have spent alot of time on his site showing you records from my side of the family, or telling stories about them. This time however, I wanted to share a record with my most frequent visitor to this site. That being my Uncle David.

Uncle David's father's side of the family was from Sweden. His (Uncle David's) grandfather, Johannes (Johannes was Americanized as most imigrant names were at the time. Johannes translated to John) Lodin came to this country, early in the 20th century to start a new life for his family.

I was doing a search for Johannes earlier today, and came across a record of his border crossing from Canada. This however was not his original port of departure. He had left Grimnas, Sweden and ended up in Liverpool, England, which is where he departed Europe from, bound for Canada. The date of arrival in Canada was October 31, 1924. Johannes and his wife, Ida, along with sons Ivan and John, were headed to Detroit, Michigan to be with Johannes' mother Erika, who allready lived there.

As with any image on this page, you can always right click on it, to save it to your computer, so you can enlarge it to see what it is you want to see. If you have any problems viewing the image after downloading it, please let me know, and I can e-mail the image to you.

***Update*** For some reason, the image in its original form, when downloaded from Ancestry.com to post on this site, is not clearly viewable when downloaded from here. So, I apologize for the size of the image that is now on this site, but it is the only way it will be clearly viewable to you, the reader.

Johannes and his family start on line 16.

More famous people in our family

2007-10-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

I just picked up Stephen Colbert's (From Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report") book, "I am America (and so can you)" and started reading through the first few pages of the book, when I noticed down at the bottom of one of the pages, Stephen writes that he is 1/13th Chickasaw, which puts him in the same tribe that my wife descended from. The common ancestor that they probably share is James Logan Colbert, who was born in 1721 in South Carolina.

If you are a fan of Colbert's show, pick up his latest book. It is funny.

Here is Stephen's bio from Comedy Central:

Born and raised in South Carolina, Colbert began making a name for himself in Chicago as a member of the famed Second City improv troupe where he met Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello. After several years at Second City, the threesome moved to New York City and, along with others, developed Exit 57, a half-hour sketch comedy series for HBO Downtown Productions which ran for two seasons during the mid-'90s on Comedy Central. Exit 57 received five CableACE nominations for best writing, performing and comedy series.
Colbert reunited with Sedaris and Dinello to create Comedy Central's first ever, live-action, narrative series, Strangers with Candy, a twisted take on the classic and typically moralistic afterschool specials. Colbert also starred opposite Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman in Bewitched; wrote and was a cast member on The Dana Carvey Show; appeared in commercials for GM "Mr. Goodwrench;" wrote for Saturday Night Live and was the voice of Ace on the animated SNL series "The Ambiguously Gay Duo."

Since 1997, Stephen Colbert has been The Daily Show's longest-running and most diverse correspondent. In addition to his role as Senior Political Correspondent he was one of the hosts of "Even Stephven," a point-counterpoint assault featuring co-correspondent Steve Carell, and the host of "This Week in God," in which he reported on all things theological with the assistance of the "God Machine."

Stephen helped The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to win numerous Emmy and Peabody Awards, and contributed to America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (Warner Books), which immediately topped The New York Times Best Seller List and stayed there for 15 consecutive weeks.

His personality, insight and overall rightness could only lead to The Colbert Report, a half-hour nightly platform for him to give his take on the issues of the day, and, more importantly, to tell you why everyone else's take is just plain wrong.

Census Records

2007-10-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Alot of the information I have found in my research comes from census records. The census records available online cover the years from 1790-1930. Each decade, a new one is released to the public.

I thought that some of you out there would like to see what one looks like, and the information that it contains on each member of the family.

For the purposes of this post, I will use the 1930 census. The image on here includes the Agrella family. My great Aunt Lucille DeMartini married Elmer Joseph Agrella. The Agrella family listed on this report is Elmer's family: his brothers and sisters as well as his parents.

The Agrella's are the 8th family down. To make it easier to read, you can right click on the photo to save it to your desk top, and then open it with whatever photo program you ahve on your computer.

Cedel Harris

2007-08-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

When I first started working on this genealogy in late 2000, I found myself fascinated with the wealth of information I was finding on my wife's side of the family. More precisely, it was her mother's paternal ancestors. Those ancestors were from Oklahoma, and played a major part in the shaping of the Chickasaw Nation.

My mother in law's maiden name was Harris, and her 3rd great grandfather was a man by the name of Cyrus Harris, who happened to be the first Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. Now, Cyrus himself was a direct descendant of another family within the Chickasaw Nation named the Colbert's and the first known ancestor of that family was one James Logan Colbert who was born in 1721.

As I dug further into the Harris family history, I was constantly drawn back to my wife's grandfather, Hindman Cedel Harris. Hindman (or Cedel, which is what he went by) was the epitome of what you would call a family mystery. I had heard stories about him from his sister, Johnnie, and from others within the family, but the story always came back to the fact that none of them knew what had ever happened to Cedel. You see, sometime in the early 1960's, Cedel walked away from his family and wasn't ever heard from again. There had been rumors that he had moved to the southern end of the central valley in California, but no one ever knew for sure. Some had said that he might have gotten himself into a bit of trouble since he was known to be quite the drinker in his time, but again, no one was sure. Even his father, Hindman Sr., passed away in 1991 without ever knowing what had happened to him.

My wife and I had spoken to Aunt Johnnie, and she gave us a bunch of papers that pertained to her ancestors. Included in the paperwork was a paycheck stub for Cedel which included his social security number. With that information, I logged onto the website Ancestry.com and put Cedel's social security # into what they call the "social security death index" It's a morbid title, I know, but it is quite useful when you are trying to find out when someone died, or if they might still be alive. Anyway, doing so came back with a match. According to Social Security, Cedel had passed away in February of 1976. Unfortunately, I could not get any more information than that. I talked to them on the phone, but they were unable to provide me with more information as Cedel had died at the age of 51 and therefore, had not drawn from the account. At least, with that little bit of information, the family could finally know if he was alive or dead.

Over the years, every once in a while, I would run Cedel's name through genealogy sites, just to see if anything new was on there about him. Each time, I came away disappointed. I wanted to find out more about what had happend to him, where he died, and maybe find out what made him up and leave. But, no matter what I tried, the stars were not lining up. Since I didn't know where he died, I couldn't order a death certificate, or for that matter, find an obituary. So, I would set it aside for a while, only to be drawn back to him a few months later.

About 3 weeks ago, Cedel came to mind again. So, being the stubborn person I am, I ran his name again through Ancestry. I tried all variations of his name: Hindman Harris, Cedel Harris, and Cy Harris, which was the name that Social Security had in its records. This time, however, a match did come up for the name Cy Harris that I had not seen before. The record that I was looking at now, was for the death of a Cy Harris in Washington State. The age of this Cy Harris matched with the Cy Harris that I was looking for. There was no more information, other than that the new Cy Harris had died in Wenatchee Washington. So, I looked up the local newspaper out in Wenatchee and they did have an obituary on file. I had them make me a copy and send it, so I could see who the new Cy Harris was.

Last Monday, I recieved the obituary, and lo and behold, I had finally found Cedel Harris. According to the obituary which ran in the Wenatchee World, Cedel had moved up there in 1970 and married a lady by the name of Elsie Rains on November 3, 1971. It went on to state that he had passed from a sudden illness on September 15, 1975. The obituary, however, made no mention of the family he had left behind in California or Oklahoma. After one more phone call to the local genealogical society in Wenatchee, I was e-mailed a picture of Cedel's final resting place.

Even though we now know where he spent the last years of his life, a part of me feels empty, as the one person in this world who really wanted to know what had happened to him (Aunt Johnnie) had passed away back in March. I remember one of the last times my wife and I visited Johnnie, we gave her a restored version of an old photo of her and her brother Cedel on the front porch of their home in Oklahoma in 1930 or so. I think a large part of her always missed her brother and longed to know what had become of him. I just wish I could have found this information 8 months sooner, so she could have known then what we know now.

Whether Cedel, belived it or not while he was alive, he was missed by those who loved him.

Hindman Cedel Harris

March 9, 1924 - September 15, 1975

The DeMartini Family

2007-08-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

Back Row: John DeMartini,John's wife Louise Nicolas, Elmer Agrella and their daughter Lou. Front Row: Uncle Jack, Anne Corica, and on the far right, my grandmother Mildred

The story of the DeMartini family is a hard one to trace. The descendants of Augustino and his wife, Celestina, scattered after the death of Augustino. Much of the information I have run across comes from distant cousins who have heard stories from the past and, in turn, related it to me.

Here is what I have heard (or found) so far. Augustino and his wife were immigrants from Lorsica, Italy. It is not known for sure who their parents were, but if they named their children according to Italian traditions, then the first born son and daughter would have been named after Augustino's parents. The second born son and daughter would have been named after Celestina's parents. From all the information that I have on their children, the first born son was named Antone and the first daughter was Rose, So it is quite possible that Augustino's parents were Antone and Rose. Celestina's parents, according to the naming tradition, would have been John and Minnie Cereghino. This is, however, in contradiction to Cousin Annie Smith's research that names Augustino's parents as Joseph and Angie DeMartini, while Celestina's father was supposedly named Charles (or Carmelo in Italian). More research is needed to solidify the actual names of their parents.

Augustino and Celestina had 8 children according to census reports, of which 7 of them are known to me through various sources. Those children were Rose Ann, Antone, John Edward, Minnie, Albert Joseph and Katherine. Another daughter, Eleanor, was from all accounts adopted. That fact is stated on the census records for San Jose when it lists her relationship to the head of house as "adopted daughter".

Of all the DeMartini children, Katherine (who went by the nickname of Nina,) was the one who stood out the most. It appears in photographs that Katherine suffered from Downs Syndrome. This has been verified through various family members who knew the family at the time. Katherine died at the age of 22 and was buried next to her cousin in an unmarked grave in the Catholic Cemetery in Santa Clara, California. Also buried at that cemetery is Katherine's brother John Edward and his wife Louise Nicholas.

At one time, Augustino and his family lived near San Carlos Street and Auzerais in San Jose, California. Living behind his house was a family by the name of DeChicco. As the story goes, the DeChicco house was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and had to be rebuilt. A few years after that, Katherine DeMartini managed to set fire to her families barn, which in turn managed to destroy the DeChicco house, once again. Needless to say, after that the DeMartini name was not welcomed in the DeChicco house. To further make matters worse, Anne DeChicco (grand-daughter of the home owners) fell in love with Augustino's grand-son, Ray DeMartini and when she announced to her family who she was going to marry, the news was not taken well at all.

Augustino and Celestina had what would be described as a turbulent marriage. Augustino was an alcoholic, a womanizer, and an abusive husband, by all accounts. From my research alone, it does appear there is some credence to this story as Augustino could be found in the 1900 census of Martinez, California taking up residence in the County Jail. What his offence was, is not known at this time. Cousin Anne DeMartini (Ray DeMartini's wife) has verified alot of the information I am writing about. She has said that Augustino had red hair, blue eyes, and a handle bar moustache and was known to hit on plenty of women in his time.

According to Anne, there came a night that Celestina went out for a walk through the neighborhood and happened to walk past this one lady's window, and was shocked to find that her husband was busy cavorting with the unknown woman. From that sight alone, Celestina deduced that Augustino was having an affair and she kicked him out based on what she saw. According to the 1920 census, Celestina stated that she was divorced, although it is doubted by all who knew of the situation, that she had actually divorced him. Church rules, as well as societies, wouldn't have looked upon a divorce too kindly in the early 1900's. It is my belief that she did not divorce him, because according to the 1930 census, she states her marital status as "widowed". Augustino had died on October 28, 1928 in San Jose.

It was apparently also common knowledge around town that Augustino regularly beat his wife, although, at the time, it was only whispered about.

After Augustino's death came the infighting between the family over who would take care of Celestina until it was her time to go. This infighting caused the family to splinter and drift away from one another over the years. This infighting becomes clearer with the World War I Military Draft Cards for John DeMartini and his brothers Antone and Joseph. Antone lists his dependants as his father, mother and son (Ray DeMartini ). John DeMartini lists his wife as his family, but not his parents. And the other brother, Joseph, only lists his mother, and ignores listing his father, even though he was still alive at the time of the draft.

According to the 1930 census of San Jose, Celestina was living with her son Antone and his family near the corner of Park and Kearney.

Celestina lived to the age of 91, and died in San Jose on March 6, 1950.

