A New Direction

Last May, my family and I (along with some friends) took a trek out to Kirtland, Ohio to do some LDS history site seeing. While there, a burning desire to do the work for my ancestors came upon me. I returned home with a new conviction to follow through with my genealogy (which I, along with my parents had been doing for 35 plus years), take these ancestors through the temple, and create a bound book that would be passed down generations to come so that my posterity would not lose sight of from whence they came. I placed myself on a two year genealogical mission which is now coming to the end of the first year.

I began with photographs. My maternal grandmother, Eleanor Katherine Wilson Watts, aka Grandma Kay, passed away May of 2008. She left behind trunks of letters and photographs. My Aunt Linda Kistner Brown has the majority of them, but some she scanned and passed on via email to myself and other relatives. Some pictures I inherited from my own mother, Ginger Kathryn Watts Stratton, who passed away June 6, 2009.

I spent the entire summer locating people via the internet who might be able to identify some of the folks in the old photographs. Some we were able to identify, but there remain a few we have no clue about. There are some photographs that are labled with names, but none that appeared to be direct relatives. I reached out via ancestry.com to descendants of these individuals. I passed the photos along to them (for which they were thrilled) and was able to learn that these people indeed are related to me via marriage. These photographs I write about at this time refer to the Windham family line. I relate to this line via this way:

Me: Laurie Ann (Melyssa Scarlett) Hughes Stratton Webb
Mother: Ginger Kathryn Watts Stratton
Maternal Grandmother: Eleanor Katherine Wilson Watts
Maternal Great Grandmother: Ollie Ossilean Posey Wilson
Maternal 2nd Great Grandmother: Mary Julia Windham Posey

Staying on the subject of photographs, but moving to my mother's father's line. My grandfather Franklin Edward Watts recently moved to Manassas, Virginia, where I live. He loaned me 4 photo albums of ancestral photos. From these (which I scanned) I was able to finally put a face to my 2nd great up to 4th great grandparents.

So, now that I have pictures scanned (and framed collages of many of them), I can move on to interviews and data collection. My grandfather's cousin mailed to me copies of all the letters their father wrote and received from his mother (my second great grandmother). I am about to transcribe them so that they can be shared with other family members.

This past Sunday I began to video interview my grandfather. My granddad is going to be 94 years old this July 25th. He is clear minded and remembers quite a bit of his childhood and about his grandparents (my 2nd greats). It would be a crying shame not to ask him about his people. When our ancestors pass on, so much of their history passes with them.

The reason I decided to change the focus of this blog is because I have had so many wonderful genealogical experiences happen in the past two months. They are happening in such rapid succession, that if I don't catalogue them, that too will be lost. You may find that I enter several entries a day, as I catch up on the recent past, or may go a week or so as my research takes up time.

I thank my Heavenly Father for the gift of research and the spirit of Elijah who touches my soul every day urging me forward in collecting the history of my ancestors.