Speechless

I’m rendered speechless at the moment.  And that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing except that I’m trying to maintain a story-telling blog.

I threw myself into genealogical education in the last ten months – completing the trifecta of SLIG, Samford, and NIGR in one year.  And in the last two weeks, did the same with on-site research – spending part of one week in western Pennsylvania researching Dad’s line and then spending most of last week in the El Paso, Texas, area researching Mom’s family.  To put it mildly, the combined trips were a study in contrasts.

From the rolling rolls of Pennsylvania at the graves of great grandparents Dr. Lemuel Offutt and Sarah Dukes Offutt in Brush Creek Cemetery:

 

 

 

to the desert-setting cemetery of great grandparents Jesse D. Williams and Ocie Ola Manning Williams in Sierra Blanca: 

 

 

 

Consider – if you will – that Lemuel was  born in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Sarah was born in Baltimore, that Jesse D. was born in Arkansas, and Ocie Ola came from Georgia — and that somehow multiple chains of events led to an historically significant  blind date (at least for us!) in Texas.

In Pennsylvania, I went to the traditional research sites – the Westmoreland County Historical Society, the beautiful Westmoreland County Courthouse, and the Greensburg-Hemphill Public Library, but in Texas, the Ellison Motor Company was the sole repository I visited…

 

 

Here are the stacks:

 

And my research desk…

But the two trips also had plenty in common – both resulted in mounds of new documents, images, and research leads.  More importantly, I renewed some familial relationships and established new ones.  It will take a while to synthesize it all before I can pull out the stories.  Please be patient – there are plenty coming!