~Dear Ancestor~
Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone,
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist.
You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.
~Author Unknown~

Our genealogy research has taken us to many lovely cemeteries and introduced us to many wonderful distant relatives. The  photo album reflects just a few of the places we have gone to get photos or information of our long lost families.

A little closer to home is a funny story about our quest to find the headstone of my great great grandfather, Eli C Ownby. We knew the stone exists because we had seen photos of it and we knew where it was but we couldn't find it. And here is the rest of the story (along with an album of the headstone repair)  Finding Eli's Grave

Each name in the chart contains a link attached to a separate page, which will give you a brief story access to my pdf files and other links to be found on the web.  Please bear in mind that I started this research 20 years ago.  Some has been corrected and some is 'sourced", but some was obtained without verification.

Since I started it, there have been some major breakthroughs and major questions raised about families that have long been considered one way but have since been proved to be something and someone else.  So take all of the information in the form that it is submitted......which is meant to be fun and informative.  Absorb what sounds reasonable to you and discard the rest.  I vouch for NOTHING that I haven't experienced personally.

Since I've been working on these pages the last couple of weeks, I find a lot of new information that is not included.  So my goal is to get the pages created and correct and add information in the next couple of months.  So have patience and check back often.  I will be uploading new files and new links as I find them.