SUCCESS STORIES
I live in (City / County): Las Cruces NM, Dona Ana, MI
Name: Doreen Allen zoreenie@yahoo.com
Date: 2000-04-07
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: US Town/County Finder
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
My father told me two of his uncles were ministers, but he didn't know what religion. Thanks to postings I listed I learned the name of the funeral home in the town, one of them passed away in. I wrote to them, and they sent me the Funeral Record. SUCCESS, not only did I learn more about my great uncle, but learned that he was the Founder and Minister of Dollarville House of Prayer in NewBerry, Luce County, MI. There was a lot of really good information on the funeral record. His name is Clarence Guerdin WRIGHT, he was quite the charactor from the stories about him I remember, he outlived three wives. Now I just need to find out about the other uncle. If you would like more information about him, or this family, feel free to contact me zoreenie@yahoo.com Good luck to all. Doreen Wright Allen

 



I live in (City / County): Grand Blanc, Genesee, MI
Name: Shirley Dilsworth shirlgd@prodigy.net
Date: 2000-04-06
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: WorldConnect
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
As I was at a brick wall with my father's family, I decided to contact a cousin who was old enough to have remembered our grandfather when he was alive. I found her address on the internet and contacted her, posing several questions. I received a note from her with some information, but the best part was she had an e-mail address, along with her daughter who was very interested in the family genealogy. We could contact each other quickly and share what information we both had. They both gave me some stories of my grandfather and grandmother, but the best thing they sent was a copy of an address book that had belonged to my aunt. There had been some question of Grandpa's last name (he had changed it for various reasons) so I was at a loss where to look. This address book had family listed with the original name living in Minnesota in the same county where several of my aunts and uncles had been born. Fortunately one of the address listings was for who we thought might be a half-brother. He lived long enough to apply for social security and was on the SSDI listing of Rootsweb. I sent for his SS application which gave the name of his mother and father who were my great-grandparents and the information just kept coming from many different directions. Searching WorldConnect I found another person researching this original family and got lots of information from him on where to look for further records. Thanks to my Aunt's old address book (which her daughter had kept for many years) I was able to identify several half-brothers and sisters of my grandfather, the complete names of my great grandparents and the will of my great-great grandfather, along with their children and grandchildren. This added several generations to my family tree.

 



I live in (City / County): Ludington, Mason, MI
Name: Mary Watkins mwatkins@t-one.net
Date: 2000-05-25
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: Roots Surname List (RSL)
Please contact me: no
My Success Story:
I was very new to genealogy research and computer use when I started my quest in early 1999. I found RootsWeb by searching for "free genealogy." Armed with a list of family members that had been in my Grandmother's family bible I entered the name Blackmore in the RSL. I knew my gg grandfather was born in Devon England in 1792, Richard Blackmore was the first name on the list along with birth date and place of birth. I found two people researching the name Blackmore with ties to Devon. I received e-mails from both. One started Dear Cousin. That e-mail began a correspondence with a 4th cousin who lives in England and has a tremendous amount of information about the Blackmore clan. I was able to add what small amount I had on my father and his family. It was way too easy but it did get me hooked and I have since found many new relatives thru the internet. The truly amazing aspect of my research so far is how very helpful people have been.

 



I live in (City / County): hazel park, oakland, MI
Name: Mary Dettor mjb11257@aol.com
Date: 2000-11-28
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: GenSeeker
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
My father died when I was 14 and I lost touch with his side of the family. I put our name in and was able to find out who my ancestors were as far back as the 1600's. I am in touch with a cousin who spent 20 years researching our family. The pictures and information she has given me is priceless.

 



I live in (City / County): Waterford, Oakland, MI
Name: Reginald C. Rieth rcrcmv@cs.com
Date: 2000-04-06
My Favorite RootsWeb Tool: Roots Surname List (RSL)
Please contact me: yes
My Success Story:
Several years ago I was in Blandford cemetery in Petersburg, Va. and found the graves of my Great-Great- Grandparents Solomon J. Poarch and Henrietta (Gossee) Poarch. There were 5 newly made headstones on their graves and I went to the stonecutter and got the phone number of the person who paid for these headstones. Her name was Edna Baugh and she lived in Richmond, Va. I called her and she gave us a lot of genealogy that she has done on the Poarch family. Sad to say this was before we even knew about computing and rootsweb.