Sunday, December 31, 2006

Tracing some of this family history has been so very fascinating! I remember hating history in high school and then taking Dr. Fred Bailey at ACU. Dr. Bailey is a renown expert in Southern American history. I fell so in love with the subject that I almost changed my major! Doing this family history stuff has really given that side of me a charge.

Many of my relatives settled in Tennessee for at least a couple of generations. It's interesting to feel so at home here in the state of my ancestors.

While we've known that the Thomas family came to America in the mid 1800's from Ireland, we've not known much about the Brandon/Tucker/Kirkland side of my mom's family. (My mom's maiden name was Brandon!) It's been so interesting to find that most of those families date back to the early 1700's (one to the 1600's) as Americans. The Herndon side of my mom's family is the one we've known most about...pioneers in the restoration movement.

I think not having siblings and always wishing for them made me interested in family history at an early age. I've enjoyed researching all these connections. What fun to discover your roots!

Tonight we're having a New Year's Eve party. Maddie and Ella are also having a friend stay over. It should be a fun night. I pray everyone will have a great night and please be careful out there. Happy early New Year!

2 comments:

Sandy said...

I love family history too. We moved to west KY 11 years ago with my husband's job. Although all of my dad's family is from eastern KY, they are hours away and we didn't know a soul in the area. But this past week, we found out, quite accidentally, that the receptionist at the UK extension office, whom I see on a regular basis, is a distant cousin- we have the same great-great grandfather! How weird is that??
Good luck on your family digging: may the "skeletons in the closet" be few! (Though I suppose those are more fun, aren't they? :-)

Matt Elliott said...

I had Fred Bailey at Freed-Hardeman in 1981-82 -- his last year there. One of the best professors I ever had.