A small update

2007-07-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

I have made a small change to this site. I have added a music player (so turn on your speakers), which you will find at the bottom of the site. I did my best to try and find music from not only my generation, but my ancestors as well. So, you will find music from the about 1905 on through the present day. You can click on any song on the list to hear it. Feel free to poke around and let me know if any of the music from the past brings back memories for you. If I have omitted a song that you remember fondly, please let me know and I will do my best to get it added for all of the other visitors to enjoy as well.

I can be reached via the comments section below this post as well as my e-mail address at bmc1069@gmail.com

I hope you enjoy it.

Sincerely,
Brandon

Old Family Photo of the Week (Updated)

2007-07-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am starting a new feature on this site for two reasons. The first is that it serves as a stop gap between my posts on my research. The second reason is that I though some of you out there would like to see some of the old family photos that I have run across over the years.

The first photo I am posting is of in laws of my Great Great Aunt Theresa (Tessie) Incardona. Aunt Tessie married Gaetano (Thomas) Caito on November 7th, 1920 in San Jose, California. Now, Gaetano's mother was Agatha Aida Lazio. The Lazio's often intermarried with the Alioto's of San Francsico. That being the case, Aunt Tessie's husband Gaetano was 1st cousin to one Joseph Laurence Alioto who was the former Mayor of San Francisco.

The following picture is of Joseph Laurence Alioto's parents: Giuseppe Alioto (1886-1961) and his wife Domenica Mae Lazio (1893-1971).

The following photo is posted here by a request from my Cousin Fred. Cousin Fred was named after my great Uncle Fred who served in the Armed Forces with Cousin Fred's father. This photo is of my grandparents wedding on June 6th, 1942. The bride, is of course, my Grandmother Mildred (a.k.a. Pee Wee). To her right is my Grandfather Thomas. To her left is my Great Uncle Fred. The first young lady to my grandmother's right is her Maid of Honor, Anne, who happens to be Cousin Fred's mother. This photo is also used courtesy of Cousin Fred who was kind enough to e-mail me with a few pictures of my family for my collection.

My Grandfathers Military Records

2007-06-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

I have been sitting on my grandfathers military records for about a month and a half, just going through everything and trying to sort out a large piece of his life that encompased the years of 1939 through 1946.

When I had written the N.A.R.A., I had only hoped to get information on the ship that my grandfather was on during the attack on Pearl Harbor, as no one in the family seems to remember exactly what ship it was. Instead I recieved a rather large envelope with all of his records for the six years that he was enlisted in the United States Navy. Included were the names of all the ships he was on as well as his ranks during service and transfers from base to base and ship to ship. I also now have copies of his enlistment and seperation letters with the U.S. Navy.

For the purposes of this post, I will list the ships he was on, along with the pictures I found online of the boats, as well as the dates that he was on each ship. If you come across this site searching for these ships and information on them and you (or a relative of yours) were on the same ship as my grandfather at the same time as he, please feel free to write me at bmc1069@gmail.com or leave a comment at the bottom of this post as I would love to hear from you. Maybe you can help me fill in more detail from my grandfathers life as a Navy Seaman during World War II.

* * * *

U.S.S. Boggs
(July 29, 1939-December 13, 1940)

* * * * *

U.S.S. Argonne
(December 13, 1940-October 20, 1941)

* * * *

U.S.S. Antares
(October 20, 1941-March 28, 1942 and October 2, 1942-November 26, 1942)

This was the ship that my grandfather was on in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate an actual picture of the ship itself, so I have included a picture of a model of the ship that I found. If I happen to run across a better picture, I will put that up in this ones place. After the picture, you will find a ships log from the Antares after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and The Antares role in that area.

U.S.S. Antares

AKS3/A16-3(0661)

Pearl Harbor, T.H.
December 10, 1941.

From:
The Commanding Officer.
To:
The Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Subject:
Air Raid on Oahu December 7, 1941; Report on.

Reference:
(a) CINCPAC despatch 102102 of December 1941.
In compliance with reference (a) the following report concerning the activities of this vessel on the morning of December 7, 1941, is submitted.

"At 0630 the Antares arrived off Pearl Harbor entrance from Canton and Palmyra Islands with a 500 tons steel barge in tow. It was expected to transfer the two to a tug at the above time and then enter Pearl Harbor. As the tug was not in sight at 0630 the ship was turned slowly to the east at which time a suspicious object was sighted about 1500 yards on the starboard quarter. This object could have been a small submarine with upper conning tower awash and periscope partly raised but it could not be positively identified as such. The U.S.S.Ward which was the inshore patrol ship in the vicinity was notified and proceeded to investigate. At 0633 a navy patrol plane circled and dropped two smoke pots near the object.

At 0645 the Ward commenced firing and ceased firing at 0647. At this time either the patrol plane dropped bombs or the Ward three depth charges over the object, which disappeared.

At 0715 the Keosanoua arrived to received the tow and it was passed at 0835. At 0758 explosions were observed in Pearl Harbor and Japanese planes were seen delivering an attack. At 0800 this vessel was under machine gun fire from a Japanese plane, the topside being hit in a few places by approximately thirty calibre bullets. Several bomb and numerous shell fragments continually fell in close proximity and the ship was severely shaken by either bomb bursts or depth charges. As this vessel is not armed, no effective offensive or defensive tactics appeared possible. After passing the tow the ship was maneuvered, zigzagging and turning to a position between the Pearl Harbor restricted area and Honolulu entrance, inshore of combatant ships. As it was apparent that the continued presence of the Antares off shore was placing the ship and personnel in constant jeopardy, authority was requested to enter Honolulu Harbor. This was received from the Harbor Control Officer at 1054 and at 1146 the ship was moored to Berth 5-A, Honolulu Harbor.

No casualties to personnel or material were received. Personnel reacted to the emergency in an exemplary manner. Men disconnecting the tow and others on exposed stations were calm and steady. "

[signed]L.C. GRANNIS.

* * * * *

U.S.S. Prometheus
(November 26, 1942-August 21, 1944)

* * * *

You might notice parts that seem missing in his dates of service. What I have listed here are just his records at sea. On April 7th and 8th, 1939, my grandfather was stationed in San Francisco (Mare Island which is technically Vallejo, California). He left San Francisco for training down in San Diego from April 8th, 1939 through July 29, 1939. After that, he was then stationed on the U.S.S. Boggs.

After his service on the U.S.S. Prometheus he went back to San Francisco from August 21, 1944 through November 16, 1944. He was then sent back down to San Diego through March 15th 1945 and discharged from service on that date on Mare Island in Vallejo, California.

* * * * *

When I have a little more time, I will post more information about his time with the U.S. Navy.

Uncle Tony Cardona

2007-04-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

Now, here's a handsome fella. This would be my Great Uncle Tony in his military uniform during World War II. During a recent visit with Uncle Tony and Aunt Janet, I was able to gather some more photos of family for my collection.

Uncle Tony is what I would refer to as "the last of the full-bloods". Even though he wasn't full-blooded Sicilian like his father Thomas was, Uncle Tony and his brothers (including my grandfather) always reminded me of the Sicilians you would see in "The Godfather" movies.

Now, from what I have been told, they were a step down from their father who often thought of himself as "The Godfather", with the 3 piece suits and the Fedora's, but they still exuded the old Sicilian way in their mannerisms and how they looked at and lived life, right down to everyone having Pasta with every dinner and a goal of owning a Cadillac (I lost track of how many Cadillac's my grandfather owned in his lifetime). They were proud people who held family close, but always managed to have their disagreements anyway, but through it all, they loved the lives they had and loved their family gatherings immensely.

I remember in my younger days (around age 16) when I was going through alot of stuff in my life and generally being a pain in the ass towards everyone and everything that came my way, I moved out of my moms house and in with my grandparents for a while. One day, I talked to Aunt Janet and Uncle Tony who lived up near Chico, California in a little town named Oroville and they had heard about the problems I was having and wanted me to come live with them for a while. Now, me being the stubborn shit I was, I politely tuned them down, but that memory stuck with me because of their kindness and I have never forgotten that. I kept thinking to myself that if I could be half the man that my grand-father or his brothers were, I would be in good shape. Now, whether or not I have achieved that goal remains to be seen, but I still try with each and every day.

My relationship with Uncle Tony and Aunt Janet has grown over the last 7 or 8 years since about the time I found out I was going to be a father. I remembered the family gatherings and how I knew everybody in the family (and it was a large family at that) and I wanted to make sure my daughter would know the same things I did when I was growing up. To me, that was important. Over the years, I have loved talking to the both of them and since we moved to Sacramento that gave us a better excuse to go and visit with them, so we packed up one day and went on up to Oroville. I was surprised when I saw them again. Not much had changed in their appearance. Aunt Janet was the same bubbly person she always was and hadn't aged a bit from my childhood and Uncle Tony was the same guy he always was with the exception of the now white hair and a little less meat around his belly. But, they were the same as they always were to me. What made me laugh (and still does to this day) was my daughters interaction with Uncle Tony.

At first, Cierra was on unfamilliar ground and was a little apprehensive with the new people and surroundings, but while talking with Aunt Janet, I glanced over at Uncle Tony who had the biggest grin on his face and was playing "peek-a-boo" with Cierra around Aunt Janet. Cierra, for her part, was doing the same from behind her mom. Needless to say, we had a good visit over some of Aunt Janet's homemade soup and salad, and then in typical "Aunt Janet fashion", she declared that she had had enough of us and didn't want to see us again for another year all the while, a big smile spreading across her face.

Uncle Tony hasn't been well for a while now; heart problems which tends to happen when you're raised on a steady diet of Italian food, but he was holding his own. Last night, I got the call I was expecting for a while now, but it wasn't the story I had expected to hear. Recently, Uncle Tony and Aunt Janet went out for a drive and got in a car accident that left Aunt Janet with broken ribs and Uncle Tony slightly injured. They were taken to the hospital and Aunt Janet is on the mend. On Sunday, Uncle Tony had a stroke and passed away.

I am still in shock because I guess even though I know that no one lives forever, I just don't expect things to happen that suddenly. It seems like just yesterday that we were visiting with them and I was watching Cierra and Uncle Tony play peek-a-boo.

The "Last of the Full-Bloods" has gone home.

From left to right (Uncle Fred, Great Grandpa Thomas, Uncle Tony, Great Grandma Angelina, Uncle Charlie, and my grandfather Thomas. The Cardona's)

In memory of Anthony Edward Cardona (July 10, 1925-April 22, 2007)

You will be missed Uncle Tony.

Touched by infamy

2007-03-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

While I was going through my records and putting people and information into the family tree on my wife's side, I ran across a man by the name of Eugene Capel Moore. Eugene was born on September 9th, 1901 within the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. When he became an adult, he worked as a Deputy Sheriff in Atoka County, Oklahoma and that is where we find how his life was touched by infamy.

While I haven't found a picture of Eugene Capel Moore, I did find a picture of one of the people whom he ran across on the wrong day in 1932.

Enter Bonnie and Clyde

Here is some information on what happened. The following was taken from an article entitled "A Murder in Stringtown" by Richard Green.

"In the summer of 1932, Gene Moore had been a deputy sheriff in Atoka County for about a year. By one account, this 30-year-old man of part Chickasaw descent liked his job, carried out his duties efficiently and was considered popular by the citizens of Atoka. Hard-working and God-fearing, with a wife and three children, he appeared to be a model citizen with a bright future in law enforcement and possibly as a community leader. Born near Calera (south of Durant) in 1901, Eugene Capel Moore was one of twelve children born to Chickasaw citizen, Lemuel Capel Moore, and two successive wives. Lemuel was born in the former Chickasaw Nation in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1847. He moved to the Choctaw Nation, near Goodland in 1868, and then relocated to Sterrett in the Chickasaw Nation in 1891. He served one term in the Chickasaw Legislature. He was a successful businessman, which probably played a role in getting him elected and definitely played a role in his retirement. Although interested in politics, he preferred devoting his time and energy to his prosperous farming and ranching business around Calera. He amassed considerable wealth, but as a speculator, always risked losing his fortune. His luck did turn bad and he was wiped out financially before his death at age 82 in 1929. By then, his son, Gene, had a wife and family to support. At the front end of the Great Depression, Gene Moore felt blessed to have landed the deputy sheriff's job. Of course, there were obvious occupational hazards. Sometime after 10 p.m. on the evening of Saturday, August 5, 1932, Gene Moore and Sheriff Charley Maxwell drove the eight miles from Atoka to Stringtown apparently to investigate a disturbing-the-peace complaint. Sheriff Maxwell may have called on Moore (and not another available deputy) to accompany him to Stringtown because he wanted to ride in Moore's new Chevrolet. Since the source of the noise was a country-and-western dance, both lawmen felt sure that some of the dancers would be violating local, state and federal prohibitions against consuming alcohol. They arrived just before 11 p.m."

