40 years is a long time...

 

                                    

                   

... it's a long time since I've seen your face or heard your voice.  It's been a long time since that horrible night happened, but I still remember it as if it was yesterday.  It's been a long time, but I will always love and miss you.  It's been a long time, and I look forward to seeing you again someday.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Favorite Online Class At RootsTech 2026

  From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  RootsTech 2026 just finished today.  Did you watch any classes online?

2) Which online class was your favorite, perhaps the most informative, most helpful, or most entertaining, for you?

3)  Share your selected online class in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook or other social media post.  Please leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

Here's mine:

I attended RootsTech 2026 online Wednesday night and the next three days, as I have done every year.  This year, I did not do a summary each day on this blog.  I have not gotten much sleep the last few days, and with classes as late as 10 or 11 PM, I just haven't had the energy to write blog posts also.  

I took fewer classes this time because every year, I get overwhelmed and never go back to my notes and complete any research that I was so excited about after taking the classes.  I also never go back and watch any of the classes I missed, so I wanted to try a little more laid back, easier pace this year.  I have to say the ones I attended were, for the most part, great classes.  So it is going to be hard for me to just pick one favorite!

But pick I did.  My favorite class was New to German Genealogy? Start Here! by Katherine Schober.  I take a beginner German genealogy class every year because I am still chasing my biggest brick wall, my 2nd great-grandfather, George W. Schwalls, Sr.  I never make any progress.  However this class was different.  Katherine took her time and explained step by step how to proceed in finding out what town and state (or province) your German ancestor was from.  She gave us tons of resources to use.  I learned a lot, and I was not overwhelmed this time around.  I have already taken her advice and did a search on Newspapers.com for any reference to George, and I have a second action item on my list that she suggested.  I can't believe I was off and running before the conference was even over!

I must also give a shout out, though, to my most fun class.  It was Gravestone Symbols from A to Z by Cathy Wallace.  Cathy made this topic so entertaining, catchy and easy to remember, by using the ABC song to go over all the things you may see in a cemetery from an anchor to Zzzz's from a sleeping baby statue.  While I have seen most of these symbols before, Cathy made it stick in my head and showed me a couple unknown to me.  

Tombstone Tuesday

 

Teresa Marie Price Lynn

b 24 Dec 1929 in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia, USA

d 15 Jan 1999 in Pembroke Pines, Broward, Florida, USA

laid to rest at

Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery

Augusta, Richmond, Georgia, USA

buried beside Teresa is her husband,

 Marion Eleatus Lynn
b 26 Sep 1924 in Augusta, Richmond, Georgia, USA
d 20 Nov 1989 in Richmond County, Georgia, USA

Teresa is my 5th cousin, 3x removed.  

Our common ancestors are

John Moore and Sarah Norris.

Madness Monday

 Just a few days ago, I was on Newspapers.com searching for an obituary for my cousin's husband, Walter C. Cochrane.  This came up in the list of possible matches:

The Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 14 Nov 1923
via Newspapers.com

My Walter C. Cochrane was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1915.  However, there are two glaring problems already.  The spelling of the last name is not the same and this incident happened in 1923 when my Walter would have only been 8 years old. While not impossible, I guess, I do not believe Walter C. Cochrane was married or killed his wife at the age of 8.  

But before moving on, I stopped and read the entire little article, and realized it is just madness.  The piece is out of Belleville, Illinois.  Mr. Cochran was granted a change of venue to Nashville - what?  Nashville, Tennessee?? But no, I found out there is a Nashville, Illinois.  Also Mr. Cochran "formerly resided at Wichita Falls, Texas?!"  What did that have to do with it?  And the piece was run in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama newspaper.  Why?  I am guessing it was printed there either to add some sensationalism to their day's paper or to just fill some space. 

Oh and let us not overlook the "alienists!"  I discovered this is what psychiatrists used to be called!

I enjoy running across these interesting tidbits while browsing old newspapers.  I hope you got a chuckle out of it, too.

Military Monday

 

Military Monday posts are made to honor those in my family tree who have served in the United States military.

  

Virgil Willard Powell

1916-1958

U.S. Navy, World War II

Virgil was my 2nd cousin.  Our common ancestors are James Madison "Jim" Tapley and Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page.

