Our Family Stories Database is Growing

This Family Stories Blog was established to share with family, friends and fellow genealogists some of the stories I have gathered during nearly thirty years of family history research.  It links with my companion website, Family Stories, pamgarrett.com, that houses my genealogy database and an extensive collection of documents, notes, biographies, and photos.  I’m delighted to announce that my database website is growing!

This week I have added about five hundred new family members to my online database, along with significant details about many of their lives.  These are my paternal ancestors and their families: Hutchison, Wilson, Faulds, Tanner, Smith, Jones, Mouser, and Dunaway.  Over the next few weeks I will blog thumbnail sketches on these families and invite you to visit their personal pages on the database website to learn more. 

Researching my paternal ancestors has been an adventure.  My great-grandfather, Robert Hutchison, was an immigrant to the United States in 1880.  He seems to have traveled alone, leaving his mother, step-father, siblings, and half-siblings in his birthplace of Ayrshire Scotland.   He worked in the coal mines of Missouri and Oklahoma.  So far, all of my Scottish research has been accomplished online, in libraries, or via books, but I am hanging on to my dream of visiting Ayrshire someday. 

My other paternal great-grandfather, Wyatt Tanner, has been harder to track.  With the help of my sleuthing partners (Mom and Dad) I have placed him in his butcher shop in Wapanucka Oklahoma, and then moved him backwards through Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri.  A determined effort finally connected him to parents and a likely grandfather, but earlier ancestry remains a mystery.    

I’m excited to introduce these ancestors, and to share a few of their stories.  I hope you will join me for the fun!