This week’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge from Amy John Crow is “Females,” so let's see how far up the family tree I can travel in only female lines. Starting with me, then (1) my mother Sarah, then her mother (and so on): (2) Cora Belle Hawthorne (1914, Louisiana - 2004, Texas)(3) Sallie Annie … Continue reading Maternal family lines →

Two men with the surname Fuller, who both lived in East Texas around the same time in the late 19th and early 20th-centuries, are often confused in family trees on Ancestry.com and in hints in Ancestry record results. Here I show how John Seborn Fuller and Seaborn Fuller are not the same person. My personal … Continue reading Two Fuller men in Texas untangled →

I like to ask people the question, "if you didn't have to work for money, what would you do?" My answer? Genealogy and family history research, all the time. My passion for genealogy and family history originates with a document distributed at a family reunion in April 1973, when I was three-and-a-half years old. At … Continue reading My family history passion starts with a document →

In this week's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" theme, Amy Johnson Crow asks participants to share a favorite photo. When I saw the entire list of the themes a few weeks ago, I started thinking about this one in particular. And I kept thinking. And I'm still thinking about it now—I have so many photos … Continue reading A favorite photo? Mom goes to college →

My legal name is William Frederick Dews, II. The second. The Second of his Name, King of the … No, just plain old the second—but, I probably should have been a “third.” And how I found that out is one of my favorite finds in my three decades of genealogy research. My parents named me … Continue reading The second of his name … →