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I am Claudia Minor, 49, and grew up in Kirksville, MO.  Now living in Blue  
Springs, near KC, MO.    I am a technical illustrator for Harmon Ind. and  
love my job there, but my passion is genealogy.  I have been doing genealogy  
for the passed 4 years. I started out at the genealogy library in  
Independence, MO. , going every weekend to try and pick up bits and pieces  
of info.  My son Grady - 28, convinced me to try the internet.  Wow was it  
overwhelming at first!  It has also been an additional help for my son Sam -  
15, who has used it for school.  I am single ..... again .... *sigh* ... but  
I have met several people and I am now dating some one I met through the  
internet.  One has to be careful, which I have been, but I figure it is just  
a new way to meet people and actually it is much better than most other ways  
I have found.  Life is a series of chances.....  The fellow I met is  
actually related by marriage to me through my mothers aunt.  Small world!  I  
have come in contact with his uncle and have gathered additional genealogy  
that way also.  

Personally, in my genealogy search, I have had extremely good fortune the  
passed few months.  Most all the additional information I have gathered has  
been from meeting people searching for the same surnames as I am.  So the  
possibilities of contacts through the internet has been the soul source of  
my gathering of genealogy.  Places like rootsweb have provided me that  
avenue.  I am on several lists and I am hopeful that I will meet people in  
other countries who are willing to help me as I am them.  I plan to write a  
book, one for my father's side and one for my mothers side.  I want to have  
it entered into the library of congress.  This of course will be a long term  
process.  I think I am doing that because I want to leave a small mark  
behind.  
I have never used or found the CD's one can buy useful.  I guess I don't  
really trust the them.  I need hard data to back up my genealogy, and I need  
to go back and gather proof of some of the info I have.  I have not supplied  
any genealogy for these CD's and won't until I am certain that all the info  
is correct!  
I plan to go to Virginia next summer with my sons, parents and brother and  
his wife.  We will all take time out to do some genealogy research.  It will  
be fun doing it as a family.  

A bit of my search:  

Major Surname  
Last known date and location  
General source of contact  

Minor  
1720  ?, Locust Hill, Middlesex Co., VA to Kentucky to Adair County Missouri  
Have found 4 people on the internet searching the same surname.  
We share info and email often but have become stuck in 1720.  

Haldeman  
1838 ?, Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa. to Knox County Missouri  
Info I started with but have a contact in Knox County I need to follow up  
with.  

Jones  
1794  Neath, Glamorgan, Wales to Bevier, Macon County, Missouri  
I found a lady on the internet searching the same line  
and we have added to our genealogy.  
She barters with a fellow in Wales for genealogy in exchange for  
Christmas lights. *smile*  

Cloren  
1795  KILLARNEY, Sligo County, Ireland to Novinger, Adair County, Missouri  
Obtained a book from a Family reunion this summer.  
Dad has book and haven't added all the info.  
Date goes back farther.  

 Milnes  
1822 ENGLAND, LEEDS COUNTY to Moberly, Missouri  
Obtained a book from a Family reunion this summer.  
Dad has book and haven't added all the info.  
Date goes back farther.  

O'Connor  
1800's  Wexford, Co., Ireland to Fort Dodge, Iowa  
Family records haven't found any additional info  
and just starting to look.  

Karlsson  and   Samuelsson  
700's AD  KRISTDALA, SWEDEN to Fort Dodge, Iowa  
A fellow from Sweden found me and took  
me back in history, he is still helping me!  

That's it, in a nut shell.  
For additional info see the following:  

http://www.qni.com/~cminor/Tree/tree.htm            My genealogy page  
http://www.qni.com/~cminor/MoonDance.htm      My home page  
 5/1998-coordinator for Knox County, MO. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~moknox/
12/1998-coordinator for Adair County, MO. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~moadair/
 

birthday: May 20   

home page:  http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mporter   
USGenWeb county coordinator for:    
Multnomah Co. OR   https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ormultno/   
Benton Co. WA      https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wabenton/   
Clinton Co. MO     https://sites.rootsweb.com/~moclinto/    

Actively Researching:    
BENNETT 1830 IN->Clackamas Co.OR 1850 ->Union Co. OR 1870   
BIRD VA 1776->1810 Barren Co KY->1830 Marshall Co.IL->1847 Clackamas Co. OR    
PORTER Schoharie Co. NY 1820 -> Clinton Co. MO 1890->1948 Benton Co. WA    
STROUD Warren Co. TN 1780 ->1840 Benton Co. ARK->OK->1930 Benton Co WA    
ZOLLNER 1840 Bavaria->1860 Brown Co. MN->1870 Marion Co. OR

Am the office supervisor for Wright County Historical and Genealogical   
Society.  Full time, low paying, highly rewarding job.  Believe that life   
is more to be laughed at than cried about, so not wired too tight.  Job   
description:  Digging up dead people.   