"Confirming the men's suspicious behavior, Sheriff Maxwell walked over to the car and told the men that they could consider themselves under arrest."

"Earlier that afternoon, two men who had stolen a car in Corsicana, Texas, drove north into Oklahoma. At some point, they were joined by one or two companions (accounts vary). The original pair were Raymond Hamilton and Clyde Barrow, who was on the way to nation-wide notoriety as Bonnie Parker's partner in crime. Bonnie and Clyde met in 1930, but were separated for two years during Clyde's imprisonment in Texas for robbery."

"Paroled in early 1932, Clyde joined Bonnie and Hamilton for a series of small holdups, culminating in the gang's first murder in Texas in April. The crime spree continued throughout the summer of 1932, although Bonnie was not with the gang when the men rolled into Stringtown the night of August 5. According to witness Duke Ellis, Barrow and Hamilton had been dancing and drinking but "I did not see either of them get out of line. Then, Sheriff Maxwell and Gene Moore drove up."

"The lawmen spotted some men who were apparently drinking in a nearby car and Maxwell went to investigate. According to Maxwell's other deputy sheriff, Oscar Folsom (who was not present), the two lawmen had in their custody a woman who had escaped from prison in McAlester. Moore stayed with her in his car. Evidently confirming the men's suspicious behavior, Sheriff Maxwell walked over to the car and told the men that they could consider themselves under arrest. Not suspecting trouble, he did not have his gun drawn. Pistol shots rang out. Maxwell was hit several times, but did not fall until he had taken seven bullets. Moore leaped from his car and ducked behind a Model T for cover. He drew his gun, raised up to see the assailants and immediately was dropped by a single bullet from a.30 caliber Stevens automatic rifle."

"As Barrow and Hamilton made their getaway, they continued to fire shots back at the fleeing crowd. When help reached the fallen lawmen, they found Moore dead but Maxwell still alive. Reportedly close to death, he was taken to a McAlester hospital, where following surgery, he recovered, though he was "crippled for life," according to the newspapers."

"Both Hamilton and Barrow escaped to join Bonnie Parker in Dallas. Their wave of violent robberies continued. Barrow reportedly killed three more men in Texas during 1932. Hamilton left the gang, was captured in Michigan and executed in Texas. Although they periodically laid low, Bonnie and Clyde continued their holdups, which increasingly involved shootouts and murders. On May 23, 1934, they were slain in a dramatic police ambush in Louisiana."

"Gene Moore's funeral was held at the First Baptist Church of Atoka. On hand, according to the Atoka Indian Citizen, was "one of the largest crowds ever to attend a funeral in this section of the state to pay respects to a man who was admired and respected by all with whom he had come in contact."

"Thirty-four years later, Bonnie and Clyde were immortalized (again) in the Academy Award winning film, "Bonnie and Clyde," starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. After the film was released, the late, great Chicago newspaper columnist, Mike Royko, disgusted by the movie's glamorizing the killers, wrote a column based on interviews he had with three sons of fathers who were killed by Bonnie and/or Clyde. One was Russell Moore, a Chickasaw veteran of the Korean War. He did not attend his father's funeral because he was less than a year old at the time. His sisters had been 7 and 3."

"Moore said he would not be seeing the movie. "My mother was left with three children to support. We moved in with her parents and she got a job. There was no insurance. [She] was young and pretty when it happened, but she never married again. The roughest thing for me was growing up without a father. The only material possessions I had of his were a hat, his gun belt, and a gold railroad watch. And a picture. He was very tall. They tell me I look a lot like him."

"Six years earlier, in 1962, an article in The Daily Oklahoman told of how Sheriff Maxwell's son, Ted, was offering to sell a shotgun and rifle owned by Clyde Barrow. The rifle was identified as the .30 caliber Stevens that had been used to kill Gene Moore. Maxwell said they "would certainly make fine display trophies for some organization or individual."

Aunt Johnnie

2007-03-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Aunt Johnnie Cochran

Born: Jimmie Lawanda Harris

August 10, 1927 - March 3, 2007

The following is something that Michelle wrote about her Aunt on her own blog. I thought it fitting that it should be up here as well considering this is the one that all our family sees.

She said..............

"I thought you didn't love me. It took a long time for us to warm up to each other but I believe after the third time, you grew on me and I on you. You have a warmth in your eyes. You have a kindness in your heart. Marcella. Is that your name?"

"Michelle" I whispered back with a smile.

"Michelle.....Michelle.....Michelle.....Marcel.....Marcella. I like Marcella. It's a beautiful name" she smiled warmly when she softly spoke the words.

"It doesn't matter. You can call me whatever you choose, so long as you know who I am." I politely responded with a smile.

"Oh I know your face well. I know you so very well. Now that I know the connection, I will never forget, Marcella."

The visit continued with warm, gentle laughs and stories of passed events. She had proclaimed herself president for the day and re-named everyone in the home with names that began with "A".....except for me....Marcella.

"Now, Marcell....when Cierra is of age, you will change her name to AC (a sea). Everyone's name will begin with "A", except yours, Marcella..."

She indulged in a fine cup of coffee, sipped a bit of warm water and slowly snacked on red jello with simple glee. Even though her movements were slow and meticulous, she showed no signs of the pain that she was enduring.

"You understand that I cannot remember your name, right? You understand why it is hard for me to remember your name?"

"Yes of course I understand. It doesn't bother me at all, so long as you know who I am" I gently re-assured her.

"Oh good. Of course I know who you are. I just....I can't remember.....Marcella....it's hard to remember right now." she sighed softly and smiled. "Marcella. Such a lovely name."

I began to tell her, "I know it's hard right now. But don't worry about that, hun. You know, I never got the chance to tell you how beautiful you are. I want you to know that. And I want you to know how very much I love you. You have brought such a beautiful gift into my life. Your eyes are filled with such light and beauty, I can only hope to be as beautiful as you are."

"Oh....I don't feel that I am beautiful. I don't feel it one bit. You are so sweet to tell me this. I have not always been kind, you know?"

"I'm sure we have all had our bad moments but you have remained beautiful and have such a kind heart."

"You have a wonderful heart, Marcel. You know, you will be blessed for your kindness. You know that, right?"

"Thank you. And thank you for everything you have given me."

"You know Marcel, you have such beautiful hair. And you have such a warm light in your eyes. You are beautiful and you are going to be blessed."

That day, I found out that my Aunt was a cotton picker in Oklahoma State while she was a child. She also told me how she believed that my grandfather was a guy who not only enjoyed women and booze, but enjoyed trouble so much that it may had lead him to his death.

"He's probably buried in some farmer's field near Bakersfield. My dad slapped him around one night, telling him to get his act together. If my dad knew what had happened to him, he would have told us....he might have told us....You know Marcel, he would have remembered you. He never forgets a person that catches his attention, he would certainly have remembered you....."

Everyone in the house began fading quickly with exhaustion and I took that as my cue to say my last good-bye. And she said......

"There will never be anything between us. Nothing will ever come between us. And we will hug each other with long strong arms now and after this. I tell you, we will see each other again and you will be blessed. I love you so much. Michelle.....Michelle.....Michelle.....Marcel....Marcella."

"Nothing will ever come between us, Aunt Johnnie. Nothing. I love you so very much. Now be sure to get some rest. You have had a very long day."

"No...not yet. I'm not ready to rest just yet. But soon, Marcella."

"And Aunt Johnnie, don't worry. I'll make sure that Uncle Bob is being taken care of."

With a heavy sigh of relief she responded,"Oh thank you so much Marcella. That is your name, right?"

"Michelle." I whispered back with a soft smile.

"Michelle....Michelle....Michelle....oh Marcel....Marcella. Such a lovely name."

I was told that she wasn't going to make it to the weekend on Thursday, February 22. On Friday, she managed to pull out of her long battle, long enough to have a 3 hour visit with me. Mainly, she was afraid to leave her husband who earlier that day, had a severe Asthma/Panic attack. But in a way, my prayers had been answered so that I may see her one last time. After that visit, her health began to decline again until today. At 10:15am, I received the call that she had passed away.

I was the only outside family member to be granted permission to come see her before her death. Everyone else was told to stay away, except for immediate family like her son, daughter and grand-children. I am honored and in the same breath mortified. Mortified that people who should have been there, were not allowed to. Honored that I was chosen to be there and speak my last heart-felt thoughts of love to a woman who brought to me the truth of my heritage.

I am at peace with the knowledge that she has left us. I am at peace now, knowing that she will not be far away from me. My heart is sad of course to lose someone who I had just began to love and is of such a strong yet loving character.....

A Few Updates

2007-02-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry for taking so long in getting something up on here, but things have been hectic lately, so I haven't had much time to post something.

I do have a few updates for all of you out there, so let's get started.

First of all, I have requested my grandfather's Military Records from the United States Navy. That was a large part of his life in his younger days and he was present in Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, but no one in the family seems to know (or remember) what ship he was on at the time of the bombing. There is speculation that he was on a repair ship or an oil barge which is why his vessel wasn't destroyed. Hopefully, if the Navy sends ALL of his records instead of just his Notice of Seperation, I can answer all of those questions and more.

Speaking of my grandfather, his birthday is coming up soon and even though he is no longer with us, I wanted to remember him on what would have been his 88th birthday on February 28th. Here is an old photo I have of him in his Navy Uniform with my grandmother Mildred "Pee-Wee" DeMartini.

* * * * *

I also wanted to take the time and congratulate my sister in law and her husband on the birth of their second child, Kaitlynn Shae (hopefully I got the spelling right) who was born on January 2nd. Here is a photo of the little bundle of joy.

* * * * * *

Finally, I wanted to take a moment and ask for all of your prayers out there for Michelle's Great Aunt Johnnie who is losing her battle with cancer. The doctors tell her she has between 1 and 3 months left and I hope and pray that her final days are as happy, peaceful and pain free as possible. She is such a beautiful woman, and I feel honored to have gotten to know her and her husband Bob over the last ten years. Johnnie and her brother (Michelle's grandfather) are where the Chickasaw roots come from. Aunt Johnnie is 1/4 Chickasaw with a good mix of Cherokee and Choctaw thrown in for good measure. My heart goes out to her and her family in this difficult time. This is her hubands favorite photo of her, so I thought it fitting that I should put that one up here.

I have decided to change course with the genealogy. I know I had said in an earlier post that I would be working on the Cardona's and their surrounding families, but the Harris family (Aunt Johnnie and her ancestors) are calling for my attention more right now than any other family. There is such a rich history with the Harris' and Colbert families that I believe that their lineage will be the first book I write and self-publish once I have it all together and it is only fitting that it is dedicated to Aunt Johnnie since she is the one who got me started in the right direction in finding all of her Native American roots. What was once only a handful of names that Aunt Johnnie had found on her trip to Ada, Oklahoma years ago, has turned into so much more than anyone ever thought. So, thank you Aunt Johnnie for pointing me in the right direction. For more information on the Chickasaw Nation and Aunt Johnnie's ancestors, click here, and here .

God Bless,

More interesting people you find......

2007-01-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

So, one of the last posts on here was about Stanley Foreman Reed, a former Supreme Court Justice, who is a cousin of my father in law.

Now, we take a small trip over to my Sicilian side of the family. Now, I realize that some of you out there who read this blog might not know anything about California politics, especially history earlier than our current Governator, but this post deals with a cousin of mine by marriage. His name was Joseph Laurence Alioto. Joe's family married into the Cardona's with the marriage between my great great Aunt Tessie Incardona and her husband Thomas Caito (which I have since learned is pronounced in the old country as Kai--eeee----toe). Thomas Caito's mom Agatha had a brother named Lorenzo Lazio. Lorenzo's grandson was the above mentioned Joe Alioto. Therefore my great great Aunt Tessie's husband Tom Caito was first cousins (one removed as they are one generation apart) with the former Mayor of San Francisco.

For information on Joseph Alioto's daughter, Angela Alioto Veronese click here.

Here is Joe in his younger days:

And here is Joe's biography found at "Reference.com"

Joseph Lawrence Alioto (b. February 12, 1916, San Francisco, California , d. January 29, 1998, San Francisco, California) was the mayor of San Francisco from 1968 to 1976. He was born to Sicilian immigrants (his father was a fisherman; his parents met on a fishing boat while escaping the 1906 San Francisco earthquake). Alioto graduated from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California in 1937 and from The Catholic University of America in 1940. Alioto worked for the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department and then for the Board of Economic Warfare. He returned to San Francisco after World War II and started an antitrust practice, representing Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn, among others, eventually becoming a millionaire.

