My Appalachian Heritage

I continue to research my Appalachian heritage. I recently joined the United Daughters of the Confederacy [UDC] under one of my Appalachian Ancestors ---- Samuel Augustus Billips. He was in Company H of the 8th Virginia Calvary. He was a Teamster for the Calvary and was active the entire war. He is my Great-Grandfather.

I will post his photo when I can get the format right... I don't have time at present to fight my computer about it... I will also be posting info on my other ancestors, so if you are at all interested feel free to check back.

Is there anywhere immune???

It seems these days that there is nowhere immune to senseless violence.

Today there was a massive massacre at Virginia Tech which is located in Virginia on the eastern side of the Appalachians....

A few years ago it was the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, VA... [in the heart of the coalfields].

Gunmen and death... senseless death..... I suppose we are no longer isolated in these hills... while there are good benefits..... the way our society is changing, the uncertainty of it all... is rather overwhelming...

Spring on the Appalachian Plateau

I was thinking today about spring and things my aunt used to say about it... There was a tree that when she saw it blooming she would get excited.. she called it SARVICE.. it is actually the Downy Serviceberry. It is indiginous to appalachia. It blooms in the spring [white] and is one of the first great bloomers.

According to what I have read about it, this tree was used years ago to decorate graves of those who had passed during the winter months....... It is definately a beautiful tree

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=9

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/b/r/a/Lisa-G-Bradford/

This is the site where I have my Appalachian Roots at. I have done work on my family history for nearly 30 years. {Of course not every day and every hour.. but needless to say... a long time} I have traveled to many of the places they lived, worked and now are buried. I began in an effort to learn more of where my roots were and where I came from.. all of this was at the time of Alex Haley's "ROOTS" miniseries etc. But I stuck with it.....

Suffice it to say I have had my share of "brick walls" along the way.

I am going to my hometown for Easter and hope to have some photos to post when I return.

My Newest Blog

This is my new blog for everything I can think of know of or want to know of Appalachian.

I was born in WV, but my mothers people have lived in Far Southwest Virginia for 200+ years... and my father people are from Western North Carolina [also Appalachian] for just about as long... the only branch of the family not from either area came to Appalachia in the late 1880's due to the opening of the coalfields and the advent of the railroad.

I have worked on Genealogy for my family lines for the past 28 years [off and on] and now manage several web pages for everything from grave stone listings to USGENWEB counties to personal genealogy sites.

I don't know everything I post, but I hope to make this the other side of me... My other blog is all things University of Virginia and knitting [two of my passions]