If you’re lucky enough to find letters written by family members or their friends, you’ll likely find valuable genealogical information. This post is about one such letter shared with me, and the things I learned from it.
Bios & Stories
Jim Hankins’s Letter to his Cousin Tom Hankins
Family Stories: James Arton Hopkins & Lucinda Howard
Three of my great-grandparents were still alive when I was born and Lucinda was one of them. My grandfather, Cindy’s son Elmer, went to check on his mother and her sister Sarie, who lived with her, every day after they moved back to Wallins Creek, Kentucky in the 40s. He lived less than ten miles […]
2022 Hopkins Family Reunion
Descendants of James Arton Hopkins and Lucinda Howard gathered in Lexington, Kentucky on 10 September 2022 for a reunion. The weather cooperated, the food was delicious, and the fellowship was the highlight of the day. We even worked in a little family history. Jim and Cindy had ten children, twenty grandchildren, forty-four great-grandchildren, and at […]
Family Stories: John Cook Taylor and Emma Jane Owens
Three of my great-grandparents were still alive when I was born. Two of them were my maternal grandmother’s parents, John Cook Taylor and Emma Jane Owens. My parents and I moved to Mt. Vernon, where Paw and Granny lived, when I was six months old. Paw died before I was two years old, so I […]
Branching Out: The Kruegers
All of my identified immigrant ancestors arrived in what is now the U.S. before the Revolutionary War. A few holes exist in my family tree where a post-Revolutionary War immigrant might fit. But so far I haven’t found one and the possibilities seem slim in most cases. The Krueger family is the closest I have […]
Family Stories: Elmer Dennis Hopkins and Emma Ewers Taylor
The latest edition of Family Stories is about my maternal grandparents, Elmer Dennis Hopkins and Emma Ewers Taylor. I’m the oldest of four children. Mamaw and Papaw were a constant in our lives. After Papaw retired from the Louisville & Nashville Railroad when I was eight years old, they were around even more. Almost every […]
Family Stories: Albert Elvie Hankins and Isabella Jane Goodloe
I’m finally moving faster with the family stories I started working on a year ago. The stories for my 2nd great-grandparents Albert Elvie Hankins and Isabella Jane Goodloe and their children are now available. Albert and Janie were both born and raised in Hopkins County, Kentucky, and lived there their entire lives. They married on […]
Family Stories: John R. Petty and Margaret E. Thomas
Way back on January 1, I had a plan to publish biographies for ancestral couples and their children throughout the year. That hasn’t gone quit like I planned. I did publish stories for my great-grandparents Lee and Samantha Petty Hankins and their children in March. And now the next family—Samantha’s parents and siblings—is finally ready. […]
Family Stories: Thomas Leander Hankins and Samantha Angeline Petty
As promised in my New Year’s Day post (although over two months late), today I published the first set of stories featuring an ancestral couple and their children. First up are my great-grandparents Thomas Leander “Lee” Hankins and Samantha Angeline Petty of Hopkins County, Kentucky, and their seven children. Three of their children died young—daughter […]
