Author: Scott Williams
-
Bob and Zula Castellaw Siblings
You assume the families of your siblings will stay connected for at least a few generations, but genealogy research prooves that is usually not the case. Thanks to social networks like Facebook and genealogy sites like Ancestry.com, at least we can now reconnect with distant cousins who drifted away long ago. In this photo, the…
-
The Gunter-Marbury Family Connection
A while back, I saved this photo on my computer because I liked it so much and planned to figure out who these people were when I giot a chance. I forgot about it until I ran across it again recently, and once again it captured my imagination. I originally got the photo from my…
-
Louisiana’s Civil War Museum and the Robert E. Lee Monument
We were just in New Orleans and had a few hours before our train left for Memphis, so my wife and I checked out Louisiana’s Civil War Museum and the Robert E. Lee Monument. Having just visited Shiloh a week earlier, we are now one step away from throwing on period clothes and reenacting. Robert…
-
Shiloh National Military Park
Last Sunday, my family and I took a slight detour on our way home to Memphis from Middle Tennessee and visited Shiloh National Military Park. I already knew the park had several special events planned because the 150th anniversary of the battle fell later that week. I did not, however, plan well enough to get…
-
Early Settlers Richard and Temperance Cocke
For me, genealogy research feels a little like walking through an enormous old house with endless hallways and rooms. Some doors open into empty rooms. Others contain a few scattered clues, just enough to make you keep looking. Then, every once in a while, you stumble into a room previous generations of researchers have already…
-
James Shield
As I am researching my family line, sometimes I spiral back and find myself looking for information about a family with a very distant connection. The branch of James Shield (about 1670-July 1727) sits way up and far to the side on my family tree, but it runs through a Revolutionary War story, a president…
-
More Old Photos
Front row: Jess Williams (my father’s brother), Bobby Williams (my father), Whit Smith, Billy CastellawSecond row: Frank Reid, Bobby Castellaw, Joe Christmas, J. C. CastellawBack row: Lyle Reid / I received some great photos this week from one of my Haywood County cousins, Roland Reid. I love it when I get photos like this. It…
-
The Most Forgotten Famous Person from Haywood County
Richard Halliburton (1900-1939) may be the most famous person born in Haywood County, Tennessee, whom almost no one remembers. For a brief, bright stretch during the Jazz Age and the years that followed, Halliburton ranked among the best-known adventurers in the world. He swam the Panama Canal, slept on top of the Great Pyramid of…
-
Womanless Wedding
My cousin Sandra sent me this photo from The Brownsville States-Graphic. It shows my grandfather, Jesse Lloyd “Bo” Williams (1910-2008), dressed as a minister and looking a bit like Charlie Chaplin. Her grandfather, Bear Mann (1902-1966), was the bride in the wedding. The caption under the photo is: Nuptial Headliners – Playing top roles in…
-
Sim Cobb’s Diary
I have been researching the family of my second-great-grandmother, Sarah Evelena “Lena” Booth Marbury (1868-1949). To me, one of the most rewarding parts of genealogy research is finding the information that turns a name and a date into a real person. I am grateful that Joe H. Cobb included the diary of Simion Amherst “Sim”…