Archive for the ‘Happy Dances’ Category

David Hurlbut

David Hurlbut (Ref #20) (his father – John, his grandfather – Thomas (Ref # 1)) was born in Middletown, Ct, 11 August 1688.

He was a Blacksmith…

He also was a blacksmith, having learned the trade of his father, and the first one, it is said, of that occupation at Upper Houses (now town of Cromwell) where he first settled.

There was laid out to him in the North Society, 15 March, 1712, four acres of land. In 1727, with Samuel Tracy, he rented a grist-mill for eight years. In 1730 he sells Daniel Hurlbut in South Lots, Middletown.  In 1734 he sold his house and lands in Upper Houses, for L 210, and moved to Chatham, Middle Haddam Soc’y.  He owned considerable land in the Long Lots near the above named village, portions of which he deeded to his children as they married and settled.

He m. (1) 22 Sept. 1709, Mary Savage, (b. 11 Feb 1691) dau. of John, Jr. and Mary Savage of Upper Houses.

David and wife Mary – Members of the Second Middletown Church…

The names of David Hurlbut and Mary his wife, appears second on the first list of church members on the formation of the “2d church in Middletown,” (Upper Houses) 1715. April 28, 1740, Mrs. Mary Hurlbut, wife of David, was recommended to the church in Middle Haddam.

In 1744, he removed to Groton opposite New London, Ct., and purchased property there in 1746; he returned however to Middle Haddam after 1760.

The date of the death of his wife Mary is not learned, but he m. (2) in Middle Haddam, Mercy ____________. He died 29 Oct 1773, on the farm, as I am told, which he deeded in 1761 to his son Gideon, and where (in 1861) resides Jesse Hurlbut, son of Gideon, in what is now Portland, Ct. His will was proven 26 Nov 1773.

Their Children…

(1st m.)
83. Mary, b. in Middletown, Upper Houses, 15 Dec 1709. + App.
84. Mercy, b. in Middletown, 22 Feb. 1713, d. aged about 15 years
85. Abigail, b. in Middletown, 2 June, 1714. + App.
86. David Jr. b. in Middletown, 1 Nov. 1716. +
(p.28)
87. William, b. in Middletown, 28 Nov. 1718. +
88. Honor, b. in Middletown, 25 April 1721. + App
89. Gideon, b. in Middletown, 11 Jan. 1723. d. 16 Jan. 1724
90. Stephen, b. in Middletown, prob 1725. +
91. Thankful, b. in Middletown, 26 April 1727. + App
92. Gideon (2d) b. in Middletown, 9 June 1729. +
93. Mercy (2d) b. in Middletown, 1 April 1731. (m. John Arnold of Haddam, Ct.)

David’s grandfather – Thomas Hurlbut

“The Hurlbut Genealogy: Record of the Descendants of Thomas Hurlbut
by Henry H. Hurlbut, Joel, Munsell’s Sons, Publishers, 1888, p. 27 & p. 28

Finding information about my ancestor, John Hurlbut, in fact even finding out that I had an ancestor named John Hurlbut, was all part of a “Snow Day Happy Dance” that I did last week when I stumbled across a Hurlbut family history with my ancestor, Deborah Hurlbut Stocking in it.  Her info will come soon.  (I should have added her info first!)

John Hurlbut

John Hurlbut (Ref #3) (father – Thomas (Ref #1)) was b. (prob. in Wethersfeld, CT), 8 Mar 1642.

He learned the trade of blacksmith of his father, and after becoming of age, he worked at Wethersfield and also at Killingworth.

At the age of 27, he received a proposition from settlers then planting the town of Middletown, to locate among them with his business, “and do the Town’s work of smithing for seven years.” He joined in such a contract, bearing date 25 Oct. 1669, and which he faithfully kept.

He m. 15 Dec 1670, Mary Deming, daughter of John and Honor (Treat) Deming of Wethersfield. She was b. 1655; joined church in Middletown 5 Sept 1675.

Mr. Hurlbut (p.20) was industrious and successful in his occupation, and he became a large landholder, and one of the prominent men of the place.

