Well everyone, guess what? I won't ever be a grandma but I am now a great grandma. Corey's step daughter had a baby boy this morning. He is so cute. Then my niece is due Sept. 11th. Babies, babies everywhere. The grandma in me has been going to waste but no more.

GO GRANDMA GO!!!

Congrats, Donna!

On a similar subject I was just going through some things of my Grandmother, some of which I have never laid eyes on. My mother had them pack ratted away for decades, and then with unexpected deaths and illnesses since I've had to box them and move them from West Virginia, to Ohio to South Carolina and to California....and some back to South Carolina and THEN back to California. Normally on just a short weekend with travel on both ends. Long story....

Anyhow, today for the first time ever I found the wedding "Autograph Book" from the wedding of my Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather. The were both born during the Civil War in what was once Colonial Virginia and eventually West Virginia. They were married in 1883.

My Grandmother on my mother's side lost her first husband in the influenza epidemic of 1918. She was left as a 22 year old single Mom, with my 1 year old uncle. She remarried MY Grandfather a few years later and had my mother in 1926. I always remember about my Grandfather that marrying a widow with a child was not very common in those days.

I also found what is seemingly the last "wallet" of my Grandmother's husband who died in 1918. It still has his "War Department Notice of Classification" from July 3rd, 1918. He died on November 1, 1918. And ironically, his biological son.....my uncle....died on November 1, 1961.

I also found the picture I had seen as a kid that my Grandmother kept in her bedroom. It was her Grandmother.....the Shawnee Indian her German Grandfather married in probably the late 1820's or early 1830's.

Cali:

A couple months back I signed up for Ancestry.com and have been messing with that in my spare time the last several weeks. Best $50 I ever spent. Finding out a ton of cool stuff about my family.

A large portion of my family came from what was once Virginia and then West Virginia as well. I ran into a road block on a couple family members and couldn't for the life of me dig up any informartion on them. Then I remembered on that side of my family there were Native Americans.

We have some things in common.

And I found out that George Washington is my 6th Great Grand Uncle. ... That is on my fathers side of the family. ... Ironically enough, I found out on my mothers side of the family I am related to Major General Joseph Spencer, who served under Washington in the Revolution. He is my 5th Great Grandfather.

I found some letters between the two of them. Kinda neat knowing I am related to each involved in the conversations.

I had some information sent to me about becoming a "Son Of The American Revolution". I had heard of the Daughters before but not the Sons. I am not familiar at all with what they do. Now that I have the paperwork to easily trace my lineage back I might have to check into them and join up if it sounds interesting.

I have a picture of a lighthouse too, J.R. Only as you can see my weather was much better at the time. Eat your heart out.

Super cool, Hillbilly!

I have links to my Dad's side of the family that traces clearly back in detail to Wexford County in Ireland to about 1800. I haven't tried to delve more deeply than that. No one famous in that group, though there are a couple of actors that I have to be distantly related to because pretty much everyone with my last name came from the same area of Ireland.

True story, twice in my life I have met and "frolicked" with two different girls who shall we say "later in the relationship"....give or take a few hours....we discovered we had the same last name. One was potential keeper material, but we both let it go not being able to visualize a marriage certificate with the same last name for husband and wife, pre-marriage.

Now on my Mom's side of the family it's nice that I have some of my Grandmother's "primary sources" in the form of letters and Bible entries going back to the 1880's.

It gets a little complex searching though because both of my Grandmother's husbands (the first died in the 1918 flu epidemic) had the same last name and were from the same regions of Virginia/West Virginia. And there were common first names among their siblings so I have to pay close attention when reading the obits, etc. My Grandmother saved things from and about both of her husband's families because two of her grand childen (my non-Irish cousins in West Virginia) were biologically of her first husband.

On that side of the family we can trace to Lewis Wetzel (there are various spellings) who was known as "a western frontiersman" and a ruthless "Indian killer" around the Ohio River lands in the late 18th and early 19th century. Many historians believe he was one of the original unidentified men in the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but left early in the trip because he didn't like to follow rules. Ironically, two short generations later, the Shawnee bride came into our family line.

I've been told that on my biological West Virginia Grandfather's side of the family there was quite a bit of money in the mid-19th century. Supposedly owned large tracts of land in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia in the Farmington area. Someone in that group paid for someone to go fight in The Civil War for him (which was allowable then), and someone unknown lost most of the land and money playing poker. I haven't documented that part yet, but I'm working on it...

One thing about doing property and identity research in West Virginia and Ohio is that it has been tracked and stored since the beginning of the white men there.

My little farm house in South Carolina is impossible to track with 100% accuracy pre-1865 because some guy from Southern Ohio named "William Tecumseh Sherman" had his men burn the local court houses down destroying all the records.....



I can only use census records to try to truly guess the age, origin and occupants of that place....

JR,

Where is that light house? I'm guessing on The Cape since that's where you normally travel?

