SUCCESS STORIES
I live in (City / County): Jonesboro, Craighead, AR
Name: Sheri Walls swalls@ar.freei.net
Date: 2000-07-22
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: WorldConnect
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
I have been searching my family lines for 5 years now and had come to a brick wall on my maternal grandmother's side. All I had on her father was a name, Gordon Milam. Thru searching the SSDI, I found a birth and death date and was able to use this information to further my quest. I searched RootsWeb's WorldConnect and found a listing for a Milam family in west Tennessee which is where we thought he was from. I didn't really expect there to be any connecting, but emailed the submitter anyway on the off chance she could help me. I asked her if she had any information on my Gordon Milam and she responded with "What info would you like? He's my mother-in-law's cousin." I was ecstatic! I told her who I was and asked what she could send me. Well, come to find out, Gordon had remarried and had three more children after my grandmother. And one, the youngest, is still alive and living in his home. She gave me the daughter's phone number and I called her immediately. I was still rather leary as to whether or not I had found the right family, but when I spoke with her she confirmed it. She said that her father had not admitted to being married before until he was on his deathbed and by then it was too late to find out any information on the previous wife. All she knew was that the wife's name had been Lillian (which was my grandmother's mom's name) and that she was from Blytheville, AR (which was correct). I couldn't believe it! The daughter told me that she had often wondered about our side of the family, and that she had heard that there was a child involved in the first marriage, but it was all rumor and she didn't have any way to find us. Well, after several telephone conversations, we are going to meet in two weeks. All this time we've been living within two hours of each other and never knew it. It's so nice to have a place to do genealogy research online...thanx RootsWeb!

 



I live in (City / County): Mayflower, Faulkner, AR
Name: Edwina Moody Familytreeclimber@Yahoo.com
Date: 2001-02-13
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: Roots Surname List (RSL)
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
I have recently had a breakthrough in finding a child born to my great grandparents. I did not know about him until about a year ago and was totally surprised! In the 30 Aug 2000 edition of Roots Web Review, I found a site for California births and deaths. http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/birth/search.cgi and http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi I not only found my great uncle, I found info on others including other great aunts and uncles, cousins, and a whole lot more!

 



I live in (City / County): Paragould, Greene, AR
Name: Tammy Cashion cashion@grnco.net
Date: 2002-03-28
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: GenConnect
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
My father and his siblings had often spoke of a half-sister. Their father had been married prior to marrying their mother. As a result, of that marriage, he was blessed with a baby girl. That marriage did not work out and because of the bitterness, his ex-wife refused to let him have contact with his daughter. She soon remarried and move to California taking their daughter with her. In his second marriage, he had four sons and one daughter. He often spoke of his daughter of his first marriage. He was never able to find her. On the other side of the story, the daughter (Bernice) was never told about her father. She had been told that her step-father was her biological father. When her mother passed away, she found her birth certificate which revealed the truth. She began to wonder if she had any other siblings but never persued trying to find them because she didn't want to disrupt their lives. She didn't know if they even knew she existed. She never even shared this discovery with her children. A few years back, she was in the hospital. In her daughters presence, she was asked by hospital personnel about family history of illness. She told of her mothers history but told them that she didn't know her father. Her daughter that this was odd, but she didn't question her mother. After Bernice was released from the hospital, her daughter asked her why she told them that she didn't know her father. At the time, Bernice revealed the truth to her family. Her daughter, Kathy, posted a query on rootsweb looking for her family. A family cousin that is doing family geneology saw her posting much later. She pasted the information on to Bernice's siblings telling them this may be their sister. My father contacted Kathy via e-mail. The next day he received a phone call from his sister Bernice. The siblings were united for the first time on Valentines Day 2002. The oldest being 72. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to unite our family. We keep in touch daily through the internet.

 



I live in (City / County): Ashdown, Little River County, AR
Name: Sharon Staton slstaton@arkansas.net
Date: 2000-04-27
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: GenSeeker
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
I had been searching for my fathers family for years. I had already had a lot of success in finding my mothers side but these lines on Dad's side were very elusive for me. I had put my name in several places looking for answers to my questions. Due to the friendly people that live in Arkansas and Missouri it seemed that finally I was beginning to find my roots. I had found the census records for my Brantley line but up until about six months ago I had not been able to prove that these were my people. One night I received an e-mail from a lady named Ann Manning saying that her grandmother and my great-grandfather were brother and sister. After corresponding for awhile via the net I ask her where she lived since I noticed that we used the same server. I told her that I lived in the small town of Ashdown, Ar. just about 19 miles north of Texarkana. Much to my surprise she answered my question very excitedly telling me "Wow! I live in Ashdown too and have for 20 years and have worked at the Walmart store here for almost as long." Ha! Walmart is two blocks from my house. The next morning I took two pictures with me and met her. One picture was of Amanda Brantley and John Houston Lumpkin, my great grandparents and the other was of Thomas Brantley and Annie Vickers her grandparents. We had a wonderful visit. She told me of her father Rush Brantley who had wanted her to find her roots and I told her of my father who I had taken to Searcy and Marion County a couple of years before his death to show him where his father was born and raised. Ann told me that her and her husband had moved from Oklahoma to Ashdown because of the building of the Paper Mill and Brown & Root Construction Co. We also moved here with Brown & Root about 13 years ago for the same reason. I also thought it was funny that her last name is Manning because I was raised in San Jouquin, Ca. on Manning Ave. About a week after meeting my cousin we decided to call my Uncle Ed Lumpkin in Ca. and was taken by surprise again when he told me that when my Dad was a child in Stephens Co. Oklahoma Ann's father Rush Brantley and my father James Lumpkin played together as children and ran around together during their teens. What a wonderful surprise. Ann and I have already made one trip to Oklahoma and are planning another to Nash Co. Tn. where the Brantley's lived at one time. Ann is the only relative other than my own children that live near me and Ann's relatives all live in Ok. I said once that I wished that Dad knew about me finding Ann but I guess he and his cousin both know. Who knows maybe they arranged it.

