One of my favorite things is having opportunities to pitch in to help spruce up The Owen Pioneer Home. I enjoy the feeling of traveling back in time, imagining what it must have been like long before the hurried lifestyle of modern technology and roadways. Spending a...
In 2013, after having the intention of doing it since about 1995, I finally got around to pursuing membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. I can't say why I put it off for so long when I had the most difficult part of it ready to go. I...
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.