He was made freeman in 1671, and held the office and title of Sargent among the citizen soldiers.

Sargent John Hurlbut d. at middle age; according to the Town Records 30 April, 1690, but by the Probte Court Records (prob. more reliable) his death occurred 30 August, of that year, aged 48.

He made no will, but the inventory of his property was presented 9 September 1690. Mary his widow with Capt. Nathaniel White, were appointed to administer; but as one child yet unborn, the court ordered that “There shall be no distribution now made.”

The estate appears as follows; L373, s. 15, d 6; his house, shop and home lot L100, other lots L160, cattle & c., L46, smith’s tools and iron L10. “June 19, 1696, the Court being desired,” the estate was distributed.

The widow Mary was to have half the personal property, and one-third of the real estate during life; eldest son John to have a double portion, the other children a single one.

The time of death of the widow is not learned; but few gravestones had inscriptions as early, and no deaths appear to have been recorded on the church books, until after that period.

12. John, Jr. b. in Middletown, CT, 8 Dec 1671 +
13 Mary, b. in Middletown, bap 7 April, 1673, d. in infancy.
14. Thomas, b. in Middltown, 20 Oct 1674 +
15. Sarah, b. in Middletown, Ct. 5 Nov 1676. (Hinman gives it “Laura, b. Dec. 6, 1676.”) + App
16. Mary, 2d, b. in Middletown, 17 Nov., 1678 + App.
17. Mercy, b. in Middletown, 17 Feb., 1680/1681 + App
18. Ebenezer, b. in Middletown, 17 Jan 1682/1683. +
19. Margaret, b. in Middletown, 11 Aug., 1684/1685 +
20. David, b. in Middletown, 11 Aug, 1685
21. Mehitabel, b. in Middletown, 23 Nov 1690

John Hurlbut’s father – Thomas Hurlbut

“The Hurlbut Genealogy: Record of the Descendants of Thomas Hurlbut”
by Henry H. Hurlbut; Joel, Munsell’s Sons, Publishers, 1888; p. 19 & 20.

On Thursday, February 21st, 2013, South Central Kansas had a blizzard! Wichita, Kansas had in excess of 14″. My little town, just south of Wichita, received somewhere around 6″ plus.

But it was just enough to declare a “snow day” holiday!  The school kids were all out building snowmen, so I dumped the income tax I’d been working on and hit the Internet beginning with FindaGrave.com looking for ancestors.

I hit pay dirt!

I located one Stocking ancestor’s Memorial after another, (thank you, Find A Grave  and Find a Grave volunteers!!) and then lo and behold, someone had posted some information on my ancestress Deborah Hurlbut Stocking’s Find a Grave memorial, (her info to come on a later post!) along with the source, which led me to a Google search, and a Google book, “The Hurlbut Genealogy,” and that book detailed Deborah’s ancestry, along with her immigrant ancestor, Thomas, who was wounded with a Pequot arrow (see below!).

Do I know that every name and date is correct in Deborah’s ancestry?

No, I don’t. But now I have a new road map of names to hunt up/hunt down and verify! And new family stories to enjoy!

Below is Thomas Hurlbut’s info, Deborah’s ancestor!

“The Hurlbut Genealogy:
Record of the Descendants of Thomas Hurlbut
by Henry H. Hurlbut
Joel, Munsell’s Sons, Publishers, 1888
p. 15 – 18

Thomas Hurlbut (ref # 001) came across the Atlantic, it is supposed, in the year 1635, for he was a soldier under Lion Gardiner, who built and had command of the fort at Saybrook, Connecticut.

Lion Gardiner, it is said, was an Englishman, and by profession an engineer, and had been in Holland in the service of the Prince of Orange, but was engaged by the proprietors of the Connecticut Patent, issued by Charles II to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooks and others, granting a large tract of territory on the banks of the Connecticut river, to erect a fortification at its mouth.

