took a pic of Resthaven when we drove past today.....

it's so pretty with all the flowers...and I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa would appreciate how neatly mowed it always is!

A Fri. Flashback picture. Charles Pierce, Kent Doze and his dad Dick Doze. Taken in Carbondale, Ks around 1968.

back reads: "Pop, Mom., Evie, Jim, Leland, John, & Grace Maxwell."

back of photo inscribed "Feb. 15, 1953" I know Great Grandpa Tom Maxwell is second from left, Grandpa Vermal Brown in middle, and Great Grandma Gilly Maxwell 3rd from left.

picked up cemetery flowers....then took Katie to Kyla's....

thought I 'd look for my great grandpa's stone at Christian Union (where I think he's buried....) there is a church but no cemetery by it. drove around a bit and gave up. will have to investigate further.

back of photos stamped May 1996...no details. this is obviously Aunt Minerva looking at an old tombstone...

postcard from Aunt Minerva collection

Jacob's Well Coffee house and Shalom Bookstore are located at the west end of Elk Street in one of the oldest houses in Tazewell, Va. Friends of all ages meet in the warm candlelit atmosphere of the Coffeehouse for food and fellowship and to browse and buy at the Bookstore.

Emett, Marsha & baby, with her parents Eva, & Leland Maxwell. This is a 3 generation picture...at one of Aunt Minerva's June picnics.....love all the years of Polaroid pictures of families lined up on the back patio.....

John Maxwell & Minerva Maxwell Brown at Minerva's home 1997.

Vicki Bever Doze facebook pictures.....

This is another Flashback Friday picture taken of my cousins out at the Reed farm on Thanksgiving in 1957. It was taken with my old Brownie Box Camera when I was in the 5th grade! Cousins Debbie Melton, Donnie Keck and Ronnie Reed. Sure loved my cousins

I thought I'd share this picture now of my cousin the late Debbie Melton and me with my son Cubby. It was taken in 1969 with my Little Swinger Polaroid camera and the picture is no longer is the best condition

"Stories in families are colossally important. Every family has stories: some funny, some proud, some embarrassing, some shameful. Knowing them is proof of belonging to the family." -Salman Rushdie

Just met some very distant relatives while decorating Aunt Nan's grave and got to reminisce about times past...small world. Leave it to me and Katie Dailey to make friends at the cemetery!

my new friend said she was glad to see someone Katie's age decorating graves.....this is something Katie & I have done together since she was able to walk. I tell her the stories, she helps decorate. I hope someday she will continue this tradition when I am dead and gone, to keep the history going to the next generation. I'm sure I don't tell the stories the same way every time, but she knows the gist. and that's all that really matters!

tell you what, facebook is better than ancestry.com in my book (+ I don't even have ancestry.com......so....ummmmm....)

saw in a post that Mom & Brenda were going to Rachelle's grad, then saw in another post that my cousin's son Jace Shalz graduated! they're all growing up.....

when I first started doing genealogy long ago in our first apt. at the kitchen table with a typewriter Grandma Grace loaned me and a bunch of handwritten notebooks....

and I'd find things like "we think our oldest brother had 14 kids, but we have had no contact with him.....", "so and so said someones wife died in the 1930s, but we don't really know"...I'd be like WHAT? you DON'T know? but, alas.....my own immediate modern-day genealogy has a lot of holes.

I know lots of things, from facebook posts, google searches, newspapers....but don't really know the 'relatives'. yeah, some are distant. some I only see on the rare family occasion. Some objected to me putting things I found on my genealogy blog, and to respect their privacy, have removed such posts. Some things just can't go online. so have a notebook with them in it. (that is currently lost.) this is where I put all the rumors....the bad stuff. the private stuff.

Right now, this very morning, I log onto facebook and my sister Lisa has a post wishing our niece a happy high school graduation. google search for school website...yeah, Rachelle does graduate at 3p.m. today. Will her mom go? her girls aren't talking to her. she hasn't seen her kids for a long, long time. she lives within driving distance. but the emotional distance is sooooooo great. It is a hard decision. I don't understand what has happened to her family, I only know it had to be bad for her to leave her kids. This is her story. She gave birth to this girl, homeschooled her for many many years, watched her first steps, heard her first words. Watched her grow up. Graduation is a big thing.

I remember when Brenda called me out of the blue to tell me she had a 6 week old daughter. Rachelle was born on June 2nd, our mom and dads anniversary. Those were quiet years for Brenda, didn't hear much from her. she was living in Iowa, and I myself didn't have the internet or a cell phone back then, so I communicated by land line phone (and couldn't afford long-distance calls) and snail mail letters. She was an AIB graduate, a secretary, I think. She worked and lived with her boyfriend. and you just never saw her. Now she is back 'home', she was there for mom and dad at the end of his life. she has found a job in the area and is quietly living day by day. I believe she is a hero of sorts. Only she knows what is going on, she keeps it to herself. She is a brave, brave woman.

The 2014 Class of Chariton High School

from school website....obviously no invitations were sent out with the way things have went....

Congratulations on your successful completion of 13 years of formal education. The different pathways and journeys each of you have taken to reach this milestone will lead to new opportunities in the road that lies ahead. We hope along the way you have learned to be a “life-long learner” and are prepared to adapt with the twists and turns of the ever changing world we live in. Wherever the road takes you from here, we hope it leads you to a successful and prosperous future. The following list of seniors, if they complete all require-ments, will graduate as the class of 2014.

RACHELLE CRABB

Miss Ashley Crawford graduates from MIZZOU!

yes, I sure do!

had a facebook comment on a post.....

and met a family member....he gave me his #, I called, we had a conversation. He is Clifford "Jr." King, his mother was a sister to my Great Grandma Daisy. He said "Uncle Johnnie" had told him that he had the first new car in town. He talked about family members and memories and past reunions. He is 72. saved his # on my cell phone.

facebook messages:

Is this how you do private message? Hey Deb are you related to the Axsom family? My name is Junior or Clifford King. My grandma was Susie Boyd. I'd like to talk to you?

I forgot to tell you this. Grandma Susie Boyd was born in 1864. The civil War was from 1861 to 1865. She was born during the Civil War and I knew her well. That always amazes me.

Aunt Madge, moms sister who died at 24 I guess. Mother and her were very close as Madge was just a little younger then mom. She was hit in the head with a kitten ball. She lived a short time. Softball was called kitten ball back then. Mom had the sister die at 24. Mom was about 25 I think. Then mom had a son die when he was 15. Bullet glanced off the water as kids were shooting mud hens. Can't imagine the sorrow she felt having both those things happen to her.

Mothers Day 2014

Koren, Cody, & Ian came home! they made the rounds to see his parents, Great Grandma Marie, Grandpa Lije, Uncle John, Aunt Brenda, and Grandma Janet....and of course Grandma Deb and Grandpa Kevin and Aunt Kate & Uncle Bubba.

Jim, Leland, & Evie Maxwell

children of Tom & Gilly Maxwell.

~truth~