My Portfolio

With our large family moving to different parts of the country it becomes more and more difficult to do things collectively that we all can enjoy. One thing's for sure, many of us in the family love NFL football. Realizing that some are not as football literate as others, Dad decided...

I began my genealogy obsession looking for my great-grandfather, Harry Thurman Mercer. My mom and uncle really didn't know much about his life story as a small boy or anything about his family.  We all believed him to be an only child.  I knew he was born and died in Illinois...

There are a number of stories and legends behind Missouri's sobriquet "Show-Me" state. The slogan is not official, but is common throughout the state and is used on Missouri license plates. The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United...

My Fathers STORY (George Russell Enlow, son of Benson Campbell Enlow & Idesta Danley) With the little bit that I can remember I will try to recall some of my life before I was married.  Born June 9, 1915 in Donora, Pa., which is south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River. ...

Margaret talks about sport at school in Lincoln, UK during the late 1930's and early 1940's.

Bill recalls the delight he got from getting his first motor bike in Adelaide in the 1930's.

Joyce recalls what she did after school when she lived in Peterborough,South Australia as a child in the 1940's

This is a picture of my grandparents on my mother's side of the family.  It was Abram Huffman and Electa Peyton Huffman. 

That's my mother to the right of them.

When this picture was taken, it was close to their house.  And I can see the big grape arbor that they had.  They had a wash house and coal house built as one building.  It was like two rooms. One was the wash room and the other was the coal house.  

I've smelled cows, and I'm tired of smelling cows. That's the reason I got away from them.  They are very stinky beasts.  And when you are around livestock, you smell like livestock. It's just -- I don't know, there are a lot of nice things.  In the spring when the flowers...

Jill talks about her carefree childhood growing up in Clare South Australia.  She tells us how she played dolls and dress up with her friends and describes a variety of other childhood games.

Throughout my life I have come across a lot of smells.  One of the smells I enjoyed a lot was Estae Lauder used to make a perfume.  I think they called it Estae. I thought that was the best smelling stuff I ever came across.  I found out what it was...

I think this was around the time I was in the sixth or seventh grade or something.  Anyhow, while we were sitting there in the classroom, the nun had me get up.   I used to be an altar boy, and we had to speak our prayers in Latin.  She was...

Jill recalls family meals while growing up in Clare, South Australia.  

Jill remembers her Dad, her best family friend.

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Amateur Clam Hunters Living off the land means more than hunting in the forests for small game; or digging up wild onions; or raiding beehives for honey.  Fishing in streams, ponds, and in saltwater also qualifies as living off...

What are the things that make me most proud of my country?

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Discovering Chincoteague Bay- An Update February 2012 ...The future excites us and stirs our thoughts about what the next adventures will bring. While many of the older Chronicles of a Footloose Forester were about memories captured...

The 4th- The celebration of our Country's Independence from England.  Let's focus on the pieces of the whole for a moment and celebrate the common every-day citizens who, over the centuries, have voluntarily (and let's not forget not so voluntarily-drafted) stepped into harms way to protect the initial Declaration of Independence...

Now I’d like to introduce this fine lot

From Papa to Doyle – the very last tot.

Approximately 85 of Col John Hazzard Carson's many descendants met in Marion, NC on the third weekend in June 2012, for the first weekend reunion.  John was born in 1752 in the Kingdom of Ireland and emigrated to America in 1773.  In 1775, he moved to Burke County, North Carolina in an area...