Oh my goodness!

Oh dear readers I am truly sorry, it has almost been a full month since I sat down and wrote to you. I have been busy with finals at school, I fixed my Grandmothers gift for Christmas , Christmas shopping, and working on my Johnson family website. Its far from being done, and I still have bugs to work out but I am getting there. With the holiday coming up I still have lots to do, this weekend I have 2 Christmas parties for one I am making some yummy hot dip (artichoke, and spinach dips) and for the other one I still have to finish my Christmas soaps for the gifts AND I have  Christmas with my fiancée's Grandparents.  At some point I would like to sit down ha!

As you can imagine not much going on in the my genealogy world although today I found out that Roots Web has taken down its SSDI files because of "sensitive information" that it contains. There was a reason that lots of us used Roots Web. For one it was FREE, and second it had searchable features that others didn't. *sigh* Oh well, you can still  get the information other ways like on Ancestry, and FamilySearch so not all is lost.

Well incase I can't sit down before the holiday craziness, I wish you all the best and a great New Year. Hopefully we can all sit down with those we love and cherish the time we have with them. Maybe you could talk to them about what the holidays were like for them as children and put that in your family research for future generations. *hint*



We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies. ~Shirley Abbott

A family gift

I know its only October but I have started to think Christmas gifts. If your anything like me you have a long list and a short budget.  I have finished my Grandmothers gift though, I can show here since I doubt she will see this. {I love her, but she isn't the most tech savvy} I would love to say it was original but I got the design from the free family tree that you can download from Family Tree Magazine. I then hand inked a prepared canvas. I am really happy with how it turned out, except for my hand writing {I have came to the conclusion that it won't ever get better, and I will just have to deal}. The finished piece is on  16 x 12.

I am thinking about doing more, I figure the more I do the better each will be.  Maybe the next will be more modern?



We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies. ~Shirley Abbott

The Start

Ahhh yes, the blog. My first to be exact. I am sure I will be playing with themes and colors, but right now I can live with this one.
I plan on posting, at least once a week, photos, documents, stories, questions and the like that I come across in my journey through my family history.

So were do I start, at the beginning is usually the best place, but when you are working on family history where is that? Well, lets start at piece of interesting news. I am directly related to Pocahontas! Yes, that one.
I'm not going to do a history lesson that's not the point of this but I will give you some facts.

1. You might find her under 3 (yes, three) names
1. Pocahontas (the most common) a nickname meaning "Little Wanton" <playful girl>
2. Matoaka (her birth name)
3. Rebecca (her Christian name)
2. No she did NOT marry John Smith, but actually John Rolfe.
3. She died in 1617 of a respiratory illness, either pneumonia or tuberculosis.
4. Disney's representation is mostly wrong. In fact the Powhatan tribe told Disney that they would work with them telling the story, but Disney refused.

You can check out more at Preservation Virgina and The Pocahontas Myth. Of course there are scores more, but I figure you can find them yourself.