One of the huge benefits of starting this blog is becoming acquainted with my mother’s first cousins, the children of my grandfather’s siblings. They’ve shared genealogy info and family photographs and have been welcoming and interesting people.
I’m very excited because I recently learned about the Midwest Genealogy Center’s Ancestry Day, a family-history conference that will be held in conjunction with Ancestry.com on March 16 in Blue Springs, Mo. That’s a 3+ hour drive for me from St. Louis, but I like a road trip, so I eagerly signed up.
What makes it more enticing is that my grandparents Crawford Brown and Susie Jeffries Brown, grew up in western Missouri and I’ve arranged to spend the afternoon with my cousin, Penny, and visit the cemeteries where my great grandparents (her grandparents), Arthur John Brown and Rhoda Wheeler Brown, are buried, in Milo, Missouri. I hope to visit her mother, my grandfather’s sister, who just celebrated her 99th birthday. In addition, I think we’ll go to Appleton City, where my grandfather grew up. Penny says that his picture (or perhaps it’s his brother’s picture) still hangs in Appleton City High School.
I have family on my grandmother’s side who are buried in Appleton City. I need to do a little digging to see if I can find exactly where, but according to my records (I’ve been really successful in finding death certificates for this little branch of the family), my great grandfather, Earl Jeffries and both his parents (John D. Jeffries and Susan Price Jeffries) AND his grandfather, Richard Anderson Jeffries (my great great great grandfather!) are buried in Appleton City . I’m very excited at the prospect of seeing all these gravestones. Perhaps I’ll find other family members graves there as well!
I’m very excited for a triple whammy that weekend: meeting cousins, visiting cemeteries, and going to a family-history conference. Life is good.
If you’re planning to attend Ancestry Day at the Midwest Genealogy Center, please post a note in the comments. I’d love to meet you!
Have a great trip. the Nevada families are a great bunch – I hope Penny let’s Sue Ellen Curry Hughes know you are coming and when you are at the cemetery notice that Aunt Mary’s headstone is in place next to Uncle Allen’s – – she always told me that she was worried that her children were too cheap to put all her names on the headstone so her and Allen erected them years ago – Mary Anna Elizabeth Brown Laflen – Uncle Allen said the only problem with doing that was he would go and cut the grass on occasion and there would be flowers on his grave so he would call his doctor
I love that story of the two headstones, Jerry! Thanks for sharing it. I hope to meet Sue Ellen when I’m there.