Alioto served on the San Francisco Board of Education from 1948 to 1954, and in the 1960s, served as the chair of the city's Redevelopment Agency. He entered the mayoral race in 1967 when John Shelley, the incumbent, bowed out of the race, allegedly because of poor health but probably because Alioto was more pro-development than Shelley (Shelley, whose rival Eugene McAteer was being backed by Alioto, was also expected to lose against a Republican opponent, Harold Dobbs, after McAteer collapsed and died while playing a game of handball).

Alioto was inaugurated on January 8, 1968, served a term, and was handily re-elected in 1971. Alioto delivered the speech nominating Hubert Humphrey at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. There were rumors that Humphrey would select Alioto as his running mate, but Humphrey selected Edmund Muskie. In July 1969, an article in Look Magazine claimed that Alioto had ties to the Mafioso Aladena Fratianno. Alioto sued the magazine for libel and won a $450,000 judgment. In the course of the litigation, Alioto proved that Look Magazine, desperate and on the verge of bankruptcy, simply conjured up (with no proof) an alleged mob meeting in Vacaville, California at the Nut Tree Restaurant. He later claimed that he had documents that showed that the Nixon Administration leaked disinformation to the magazine in order to stall his career.

Alioto was also indicted by the federal government on bribery charges after he was accused in 1969 by the State of Washington of splitting a $2.3 million fee in an antitrust case with Washington State Attorney General John O'Connell. These charges were pressed by one of Nixon's top men in the State of Washington, then Assistant U.S Attorney and subsequently a U.S. Senator, Slade Gorton. A jury unanimously acquitted Alioto, finding the charges politically motivated. Alioto's focus on fighting these charges led him to reluctantly put aside plans to run for the California governorship against Ronald Reagan in 1970.

Alioto presided over a time of turmoil and change in San Francisco. He ran on a platform of reducing taxes and fighting crime. Alioto put his energy behind the development of three major building projects, the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), the Transamerica Pyramid and the Embarcadero Center. These efforts engendered opposition in the development stage but were eventually built and transformed the quality of life and skyline of San Francisco. Alioto helped to bring more minorities into city politics, launched a reform of the city charter, and mediated protracted police and fire department strikes in 1975. Alioto's tenure also saw a strike at San Francisco City College during 1968-1969, strife in the Haight-Ashbury, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, and the Zebra murders and Zodiac killings. In 1971, Alioto's wife Angelina vanished, reappearing after 18 days to say that she had taken off to "punish" her husband for neglect. During the time Angelina was missing, she toured the missions of California as part of a religious pilgrimage. Angelina filed divorce proceedings against him in 1975. He remarried in 1978.

Alioto ran in the 1974 Democratic primary for the governor's office, losing to Bob Moretti and Jerry Brown. After he left office, Alioto went back into private practice, but he and his son Joseph Jr. lost a major malpractice case in 1980. In 1991, he and his son went to battle in court against one another over legal fees in another case. Alioto died of prostate cancer in 1998.
Members of Alioto's family are still deeply involved in San Francisco politics. Angela Alioto, a daughter from his first marriage, served eight years as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, two as its President. One of his granddaughters, Michela Alioto-Pier, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 2003 by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and won reelection to the Board in 2004. Several of his sons are prominent attorneys and businessmen in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After posting this information on here, I also found information on Joe's second wife Kathleen Sullivan who was the daughter of Billy Sullivan Jr, who back in 1960 (I believe) started and owned a football team in what once was the American Football League. That team at the time was named the Boston Patriots. Now they are the New England Patriots.

Aunt Velma Cardona

2007-01-03T18:44:00.000-08:00

I remember growing up and spending alot of time at my grandparents house in San Jose. At least once a week, my grandparents and I would walk around the block to Aunt Velma's house and sit and visit for a while. For the longest time, I never knew that "Aunt Thelma" as my grandfather had called her was an actual Aunt, but she was. She had married my grandfathers brother Charlie on September 7th, 1968. The thing was, Uncle Charlie passed away in 1975 and I don't really remember him. His death shocked the family and it was never really talked about. I guess.....no, I know it was much too painful for my grandfather to remember it even up until the time of my grandfather's death in 1999. Charlie's children pretty much kept to themselves and again, I don't remember meeting any of them either, with the exception of his son Charlie Jr.

Anyway, I always loved visiting "Aunt Thelma" when I was younger as did my cousins. She was such a sweet lady and loosing Charlie was extremely rough on her. The last time I remember seeing Velma was the early 1990's . I tried to find her when we were expecting our first child, but by then, she had moved out of the house on Matson Dr. and I couldn't find her. She would have loved to meet Cierra. I would have loved that also.

My daughter is what got me closer to alot of my family that I hadn't seen or talked to in a while. I wanted her to know the people I grew up around because they were beautiful people. Because of that, I had a chance to reconnect with Aunt Marie in San Francisco, Aunt Carm in Campbell and other cousins I haven't talked to in years. That re-connection with these people meant alot to me. I now wish I had tried harder to find Aunt Velma years ago.

Aunt Velma passed away about 6 months ago at the ripe old age of 89. As soon as I get my scanner working, I will put up her picture on here.

Here is her obituary that I found in the San Jose Mercury News:

"Velma Kopanica Cardona passed away peacefully on April 14. She was surrounded by her family and the caring staff of Palo Alto Commons where she had lived for 10 years. She was born on July 16, 1917 to Tom and Flora Kopanica. She worked for the staff of the San Jose Police Department for 20 years, retiring in 1972. She loved to travel, dance, and in retirement, she learned to paint. She was loved by her sisters Mary Voelke of Vallejo, California, and Pauline Kemper, who preceded her in death. She enjoyed joining and being a part of the Cardona family. Her husband Charles Cardona, preceded her in death.

Velma is survived by her sister, Mary Voelke, her nieces and nephews, and the family of Charles Cardona.

A memorial mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 20th, at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 751 Waverley St., Palo Alto. Interment in Santa Clara Mission Cemetery will be private. Arrangements by Oak Hill Funeral Home, San Jose.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Palo Alto Commons Employees Christmas Fund, 4075 El Camino Way, Palo Alto, CA 94306, or any favorite charity."

Rest in Peace Aunt Velma

Merritt H. Tatman

2007-01-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

Merritt H. Tatman was my father in law's Great Grandfather. Here is some info I found on him.

"MERRITT H. TATMAN, farmer. This gentleman is the youngest of thirteen children, born to Joseph and Rebecca Tatman ; the former being a native of Virginia, and the latter a native of North Carolina. The father was born July 16, 1770; the mother in 1772. They came to Ohio in 1798, and settled in what is now Brown County, where they remained three years, or until 1801, when they came to Bethel Township. At that time, this beautiful and highly improved country was but a wilderness. Mr. T. was in early days in the affairs of the State-being a member of the Legislature for a number of years. After the organization of Clark County, he was appointed Associate Judge of the new county, holding that office until about the time of his death, which occurred Jan. 27, 1827. His wife survived him many years, but on the 6th of December, 1864, she peacefully left this life to join him in that brighter and better land, where they would be parted no more forever. During life they were blessed with the following children, viz.: Mary, born March 15, 1793, died Sept. 19, 1878; Sarah, born Oct. 13, 1794; and Nancy, June 29, 1796, both deceased; Rebecca, born March 26, 1798; Joseph, Feb. 14, 1800.; Morgan B., March 29, 1802 ; John, Oct. 26, 1804; Cyrus, Dec. 23, 1806. These four latter are now with their parents in the land to which they made their last long pilgrimage. Milton was born Dec. 13, 1808; William M. K., July 21, 1811; Fletcher P., Sept. 18, 1813, supposed now to be dead; Mandana, born Feb. 11, 1816; and Merritt H., the subject of this sketch, born May 28, 1818. He now resides on a farm adjoining the old homestead, which is still in the hands of the heirs-being one sister and a brother all living together. Merritt H. married Miss Emma C. Newcomer, April 7, 1878; they now have two children-John M., born Feb. 15, 1879, and James G., July 9, 1880."

Joseph L. Tatman and Rebecca Bryan

2007-01-01T18:19:00.000-08:00

As I stated in the previous post, Joseph L. Tatman was my father in law's Great Great Grandfather. What follows is a little of what I found online about the man:

"At this point in time, it is unconfirmed as to whether Joseph was born in Virginia, Pennsylvania or what would eventually become Maryland. The Tatmans however, were part of those who signed a petition in 1782 to the governor of Virginia explaining their plight. They were inhabitants of the Yohogania and Monongalia areas that extended into southwestern Pennsylvania and possibly part of Maryland. They had been paying taxes to Virginia, but the governor of Pennsylvania said they were in the actual territory of his state and therefore owed Pennsylvania taxes.

Since Joseph did not want to pay taxes he felt he did not owe, they eventually left Pennsylvania and emmigrated to Kentucky. Joseph Tatman and his wife Rebecca Bryan (who was 1st cousin to the Rebecca Bryan who married Daniel Boone) lived in Paris KY for a while after they were married.

They lived first in Brown County, then moved to Green County, and when that county was divided, they resided in the part that became Clark County. Apparently Joseph and Rebecca received a homestead grant in this area which was later to be the property of their youngest son, Merritt H. Tatman. In total, Joseph and Rebecca had 13 children.

Joseph was an earnest and devout minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and had charge of the congregation of the first organization in that township. He was later a Representative in the General Assembly of Ohio, and is remembered as a man of strict probity and large common sense, combined with Christian benevolence.

It is related that, when driving his team to Cincinnati with his neighbor, John Hacker, while passing the cabin of a poor widow, he was called upon to sell her a little flour because she didn’t have the means to purchase a full barrell.

In the condition of the roads in those days, a trip to the city and back took eight to ten days, and it was on a Sunday when the widow's request was made.
Joseph Tatman however, rolled out a barrel and received what little the widow could spare in full payment for it.

On their return, Hacker, who was a member of Tatman’s church, reported him for violating the Sabbath in selling flour on the Lord's Day!

Joseph died on January 27th, 1827 and his wife followed in 1864. At the time, his coffin cost a grand total of $5.00"

The Tatmans

2007-01-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

In case you missed the previous post concerning the Tatman family, you can find it here.

The Tatmans, and their descendants came from the Virginia Colonies and spread out across the United States to California and everywhere in between. However, the vast majority of them remained in Ohio, Kansas, and Kentucky.

Joseph Tatman was born in the Virginia Colonies in 1744 and married Sarah Murdock. Together they had at least 10 children. For the purposes of this blog, I will only put the ancestors and their siblings of my father in law down to his grandfather.

Joseph and Sarah's son, Joseph Tatman was born in the Virgina colonies in 1770 and eventually married a woman by the name of Rebecca Bryan. Rebecca is of note because she is first cousin to another Rebecca Bryan who married Daniel Boone. Anyway, here is how the genealogy plays out.