Researching my family lines that seem to just end.  Explanation:  Rippee   
goes back to a James Rippee who seems to have had neither parents, nor   
wife.  Fathered several children, so assume wife existed.  Jones should   
have been McSwain, but when he murdered a man and fled for his life, he   
changed his name and seems to have no parents either.  Bramhall goes back   
to Jacob, who apparently had no parents although he fought in the Indian   
Wars in a unit from Tennessee.  Born in Virginia and connected to royalty,   
or serfs thereof.  Pierson goes back to dear old Jeremiah, who seems to   
have had no parents.  Stacy is traced 'way back thanks to the efforts of   
cousin Barbara in Marysville, CA.  However, great-grandmother Sarah Stacy   
Pierson just disappeared.   

Can find some connection to every old time Wright County family.  What   
sections of the county dad's relatives didn't cover, mom's did.  While they   
teased each other about being related, they never knew that they actually   
shared a common great-grandmother.  Guess that explains the saying, "My   
mother and father were cousins--that's why I look so much alike."   

Just glad to be here.   
Phyllis   
 

Gosh!  I've spent long hours on the Lincoln County site this past month,  
and enjoyed every minute of it, but writing about myself is hard to do.  
Okay, here goes . . .  

I was born  and raised in Ford County, Kansas, and came to Seattle in 1957.  
 My family is here, but my roots are still in the midwest.  "You can take  
the girl out of Kansas, but you can't take Kansas out of the girl."  

I became involved in genealogy about 13 years ago.  And you all know how  
that interest grows and becomes an addiction.  My interest awakened  
suddenly and full blown while traveling in the British Isles.  I came home  
from that trip wanting to know everything I could.  Not surprisingly, it  
turns out that my heritage is from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  

Like most of us, I'm addicted, and four years ago, I completed the  
Certificate Program in Genealogy and Family History at the University of  
Washington.  My project was, "James Haddock Yates . . . a Confederate  
Private in the Civil War."  

I retired from The Boeing Company three years ago after 37 years mostly in  
the field of publications (broadly speaking), participating in the field  
from the days of blueprints, ink drawings, cold type and pasteup, through  
the development of computerization of the entire process.  I have always  
loved the field and enjoyed participating in all the advances it made.  
Publishing on the web in HTML has been a natural progression for both  
genealogy and publications.  And being a CC affords me the opportunity to  
be very involved in several fields which I dearly love -- genealogy,  
computuers and publishing.  It also affords me the opportunity to combine  
and use my skills to aid other researchers.  Being CC of Lincoln County  
also affords me the opportunity to do this in a county where I already have  
deep roots.  

My paternal grandparents and great-grandparents were from Lincoln County,  
so I was already researching in the county when the previous CC was ready  
to retire, he asked if I would want to take it.  I live in Seattle --  
halfway across the United States from Lincoln County.  I've never lived in  
Lincoln County or Missouri, but the appeal of taking a county where I have  
roots and where I research appealed to me.  

My own research and home page have gone neglected since I took over the  
Lincoln County page, but I'm having fun and enjoying working on Lincoln  
County.  

I've found Lincoln County researchers to be very generous, willing and  
eager participants in the process of further expansion of the Lincoln  
County site.  I've started a new page on our Lincoln County site that I'm  
most excited about.  It is "Lincoln County Families and Heritage Records."  
This is photos, diaries, biographies, bible records, wills, newspaper  
clippings, obituaries, letters, miscellaneous and assorted records, etc.  
Most of them will eventually wind up in the archives.  But in the meantime,  
I'm hyperlinking the cross-referenced names between records.  I've received  
numerous notes from researchers who have made new discoveries on their  
lines through these records.  

I'm working some days 8-10 hours on our pages and almost keeping up with  
the information that folks are sending in for our pages.  It's rewarding to  
me to both participate in its growth, and also facilitate the involvement  
of other Lincoln County researchers in their contributions towards the  
growth and value of the site.  

So here I am.  

My husband Wayne also retired from Boeing at the same time as I.   We  
needed more space in our home for the pursuits we retired to do.  So we are  
in the process of finishing up a remodel project of our home -- a research  
room for me and a shop for him.  We operated as contractor and hired our  
subs.  For anyone who has done that, you know how hard and frustrating it  
is and how long it takes.  We still have a lot of work to do before it's  
finished.  But my beautiful new research room is completed and I've been  
working IN it for the last two months, instead of ON it!  

It's been a very busy, but productive time!  