 



I live in (City / County): Camden, Ouachita, AR
Name: Robert Gunnels rgunnels@sautech.edu
Date: 2000-05-18
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: GenSeeker
Please contact me: no
My Success Story:
I began the search for my family genealogy by visiting cemetaries, something someone suggested on the RootsWeb board, but had only been able to find three generations of the Gunnels family. I knew that the fourth generation back had moved to Columbia Co. in Arkansas in 1851, so those family members had to be buried somewhere in the county. Older family members had told me that they were buried in a cemetary somewhere in the area but I could never find it. After years of searching every known cemetary in the part of the county I knew they lived in I gave up. Then one day while driving down a rural road on my way to a church reunion, I noticed where a landowner had clear-cut his timber. Next to the road was one patch of timber that had not been cut. Thinking that was odd, and not having any idea why he would have left that one stand of timber standing, my curiosity got the best of me and I pulled over to look. When I walked into the small stand of trees I immediately saw why it had been left standing: there was an old cemetary there. The years of neglect and tree growth had done a lot of damage. Tombstones were pushed over and covered with fallen limbs and leaves. Only a few were left standing. I had found the cemetary that my ancestor's were buried in. My plans now are to get permission of the landowner to clean up the site and restore the cemetary.

 



I live in (City / County): Fort Smith, Sebastian, AR
Name: Carolyn Meek Nelson dlnelsonco@msn.com
Date: 2000-08-01
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: Mailing Lists
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
We now have the 182 year-old Family Bible of John H. Vandyke, the great-great grandfather of Carolyn Meek Nelson! This is how we came into possession of this Bible: Early in the 1950's, Bert and Ethel Dawson, now of Alvin, Texas, found and purchased this Bible in a Goodwill store in Missouri. Though not connected at all to the Van Dyke family, they recognized that the Bible would be a real treasure to the proper Vandyke descendant, and certainly should not be destroyed or lost for all time. So, for almost fifty years, they have preserved it while unsuccessfully trying to locate a living descendant of John H. Vandyke. In June, 2000, Mr. John Conlon, a friend and neighbor of the Dawsons who is an experienced genealogist, offered to help locate a Van Dyke descendant. He placed a notice on the RootsWeb Van Dyke list, stating that "a neighbor" was seeking information on this family, and listed the names recorded in the Bible. We found the posting and quickly replied, showing our direct-line connection to this J. H. Vandyke. We furnished a Rich Text File (.rtf) of our information on the known ancestors of John H. Vandyke, down through my generation. The friend then printed out the history and presented it to the Dawsons, who were very excited to learn that a direct descendant had finally been located! In a surprise telephone call on July 4, 2000, Dr. and Mrs. Dawson told us that it had been their desire for many years to reunite this Bible with the proper family, and that we had been chosen to receive the Bible as a gift! Additionally, since the Dawsons were planning a trip for a reunion of their own McCoy family in Oklahoma, they suggested that they could detour (several hundred miles) through our city in order to meet and personally present the Bible to us. This they did on July 31, when they were honored guests and "adopted family" in our home. The Bible cover is loose and very deteriorated and the pages are brittle. However, the record pages are written in permanent inks and are still intact and very readable. It appears that there are at least three different writers, and the last entry is a death in 1908. None of the writing has been retouched or traced, and it all copies well. For all Van Dyke family members or researchers in this line, we will be pleased to furnish, without charge, photocopies of the pages containing entries. Just send us your name and postal mailing address. Of course, we would appreciate receiving copies (either hard copies or by e-mail, attachments or Gedcoms) of your branch of the Van Dyke family tree. The following is our interpretations of the handwritten entries: The property of J. H. Vandyke the year of our Lord 1818. Marriages. John H. Vandyke Was Married to Miss Pheba Martin February 28th AD 1816 Births. John H. Vandyke was Born July 28th 1791 Pheba Vandyke was Born August 28th 1784 Samuel Washington Givens Vandyke was Born February 17th 1817 George Martin Vandyke was bornd November 27th 1818 James Turpin Vandyke Was Born Febuary 10 1821 (Turpin is our best guess) Freeman Warren Vandyke was Born Sept the 11th 1823 John Williams Vandyke was born March 16th 1826 Pinkney Duvirna Vandyke was Bornd February 5 1828 (Duvirna is our best guess) Vanburen Vandyke was born April 1st 1830 Deaths. Freoman Warren Vandyke Departed this Life November 20th 1826 Aged 3 years 2 months and 8 days ould John Williams Vandyke Departed this Life December 5th 1826 Aged 8 months and 19 days ould James Firpin Vandyke [Firpin is our best guess here] Departed this Life December the 14th 1826 - Aged 5 years 10 months and 3 days ould Departed this Life on the 17th of April 1856 Samuel Washington Vandyke Aged 39 years and 2 Months John H. Vandyke Departed this Life May the 3d 1875 Aged 83 years & 9 months Phebe Vandyke Departed this Life Februry 1879 Age 94 years & 6 months Mrs. V. L. Vandyke Departed this life March the 10th 1891 Aged 51 yrs. 4 m. 8 d. Pinckney D. Van Dyke Departed November 14th 1908 Age 80 - 9 months & 9 days ********************************************** Dell and Carolyn Meek Nelson 5333 South Y Circle Fort Smith AR 72903 dellnelson@bigfoot.com or dlnelsonco@msn.com or carolynmeeknelson@juno.com