Gardiner, said Judge Savage, embarked at London in the Bachilor, of only 25 tons, 11 August, 1635, with his wife and female servant, and eleven male passengers, and after a long and tempestuous voyage, arrived at Boston 28 of following November. It is believed, however, that Gov. Winthrop told that Gardiner sailed in a Norsey barque (a fishing vessel of the coast of Norway), 10 July 1635.

It is supposed that Thomas Hurlbut was one of the 11 passengers above referred to; but who his parents were or when or where he was born, we have not been able to learn. We may yet pretty confidently believe that his birth occurred as early as the year 1610, and I am more inclined to believe that he was a native of Scotland than I am able, perhaps, to show satisfactory evidence for such belief.

Mr. Hurlbut while at Saybrook, in an encounter with the Pequot Indians in 1637, was wounded by an arrow. This appears in a letter of Lion Gardiner, written in June, 1660, some 23 years after the skirmish with the Indians, addressed to Robert Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, detailing incidents regarding the Pequot war, as far as came within his personal knowledge.

Captain Gardiner, as the communication named, says that Mr. Robert Chapman, Thomas Hurlbut and Major Mason urged him to do it, “and (P. 16) having rumaged and found some old papers then written, it was a great help to my memory.”

The document laid in manuscript until 1833 (173 years) when it was printed in Volume 3, 3rd Ser. of Mass. Historical Soc colls.

The following is an extract (from the manuscript):

“In the 22nd of February, I went out with ten men and three dogs, half a mile from the house (fort) to burn the Weeds, Leaves and Reeds upon the Neck of Land, because we had felled twenty timber trees which we were to roll to the Waterside to bring home, every Man carrying a length of Match with some Brimstone-matches with him to kindle the Fire withal.

But when we came to the small of the Neck, the Weeds burning, I having before this set two Sentinels on the small of the Neck, I called to the Men that were burning the Reeds to come away, but they would not until they had burnt up the rest of their Matches.

Presently there starts up four Indians out of the fiery Reeds, but they ran away, I calling to the rest of our Men to come away out of the Marsh. Then Robert Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, being Sentinels, called to me saying there came a Number of Indians out of the other side of the Marsh.

Then I went to stop them, that they should not get the Woodland; but Thomas Hurlbut cried out to me that some of the Men did not follow me, for Thomas Rumble and Arthur Branch threw down their two Guns and ran away; then the Indians shot two of them that were in the Reeds, and sought to get between us and Home, but durst not come before us, but kept us in a Half moon, we retreating and exchanging many a Shot, so that Thomas Hurlbut was shot almost through the Thigh, John Spencer in the back into his Kidneys, myself into the Thigh, two more shot dead.

But in our Retreat, I kept Hurlbut and Spencer still before us, we defending ourselves with our naked Swords, or else they had taken us all alive, so that the two sore wounded Men, by our slow Retreat, (p. 17) got home with their Guns, when our two sound Men ran away and left their Guns behind them.”

Gardiner does not mention his estimate of the number of the assailants, but Underwood, in his History, says there were “a hundred or more.”

Mr. Hurlbut was by Trade a Blacksmith…

Mr. Hurlbut was by trade a blacksmith, and after the war with the Pequots, he located and established himself in business at Wethersfield, Ct., and was one of the early settlers of that place, as well as first blacksmith. A single extract from the Colonial Records would seem to indicate that he was a good workman and charged a good price for his work: “March 2, 1642. Thomas Hallibut was fined 40 shillings for encouraging others in taking excessive rates for work and ware.”

But this fine appears to have been “respited” Feb 5, 1643, upon Peter Bassaker’s tryal to make “nayles” with less loss and cheaper rates.He seems to have been a man of good standing in the place; he was Clerk of the “Train Band” in 1640, Deputy to the General court, Grand Juror and also constable in 1644.

It appears on the records that he received various tracts of land in the several divisions of the town, which were recorded together in 1647. In 1660 the Town of Wethersfield granted Thomas Hurlbut Lot 39, one of the “four score acre lots” (in Naubec, east side of the river), which he afterward sold to Thomas Hollister. For his services in the Indian wars, the Assembly voted him a grant of 120 acres of land Oct. 12, 1671.

