Many years ago I began
working on my family tree and soon became quite addicted! I
took the very little bit of information that my mother knew
about her family and began to put the pieces of the puzzle
together. I have no idea why she never ordered her father's
death certificate but when I did, the information was amazing.
A few trips to cemeteries finding tombstones of relatives
Charlie and I knew nothing about, I have saved several photos
of those headstones on webpages and tried to write a little
bit about those new discoveries.
My mother didn't know much
about her parents since she was orphaned at the age of 4 and
raised by her mother's McClain parents.
Once I had my family tree up
and looking fabulous, I began on my late husband's family and
found one of his cousins, Clarence Bearden, posting on the
internet, doing the same thing with the Brooks lineage. I
phoned Clarence and he sent me some research papers on John
Brooks born 1837 and some pictures of Thomas Randolph Carter
family. Clarence's mother is my husband's
Aunt Sissy, actually named Elizabeth Brooks and she had called
my husband's daddy, Bubba.
I never knew that
before.
I called Charlie's
cousin, Sue Carol, about Mary Ella's lineage and found that
her husband, Wayne Bozeman, was also my cousin, WOW
!!
Sue Carol drove me and
Beverly up to Central one day to see the tombstones of Mary
Partridge and George Thornton, a couple of there great
grandparents from Georgia, buried behind an old Primitive
Baptist Church. This is past Santuck on hwy 9 going down to
the flashing caution light and taking a right
turn.
Wayne and Sue Carol had dug
deeply into his lineage and they were amazed with my Bozeman
research. They had been to the graves at Hope Hull, but
so had Clarence Bearden and he had also published an article
about his findings there on the Alabama Cemetery Preservation
webpage. The cemetery is located just off I-65 at the Hope
Hull Exit, turn left and go a few miles to McLean Road and
take another right.
Beverly took me to Hope Hull
and our findings were extremely fascinating and we took many
pictures
Then we went to Dublin to
further our reearch and to Elmore County and I have many other
pictures within.
Beverly gave me a new
computer for Christmas 2006 with a free subscription to
ancestry.com and I have saved hundreds of old documents, and
census images showing the tracks of our
ancestors.
Wayne loaned me his copy of a
book written about the Bozemans and I have also scanned those
pages into my research. Two pages of this book are about
Mordecai, and his sons Peter, John and
James.
I have posted my huge family
tree on the internet to share at rootsweb.com and there is
another relative online researching the Brooks lineage of
Tennessee and Alabama
New relatives write to me all
the time, I have dozens and dozens of emails from people
asking for information, sharing their lineage, letting me know
that we are related.
I joined several genealogy
mailing lists and message boards online and once tried to
contact a Donna Burdette but her mother wrote back to me,
being from the Bozeman line - Elizabeth is the granddaughter
of Ethel Mae Bozeman, the sister of my great granny
Lorena.
Jimmy Ray Bozeman wrote to me
and met me and Elizabeth at Dublin in May 2007, my daughter
Beverly drove us there and we met a lot of Ethel Mae's family
there and some elderly children of Uncle Bob Bozeman's
family. We explored the old family cemetery way behind
Hills Chapel Church, out in the woods and found the grave of
Peter Edward Bozeman and his daughter in law Alice Lorena
Stephens Bozeman.
Peter's son John had been
married to Alice. Alice was our great great granny, rich
with Cherokee blood.
I can see how she named my
great granny Emma Lorena Bozeman but where did she get the
name for Ethel Mae. Aunt Ethel had written a story about
her parents, published in the Montgomery Advertiser around
1970.
I asked these people at
Dublin if they knew anything about Lorena 's husband Charlie
McClain and they said he was a good man, cross eyed, and never
had a tombstone.
December 2007 a new cousin,
Glenda, sends an email. Cousin to my mother in law, she
is a wonderful new friend. We are researching Ella
Olivia Baxley Hood and her parents of Holtville. Beverly
takes me to Coosa River Primitive Baptist Church cemetery
where we find several family graves, Louisa Miranda Holt and
James Hardie Baxley, of the Civil War and down the road at
Cains Chapel Cemetery we find the grave of Ella and her
husband L W Hood and their children, including "Bubber"
Bessie Mae Hood Thornton ( the mother of Mary Ella Thornton
Brooks ).
My mother was an indian and
my father had some indian blood so I am certainly interested
in all native american history, finding a lot being uploaded
to usgenweb.com
My Dad's sisters are near 90
and well Bernice is 92 and they sent me information and
pictures of the old ones and copies of their own genealogy
worksheets, which have been very helpful with my Cochran
lineage. My grandpa Cochran was married to a Coonfield
which has much indian history coming out of 1800s Kentucky,
Civil War and travels across the nation.
Several of my ancestors
served in the American Revolution and the Civil War and I find
it amazing to cross their names in our nation's
history.
Many books are written
including a portion of our family; Grandpa Coonfield being
listed in the history of Morgan County Indiana; Grandpa
Little in the DAR books and Kentucky History; Sketches
of Bozeman published in 1885 mentions Peter Bozeman moving to
Alabama; Stephens Ancestors book at Ramer Library
written by a cousin Clyde Stephens who wrote to me a few years
ago and sent a package of papers to my home for my
research; Fenn families in Georgia history and in the
Early Settlers of Barbour County
Alabama.
Jimmy Ray Bozeman's daughter
is currently working to get our Peter Bozeman recognized at
the DAR which will open doors for many many Alabama Bozeman
researchers.
January 2008 Peter has been approved!!!
Peter's son William Henry Bozeman has a large
lineage here.
Peter's son Jesse is the one
found buried at Hope Hull.
Everything I find is printed
to my notebook and also saved on a
webpage,
Kathy
Dream Catcher
background with lots of my links
Brooks of
Tennessee
