How Did I Get Here? My Amazing Genealogy Journey

My husband and I absolutely love Cape Cod. We usually make a trip there once a year. We find it is just the best place to recharge our engines.  I like quiet beach vacations. No Jersey shore for me folks. I like places where you can hear your thoughts and connect with God. The outer Cape is a great place to do just that. These pictures I believe are from 1999 or 2000 and were taken in Truro, Massachusetts. Corn Hill Cottages in Truro, MA

If you missed Thursday's post, you may want to check that one out first before reading on. Here's the link: Thankful Thursday: Friends On Facebook Are Extremely Helpful That's right folks. I connected with my great grandfather's next door neighbor. She's a lovely lady who I spoke with on Wednesday for nearly an hour. She was a child when she knew my great grandfather John Harrison and she told me that he always carried himself as a gentleman. He could cook quite well, which I bet was born out of necessity since his wife passed away in 1939.  At that time he still had young children in the home that had to be raised. Another  thing that I found out was that she knew my grandfather's younger brother, Robert "Bobby" Harrison. Bobby is the youngest of the Harrison siblings. I haven't had a chance to speak with him yet since I connected with his former neighbor. I am looking forward to catching up with him over the weekend.  From prior research, ...

John and Carrie Harrison My great grandparents Genealogy friends on Facebook are extremely helpful! First of all, I'd like to give a shout out to two particular pages that I found fairly recently. If you have ancestral connections to the towns of Washington and New Bern, North Carolina, you may find these helpful as well. The first page is called  I'm from Washington NC and nobody told me this! From her page Rev. Leesa P Jones, historian and founder's writes: Washington NC is rich with history. A lot of it's history has not been given the attention it deserves, particularly for African Americans. Let's take the "mystery out of our history! She features lots of information and pictures about the area often referred to as "Little Washington." The second page is called  Remember In New Bern When? . This New Bern memories page was created by realtors Steve & Jana Tyson and has over 2000 likes so far. People comment and share regul...

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email that said I was invited to try the latest update to Google Maps. I didn't really explore the program, until just this morning and lo and behold I was pleasantly surprised by something. Some street views that were previously unavailable were now miraculously able to be seen. Specifically, I could now see a street view of my childhood home in Queens, NY as well as the houses of my grandparents. These are homes I haven't seen in years, so my curiosity was peaked to see what sort of condition they were in. I am happy to say that three of the four properties I looked at today are still kept up well for the most part. My maternal grandmother Mary Bryant Horton lived in Springfield Gardens, about a fifteen minute drive away from my childhood home. It is a place I visited often through the years. I loved spending the night at grandma's because it meant I could stay up late and watch Fantasy Island. My grandmother helped raise my cousi...

Guess What? I've been bitten by the gardening bug. That's right. I can hardly believe it myself. For some reason when I was younger, I looked at the whole gardening thing as a waste of time. I was too cool for it or  I never had enough time to set aside to do it properly or a billion other lame excuses that I came up with over the years. Well, what started off as something to do with the kids so that they would enjoy doing, has turned into a wonderful pastime for me. Hee hee! Who knew, me the gardener. Ha! There is something to be said for wiggling your toes in the dirt and planting.

Jones Family Graves Bayview Cemetery, Morehead City, NC I featured this picture on this blog quite some time ago but I thought it would be good to highlight it again. I am so thankful for knowing where my Jones ancestors were buried. On my post,  The Kindness of Strangers , you will find closeups of some these graves as well as how this picture came about. Esther Lincoln Jones and Louis Oliver Jones --2nd great grand aunt and uncle. Alexander Jones --2nd great grandfather Cesar M. Jones --2nd great grand uncle Violet Jones Devaughn --2nd great grand aunt Cesar Jones and Mary H. Mitchel Jones --3rd great grandparents Fred Douglas Jones --1st cousin 3x removed, child of William Henry Jones and Emma Shepard Jones. Unmarked grave --unsure at this time who this was. I believe this may have been a child of William Henry Jones and Emma Jones due to the size of the cement slab and that the burial is right next to Fred Douglas Jones another one of their chil...

Microsoft Office Downloaded Image My blog is two years old! Wow! How did that all happen? It seems like it was just yesterday that I started. I wanted to share the discoveries I had made regarding my ancestors but I was well...you know, scared to get started. Finally I got the nerve, and began writing on May 30, 2011 with my first post, Okay...Here We Go! LOL.  I don't know why I was scared because...Well...(That's right, I am going to turn all Sally Field on you now.) You like me....You really like me!  Two years and 344 posts later, I am still here and having a blast! Thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me along the way. I can't tell you enough how much I truly appreciate each and everyone of you who has followed me on my journey.  And now....Let's Celebrate!