Otherwise, I'd note that I have often seen coastal Maine skies and vegetation that looks like that around this time of the year.

On my first trip there, I was blown away by how blue the coastal water and sky can be in Maine.

Oh, HB.

One thing I left out that your "Sons of The American Revolution" reminded me about.

Robert E. Lee has always been one of my favorite historical figures. Aside from his military prowess which he was able to display really for the first time 30+ years after West Point, he also did good work during his post war years at Washington College (today, Washington & Lee).

One of these days I'd like to find the right relative on my mother's side who might be my ceremonial ticket into the SCV.

Funny, Cali. Sherman is one of the reasons why I started digging back on my lineage. I am a huge history buff and a while back I was reading alot on the Civil War. I'm a big Sherman fan and knew some guys like him and Custer were from southern Ohio. I also knew a large portion of my family was originally from Virginia so often wondered if I might have a tie in to someone like Lee, or Stonewall Jackson, or any number of the founders that was also from there.

But never did I think I'd go back to George F'n Washington. He's my ultimate hero. That was super cool.

I was working on it and came across a Mary Ball as my 7th Great Grandmother. I paused cause I knew I knew that name. I was trying to remember from where, then it hit me. Mary Ball Washington, George's mother.

I looked into the woman in my tree to make sure it was the same Mary Ball and sure enough ... Mary Ball, married Captain Augustine Washington. Father was Captain Joseph Ball. Grandfather was Colonel William Ball. And listed under her children was George, and he was marked "First President of the United States". It was extremely cool.

Since you take an interest I would highly recommend Ancestry.com. They have the resources that makes the job so much easier, and you'll learn things you never dreamed.

If I remember correctly it was like 20 bucks for 1 month, or 16 bucks a month if you sign up for 3 months. That's what I did. Best 50 bucks I've spent. I have found a ton of interesting information, like Imiigration information. Hell, I found the original ship passenger list when my Montgomery family first came to America. My 4th great grandfather, John Montgomery, and his son, my 3rd great grandfather, Thomas, first sailed over here, leaving Londonderry, Ireland and landing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

And I've found a ton of military records on different family members. I didn't find Sherman, Grant, Lee, or Custer. But I have found numerous guys that fought in the Revolution, 1812, Civil War, and one great uncle who fought in World War II, came home crazy from what he saw and committed suicide.

Funny, you posted as I was typing and we both mentioned Lee.

I think he gets a bad rap. I admire him greatly. And after the war he went a long way to making sure the country came back together again and squash some of the tension in the south.

There is a story about how he was offered the command of the union army. He spent the entire evening in his wifes garden contemplating what he should do. He had always been against slavery, but he finally came to the conclusion that he just couldn't draw his sword against Virginia so he declined and joined the confederacy. But it really was tough.

Anyway, there is a painting of this scene of him in the garden by an artist named John Paul Strain, Strain is one of my favorite artists. This painting is called "Never Against Virginia" and there is a limited edition print of it on e-bay right now for $300.. I've been thinking about buying it for the last couple days. But I'm trying not to cause I just purchased a different work of Strain's called "Beside Still Waters" just earlier this week.

HB.

Happy to hear the Ball Family is in your court.





If you want that collectible and have some disposable cash, I'd recommend to go get it. I've never regretted a purchase that I have made....only the one's I've not taken action on.

Look at it this way, display it and if you tire of it and sell it for let's say 20% less at least you rented it for awhile for not a whole lot of money.

I was in a super cool music shop in Oakland today to consign one of my two valve trombones, and one of my two silver fluegelhorns.

At my age and with my Tuba upbringing I can no longer cleanly switch back and forth from the different sized mouthpieces and embouchure settings without sacrificing what I have now for the trumpet. The trumpet is what I enjoy playing most at this point of my life. Likely no way I will pick up a tuba again since it took so much work to get my trumpet embouchure back.

I kicked myself today when I saw a beautiful vintage Doc Severenson model trumpet today in the store and remembered I passed on a less than $400 purchase on eBay about a year ago. Many Severerenson's are not worth the $$, but that one way was.

I have purchased, displayed and then sold many and many Civil War pieces of art over the years. My fave ever was "Lee and Jackson, Before Chancellorsville." I sold it at auction for less than reserve when I learned a young pretty girl bidding wanted it for her younger brother's Citadel graduation.

My former wife still has many of my Civil War works, including the Harper's Weekly print of Sherman in Columbia SC, "The Morning After." It looks good in her place, so that's cool. It's a good home.

Oops, I just went and looked at some Strain work HB.


You like his stuff much more than me, at least from what I have seen.

I like works that the artists have tried to replicate from closer range.

But.....if you like it.........buy it.

CALI: Yes, my photo is from Cape Cod. It's the Nauset Light. HB's pic (from the Pacific coast?) is foggier, but very dramatic,

The first member of the Rock and Roll HOF.

I saw him live once.

Before the Ding-a-link nonsense.

What a sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cd8NQmJp88