It is supposed that Mr. Hurlbut died soon after the last named date, as no evidence appears that the land was set off to him during his life. In that early day of the Colony, land was plenty and cheap, and no attempt appears to have been made to avail himself of the bounty, nor even by his sons; it was not until 1694, on the petition of John Hurlbut, Jr. of Middletown, a grandson of the settler and soldier, that it was set off.(p. 18) It is told, and the tradition is not an unreasonable one to credit, that the house in Wethersfield, CT, where Miss Harriet Mitchell resides in 1888, stands upon the site of the dwelling of the first Hurlbut who lived in the settlement. (Miss M. is said to be of the 6th generation from her ancestor Thomas Hurlbut.)

That house of the early settler, as tradition gives, had peculiar attractions for the Indians, whether with the purpose to inspect the architecture of the edifice, or else to get a view of the proprietor of the mansion, for he had been an Indian fighter formerly, I cannot say; but often, when in the village, they were to be seen looking curiously in at the windows.

The Christian name of the wife of Mr. Hurlbut was Sarah, but nothing further is known; no date of birth, marriage, nor death. The dates of birth of five of their six sons are missing; whether there were any daughters or not, is not known.

During the contention that existed in the Church of Wethersfield, the early records of both the Town and Church, it is understood, disappeared.

Thomas and Sarah’s Children:

2. Thomas, Jr. +
3. John, b. 8 Mar 1642
4. Samuel. +
5. Joseph +
6. Stephen +
7. Cornelius

Thomas’ son, John Hurlbut:  http://www.familytreewriter.com/2013/03/amanuensis-monday-john-hurlbut/

The Hurlbut Genealogy: The Descendants of Thomas Hurlbut

I had a flu bug this weekend, and it is that flu bug that I have to thank for having a “Happy Dance” weekend!

A little virus had me sitting more than usual, and to combat boredom, I started ‘hunting’ on the Internet for ancestors and their siblings!  Thanks to the virus, I don’t remember exactly how I arrived at this wonderful Kentucky website, but I’m not sure I had ever been to this one before, and if I had, it has a lot of new ‘stuff’ on it, including my Gr-gr-grandmother’s brother, Willis Laird’s death certificate!

As a volunteer here in my own county, I am doubly appreciate of those who find and share family history information, and I want to say “Many thanks to the volunteers of this Southern Kentucky website at http://www.so-ky.com!  I am so very grateful to find out for certain now, that Willis is my Gr-Gr-Grandmother Elizabeth Laird Jones Crabb’s brother”

You can see a scanned image of Willis Laird’s death certificate here: http://www.so-ky.com/dth/14/Jesse%20W.%20Laird.jpg

According to the website, Willis’ first name is actually Jesse, and though his death certificate doesn’t state that, his tombstone does.  Comparing the dates on tombstone and death certificate help verify that they are one and the same.

Information on the death Certificate:

Commonwealth of Kentucky
State Board of Health
Bureau of Vital Statistics

Place of death:
County: Hart KY
Vet.Fot. Northtown

Registration District No. 6174
File No: 4772
Registered No. 51

3. Sex  Male
4. Color or Race: White
5. S/M/W/D:  Married
6. Date of Birth: May 7 1835
7. Age: 80 yrs  8 mos  8 da
8. Occupation:  Farmer
9. Birthplace: KY
10.  Name of Father: Hesikiah Laird
11.   Birthplace of father: Unknown
12.   Maiden name of Mother: Patsy Carter
13.   Birthplace of Mother:  Unknown
14.   Informant:  V. J. Eggsdon/Iggsdon (?) Address:  Cave City
15. Filed:  Feb 17, 1916 Informant:   J. M. Isenberg
16. Date of Death:  2-15-1916
17: I here certify, that I attended deceased from February 4th, 1916 to February 14th, 1916, that I last saw him alive on February 14th, 1916, and that death occurred on the date stated above at 8:00 a.m. (I think, hard for me to read).  the
Cause of Death was as follows:

Lagrippe – Duration 15 daays
Contributery: Pneumonia
Secondary: (illegible, at least to me)

Duration  5 Days

Signed: J. T. Godby, M. D.
2-16-1916 Address:  Cave City, KY

18. Length of residence – not filled out
19. Place of Burial:  New Hope Date of Burial: February 17, 1916
20. Undertaker: J. W. Oster Address:  Cave City, KY

What a lot of information is contained in this death certificate!  I know that Willis was living in the Cave City area, and that he died 4 years after his sister Elizabeth Laird Jones Crabb did.

