Home > Family History

Family history is a fun way to make personal connections to historical events, uncover historical details that you would not have encountered otherwise, and a chance to be a detective and link together clues to learn about past individuals.

The challenge in this is in being organized and detailed and resisting the temptation to jot down as many names of ancestors as possible from various sources to see how far back you can quickly push a lineage. The irony is that the older information is more likely to be recorded and available in the future; it is details from recent memory that is in danger of disappearing. Yet, we tend to focus on the opposite and look for ancestors and details as far back as possible.

However, there are also some fun distant discoveries to be made. I have an ancestor that was a pirate in the 1600s, another ancestor that was convicted of witchcraft, and a cousin that went on an archaeological expedition to Egypt in the early 1900s; my wife has a cousin that was a famous songwriter, etc.

I have tried many different ways of recording and presenting this information for my family. HTML is very portable, stable (readable) over time, and forces you to slow down and focus on details, which I am thinking of as a positive quality in this context.

At the moment I am working through different census records.

• 1850 Census
• 1930 Census
• 1940 Census

The family tree chart of ancestors of my children below gives the approximate extent of family knowledge handed down in oral history before I started doing genealogy research in the 1980s. Individuals within parentheses are step parents. For each of the eight great-grandparent I have a link after the right brace to a page of ancestors of that individual.

          /-Daniel Reed III
        /-John William Reed
      /-John Edgar Reed I
      | | /-Chauncey Dutton Webster
      | \-Lorinda Webster
      |   \-Adelia Allen 
    /-Allan Edgar Reed                  }(ancestors)
    | |   /-Walter Close
    | | /-Chauncey Rogers Close
    | | | \-Lucretia Olmsted 
    | \-Ruth Elizabeth Close
    |   | /-John T. Ashenhurst
    |   \-Emeline Ashenhurst
    |     \-Elizabeth Sherarts
  /-William Alonzo Reed
  | |       /-Hiram King
  | |     /-John Jones King
  | |   /-Samuel Morgan King
  | |   | \-Rebecca Stepp
  | | /-William Alonzo King, Sr.
  | | | | /-William H. Pace
  | | | \-Margaret Louise Pace
  | | |   | /-Benjamin Staton
  | | |   \-Celia Staton
  | \-Marie Louise King                 }(ancestors)
  |   |   /-Joseph M. Garren
  |   | /-John Pinkney Garren
  |   | | \-Mary Wilson
  |   \-Ann Esther Garren
  |     | /-Andrew R. Shipman
  |     \-Margaret Caroline Shipman
  |       \-(Sarah A. Garren)
/-Floyd Allan Reed
| |     /-John Wesley Jimerson
| |   /-Wesley M. Jamerson
| |   | \-Elizabeth Sullivan
| | /-Floyd W. W. M. Jamerson           }(ancestors)
| | | \-Eliza Alemedia Cauble
| \-Betty Ann Jamerson
|   |   /-Marcus Patton Case
|   | /-Marcus Galileo Case
|   | | | /-Leander Lyda
|   | | \-Martha Trucilla Lyda
|   | |   \-Adaline Mills
|   \-Ella Mae Case                     }(ancestors)
|     | /-Joel Carlisle
|     \-Sarah Jane Carlisle
|       \-(Lila Phoebe Case)
Teigue E. O. Reed
Mahala U. E. Reed
|       /-Benjamin Wilson Whitaker
|     /-Daniel Edward Whitaker
|     | \-Eliza Ellen Legg
|   /-Emmett Lane Whitaker              }(ancestors)
|   | | /-John Louis Dodgen, Jr.
|   | \-Lillie Mae Dodgen
|   |   \-Patience Ann Pope
| /-Daniel Lee Whitaker, Sr.
| | |   /-Newton Pitts
| | | /-Arthur Lee Pitts
| | | | \-Arminda Elizabeth Speed
| | \-Della Lee Pitts                   }(ancestors)
| |   | /-James William Love
| |   \-Tursa Tennessee Love
| |     | /-Zacharia Gibson Edwards
| |     \-Sarah Caroline Edwards
\-Vanessa E. S. Whitaker
  |       /-Francis Marion Blackston
  |     /-James T. Blackstone
  |     | \-Catherine E. Mashburn
  |   /-George Marion Blackstone
  |   | \-Julia Eucline Douglass
  | /-Hubert Clay Blackstone            }(ancestors)
  | | | /-(Joseph Willis Overby)
  | | \-Myrtie Wood
  | |   \-Jane Wood
  \-Lorita Blackstone
    |     /-Bannister Kersey
    |   /-Joseph Demetrious Kersey
    |   | \-(Sarah)
    | /-Joseph Ludie Kersey
    | | | /-Elias Aycock
    | | \-Ellen Aycock
    | |   \-Elizabeth Cheshire
    \-Marjorie Kersey                   }(ancestors)
      |   /-John Parham
      | /-John Beverly Parham
      | | \-Mary Ann Justice
      \-Mary Frances Parham
        | /-Calvin H. Knighton
        \-Mary Frances Knighton

Other pages: index of direct ancestors, historical events, occupations, and notable relatives.