Treasure Chest Thursday - Earlier Researchers

My Treasure Chest Thursday posting for this week is the following letter. This letter was found in some of maternal grandmother's papers that my mother's sister had kept. My aunt has allowed me to go through these papers on a number of occasions. It seems like every time that I go through them I found some else that I had not noticed before. Of course I had probably looked at it on a number of occasions but never really saw it. You know how that goes. ;)

Anyway, when I did find this letter I was having a hard time finding the name of John Twyman's wife. I can't remember why, but I do recall being excited to have found this letter because it was going to help me make the connection that I had not been able to make. I also distinctly remember holding the letter, looking at my aunt and feeling very excited knowing that when I flipped over the letter it would tell me the name of another ancestor of ours!

So when I flipped it over and read the name WAIT, I really didn't know what to think. I don't remember being disappointed, but I do remember having sort of an anti-climatic feeling. But then once I composed myself, I was able to formulate the next steps that I needed to take with this new piece of information. And I was eventually able to find her father, but that will be another post at a later date. ;)

But now onto the reason I am posting this for my Treasure Chest Thursday entry. Earlier Researchers!

If it hadn't been for an earlier researcher from the 1920's, Mary (Mrs. Paul A) Twyman Klayder, it would have taken me a lot longer to find out the maiden name of John Twyman. This being the same information that she had already found 70 years earlier.

I know that some earlier researchers had the information all wrong and have led us down wrong paths, but for the ones that were right we should really consider ourselves lucky! I know I do.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Sentimental Sunday - A Thanks to my Followers

This isn't going to be a typical Sentimental Sunday posting, because rather than focusing on a story of one of my ancestors, I am focusing on the present. My followers.

I wanted to take a moment to make a posting thanking you all. Why you ask?

Well, I know from looking around the Internet that there are ALOT of blogs, and I am shocked at how many genealogy blogs are out there. You have many choices to pick, but you chose mine and I really cherish that!

I also appreciate how you have stuck with me through the constant changing of the look of this blog in the last month. I do believe that I have finally come to a design that I like thanks to the new Blogger Template Designer that I found at Blogger Buzz: Express yourself with the Blogger Template Designer

So again thanks SO much for being a follower of mine and giving me such wonderful feed back on the postings that I have made up til now.

And as always:
Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Robert W. Shofner's WW I Draft Reg. Card

Like most genealogists, I like to be able to put my ancestors in a particular place at a particular time. Most of my ancestors moved from time to time, so that have been pretty easy to track.

However, my paternal grandmother's parents, Robert W. Shofner and Annie Elizabeth Liles, moved more than the rest. I remember when I first asked my grandmother where her siblings where born, she had a hard time remembering all the different places. She went on to explain that her father was a carpenter and moved to where ever the work was found. I have ran the census records on them and know where they was living in every census year from the time of their birth to their deaths.

So when I ran across this card I was glad to be able to pinpoint where they were living in a non-census year. Again it just adds to the information that I know about them, making it more personal then just a name and date on a tombstone.

This card was found on Ancestry.com - in the database World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Treasure Chest Thursday - Augustine Warder Royalty

As genealogists we have many "new" relatives that come in and out of our lives as we research. Cousins from different branches of the family and different parts of the country that we connect with through out our years of digging up ancestors. Some you may only contact once, while others may stay in contact off and on for the next couple of years or even decades. This was my cousin Augie.

I found Augie in my early years of researching my father's side of the family in Hart County, Kentucky. The Hart County, Kentucky Historical Society had information that Augie had submitted to a family file on one of my families. I noticed she lived in Louisville, so I contacted her. In our first meeting she was so welcoming, sharing and happy to find another long lost cousin. In addition to all of the cousinly (I just made that word up ;p )love she gave me, she also gave me what has since become one of my prized possessions, a picture of my great-great grandmother, Josephine O'Neal Self. I'm talking about her giving me the original picture, you know the one on the cardboard! Not just a copy of the picture. WOW!

This is the picture she gave me. It is of Josephine O'Neal Self and her son William Younger, called Bulgar, and his family. From left to right, Josephine, Hattie, William Younger "Bulgar", Floyd, Ollie Jaggers Self (Bulgar's wife) and Howard.

As so often happens, life interrupts our best laid plans. I had life changes that caused me to not be a full-time mom and researcher anymore so I lost touch with Augie. But ever so often I would call Augie to find out how she was doing and as before she was always so thoughtful and sweet when we talked. Even though we didn't talk on a regular basis I still thought of her frequently.


On Tuesday I found out that Augie passed away in January of this year. I will miss my cousin. Her obituary can be found at: Augustine Royalty’s Obituary by the The Courier-Journal.

I just thought I would share with you, my new "new" family, information about another one of my Treasure Chests.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Wordless Wednesday - How cute! My dad at about 6 months old.

The cute little baby is my dad, Hearley Gordon Tharp, in the lap of his mother, Minnie Frances Shofner Tharp.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)