As the children of Paul R. Franklin and Catherine Sadie Abernathy, we spent years wondering where our families were. You see, Mom married Dad in 1954, and, as he was a SGT in the Air Force, she was whisked away from her home and roots in Lafayette, AL, and spent less than 3 years in any town/state/country at a time afterwards; 34 years later, by June 2, 1988--the date of her passing here in Illinois--she had only seen her Mother (Winnie Gilliland), Father (Lloyd Clyde Abernathy) and sister, Lois (Smith), once or twice in that time.

My sisters and I determined that we would make up for all those years Mom longed for 'her' family, and, finally, parents of our own children now, have at long last made headway in tracing our Abernathy AND Franklin roots.
The journey encompasses Franklins, Gibsons, Williams', and Tates...and, on Mom's side, Abernathy's, Gillilands, Milfords and Creeds....
We hope that the results of our long search might be of value (and discovery!) to others seeking their roots so close to ours...

• Our Franklin - Abernathy Tree (883 KB)
  Some (SC, KY, TN, GA, AL, IL) surnames: Abernathy, Franklin, Milford, Gibson, Gilliland, Copeland, Starr, Tate, Boyd, and more...

Shea Ryan
shear@a5.com

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