Thank you for your service.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- What Was the Great Love Story in Your Family Tree?

  From Randy (my cousin) over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  It's Valentine's Day - a day for lovers!  We all have hundreds of love stories in our ancestry.

2) What was the great love story of the ancestors in your family tree? What wedding had a great story in it? Choose one ancestral couple. Share how they met (if known), when and where they married. Note how long they were married. Highlight something that suggests affection or partnership.

3)  Share your great love story in your family tree in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook or other social media post.  Please leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

Here's mine:

Lusion Keman "Loosh" Tapley 1870-1935
and
Mattie Schwalls 1877-1912

Lusion Tapley was my "Papa," my paternal grandfather.  Mattie Schwalls was his second wife, but she was  undoubtedly the love of his life.  Or at the very least he was the love of hers.    

While I do not know how they met, the story is that Papa and Mattie were engaged in 1897-1898 or so.  However, before they could marry, a wrench got thrown into the works.  A wrench that I believe shows what a good, honorable man my Papa must have been.

Papa's first cousin, 1x removed, Martha "Jane" Page (1875-1899), came to him with a problem.  Her father was going to force her (or had promised her) to marry a much older man.  She did not want to do that.  So to help her, Papa agreed to marry her.  They were married January 28, 1898 in Johnson County, Georgia.

And Mattie Schwalls waited.  

Papa and Jane's baby, Annie, was born on March 15, 1899.  Jane passed away on May 31 of the same year.  So they were only married 16 months.  Papa was left with a newborn, and he needed to work the fields in order to support himself and that baby.  So Lusion's parents, Jim and Becky Page Tapley, raised Annie.  

Time passed and Mattie Schwalls still had not moved on.  I don't know if they had to wait a respectable amount of time after Jane passed before they married or if Papa had some talking to do to get back in Mattie's good graces, but it was November 18, 1903 before Lusion and Mattie married in Johnson County, Georgia.  Almost 6 years after Lusion had married Jane Page.  

Mattie had waited, and they were finally together.  

Unfortunately, the union only lasted 8 1/2 years.  On April 26, 1912, Mattie and their 4th son died during childbirth.  

My father always said that his father loved Mattie Schwalls.  He felt the ornate monument (headstone) that Papa put on Mattie's grave was a symbol of that love and devotion.  So much so that when a storm came through Kite several years ago and that headstone was sheared in half, my father paid to have it repaired.  Mattie was not even his mother, but he respected the love his father had for her.  

Friday's Faces from the Past

 

Mary Elizabeth Tapley
1985 Graduate,
Swainsboro High School,
Swainsboro, Emanuel, Georgia, USA

   

    I turn 58 years old this month.  Forty years after the above picture was taken.  At that time, life was exciting, on the brink of a lot of somethings new, i.e., college, new friends, new romantic relationships, my whole life.  

     Life rarely goes as you plan.  I was never the CEO of a large company or even a business leader of a small company.  After the hard work of high school and college, I found I wasn't as interested in working in Corporate America as I had thought.  I had a difficult childhood that follows me to this day in varying degrees.  Three failed marriages.  Loss of my nephew, friends and other relationships in between.  Loss of a business.  Bankruptcy. 

    Through all of that, I learned how strong I am.  I learned to bounce back again and again.  I cried a lot, but I always found the humor in life as I struggled.  I became independent, comfortable in my own skin (in other words, I don't fit in), and able to live on my own. I just knew I would be alone (single) the rest of my life, and I was fine with that.  

    Then in this past year, life threw another curve.  My mother is aging, so I moved back to Georgia and in with her.  It's been an adjustment... for both of us.  We make it work.  

    Life isn't through with me yet.  She and the Lord is giving me another chance at loving someone.  It seems after a lifetime of looking and not looking, I have found my person.  He put a ring on it just this week, and I am happier than I've ever been.

    Life is a constant roller coaster.  High Ups and Low Downs.  But no matter how low it dips, it always comes back up.  You just have to learn to hang on and find your own ways to enjoy the ride.  I don't know if life actually gets better as we get older, but I do believe we can enjoy it more.  We now know the good times when we see them.  

    There will be more to my story, I know.  Like I said, I'm enjoying right now.