WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

I've enjoyed doing genealogical research for over 30 years, and I am friends with many of my cousins on Facebook, but I know not all of you are on Facebook, and I wanted to find a way to communicate the many interesting, funny and sad stories I have discovered over the years about my ancestors.

As my 1st, 2nd and even 3rd cousins, some of the people I talk about here will be your ancestor as well, others will not.  How can that be?  Because, I will be talking about both my dad's side of the family - Larew, Vanhooser, Stockton, etc. - and my mom's side of the family - Churchwell, Wallis, etc.  So any given post will feature someone that my Larew cousins will have in common with me, while my Churchwell cousins will have to wait until possibly the next post for their common ancestor with me.  I will try to keep it balanced so I don't overload my blog with one side say more than the other.  Obviously, my siblings as well as my nieces and nephews and my own children will be able to learn about their ancestors from just about all of my posts since they share the Larew/Churchwell sides in common with me.  

Another way I will post blogs is by topic or event.  For instance, when I post about World War II, I will mention not only the experiences of my parents through the 4 years, 1941-1945, but also those of my aunts and uncles, and even my parent's cousins.  

I hope this will become a two-way conversation; I don't know everything about every relative, and some of you will have information that might fill in a blank or correct an error in a post.  All I ask is that you have some sort of proof of an error; I'm not expecting a signed affidavit or anything like that, but I would like to know your source.  It may be that your parent told you - I'll accept that!  It might be that you have a letter or photo or other document that proves your point, all the better!  

I will try to keep my posts at a comfortable reading length.  I'll try to keep my writing somewhere between the length of "War and Peace" and "Mary Had A Little Lamb."  Seriously, though, I'll try to keep these at about a 10-minute read time.  I'll throw in photographs and maybe a supporting document or two if I think it will make for a more interesting post.  

I want your feedback, I want your questions, and I want your interaction.  Let me know if I wasn't clear on something, or if I got a date wrong.  I will do my best to proofread what I write before I post it here.  And I will also try to be respectful to the memory of our ancestors.  They were human, they failed, they did dumb stuff, and if I write about it, I'm not doing it to jeer at them or shame their memory, I'm doing it because it's a story from their life, and sometimes it's those dumb things that help us realize we all suffer from the same condition - the human condition.  

So, here we go!  I have a lot of ideas on where to start, so I think I'll start with me! 😇  As you read along, I hope it will bring some of your memories, perhaps previously forgotten, to the surface of your mind.  If you'd like to share them with me I would love to hear them.  You can add them in the Comment section following the post. 

Okay, family, let's go Out On A Limb and discover a branch of our family tree together!  

Love, 

Jean