Texas State Library and Archives

Tomorrow I’m off to the state library to do a little research before they pack up most of the genealogy collection and put it in off-site storage. The Lorenzo de Zavala building is being renovated.
Here is the architect’s rendering of the new reading room. It looks like they will need to tear out the [...]

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Jordans in Arkansas – the story

I’ve heard it said that Granny’s father, Campbell Ambrose Jordan (pronounced Jurden), was a mountain man, resourceful and a hard worker. As a young man he went to live with his mother’s family for a time, possibly in the vicinity of present day Kansas. There is a tantalizing note in a spiral notebook left by my [...]

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Taylors in Arkansas – the facts

Griffin Lewis Taylor was born in Virginia about 1815 or 1816.  Elizabeth Wardlaw was born in South Carolina about 1822. They married in Greene County, Alabama on November 24, 1841. At the time, Greene County was the home of Elizabeth’s family. By 1849, Lewis and Elizabeth had relocated to Lafayette County, Arkansas. Most of Elizabeth’s family, the [...]

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Taylors in Arkansas – the story

Among the many family stories I remember from my childhood is that of my great-grandmother’s maternal grandparents. I think it stuck because it sounds as if it came from a screenplay: settlers moving west, family drama, death, heroism and horses. Family stories are often dismissed as something someone made up to kill time or entertain the [...]

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pathophysiology keeping me up at night

Can’t sleep…can’t think…can’t function…exam today. I am in pathoverload. The first exam predisposes to a particular sort of stress induced psychosis. Can’t even come up with eye candy for ww. Here’s an amusing link. adopt a microbe

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wordless wednesday – muses

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Family Tree Maker 2008

I recently upgraded from Family Tree Maker 2005 to FTM 2008. Surprise! The new version is a major resource hog but what a stinky, muddy, goody-rooting hog it is.
Buzz abounds of its upgraded search capabilities enabling you to search various websites within the same window. Yawn, I can’t get excited about a “new” way to web search. Still [...]

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some old files

Most people’s response to hearing about my family history/research/library obsession is to yawn. I consider the long hours spent searching and transcribing a tribute to the lives of those who lived at a time when life was much harder and more interesting.
Edwards County Memories – pages I originally put together as an assignment for an [...]

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mile marker 2005

This photo of Linus and Lucy was taken two years ago. They are munchkins. They came to me in the autumn of 2004 after living the first two years of their lives in a bedroom. It took a few months for them to adapt to their new surroundings. It was great watching them discover a whole [...]

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in the beginning

When I was little no one told me how chaotic and beautiful life can be. For some reason it often only appears so upon reflection. It never ceases to amaze me how seemingly endless moments of misery and boredom knit themselves together into a fascinating story. Such is the magic of time and perspective.

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