Children of Joseph Tatman and Sarah Murdock:

..... 2 James Tatman b: 1769 in Virginia
..... 2 Joseph L. Tatman b: 16 Jul 1770 in Virginia Colonies d: 24 Jan 1827 in Bethel Township,
Joseph was my father in law's Great Great Grandfather
..... 2 Jesse Tatman b: 1771 in Virginia d: 14 Oct 1829
..... 2 Susannah Tatman b: 23 Aug 1772 in Virginia
..... 2 Martha Tatman b: 1774 in Virginia
..... 2 John Tatman b: 1775 in Virginia d: 29 Oct 1829 in Mason County, Kentucky
..... 2 Samuel Tatman b: 20 Dec 1776 in Virginia d: 20 Jul 1850 in Brown County, Ohio
..... 2 Benjamin Tatman b: 1779 in Virginia d: 1821 in Claremont County, Ohio
..... 2 Nathan Tatman b: 1780 in Virginia d: 1828 in Washington County, Illinois
..... 2 Hannah Tatman b: 1781 in Virginia

Children of Joseph L Tatman and Rebecca Bryan:

..... 2 Mary Tatman b: 15 Mar 1793 in Bourbon County, Kentucky d: 19 Sep 1878 in Ohio
..... 2 Sarah Tatman b: 13 Oct 1794 in Bourbon County, Kentucky d: 24 Dec 1878
..... 2 Nancy Tatman b: 29 Jun 1796 in Bourbon County, Kentucky
..... 2 Rebecca Tatman b: 26 Mar 1798 in Brown County, Ohio d: 11 Aug 1881 in Kentucky
..... 2 Joseph Milton Tatman b: 14 Feb 1800 in Brown County, Ohio
..... 2 Morgan Bryan Tatman b: 29 Mar 1802 in Brown County, Ohio d: 30 Jul 1837 in Indiana
..... 2 John Tatman b: 26 Oct 1804 in Greene County, Ohio
..... 2 Cyrus Tatman b: 23 Dec 1806 in Greene County, Ohio d: 17 Apr 1870 in Michigan
..... 2 Milton Tatman b: 13 Dec 1808 in Greene County, Ohio d: 01 Aug 1889 in Bethel, Ohio
..... 2 William Tatman b: 21 Jul 1811 in Greene County, Ohio d: 30 Jun 1892 in Indiana
..... 2 Fletcher P. Tatman b: 18 Sep 1813 in Greene County, Ohio
..... 2 Miranda Tatman b: 11 Feb 1816 in Greene County, Ohio d: 21 Jun 1851
..... 2 Merritt H. Tatman b: 28 May 1818 in Bethel Township, Ohio d: 26 Apr 1888 in Ohio
Merrit H. Tatman was his Great Grandfather

Children of Merritt H. Tatman and Emma Newcomer:

Descendants of Merritt H. Tatman
..... 2 Joseph Merritt Tatman b: 15 Feb 1879 in Bethel, Ohio d: 28 Sep 1950 in Sacramento, Ca
Joseph Merritt Tatman was his Grandfather
..... 2 Jennie Garfield Tatman b: 09 Jul 1880 in Medway, Ohio d: 30 Sep 1958 in Eureka, Ca.
..... 2 Lucretia Tatman b: 1883 in Medway, Ohio d: 12 Aug 1888 in Medway, Ohio

In total, there are about 1,000 descendants of Joseph Tatman and Sarah Murdock.

I will also post a little about each of my father in law's direct ancestors coming up.

In the meantime, I will be starting work on the Incardona/Cardona family as well as their surrounding families.

The interesting people you find in your history

2006-12-30T16:23:00.000-08:00

I am still working on the Tatman family. I figure I will give it another week or so before I move on. It is not that there is a shortage of information because there isn't. In fact, there is an abundance of information readily available on the internet about them.

The key with genealogy is to do alot of the work yourself to make sure you have the right information to start with and then you can post your family tree online and let the cousins out there find you and help add to it. Right now, I have about 1,100 descendants of James Tatman (born 1744 in the Virginia Colonies) and his wife Sarah Murdock. So, I would say it is coming along just fine.

Every now and then you run across famous people in someones tree. My father in law Bill has a few of them. One being Daniel Boone. Yup, that Daniel Boone! The other is the fellow below. His name is Stanley Foreman Reed. Stanley is related to the Tatmans by marriage.

Here is a portrait of Stanley:

Stanley Foreman Reed was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. His biography follows:

"Stanley Foreman Reed of Kentucky was nominated as the sixty-ninth Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 15, 1938, succeeding Justice George Sutherland. He served on the court for 19 years under Chief Justices Hughes, Stone, Vinson and Warren. He wrote 231 majority opinions, 20 concurrences and 88 dissents. After his retirement on February 25, 1957,he served briefly as Chairman of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Commission. He died on April 2, 1980, at the age of ninety-five.

Reed, son of Dr. John A. Reed, a practicing physician, and Frances (Foreman) Reed, was born December 31, 1884, in Minerva, Mason County, Kentucky. After a public school education, he entered Kentucky Wesleyan College and was graduated in 1902. He went on to Yale University for a second bachelor's degree, conferred in 1906. He next studied law successively at the University of Virginia Law School, at Columbia University Law School and at the Sorbonne law faculty in Paris, without ever taking a formal law degree at any one of these institutions. After returning from Paris, Reed was admitted to the Kentucky Bar in 1910 and established a law practice in Maysville, Kentucky. In 1912, and again in 1914, he was elected to the Kentucky Legislature as the representative from Mason County.

During World War I, he served as a First Lieutenant in the Untied States Army. He served as a first lieutenant in the Army during World War I. Later he served as General Counsel for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation by appointment of President Hoover. As special assistant to the Attorney General, he argued the Gold Clause cases, 294 U.S. 240 (1935), before the Supreme Court. Beginning in 1935, he served three exciting years as Solicitor General. After losing the NRA case, 294 U.S. 495 (1935), and the AAA case, 297 U.S. 1 (1936), he successfully defended the Tennessee Valley Authority Act in Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U.S. 288 (1936).

Among his opinions as an Associate Justice were United States v. Rock Royal Co-operative, 307 U.S. 533 (1939); United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Company, 311 U.S. 377 (1940); and Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (1946). He voted with the unanimous court in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Died at 96 years. Services were held at Trinity United States Methodist Church in Maysville, Kentucky, prior to his interment in the Maysville Cemetery on April 8, 1980 [449 U.S. XXXVII (1982)]."Biography courtesy of the following website: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/courts/supreme/judges/reed.html

Sidetracked....now back on track

2006-12-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

I got a little side-tracked while working on the Tatman family. I remembered that the largest part of my wife's family were the descendants of one James Logan Colbert (1721-1780). James Logan was a Scottish trader who was born in the Carolina's and came into the Chickasaw Nation to make a living with the tribe. He ended up marrying three Chickasaw wives: two full blood, and one half blood. All of his descendants make up the Chickasaw part of my wife's family. So, i had to copy down the info we needed before I forgot to do so again.

If you haven't checked out the links on the left side of this blog, do yourself a favor and check out Kerry's amazing Chickasaw site

http://www.chickasawhistory.com

For more info on the Colbert's and James Logan's descendants check out the direct link

http://www.chickasawhistory.com/colbert/

Kerry has done alot of research into that family, and my research uses his as a guide line. In general, I don't trust too many people's online family trees. Alot of them out there appear to be only collecting names rather than finding the information on the actual people. I have seen a few sites that claim to have more than a million people in their trees, which is next to impossible if you want to have any degree of accuracy in your research. Most of the time, the names and dates are passed off as fact, and are wrong, but keep making their way into more and more trees.

My intention with the family tree has been, and always will be, to have the most correct information possible with all available resources of quality.

So, now that I got the information down that I need, it is back on to the Tatman family

The Ratchford Family

2006-12-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

The Ratchford family falls under my wife's side of the tree. Pearl Cornelius Ratchford was born on January 29, 1905 in Oklahoma, possibly within the Chickasaw Nation. More on that in a minute. Pearl is my wife's Great Grandmother. She married a man by the name of Hindmon Herbert Harris and they had 5 children, including my wife's Great Aunt Johnnie as well as my wife's Grandfather, Hindmon Cedell Harris.

When I first started looking into the Ratchford's, I only had the names of Pearl and her parents and that was about it. Through my recent searches on the internet, I was able to trace Pearl's family back to 1724 in Clover, South Carolina.

What I found interesting was that even though I knew that Pearl had married into the Chickasaw Nation by marrying Hindmon Herbert, I just found out that she was quite possibly of Chickasaw descent herself. It appears that Pearl's grandfather James Ratchford moved his family to Oklahoma and the Chickasaw Nation sometime before 1895. Pearl's Aunt Emma Ratchford (father's sister) married Augustus Aclin on October 2, 1898 within the Chickasaw Nation.

Now, here is where it gets a little wierd. You know, inter-marriages and such. The Augustus Aclin I just mentioned who married Pearl's Aunt Emma Ratchford? Augustus Aclin was living in the Chickasaw Nation with his family when he met Aunt Emma Ratchford. Augustus Aclin had a sister who was also living with the Tribe. Her name was Maude M. Aclin. Maude married William Franklin Ratchford and there you have Pearl's parents!!!!

I have sent an e-mail to the Chickasaw Nation asking about the Ratchford and Aclin families and am awaiting a response on the Dawes Roll #'s for each member of the family.

For those of you who don't know what the Dawes Rolls were, they were Tribal Rolls of every member of the five civilized tribes (Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole) that were removed from their original lands by the Federal Government and sent to live on lands approved of by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Most of the Ratchfords were farmers, although a handful were Presbyterian Ministers and the majority of them stayed on the East Coast through out the years. Some however, did manage to make their way to California, but their number is small. Like most white families of their time they also owned their fair share of slaves. Most of the "Slave schedules" listed on Ancestry.com list plenty of Ratchfords as owners of slaves.

Other families that married into the Ratchfords and thereby became grandparents in one generation or another to my wife were Aclin, Freeman, Davis, Campbell and Carroll.

Here are Pearl's Ratchford ancestors:

Her parents were William Franklin Ratchford (born 1868 in Caroline Township, North Carolina) and his wife Maude M. Aclin (born in 1872 in Arkansas)

Grandparents: James G. Ratchford (born 1838 in Walton, Georgia) and his wife Margaret F. Davis (born in Tennessee in 1847).

Great Grandparents: William Ratchford (born in North Carolina in 1788) and his wife Mary who was born in 1812 in North Carolina.

Great Great Grandparents: Moses Ratchford (born January 15, 1755 in Clover, South Carolina) and his wife Mary Campbell, who was born on November 9, 1760 in South Carolina.

Great Great Great Grandparents: William Ratchford (born in 1724) and his wife Mary Carroll who was born in 1725.

* * * * * * *

Next up: The Tatman's (Update) Ummmm.....,okay, I just looked into the Tatman family briefly and it might take me a few weeks to get a handle on this family. Like the Incardona's, Harris', Colberts' and Van Keurens' (among a few others) on our tree, the Tatman family is massive. I have all of the known ancestors I can find. The catch is finding the descendants of all those ancestors, where possible. So, give me a few weeks before you see another update here, okay?

From a Jones to a Cardona

2006-11-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Well, it is almost official. Today, I went down to the County Court House and filed the paperwork to change our family name from Jones to Cardona. It took a year longer to file than expected because we had something hanging over our heads that prevented the court from approving a name change when we originally intended to do so. But, never-the-less, all the applicable paperwork has been filed and the Judge should approve it on January 10th, 2007.

We have to run an ad in one of the local papers for legal reasons for 4 consecutive weeks prior to the court date. Public disclosure and all of that. But the major hurdle has been overcome and on January 10th, we will be the Cardona family.

Thank you again to all those who supported this decision especially Aunt Donna and Uncle Tony Cardona. Your blessing and support means the world to me.

Sincerely,
Brandon

November's Rain

2006-11-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

It's been a few years since they both left this world for Heaven, but they are still thought of and loved each and every day..................

In memory of:

Grandpa Tom Cardona (February 28, 1919 - November 15th 1999)

and mom, Carol Jean Cardona (May 30, 1949 - November 10th, 2001)

Dio ti benedica,

Families that we are researching

2006-10-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

O.k.

So, now for all the vital information that most people want to know about when it comes to their family history; the names of families that we are researching.

Over the last six years, we have collected quite a bit of information on our ancestors and we are beginning to piece it all together with a genealogy program. The hardest part was finding the information. We have done that and now comes the project of putting together this massive 50,000 or more people puzzle of names, dates and places and the complexities that come with inter-marriages between the families that produce children who are their own cousins! For example, I am related by blood (very distantly) to my wife's step-father Bill. And, we are both related (again, very distantly by blood) to my wife! How, you might ask? Well, all 3 of us share at least one common ancestor in William the Conqueror.

So, without further delay, here are some of the families that we are researching:

On my side of the family are the families and descendants (or ancestors) of.....

1) Bonaventuro Incardona (from the 1600's in Trabia, Palermo, Sicily)
2) Charles Jones (from 1840 in Wales)
3) The Eckert family of Germany through Ulster County New York
4) Henry Dugan (from 1800 in Ireland) and his wife.....
5) Bridget Doran (from about 1800 in Ireland)
6) The Van Keuren family (from the early 1500's)
7) Johann Seeba (from about 1825 in Germany)
8) Giuseppe DeMartini (from about 1800 in Lorsica, Italy)
9) Frederick Nicholas (from 1864 in France) as well as his wife Mary Giraud

Other grand-parents in one generation or another from my side include the families include: Giraud, Cereghino, Goletta, Silvestre, Greco, D'anna, Bondi, Birchier, Comerford and Buston.

* * * * * * *

On Michelle's side of the family are the ancestors and / or descendants of.....

