First Post

I never entertained the idea of creating a blog until just recently. Most blogs I have seen just didn't interest me, probably because they involved interests or themes that I just didn't relate to. Then it finally occurred to me to compose a blog that did relate to me.

It was about twenty years ago that my dad and sister first created our family tree. Information was scarce then, and this was before everyone had a PC and the internet in their home. I wasn't at all that interested back then, but I did try to sneak a peek at the occasional photograph.

Around 2000, using the internet, I became inspired to use the internet to add as much information as I could to an old printout of our family tree that Dad gave me. Most of this information could not really be verified, but it was the strangest sensation... to feel as if I was finding the "pieces to the puzzle."

It wasn't until just recently, after the birth of my children, that I took the hobby of genealogy more seriously. I checked out the websites that were more verifiable, like ancestry.com, familysearch.org, and findagrave.com. I visited libraries, the occasional courthouse, and numerous churches and cemeteries with Mom and Dad. Through these little ventures, I was able to add information to our family tree that was reliable, and that could be backed up with evidence. Some of that information was surprising. On the flip side, some of the branches of our tree have had to be completely removed, either because of misleading evidence, or evidence that just didn't exist.

In a nutshell, Family History research is now an invested hobby near and dear to me, and it is really the only hobby about which I could feasibly blog. Initially, my idea was to create a comprehensive family book for my children (and their children's children), in which they would be able to trace mine and my wife's trees back as far as possible, with evidence to back up the data. I realize now that I have a long road ahead of me, and tons of research waiting before I can compile everything that I've learned.

Until then, I plan on using this blog as a journal to detail those ventures, including information I've already discovered. As a bonus, I've come across many distant relatives who are on the same path, researching their family lines. I'm hoping that new relatives will surface as they run across this blog... and we are able to compare notes and figure out yet another piece to the puzzle, which is really one of the ultimate goals of genealogy.

If you would like to contact me, my email is joshsheltongraphics(at)gmail.com ("@" in place of "(at)"). The surnames I research are Shelton, Duke, Moon, Hood, Powell, Walker, Biggerstaff, Stansberry, Walker, Dodson, Stephenson, Bearden, Bell, and Bailey. Geographically, I am focusing on the Southeast Tennessee area, then Northeast Alabama and North Georgia, and finally Western North Carolina and Southwest Virginia.