I know what cemetery Willis is buried in, and luckily enough (and thanks to the Southern Kentucky volunteers) also have a photograph of the tombstone as well as photographs of the cemetery and church there, and will be sharing links to that soon!

Thank you Kentucky volunteers!  I’m still doing a Happy Dance!

More Laird info:

http://www.familytreewriter.com/category/sherrys-family-tree/lard-laird-genealogy/

by Sherry Stocking Kline
March 19, 2011

Hi everyone!

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings says: “It’s Saturday Night –  time for more Genealogy Fun!!!”

So, it’s time for you to read Randy’s post here: Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Contribute to the Genealogisms Dictionary.

Have you ever experienced Genea-Dipity?

You know, one of those serendipitous moments, when you have spent hours and hours in your genea-cave searching through page after web page of on-line genea-crapola, and then there it is!

One of those unexpected rare pieces of good luck, a Genea-Dipity!  A Serendipity!

You’ve done it!  You’ve found the one thing you thought you’d never find, the one fact, the one photo, the one really cool piece of information that makes you do a ‘happy dance,’ gives you a “genea-gasm,” and keeps you piecing together family puzzles and filling out the blanks in your family tree!

What was your “genea-dipity” this week?

And what new word can you add to the “Genealogism’s Dictionary.”

by Sherry Stocking Kline
19 July 2010

Many thanks to my cousin Lynne Bajuk, California, for our great-grandmother Maggie McGinnis’ obituary!

This past week, Lynne sent me a wonderful ‘genealogy care package’ with photographs and this obituary.  Happy Dance!

Fortunately, I was able to find Maggie’s husband, Thomas Jefferson McGinnis’ obituary and send it to her recently.  It has been sooo wonderful to ‘meet’ and visit with Lynne and to be able to share information and work together.  Lynne has many wonderful stories that her mother told her that I’d not heard.  Marvelous!

Maggie McGinnis, 101, Succumbed Sunday

Funeral services for Mrs. Margaret (Maggie) McGinnis, 101, were conducted at the Cedar Vale Methodist church Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock with Rev. W. E. Burdette officiating.

Mrs. McGinnis passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Maud Stocking, Sunday morning at 6:15 o’clock from arterial thrombosis. Although bedfast since the first of February, Mrs. McGinnis had only been seriously ill since 11 o’clock Saturday morning.

Mrs. McGinnis had made her home in Cedar Vale with her daughter for the past nine and one-half years. She was loved and admired by all who knew her. Despite her age, Mrs. McGinnis possessed a keen and alert mind and enjoyed conversing on current topics. She frequently spoke of her childhood and enjoyed telling of her experiences when she with other girls of her community sang for Abraham Lincoln.

A trio composed of Bill House, James E. Humble and Maurice Smith sang “Abide With Me” and “City Four Square.” As a solo, Maurice Smith sang “Crossing the Bar.”  Mrs. R. D. Oltjen was pianist.

Pallbearers were Marshall Hill of Arkansas City, Herbert Stocking of Elk City, Harold and Fred Stocking of Mayfield, Bob and Jack Yearout of Wellington.

Burial was made in the cemetery at Mayfield, Kansas.

Obituary

Margaret (Maggie) E. Corson McGinnis was born January 19, 1849, in Saugamon County, Illinois (Sangamon?) and died March 26, 1950-, in Cedar Vale, Kansas at the age of 101 years, two months, and seven days.

Maggie Corson was educated in a rural school near her home and in Springfield, Illinois. In 1860 she was one of a group of children trained to sing campaign songs in support of Abraham Lincoln’s candidacy for president. The group on one occasion sang for Lincoln and received his thanks.

