Rekindled Genealogy

In 2001, I started getting curious about my family lines and ancestry.  I was in college and married for about a year.  With a nearby library that had a genealogy research lab, and a lady that I talked to on a daily basis who was into genealogy...my search had commenced.  I started with mailing my grandmother on my mom's side letters with requests for information, so I could fill in the empty boxes on ancestry.com. 

My grandma also sent me pictures of my grandpa from when he was in World War II. 

He wrote Love, Johnnie, on all the pictures.  Burma just outside of India.

 Recently, I was talking to my friend, Jen, about her new obsession with ancestry.com, and she encouraged me to get back on and do some more research.  It had been eleven years since my last search, afterall, and there wasn't anything to lose.  So today, I rekindled my relationship of sleepless nights with ancestry.com.

Boy was I everso excited when I saw my past stand-stills turn into moving streams of life!  A lot of what I've found has moved me to tears the last few days.  For example, my dad's parents went to be with Jesus at early ages...I had never met them or seen any pictures.  My dad had lots of stories to tell.  I linked up with someone from my family who is still living, and she saved a picture of my grandparents.  The sweet thing about this picture is that my grandmother is pregnant with my dad.  I love how my grandpa has his hand on her belly...I know they were probably so excited about the arrival of their firstborn, but she was only about two months pregnant at the time of this picture.



Dwight Butler and Marion Huff-Butler (center)

 When I met Shawn in 1996, I was shocked to hear that his father committed suicide when Shawn was just seven years old.  I recently came across some pictures that neither myself, nor Shawn had ever seen.

Kenneth Copeland, Senior, 1968 (Kilgore High School)



I've almost completed both of our fifth generations on the Butler and Copeland side.  Shawn's side goes from Texas, to Louisiana, to Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia.  They were all farmers and blacksmiths and owned slaves.  On my mom's side I've traced ancestors all the way back to Italy...we come from Naples.  I've already started coming to a stand-still with some generations, but at least I've made a bigger dent than what I had before.