1) Joseph E. Tatman (1744 in the United States)
2) John William Neff (1849 in Ohio) and his real father John William Cummings (born in 1798)
3) Emma C. Newcomer / Boone (1857 in the U.S.) And this Boone family is the one that includes Daniel Boone
4) Cyrus Harris (born 1817 in Mississippi) Chickasaw Indian
5) James Logan Colbert (1721 from possibly Scotland) Also Chickasaw by marriage.
6) William B. Ratchford (1812)
7) Christopher Aclin (1820)
8) Lemuel Boswell (abt. 1823)
9) William H. Adams (abt. 1808)
10) Edward B. Combs (abt. 1811)

Other family names include: Bryan, Fobush, Boone, Darding, Davis, Hand, Clements, Walsh, Puckett, Wiman, Tharp, and Ellis.

* * * * * * * * *

Now, there are plenty more of direct ancestors, but in the interest of space, I only listed about 20 of them. All the above names are grand-parents of generations ago for either my family or my wife's. We are also looking into the families (Aunts and Uncles by marriage) that are (or were) close to us in our lives (or the lives of those close to us).

Those families include the Tonini's, Lodin's, Scheppen's (Aunt Janet), Forgy's, Schmidt's (Aunt Carm), The Grace's, Cremeen's, Greco's, Cancilla's, and Alioto's among many, many others too numerous to mention on this little page.

More info to come soon on each individual family.......

The Grace Family

2006-10-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

In honor of my cousin Jessica's birthday on October 14th, I thought I would post a little bit about her family heritage. Jessica and I were born a year and a day apart and have had a really close relationship over the last 25 years. The photo below is from her CD which was released about 12 years ago. If you can still find a copy in a record store, pick yourself up one. You won't be disappointed. Jessica is the 3rd one from the left. : )

Anyway, the following information on the Grace family will only list Jessica's direct ancestors as far back as I have found so far. After this post, I will start writing about all the families that I am researching which includes the Grace's. To the left of each name are generational numbers from the furthest person back to the present day.

1) Nathaniel Grace was born in Ireland in 1648. He married a lady by the name of Mabel. Together they had.....

2) Abel Grace Sr., who was born in the United States in 1690. Abel married Lydia E. Ozwell and their son was......

3) Abel Grace Jr. Abel Jr. was born in 1710 and married a woman by the name of Rachel Kemp. Their son was.......

4) James Grace. He was born about 1750 and married a woman by the name of Levan Grace, which I assume was a cousin of his, although I don't know how close that relationship was in terms of blood. James and Levan had a son by the name of......

5) John Grace. John was born about 1805 and married Jamina Morris. Together they had a son by the name of .......

6) Jesse Grace. Jesse was born in 1827. It is unknown whom Jesse married at the moment, but together they ahd a son by the name of.......

7) Rufus Grace. Rufus was born in 1848 and again, his wife is not known at the moment. It should not be hard to find. Rufus and his wife had a son named.......

8) Charles Edson Grace. He was born on February 1, 1884. Charles married Martha Elizabeth Henton and together they had.......

9) Clifford Henton Grace. Cliff and his wife Eva Abel are Jessica's Grand-parents.

As of right now, the Nathaniel Grace at the beginning of this post would be Jessica's 8th great grand-father. I don't know if she has ever seen how far back her father's side of the family goes, but I wanted to share this with her since she has stopped by this little space on the web.

Happy Birthday Jess,

I love you......... : )

Those gone still live on......

2006-10-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

"I was born on October 23, 1895 in Los Angeles, California at my folks (Daniel Eckert and Clara Dugan) home on Crocker Street which was in the area now occupied by the Union Railroad Depot.

At an early age (about 4 years old), my family moved to Lordsberg, New Mexico, a small town about 20 miles east of the Arizona border, located in the southwestern part of New Mexico. While here, I recall going down to the railroad station to see President William McKinley. President McKinley was passing through Lordsberg on a special train. He arrived about 6 p.m. and his train stopped for about 5 minutes during which time the spectators had the priveledge of talking to him and shaking his hand. About 500 people were at the station. I was priveledged enough to shake President McKinley's hand. This had occured in the latter part of 1900 or early 1901. President McKinley was assinated at the Buffalo, New York fair on September 14, 1901. We lived in Lordsburg, New Mexico for about 18 months.
From Lordsburg, we moved to El Paso, Texas. Here I think I should state that my father was a Locomotive Engineer. We lived in El Paso for about a year. I recall that the town was devided into two sections; one section known as Sonora Town was where the Mexicans and the Spaniards lived; the other section was for the Americans. We made a number of trips by horse and buggy to Juarez, Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande River. It was a rather wild place.
From El Paso, my father was transferred to Benson, Arizona. This little town is located in the southeastern part of Arizona, about 80 miles from the Mexican border. Later, my father was transferred to Bisbee, Arizona, which was about 60 miles south of Benson, and 20 miles north of the Mexican border.
At Bisbee, my father took a position with Copper Queen Mining Company and was a Locomotive Engineer of the trains which hauled from the smelter, the molten slag coming from the mining and the smelting of the copper, silver and gold ores. This slag was transported in open top steel cars. At the slag dumps about 4 miles from the Smelter, the molten slag would be dumped over the side of the mountain. At night, this would make a pretty sight as the hot molten slag flowed down the mountain side and it would light up the mountain side with a red glow, much like the fire ball, (but on a much larger scale), that is dropped at night during the summer at Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point, California.
Bisbee is located mostly in a canyon. The homes are all on the mountain side. The little town was located on flat land. Frequently, there would be cloud bursts up in the mountains. When this occured, a cannon would be shot off up higher in the canyon to alert the natives of Bisbee that there would undoubtedly be a flood. The natives, or townspeople, would then rush to close the floodgates to divert the flood water around the town. These flood gates were each about 40 feet in height and 30 feet in width. There were 2 gates of this size. Additionally, sacks of sand would also be placed in back of the gates.
Every so often, the cowboys would come to town on their horses to celebrate. They would ride swiftly in town, shooting their 45 Colt revolvers into the air. Some of them would even ride their horses through the swinging doors of the saloons. I do not recall whether anyone was ever hurt.
In Bisbee, I first attended school. I had a desire to sell the afternoon newspaper and after asking my folks for permission, which was usually forthcomming, but this time wasn't, I took it upon myself to go to the newspaper people and get some papers to sell. This, I would do every week day. With selling the papers, it was my priveledge to enter the saloons, which were also gambling casinos. Each saloon would have about 10 or more tables which would be covered until about 5 p.m. with a green table cloth known as billiard table cloth. At 5 p.m., the game dealers would uncover the tables and set up stacks of gold coins, consisting of $5, $10, and $20 increments. The $10 coins were called Single Eagles and the $20 coins were called Double Eagles. It was quite an impressive sight. These saloons also had gambling machines which were in the nature of a roulette wheel, but upright instead of laying flat. You then selected a color that you thought would win, place a nickle or dime in the slot, and pull the lever. If you guessed right, you would win some money. At times, I was permitted to play these machines.
I recall, while living in Bisbee that we made a trip by train to a town called Douglas, Arizona which was about 25 miles east of Bisbee and about 5 miles north of the Mexican border. The purpose of the trip was to see a new general merchandise store which had installed for the first time in history, plate glass show windows. I believe that the first time that these windows were ever used was in Arizona.
While residing in Benson and Bisbee, we would make periodical visits by train to visit relatives in Tuscon, which was about 80 to 100 miles away. We had to carry our own food for the trips which usually consisted of fried chicken, fruit and cake. It was an all day trip.
I recall, while living in Lordsburg, New Mexico and Benson, Arizona, that the hobos and transients would knock at the back door of our house and ask my mother for something to eat. My mothers requirement of them was that food would be given to them on condition that they chop some wood for our stove. They would normally be asked to do this before my folks would give them a meal. Some of them would do a good job, but others would ask that they be fed first and promised to cut wood after being fed. A good many of these latter persons, after being fed, would chop a few sticks of wood and when my folks were out of sight, would drop the axe and jump over the fence and be on their way to the next hand out. I recall one instance where a young boy who was about 18 who had left his home in the east to make a stake in California, and having failed, was hitch hiking his way back home by train. He asked for food. He chopped some wood and my mother made him some ham and eggs for breakfast. He had eaten some of this food and then fainted. When he came to, he told my mother that he had not eaten any food for two days. My folks gave him a room and fed him until he was strong enough to travel. My father arranged with the conductor of the train to give this boy free passage to his home in the east. Each conductor would pass word to the next to let the boy continue to ride. When he got home, his folks wrote my folks thanking them for their kindness.
Each year while we were living in Arizona, we would in the summer months, go by train to the beaches in Santa Monica and Playa Del Rey, California.
We next moved to Cananea, Mexico which was a mining town of about 100 Americans and 200 Mexicans. My father was the Locomotive Engineer for the same mining company that we ahd in Bisbee, but this one hauled all types of freight instead of just slag. The engine burned wood for fuel. I would go with my father on the engine for a ride, and each time it seemed I would lose my cap when I stuck my head out of the cab window.
The period of time that we lived in Benson, Bisbee, and Cananea was during the years 1901 to about 1905.
During our stay in Cananea, Mexico, my mother was a witness to a robbery by a Mexican. The authorities arrested the Mexican and when his trial came up, my mother was required to be a witness. The authorities had a two horse buggy, with a driver who picked her up and brought her back home. This buggy and my mother were guarded by a large squad of Mexican soldiers both to and from the court house.
Also at Cananea, I recall my sister and I were playing and sliding down a hillside near a place where formerly a home had been, but which had been torn down. It was quite a windy day and sliding down, my sister ahd her arms in the air when the wind blew something into her hand.......it was a 100 dollar bill!!!!
I also recall that at Cananea, all thoughts I had of Santa Claus being what I was taught to believe were destroyed when at a Church Christmas party "Santa Claus" was distributing presents and inadvertantley got too close to the Christmas tree which was lighted with the old fashioned candles. His false whiskers caught on fire and it was necessary to pull them off his face, thereby disclosing that Santa Claus was simply a family friend!
We left Cananea and moved back to Los Angeles in 1905.
While in Los Angeles, I recall that the Los Angeles River usually dried up in the summer and became a raging river in the winter months and flooded over its banks and washed away a number of bridges. Also, I found it necessary for spending money to pick up junk and animal bones and take them to a junk dealer who paid me what the articles were worth. This money I used to cover transportation charges fro my electric train to the beaches and other places. I also recall that the day after San Francisco had the 1906 earthquake and fire that we were told of this at school. The classes were dismissed for the day with the request that the school children would bring to school the next day cans of food and other things for forwarding to San Francisco for use by the distressed people. Also that day we experienced an earthquake in Los Angeles which frightened us considerably.

In 1907, the financial crash occured. No work was to be had by my father. We had no money to buy food. We raised chickens, ducks, pigeons and geese, and used these as well as their eggs to barter and trade with the butcher and grocer, thereby being able to get some meat and other necessities.
During the latter part of 1907, my mother's girlhood chum, who had been living in San Francisco for a couple of years wrote my mother and said that there was plenty of work to be had there. We then moved there and since early 1908, I have been a resident of San Francisco.

I attended John Swett Grammar School which was located on McAllister Street near Gough. While attending school, it was necessary for me to sell newspapers after school to help support the family. I used to sell newspapers on Fillmore Street from 3:30 in the afternoon to about 8:30 in the evening. I fared fairly well, earning from a dolalr to a dollar and a half each week day. The saloons on this street have very nice free lunch counters, which some of them would permit me to come into their place to sell papers and help myself to the free lunch. Other places would squirt charged water on you if you attempted to help yourself to the free lunch.

Due to financial reasons, and to help the family, it became necessary to leave school while in the 7th grade, and take a regular job. At age 15 1/2, I started to work for the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company as a messenger at a salary of $25.00 a month minus 50 cents for hospital dues. I advanced through all of the positions in the Freight Traffic Department and later became an office manager with supervision of departmental help in the territory from Bakersfield, California north which included offices in Oregon, Washington, Utah and Nevada.

I retired on January 1, 1963 after 51 years of service.

I have an older sister still living and a brother who is deceased.

I am married, have 3 married daughters, 7 grand-children and one great grand child."

Love,

Grandpa Eckert

The above letter was written between 1963 and 1965 by my Great Grandfather Harry Milton Eckert, for his grandson Greg who provided me with a copy of the letter for my own use. Grandpa Eckert passed away in 1965, but thanks to this letter, his life still lives on in his own words about a time that most of us cannot fathom in this day and age.

The history of man

2006-09-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

With our family research going further back than I ever anticipated, I have noticed three specific time periods that I am dealing with. In order to make the genealogy work in the best possible way, I have had to break it down into three seperate files for the time being, until I can link them up with a greater degree of accuracy. As with any genealogy, the further back you go, the more complicated it becomes. You run into things such as inter-marriages, illegitimate children, multiple marriages and so on and so forth.