At the age of fifteen she united with the Methodist church of which she remained a loyal member throughout her life.

After teaching for three years in Illinois rural and village schools, she was married in 1872 to Thomas J. McGinnis, who was teaching and farming in eastern Illinois.

In 1886 they moved to Kansas, eventually living in several communities in this state.

After the death of her husband at Emporia in 1911, Mrs. McGinnis lived in Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Maryland, and California, eventually returning to Kansas, where the has been residing with her daughter, Mrs. Maud Stocking, in Cedar Vale.

Mrs. McGinnis is survived by three sons – Charles E. of Los Angeles; Eugene E. of Wichita; and Virgil H. of Denver; two daughters – Mrs. Maud Stocking of Cedar Vale and Myrta E. (Ethel) McGinnis of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania; twelve grandchildren and twenty-one great-grandchildren.

More info:

Margaret “Maggie” Corson McGinnis, daughter of Richard S. and Mary (Corson) Corson, is buried in the Osborne Cemetery, Sumner County, Kansas, near the small town of Mayfield, Kansas, with four generations of descendants.

Maggie McGinnis Sang For Abraham Lincoln

A Photo of Maggie Corson McGinnis (and me) on her 100th Birthday

Thomas J. McGinnis Obituary

Three Hundred Years With the Corson Family in America

Sherry Stocking Kline
February 20, 2010

It’s Saturday night!   Time for some more Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver!  He wants us to tell him about our genealogy “Happy Dances!”

Sounds like Happy Dance Party fun to me!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Happy Dance, Ah-ha Moments or Genea-gasms!

Hey, it’s Saturday Night (again), time for some Genealogy Fun! Your mission, if you decide to accept it, is to: 1) Think of any number of genealogy events or moments that make you have a genealogy happy dance, an ah-ha moment, or a genea-gasm. 2) Tell us about them in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.

I didn’t even know there was a Corson book!

Here we go! I just did  a Happy Dance this past week.  When I was doing a few minutes research on my own father, I found he was listed in the  Corson Family Book!

I didn’t even know there was a Corson book!  I love family history books, especially the kind that adds in some tidbits about the people, like what their occupation was, and if they served in the Civil, Revolutionary, War of 1812, Spanish-American War, etc, etc..

I love a ‘peek through the window’ of their lives…

And while I just love filling in the blanks on ancestral charts, I love it even more when I find a newspaper clipping, story, or a family history that gives me a peek ‘though the window’ into their lives.

Corson was the maiden name of my Dad’s grandmother, Margaret “Maggie” Corson McGinnis. And this is a line I’ve just simply not researched much at all, so this may be a fantastic springboard for further research.

Most of my “Happy Dances” haven’t been posted about yet, but that sounds like a fun course of future action!

More Happy Dances…

The Day the Genealogy Serendipity Angels Smiled… is one of those moments when you really believe in Genealogy Angels.  The day I called the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, hoping to learn a bit about our family history, and connected with a real, live, living cousin.  It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Sherry Stocking Kline
February 18, 2010

Oh, be still my heart!  This might not be quite good enough to do a Happy Dance, but almost!  I was doing research on Ancestry.com on my father.  I hadn’t done that because I knew who my father was, where he was born, where he died, that he had heart disease, and where he is buried.

So I hadn’t done census research on him. Big mistake!  I did the census research, and learned that in the 1930 census, shortly before he and mom married, he was living with another family as their farm worker.  That wasn’t surprising news.

But the next thing that popped up on Ancestry was a “Corson” family book that stated that it listed my father, his siblings, and his parents, etc.

That’s where the Happy Dance comes in.

The book is titled “Three hundred years with the Corson families in America” by Orville Corson, Middletown, OH., 1939 (2v). V2: 161, 205

Now, all I need to do is beg, borrow, or maybe even purchase this book at Higginson Book Company, and I’ll have a springboard to research my Great-Grandmother Margaret “Maggie” Corson McGinnis, mother of my Grandma Maud McGinnis Stocking, and their ancestors. (I’ve already called my favorite local librarian!)

