About Our Family Tree
This website is dedicated to my family and all the allied families that make
up a part of our family. This website is here for the purpose to keep a
record of where we came from as a family and to help others in their search
for their roots. The sources of my family tree has been provided by many
family members, internet researchers and official records. Please let me know
if you find any errors. I am glad to share any information you may find
here. I am always on the look out for more family photos, please contact me
if you have photos of any of these folks you would like to share.
Many people have shared their information and their research as well as photos
to me for my records. I would like to mention some of them whose help has
been extraordinary.
Lorene Frachiseur Bell
Janna Mayfield
Neysa North Harris
Eva Jo Gregg North
Dana Gregg Brooks
Walter Bell
Roy Truett Swindle
Bettye Swindle
Frances Ahl
Veta Longress
Joyce Frie Arnold
Hallie Belle Bogart
Harold Ogden
Mike Bosley
Ruby Etheridge
Gary Gloyne
Zotha Jean Stringham
David Frachiseur
Vicki Bannister
Vicki Gore
Barbara Cunningham
Doss Family Association
Larry Wilson
Beverly King
Steve Byas
Nelda Hopkins
Shari Shanafelt
Pauline Spangler Bell
Hollie Rice
Rosalie Gregg
Frank Edens
Sanford Etheridge
John Alexander
Jonathan Pace
Stephanie Fowler
Gordon W. Pace
Pam Moore
Janie Davis
Kenneth Bogard
Kay Lue Gladden Phillips
Clare Chandler Breeden
Karen Arnold
David Pitts Wise County Genealogy Records
Charlotte Ross
Matt Norwood
Mary Barela
Maurice Woolsoncroft
Rosalie Gregg
Tracy Bell
There are many more whose help I appreciate so much in helping me create this
tapestry that makes up our family. I especially want to thank Veta Longress
for allowing me to scan her family photos of the Rice family. Also Frances Ahl
who has let me go through all of her family photos and make copies. So many
have sent me photos, and I regard this as a family effort. I think it is
important to put a face with a name if possible. To document our family for
future generations to be able to see who and where they came from will show
them our pride in our family and also that we were thinking of them long
before they came to be.
"Finding Ancestors"
"My feelings are that in each family there is one who seems called to find the
ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family
story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a
clod gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before.
We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called as it
were by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us, "Tell our story!". So,
we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood
before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the
ancestors, "You have a wonderful family, you would be proud of us"? How many times
have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot
say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am and why do I do the
things I do? It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and
indifference and saying, "I can't let this happen". The bones here are bones of my
bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in
what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are
today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or
giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to
deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and
immense understanding that they were doing it for us. That we might be who we are.
That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of
their existence, because we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe called, I tell
the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer
the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers. That, is why I
do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put
flesh on the bones.
(Unknown Author) "
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