Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Don't shake the family tree too hard...

You never know how many nuts will fall out!





I love geneaology and family history. It used to be one of my favorite hobbies. I say "used to" because I haven't done much with it the last few years. I started in 1999 and made a ton of progress over the years. Unfortunately, in 2005, Hurricane Wilma hit the Florida Keys. Our house was flooded and our computer destroyed. Yes, the computer with all my research, pictures, etc. on it. Luckily, I had paper copies of everything, but it was all thrown in a tub in no particular order.


Since then I purchased a new laptop just for my genealogy stuff and have tried several times to input all the info into it. Everything is all jumbled together (and I'm not the best at labeling/notes), so it has been very discouraging and frustrating. I am basically starting over.


Recently I have been going through some of it and I think it's time to start again. I just have to take it slow, not get obsessed with it, and be methodical. Yeah, that sounds like me...not!


Here's the man who started it all...






This is Isaac Taylor, my great-great-grandfather. He was the longest-lived Civil War veteran in Onslow County, North Carolina. I was fascinated by the Civil War when I was younger (Who's kidding themselves? I still am!) and my grandmother told me all about him. Of course, she also told me we were descended from President Zachary Taylor, so (according to my mom and aunt) we have to take it with a grain of salt. For the record, most of what she told me has been true and we could still be related to a president-it hasn't been disproved yet! After learning about Isaac, I started searching for other relatives in the Civil War and it just spiraled out from there.

Here's the road my grandmother (and mother for half her childhood) lived on...





Charlie was Isaac's son and my great-grandfather.

I have to pick Turtle up from school (teacher conferences this week), but I will post more on this later.

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