The first time period that I am talking about is the recent past. Meaning, the last 500 years. This would be the time frame of 1500 to present. From 1780 and on, you can find census records of family easily online. Before that are church records that list births, marriages, and deaths.

The second time period is what is referred to as "Medieval Times" which covers the years of 500 A.D. to about 1500 A.D. which led to the birth of the Renaissance. This time period covers the Kings and Queens of Europe such as Charles the 1st ( a.k.a. Emperor Charlemagne), Sir William Wallace (Braveheart), King Longshanks, and of course William the Conqueror to name a very small few. This time period is the most interesting in my opinion, but it is also the most complex to deal with. Not only are you trying to reconcile multiple marriages, incest that produced children, and illigitimate children, but you also run into the problems of differing descendants of the same person. For example, one expert may say that Charlemagne only had 6 children and while another claims that he had 12 and the children's names differ from the first expert. On top of that, you are also dealing with the variations in the spellings of names. There is no difinitive spelling for any one person!

A good example of the confusion in the spellings would be with Charlemagne himself. He was not born with the name of Charlemagne. He was born with the name of Charles (or Karl) as I have seen in some books. Also, the people of this time period were not born with a number after their name, such as Louis the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on. Later generations added those numbers to trace the genealogies easier and keep track of people who had the same name.

The 3rd time period is the "Biblical Times" which encompass the time frame of about 4,000 B.C. to 500 A.D. Now, with this one it is hard to pinpoint exact years for the births of people. The only authoritative source I consider for this time period is the Bible. And the Bible does not tell you in what year Adam and Eve were created. That is left up to historians and scholars who put the date at about 4,000 B.C. From there, as you go through the names of the Bible, it does give you life-spans of certain people from Adam to Noah and Moses, on down to Jesus. In fact, the Bible tells you how old a person was when the had their child and how long they lived after the birth of that child.

The Bible is the one and only source that should be used for this time period. I have seen some people who use obvious works of fiction as fact and add mis-information to their genealogies. For example, with the recent written works on the supposed genealogy of Jesus. Books like "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Davinci Code" are works of fiction and should not be accepted as fact, but sadly, there are people out there who insist that Jesus Christ did marry Mary Magdalene and had children with her, but do not have one shred of proof for this other than a works of fiction.

As you can see, genealogy is like a giant puzzle where one piece can fit in multiple places and unless you have the best information possible, the picture will not be clear in the end. You will be left with a jumbled mess that doesn't make sense. There are very good books on certain genealogies out there, but they are like finding a needle in a hay stack. With so much wrong information being published online and in books, it is hard to find the best one, but you just need a little patience and you can find the right information that you are looking for.

You are your own cousin!!!!!

2006-08-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that right. Believe it or not, you are your own cousin.

Anyone who does genealogy knows that statement to be fact, rather than fiction. But, if you are a believer of The Bible, then you allready know that, as we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. It is just that most people don't want to accept that. They would rather keep that little bit of information under wraps. Or, they just don't want to see it on paper.

But, the fact remains that if you go far enough back on your family tree, then you will definitely see that there are alot of inter-marriages within your family. For example, my daughter is her own 12th cousin! How does that happen? Well, generations ago, two sisters began a long line of descendants. And two of those descendants, married each other. When all is said and done, my daughter is her own 12th cousin. Now, I am positive that Cierra has more than just that one relationship to herself, I just don't have all the information in the genealogy program at this time.

From what I have researched so far, I have at least 4 different family lines that go back through the middle ages and the time of the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne. Those family lines are my Grandmother Eckert, Michelle's Harris family line, her father's Neff family line and her stepfather's Tatman family line. All these families have the common grandfather of Charlemagne, which means that they are related to one another. Me, my wife, her father and stepfather are related to one another by blood. It's wierd how small this world actually is.

The closest inter-marriage that I have run across is on the Sicilian side of my family. My Grandfather Cardona had a cousin by the name of Joe who lived in Truckee, California most of his life. Joe's mother Anna Salvadora Incardona married her Uncle Giuseppe Incardona. So, as you can see, it has happened in the recent past, as well as distant.

Other than the Biblical reasons why we are all related to one another, the is the common fact that most families migrated together through-out the years. The Cardona's migrated with the D'anna's, Tomasello's and so on. The Van Keuren's migrated with the Steenbergh's, Crispell's, Deyo's and so on and so forth. It happens with almost all families. That is why through the generations you will see multiple marriages between the same families.

Also, with the families linked to Charlemane, you will also find some very famous cousins, such as most of the Presidents of the United States, actor Marlon Brando, actress Joan Crawford, Daniel Boone, singer Robert Goulet, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, actress Lucille Ball, Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, California's Governator, Kirk and Michael Douglas, and Johnny Carson to name a few.

So, as you can see, working on your family's genealogy can be quite interesting at times.

About the following report

2006-08-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

What follows is a small part of a genealogy report from my family tree program. If you have a genealogy program on which to put your family tree, there are alot of reports and charts that you can print out depending on what your preferences are and what you want your reports to look like.

For me, the easiest way to view the descendants of any particular individual is to run a report called "outline descendant report". This particular report will usually list all descendants of a particular individual, as well as dates and places and so on and so forth. Once you understand how the report works, it is very simple to read. For the purposes of this blog, I have decided to leave out the dates and places as it is ahrd to read with the space allowed on this page. If I were to print it out, it would come out looking perfect.

Now, as far as the report goes, it starts with the furthest person back in time. For this report, that would be Wolfaert Van Ceulen. Wolfaert was born between 1500 and 1525 and is a grand-father of mine many generations ago. He and his descendants are related to my father's mother. I will do my best to explain what you are seeing. The report follows his descendats down 11 generations towards the present time. If each generation is about 25 years, then it is safe to assume that this report spans 275 years from about 1500 to 1775.

1) The numbers you see to the left of names are generational numbers. Wolfaert (being the furthest back) has a "1)" next to his name. The second name on the report (Jacob Wolfaertse Van Ceulen) has a "2)" next to his name. Jacob is Wolfaert's son. After Jacob, you will notice another symbol with a name following it. It looks like this " + Selken Jannsens". That means that Jacob married Selken Jannsens. If they had children that I knew about, there would be a "3)" on the next line with the child's name.

A couple lines down from Jacob Wolfaertse Van Ceulen, you will notice another #2. That would be his brother, Mathij Wolfaertse Van Ceulen. After Mathij's name, you will find all his descendants, until you come across another #2. If and when you do run across another #2 in the report, the would be a sibling of Mathij and his brother Jacob.

Simple enough. I hope I explained that easily.

This type of report can be run for any family, and it shows where you are missing people in an easy to read format. The report posted below, is a very small fraction of how large that family actually is. With all the people I have in the program so far, there are 10 more pages just like what you see here. And there are about 50 more pages, I still have to input into the program.

So, as you can see, if you go far enough back in time (in this case to the 16th century) with your family research, you can find thousands of other cousins, Aunts and Uncles.

