One day, as I was searching the web to learn more about my genealogy, I stumbled upon the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Descendants Database. I found information about my ancestor, Stephen Butterworth and discovered I could purchase record copies (copies...
The information I have about Edward (Edwin) Wills is very limited and comes primarily from census data. I have not been able to pinpoint his exact year of birth, his age varies from one census to another by just a couple of years. I am a descendant through his son...
John Harvey Wills, the father of my great grandmother Lottie Mae Wills, was born in Bedford County, Virginia according to his reporting in various census records. The 1900 census has him in the Cabin Creek District of Kanawha County WV. It gives his birth date as...
Honzura Rider was born April 7, 1888. His birth record has him named Hans Ulrich Rider. Somehow this became Honzura but there isn't much record to explain when he started using Honzura. I've just assumed it was a breakdown of pronunciation of Hans Ulrich since he...
Meet my grandfather, Virgil Floyd Rider. Virgil was born August 11, 1912 in Kanawha County, West Virginia. The birth certificate that I have was generated from an affidavit from his father when Virgil was 27 years old so it doesn't have much more in the way of any...
The image featured above is located on USGen Web and is identified as Kemp, Z Willis As I did some exploring on this name, I found quite a lot of information and it reaffirmed the identity of the man whose name I found on the back of a cabinet photo in an album I...
After a long time away from my blog, my genealogy projects and my other hobbies I finally had the opportunity to work them back into my routine. I decided to do a little exploring at some area shops and spend some time with two of my favorite people, my daughter...
Ward, West Virginia was a coal mining town in existence soley because of the Kelly’s Creek mining operation. At it’s heart, just like many other similar communities in coal mining areas, was a company store. Read about it here.
The Five Mile Sunday School Class was a little project sponsored by the Ward Communty Church. It was located at the head of Five Mile, in the section then known as Number 6. The weekly gatherings took place from 1927 to 1929 and were attended by nearly 100 people each week.
I can only imagine what Christmas must have been like at Ward, WV. I was not there and have only the stories of grandparents, aunts, uncles and people who comment here on this blog to kindle my imagination. I believe it was special time. It was such a close-knit community, I know this because of how many still seek out the reunions and come here to my blog to remember it.