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Thank you for visiting my blog!

This blog is used to share information I find about the families I am researching. To see these family names click on the "My Families" tab. Please feel free to make comments, corrections, and ask questions here or on my Facebook page or go to the "About Me" tab to send an e-mail.

Reading this Blog

My posts can be accessed by the date posted from the column on the right. Blog posts containing specific surnames can be found by clicking on the names in the left column.

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Friday's Photo: More Hats

Whit Bryan (1920-2001) and James Richardson (1930-1988)
Last week, I posted a picture of two unknown women with interesting hats. This week, I am posting a picture of two men in hats; my Dad and my Uncle Jimmy. Dad, with the cowboy hat was from West Texas, and Uncle Jimmy grew up in New York. They led very different lives, but were linked by family as they married sisters. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday, March 22, 2013

Friday's Photo: Texas Girls with Hats

Friends or cousins of Floyd W. Thompson (1889 - 1968)

This photograph belonged to my second cousin-once-removed, Juanita Thompson Gleghorn. On the back was written, I want to paint their hats. These were some of Dad's friends or cousins. I am sure that Juanita wrote that as she loved to paint. 

Juanita's father Floyd W. Thompson, the son of Martha "Mattie" Hairston Chisum Thompson and John Thompson, was born in Erath County, Texas.  Floyd moved to Baylor County, Texas in 1905 to help my great-grandfather and his uncle, Phillip A. Hairston, on his farm. Floyd married Ora Cox in 1912 and lived for many years in Baylor County. Judging by the clothing, this picture was taken in the early 1900s. 

In addition to Juanita's note, there is some very childish writing on the back (see below). One word appears to be "Rose." If you can decipher any of the other childish writing, please comment below or send me an e-mail. And, if you have any idea as to the identity of these two women, please contact me. 


Diana

© 2013

Friday, March 15, 2013

Friday's Photo: John Foley of Boston


On the back of this photo is written April 1942, Ma and Johnnie. My husband's Aunt Kitty identified him as John Foley and his mother as a Quinn cousin that she visited in Boston. Mrs. Foley was Cecelia Quinn, born in County Galway. She married Michael Foley. And, just this week through a search on Ancestry.com, I found her great-granddaughter and am learning about another branch of the Quinn family! 


Diana

© 2013

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Change

One item, not mentioned below, is the blank book "The History of Our Family." It's a blank book with places for me to hand-write about my family. I really wanted to do this, but my blog has now taken the place of a family book. 

This is not a post about genealogy, but a post about how fast things are changing in this digital world. I am cleaning my house. Not just vacuuming, but taking everything off of every shelf, cleaning, reorganizing, and recycling. I am having fun as I have found old postcards, books with inscriptions from family members, and more genealogical treasures. However, I am amazed at how many items on my bookshelf have become unnecessary in such a short period. Here are just a few:

  • Travel Books and Maps - I took three trips last summer and never used travel books or maps. 


  • Magazines - I found a stack of Ancestry.com magazines and a National Geographic (1981) that had wonderful pictures of Ireland. I read very few magazines. I saved these for content, but it's now content that I can find on the Internet. 


  • CDs - I was so excited to receive my 1880 United States Census and National Index twelve years ago. Now, it's much easier to search at Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org for census records than to search through all of those CDs. 


  • Reference Books - Grammar handbooks, a medical dictionary, and a world almanac are all things that I haven't used in many years. Google is my friend. J


  • User's Guides - The last item is my Pack-Mate Users Guide that I received with my first computer in 1988. The Guide has over 120 pages. The computer had MS-DOS and 1 MB of RAM. At that time, you definitely needed a manual. 



Diana

© 2013

Friday, March 1, 2013

Friday's Photo: Goats



This is from my father's family's photos. The picture belonged to my grandparents, Redic Bryan and Myrtie Hairston. At first glance, I thought that it was a boy with puppies, but now am sure that they are goats or sheep. This is probably a boy - I'm looking at the overalls and haircut, but you never know. 

Does anyone else in the Bryan/Hairston family have this picture? Family names are Bryan, Hairston, Noah, Thompson, Hammett, Chisum, Gresham, Wylie, Biggs, Keith, Gilbert, Latta, and Criswell. 


Diana

© 2013