A descendant report

2006-08-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 Wolfaert Van Ceulen (born btween 1500 and 1525)
........ 2 Jacob Wolfaertse Van Ceulen
.............. +Selken Jannsens
........ *2nd Wife of Jacob Wolfaertse Van Ceulen:
.............. +Tannaken Claudesz Van Bruiyssel
........ 2 Mathij Wolfaertse Van Ceulen
.............. +Mayken Mertens
................... 3 Hendrick Mathijs Van Keulen
......................... +Barbel Willems Van Deden
............................. 4 Mathij Henriksz Van Keulen
............................. 4 Willem Van Keulen
............................. 4 Conraet Henricsz Van Keulen
................................... +Chrisstijna Gerritse Kieft
........................................ 5 Sara Van Keulen
.............................................. +Hermanus Jansen Kooswyck
........................................ 5 Antonetta Van Keulen
.............................................. +Josua Albooras
........................................ 5 Heinrick Van Keulen
........................................ 5 Machtell Van Keulen
........................................ 5 Maria Van Keulen
........................................ 5 Gerrit Van Keulen
........................................ 5 Joannes Van Keulen
.............................................. +Hendrickje Danielsz Broom
........................................ 5 Wilhelmus Van Keulen
........................................ 5 Elisabet Van Keulen
........................................ 5 Cornelija Van Keulen
........................................ 5 Machtelt Van Keulen
.............................................. +Pieter Scholier
............................. 4 Aeltje Van Keulen
............................. 4 Cornellis Van Keulen
................... 3 Lijsbeth Mathijsz Van Keulen
......................... +Arent Dircksz
................... 3 Jan Mathijs Van Keulen
......................... +Annetje Jans
............................. 4 Mathijs Jansen Van Keulen
................................... +Margriet Hendrickse
........................................ 5 Katryn Matthyssen
.............................................. +Jan Jansen Van Amersfoort
.................................................. 6 Styntje Van Steenbergh
.................................................. 6 Thomas Jans Van Steenbergh
........................................................ +Maria Solome Metselaar
............................................................. 7 Margriet Van Steenbergh
................................................................... +Cornelius DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Seeletjen DeLameter
.............................................................................. +Matheus Van Keuren
.................................................................................. 9 Tjerk Van Keuren
........................................................................................ +Maria Westervelt
............................................................................................. 10 Aaltje Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Albert Montfoort
....................................................................................................... 11 Maria Montfoort
....................................................................................................... 11 Tjerrick Montfoort
....................................................................................................... 11 Celetje Montfoort
....................................................................................................... 11 Johanna Montfoort
............................................................................................. 10 Matheus Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Hester Hoffman
............................................................................................. 10 Casparus Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Mary Catharina Ostrum
....................................................................................................... 11 Aaltje Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Helena Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Celetje Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Femmetje Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Benjamin B. Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Jacoba Van Kleek
....................................................................................................... 11 Anne Maria Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Catharine Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Celetje Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Celetje Van Keuren
.................................................................................. *2nd Wife of Tjerk Van Keuren:
........................................................................................ +[1] Elisabeth Westerveld
............................................................................................. 10 Maria Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Rudolph Westervelt
....................................................................................................... 11 Susannah Westervelt
....................................................................................................... 11 Joanna Westervelt
............................................................................................. 10 Isaah Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Gette LeRoy
.................................................................................. 9 Cornelius Van Keuren
........................................................................................ +[1] Elisabeth Westerveld
............................................................................................. 10 Seletje Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Aaltje Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Matthew Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Maria Van Sicklen
....................................................................................................... 11 Henry Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Cornelius Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Eliza Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Casparus Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Sally Weaver
....................................................................................................... 11 John Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Mary Ann Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Peter Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Anna Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Benjamin Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Hannah Humps
............................................................................................. 10 Esther Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Adolphus Brewer
....................................................................................................... 11 Elizabeth Brewer
............................................................................................. 10 Jacobus Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Nancy Monfort
............................................................................................. 10 Cornelia Van Keuren
.................................................................................. 9 Abraham Van Keuren
........................................................................................ +Margriet Storm
............................................................................................. 10 Sally Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +James Yates
....................................................................................................... 11 Abraham Yates
............................................................................................. 10 Abraham Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Petronella Wiltsie
....................................................................................................... 11 Jenny Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Sarah Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Matheus Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Maria Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Sarah Van Keuren
.................................................................................. 9 Margriet Van Keuren
........................................................................................ +Simeon W. Lawson
............................................................................................. 10 Geertruy Lawson
............................................................................................. 10 Simeon Lawson
............................................................................................. 10 Catherine Lawson
............................................................................................. 10 Annatje Lawson
.................................................................................. 9 Benjamin Van Keuren
........................................................................................ +Nancy Butcher
............................................................................................. 10 Robert Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Antje Van Bommel
............................................................................................. 10 Matheus Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Benjamin Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Maria Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Annatje Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +John Dearin
....................................................................................................... 11 Anne Maria Dearin
....................................................................................................... 11 John Edward Dearin
....................................................................................................... 11 Benjamin Dearin
....................................................................................................... 11 Robert Dearin
....................................................................................................... 11 Matthew Dearin
....................................................................................................... 11 Cornelius Dearin
....................................................................................................... 11 Peter Dearin
.................................................................................. 9 Matheus Van Keuren
........................................................................................ +Annatje Green
............................................................................................. 10 Geertruda Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Geertruda Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Matheus Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Rachel Hunt
....................................................................................................... 11 William Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 John Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Matthew Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Susan Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Hannah Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 John S. Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Elizabeth Van Etten
....................................................................................................... 11 Susan Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Willem Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Margaret Lassing
............................................................................................. 10 Seletje Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Thomas Van Keuren
.................................................................................. 9 Marytje Van Keuren
........................................................................ 8 Anna Catharina DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Mary Salmy DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Abraham DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Johannes DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Abraham DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Cornelis DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Thomas DeLameter
........................................................................ 8 Benjamin DeLameter
............................................................. 7 Catryn Van Steenbergh
............................................................. 7 Geerthruydt Van Steenbergh
............................................................. 7 Catryn Van Steenbergh
............................................................. 7 Johannes Van Steenbergh
............................................................. 7 Aris Van Steenbergh
................................................................... +Baartje Swart
........................................................................ 8 Maria Salmy Van Steenbergh
.............................................................................. +Jacobus Whitaker
.................................................................................. 9 James Whitaker
.................................................................................. 9 Benjamin Whitaker
.................................................................................. 9 Abraham Whitaker
........................................................................ 8 Thomas Van Steenbergh
........................................................................ 8 Thomas Van Steenbergh
.............................................................................. +Annetje Osterhoudt
.................................................................................. 9 Elisabeth Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Abraham Fort
............................................................................................. 10 Jacob Fort
.................................................................................. 9 Johannes Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Benjamin Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Margrit Miller
............................................................................................. 10 Elisabet Van Steenbergh
............................................................................................. 10 Susana Van Steenbergh
................................................................................................... +Henry Whitaker
.................................................................................. 9 Jan Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Abram Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Annatje Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +John York
............................................................................................. 10 Margritje York
............................................................................................. 10 John York
............................................................................................. 10 Marietje York
............................................................................................. 10 Jane Elise York
............................................................................................. 10 Catharine York
........................................................................ 8 Johannes Van Steenbergh
.............................................................................. +Helena Burhans
.................................................................................. 9 Annetje Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Conrad W. Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Elisabet Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Wilhelmus Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Janneke Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Johannes Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Gerret Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Abraham Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Blondina Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Gerretje Elmendorp
............................................................................................. 10 Lucas Elmendorp
.................................................................................. 9 Elisabet Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Thomas Hoogdeeling
............................................................................................. 10 Denis Hoogdeeling
............................................................................................. 10 Helena Hoogdeeling
............................................................................................. 10 Annatjie Hoogdeeling
............................................................................................. 10 Elisabet Hoogdeeling
............................................................................................. 10 Ballie Hoogdeeling
.................................................................................. 9 Abraham Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Elizabeth Osterhout
............................................................................................. 10 Margritje Van Steenbergh
............................................................................................. 10 Annatje Van Steenbergh
............................................................................................. 10 Margritje Van Steenbergh
............................................................................................. 10 Thomas Van Steenbergh
............................................................................................. 10 Elisabet Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Johannes Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Maria Van Steenbergh
........................................................................ 8 Catrina Van Steenbergh
........................................................................ 8 Elisabeth Van Steenbergh
.............................................................................. +James Whitaker
.................................................................................. 9 Eduard Whitaker
.................................................................................. 9 Catharina Whitaker
.................................................................................. 9 Maria Whitaker
........................................................................ 8 Benjamin Van Steenbergh
.............................................................................. +Sarah Burhans
............................................................. 7 Abraam Van Steenbergh
................................................................... +Catrina Ploeg
........................................................................ 8 Thomas Van Steenbergh
.............................................................................. +Christina LaBontie
.................................................................................. 9 Heinrich Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Anatje Schaefer
............................................................................................. 10 Grietie Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Abraham Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Catharina Conjes
............................................................................................. 10 Thomas Van Steenbergh
............................................................................................. 10 Christina Van Steenbergh
............................................................................................. 10 Jacob Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Petrus Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Margriet Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Jacob Richly
............................................................................................. 10 Christina Richly
............................................................................................. 10 Rosina Richly
.................................................................................. 9 Thomas Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 John Thomas Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Anatje Van Leuven
.................................................................................. 9 Catherina Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Matthew Van Steenbergh
.................................................................................. 9 Paul Van Steenbergh
........................................................................................ +Rosina Snider
.................................................................................. *2nd Wife of Paul Van Steenbergh:
........................................................................................ +Sarah Wynkoop
.................................................................................. 9 Cornelius Van Steenbergh
........................................................................ 8 Alida Van Steenbergh
.............................................................................. +Abraham Swart
.................................................................................. 9 Catrina Swart
........................................................................................ +Tjerck Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Abraham Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Julia Bruster
....................................................................................................... 11 Hiram Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Sarah Ann Van Keuren
............................................................................................. 10 Charity Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Lewis Bevier
....................................................................................................... 11 Margaret Bevier
....................................................................................................... 11 Eliza Bevier
....................................................................................................... 11 Sarah Bevier
....................................................................................................... 11 Abraham Bevier
....................................................................................................... 11 Margaret Bevier
....................................................................................................... 11 Catherine Ann Bevier
....................................................................................................... 11 Rachel Bevier
............................................................................................. 10 Alida Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +James Smith
............................................................................................. 10 Moses Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Catherine Winfield
............................................................................................. 10 Geerityie Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Jabez Munson
....................................................................................................... 11 Catharine Munson
....................................................................................................... 11 Elizabeth Forsythe Munson
....................................................................................................... 11 Julia Ann Munson
....................................................................................................... 11 Cornelis Watkins Munson
............................................................................................. 10 Levi T. Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Ann Lake
............................................................................................. 10 William Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Phebe Catherine Alsdorf
....................................................................................................... 11 Martha Van Keuren
............................................................................................................. +Zenas Rumsey
.................................................................................................................. 12 Harvey Emery Rumsey
....................................................................................................... 11 Anna Hendrick Van Keuren
....................................................................................................... 11 Rachel Van Keuren
............................................................................................................. +Henry J. Smith
............................................................................................. 10 Marytie Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Moses Schoonnaker
............................................................................................. 10 Benjamin Bogardus Van Keuren
................................................................................................... +Lana Jane Jordan
............................................................................................. 10 Elisabeth Van Keuren
.................................................................................. 9 Annatje Swart
........................................................................ 8 Margrieta Van Steenbergh

Life intervenes

2006-08-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks about not updating here, but my lovely, precious, darling little girl is raising my stress level and blood pressure. Two days ago, she stuck fuzzy bits of cotton in her ears and jammed them further in, which required a doctors visit to get it all out. The doctor told her the importance of not putting stuff in her ears and had my daughter promise to not do it again.

So, Cierra smiled and said "I promise to not put fuzzies in me ears again"

Lesson learned, right?

I often under-estimate the deviousness of a 5 year old.

Today at 5 p.m., I get a call from Michelle saying that she is taking Cierra back to the hospital because she stuffed things in her ear again. I get the the hospital and find out that she did not stuff fuzzies in her ear. Promise kept, I guess.

Instead, Cierra stuffed the little pellets you would find in a stuffed "bean bag" animal in there. Nice. She managed to get 4 or 5 of them in there at once. Needless to say, after the doctors tried prying them out and then had to resort to washing them out, Cierra will not stuff anything into her ears again. The rinse they had to shoot in there hurt too much. I never knew a 5 year old could be so strong.......

But, she is fine now.

I will get to updating the family information this weekend.

About this blog

2006-08-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to mention a thing or two about this blog before I get further into it with family information. My hope is that with it, I can connect with other family that I might not know about at this moment in time while at the same time, share with those I do know what I have learned in my searches.

While there is no guest book on here, there is a comment field at the bottom of each post, so if you feel like leaving a comment for whatever reason, please feel free to do so. After all, this is not just my family tree, but yours as well.

Also, on the left hand side of the screen you will find a "links" section. It is here you will find some of the best family sites that I have run across over the last 5 years of research. The majority of them have to do with the family genealogy. Others, are some of my family's personal sites for you to enjoy.

Here is a quick breakdown of what they are as of this post.

1) The family association websites (Bevier, Crispell, Deyo, Dubois, Freer, Hasbrouck, Terwilliger, and the Huguenot Historical Society) all deal with my grand-mother Eckert's (Dad's) side of the genealogy.

2) Cousin D.G. Van Curen's site as well as Lorraine Luke's also deal with the same family.

3) Cousins Pete Bellanti and Joe Buscaglia have parts of my mother's side of the family covered.

4) Michelle's Native American Roots can be found on the Chickasaw, Cherokee and Choctaw sites as well as Kerry Armstrong's genealogical research of the Colbert family.

5) There are some personal family sites on here such as Cousin Tommy Cardona's band Ghostown, or Michelle's Aunt Sue Crawford's book website.

6) And for those of you who might want to try and do a little research on your own, you can also check out the websites of Ancestry.com, Rootsweb.com, Ellisisland.org, or the Latter Day Saint's genealogy site.

Take your time and look up these sites as they are well worth your time, and by all means, if you know of another site that I could add, feel free to let me know.

Enjoy,

Origins

2006-08-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

Little did I know in the fall of 2000 what I would be getting myself into when I began this journey into my (as well as my wife's) genealogy. We had just found out that we were going to be having a child in the spring of 2001, and I wanted to start a family tree so that our daughter could look back on it years later and know where she came from.

So, with my lack of insight on how to go about it and a newly purchased genealogy computer program, I added the few names, dates and places that I knew of on my own. At that time, I think the tree consisted of about 100 names, and I thought I was getting somewhere. I also remember thinking at the time that this whole genealogy thing was a snap. That there was nothing to it. Then I realized that I wanted to know more. I wanted to see how far back I could actually go with it. I sat down with my mom one afternoon when we went up to visit her in her new house in Stockton, California and started asking her all about her side of the family. When I sat down in front of her with my notepad and pen and asked for information, she just looked at me in stunned silence and then asked "Why the hell do you want to know all of that? Why can't you just stop with your grand-parents? No one cares about people that far back!!!!"

O.k., so now I hit a major road block, and it went by the title of "mom". After a while, she finally started spilling the information I wanted to know. And as she gave me the names of people, I realized that everyone I grew up around was actually related to me. You see, my mom's side of the family was large. My mom has a sister. Their father was one of 4 boys. And their grand-father Cardona was one of 8 children. I spent alot of my childhood being around all these people and their kids and didn't know that they were actually relatives! Sure, I called them Aunt or Uncle, but we even did that with people who were close to my grandparents who weren't related. Back then, everyone was an Aunt or Uncle. After I grilled my mom for an hour or two, I had her let me raid her phone book for the relatives I hadn't talked to in a while. In the process, I got more names and family stories as well as a chance to visit with some family I hadn't seen in more than 10 years.

Now, I was on my way.

I put the tree together and submitted it to a website called Rootsweb.com (my tree is no longer there, however) which is a place for people to post their family information and to share and connect with people they might not know about. I had been looking on that site as well as Ancestry.com for a few months and my family never seemed to be linked with anyone elses. A few months went by and I was stuck. No leads. Nothing. Then a gentleman by the name of Lee Eckert saw my family tree online and contacted me with alot of information on my father's side of the family. I was stunned. Someone out there knew who my family was!!! It turns out that Lee is a cousin (my grandmother Eckert's 1st cousin) and he shared his information which helped me go further back. After that was another gentleman by the name of Paul Incardona, who helped me get the Cardona side of my ancestry back to the early 1700's.

After that, we looked into my wife's side of the family, thanks to information that her Great Aunt Johnnie supplied us about the Harris (Michelle's mom's maiden name) family and found that they were leaders within the Chickasaw Nation. One of Michelle's grandfather's a few generations back was named Cyrus Harris. He turned out to be the first Governor of the Chickasaw Nation.

Today, the ancestors on the tree span every country in Europe and 6,000 years. Yes, we have gotten several branches of the tree back to Adam and Eve! Those branches include my grand-mother Eckert's side, Michelle's Harris family and her step-father Bill's side. So yes, Michelle and I are distant cousins!!!!! But, when it comes right down to it, we are all related to each other in one way or another.

My hope with this blog is to share with you out there some of what we have found as I put it back into the computer program from all of the printouts and notes we have. Along the way, you might learn about parts of your family that you weren't aware of. Further down the road, I plan to create a website for it, where it can remain for years to come and others to enjoy. If you have a question, feel free to ask, or just leave a comment below these posts.

I wanted to take a moment and thank those who have helped me get to where I am now with the family tree. So, special thank you's go out to Lee Eckert, Paul Incardona, Nick Giordano, Dennis Simpson, Sue Crawford, Sharon Houser, and Aunt Johnnie Cochran. Without your help, I would probably have given up on it years ago.

I wanted to also thank my beautiful daughter Cierra for providing me with the inspiration to get this started.

Last but not least, I wanted to thank my mom for telling me years ago to forget about going further back. As always, I seemed to have a hard time paying attention to the things she said.

I love you, mom!

God Bless,

Test

2006-07-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

Just a test post to set up the page.