And if I’m really lucky, there may just be a few glimpses into their personal lives, occupations, and military service  in this book, giving me numerous clues to where to research and flesh out who they were.  Woo Hoo!

Yeah, maybe this is enough for a “Happy Dance”!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
February 12, 2010

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and I didn’t realize just how much fun I’d had or how much time had flown past until I received the following Congratulatory e-mail from National Federation of Press Women on Friday.

It was my Ten Year Anniversary!  What a nice reminder:

SUBJECT: NFPW MILESTONE CONGRATS!

Fri, February 12, 2010 1:57:27 PM

February 12, 2010

Dear Sherry,

CONGRATULATIONS!

As a member of the National Federation of Press Women, you have reached the 10-year Milestone in your membership.

Your name will be in the 2010 NFPW Chicago Conference Program recognizing your 10 years of membership

Our thanks from the entire membership for your support of this wonderful organization through your dedicated membership.

Information about the conference in Chicago is forthcoming, and I hope you will be attending the entire event. As anyone knows who has attended a conference, they quickly become addictive. Not only for the information gained, but the priceless friendship and memories as well.

Again, my congratulations to you. I hope you will join us for the informative workshops, the inspiration gained, and the never-ending fellowship and fun that fills every conference.

Cordially,

Barb Micek, NFPW Historian

And it’s by such little choices that lives are changed…

Just a little over ten years ago, shortly after I graduated from Kansas State University’s distance learning program with a bachelor’s degree in Arts & Sciences, (emphasis on home economics taken in the late 1960’s) and history (taken in the 1990’s), I took a writing class at Wichita State University.

Seeing a flyer on the bulletin board for a writing group, I went to the meeting.  Would we like a mentor?

Well, yes, of course!

And it’s by such little choices that lives are changed.  I was assigned Beth Bower, editor of a newspaper that I’m ashamed to say I can’t recall the name of right now.  I went to meet Beth, we hit it off, and she asked me to write an article about my genealogy hobby.

So I did.

One thing led to another…

Shortly after that, Beth called and told me that she was leaving that newspaper to go to the Wichita Eagle, Special Publications Division,  and before I could get sad about not doing any more writing for her, she said “Give me a little time, (to get settled into her new job) and I think I can get you some work.”

Beth encouraged me to join the local and state chapters of Press Women, now  Wichita Professional Communicators and Kansas Professional Communicators. It was excellent advice.

One thing led to another and genealogy continued to grow in popularity, and that’s how my column “The Family Tree” that ran in “Active Life” and now in “Healthy Living” came to be.  And now I’ve been writing about genealogy in the Wichita Eagle for ten years also.

Thanks to Beth’s encouragement, advice, (and excellent editing) I’ve won state awards and national honorable mentions.   Woo Hoo!

Thank you, Beth!

Time does fly when you are having fun!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
January 26, 2010

A couple of days ago I was honored to open up my e-mail and read that blogging buddy Joan of Roots N’ Leaves had given me the ‘Bandit’ Blogger’s Best Friend Award!

Blogger's Best Friend Award

Oh, my, thank you, Joan!  You have been such a source of encouragement to me, and a great blogging friend!  Blessings to you!

Joan says that the developer of the  ‘Bandit’ “A Blogger’s Best Friend Award” says it shall be given to your most loyal blog readers.

So, I am to pick out and pass on this award to two fellow bloggers who are fellow bloggers who take the time to comment on my posts, and bloggers who have creative, funny, and entertaining blogs.

So many of you have kindly stopped by with kind words of encouragement and congratulations, so this is not easy, and I will be leaving too many people out, but here goes!

1.  Carol of Reflections From the Fence

2.  Sandra Tjaliaferro of I Never Knew My Father

Thank you Carol for being a great blogging buddy and always so wonderfully encouraging, and Thank you Sandra,  for being both a great and encouraging blogging buddy and a good Twitter Friend! And once again, Thanks to Joan of Roots N’ Leaves.  Blessings to all.