Patricia Summers Smith  
County Coordinator, Lincoln Co., MO USGenWeb-MOGenWeb:  
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~molincol/molincoln.htm  
E-mail:  <[email protected]> or <[email protected]>  
Shorewood Place Home Page -- http://www.geocities.com/~shorewoodplace/  
Genealogy / Midi Music / Seattle & Pacific Northwest / Potpourri  
Researching:  Belt, Dawkins, Dorsey, Duley, Ferguson, Greenberry,   
Griffith, Holman, Hilton, Humston, Jordan, Lane, McMurry, Pedigo,   
Penix, Quarles, Ray, Settle, Straube, Todd, Wells, Yates   
 

I was born in Madison Twp., Cedar Co. (the year of the strange  
penny), have lived  in Kansas City and near Chicago, IL.   Found out  
I didn't like the big city life and came on back to the hills where  
I plan to remain.  I quit working early in 1996 (demon Arthritis)  
so I do genealogy everyday now instead of once in awhile!  I have  
three daughters, a son-in-law, a granddaughter, Shelby McKay age 6  
and a grandson, Griffin Edward age 3.  

Most of my Missouri research:  My Griffin line in Polk Co. and my  
Blackburn line in Lawrence Co.  

Researching:  ALSBURY, BELL, BLACKBURN, COPLIN/COPLAND/, FOX,  
GRIFFIN, HARVEY, JENNINGS, JONES, McINTOSH, O'NEAL, PYLAND, SHARP, SNOW, TRIMBLE, WATSON, WYNES and others.

I was born 4 Nov 1960 and am married with 2 young boys ages 4 and 7.  
I have a computer background and have been actively involved in  
genealogy for about 3 years now.   Part of my growing up years were  
spent in Oregon County (age 9-17) so I am familiar with the towns,  
people and area.  

I have really enjoyed being a part of the USGENWEB project and I  
hope that I will be able to help as many people as possible discover  
more about their Oregon County, MO heritage.  

BTW, I am reseaching the surnames GREER, JOHNSON (what fun),   
SPRINGFIELD, MARTIN, STANDLEY and GROOMS.  
 

After serving in Vietnam I obtained a BS in Chemistry from the University of Missouri. Afterwards I received an MA in Business Administration from the University of Iowa. Currently, I work for a major chemical company. I have a fine wife (who has never understood the fascination for tombstones), two excellent daughters (who also have never understood the fascination for tombstones), one grandson (working with him on the tombstones), and two grandchildren in the "ovens".

My interest in genealogy began, in earnest, over twenty years ago. During that time I have collected a large library of common and uncommon information on the county and people from the county. The other thing that I have collected is a large number of friends, relatives, and strangers who have helped me in my own research. So when the "opportunity" arose to become the coordinator for Cooper County; I decided it was time to repay those who helped me. I have tried to do that by placing that collection of information on the MoCooper site.

If you agree that it is of benefit to you, may you too would like to repay those who helped you. You can do that by helping transcribe more information to be place on the county site. If not, I still thank you for dropping by.

Thanks to being so active with USGenWeb, I don't have the time for a  
personal home page, or for my own research but if you have 'em... I descend  
from the Gold & Lent/Lentz lines in Stone County and the Roller's of Barry  
County.

I am married and a mother of 2; John, 8 and Corinne, 5.  I work two  
part-time jobs. One at a contact lens manufacturing company and the  
second as the secretary for my church.  I am a native Californian and  
has never been to Missouri until last summer when I took both kids in  
the van and drove across the country to visit my relatives in Newton  
County.  I fell in love with the area and felt like I had been there  
before.  So, when the county pages came up for adoption, I jumped at  
the chance.  I feel like it is my way to honor my relatives who had  
worked, lived and died there.  (My great uncle helped build a lot of  
the highways in the area and Camp Crowder.)  

Birthday:  February 15  
Anniversary:  August 25  

Surnames:  Bennett, Clark, Coffelt, Denniston, Dodson, Harris, Isley,  
Mickleberry, Nichols, Shilling, Wallace, Wasson, Wyatt  

Personal Site:  http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/2303  
Besides genealogy, my favorite hobby is cloth doll making.  

Now, I have had things that I think should go to the archives, but not  
knowing how to do it, I have put them up at the County page under  
Newton County Research.  I have cemetery records, census, school  
records, indexes to a couple of Newton County books and soon there  
will be more.  The people on my list are so wonderful - transcribing  
things for me to put up.  

Hugs,  
Claire  
[email protected]  
County Coordinator Newton County  MOGENWEB project:  
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~monewton/newton.html  
 

While my ancestors seem to come from an ever increasing number of states  
(mostly in the South), my grand passion is Greene County, Missouri,  
where it seems like I'm related to at least half the people in the NW  
quadrant of the county in the 1800's.  One of my pet projects,  
tangential to my own line, is trying to track how all those families are  
interrelated---I'm finding any number of kinfolk who I didn't know were  
related to each other, but I'm sure they did.  And my current project of  
transcribing the material from the Archives in Greene County is helping  
me to see those relationships and teaches me how to be of more use to  
those searching for Greene County ancestors  
[email protected] * [email protected]  
Mine: b 5/30/53, m 8/4/83