Research Ramblings

20 Jun 2021
Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!
Lots of family data has been flowing my way. Tammy JACKSON has forwarded (via Facebook) a lot of additional family information on our LONDON descendants. I also received a message from Monty GRAHAM. That was really exciting.

On the HUNTER side, Charles GODSEY has provided valuable information about some of our cousins.

For you SHULERs, I believe that I found the link from here in Morgan County, Indiana to our families in Grayson County, Virginia. A lot more exploring has to be done there.

Lastly, more additions to the CAMACHO family. My nephew Adam's wife Socorro.


25 May 2021
Finally contacted by some LONDON descendants. Thank you Tammy and Diane. This means the world to me.


24 May 2021
Finally... I have completed the acknowledgments page for the site. Let me know if I have missed you. Thank you to John Cardinal, the author of Second Site, for his invaluable help.


19 May 2021
The FLANAGANs confuse me. Cousin Lisa has done quite a bit of work on the family as well and has run into the same issues. Hopefully something will present itself.

In the meantime I have worked on the LONDON family,


17 May 2021
Have been working on the FLANAGAN family. They seem to be some what of an enigma. The patriarch Michael B. was born in Ireland according to an interview, printed in the Dallas Morning News after his death in Dallas. The article also stated that one son claimed that the family came from Rochester, New York. Some of the children's birth and death certificates place them in Fort Bend County, Texas prior to living in Rochester. The 1900 U.S. Census list the dates of birth for the children all over the place. None of their records in later years match.

The only other Texas based Michael FLANAGAN I have found, so far, was stationed at Fort Clark in the late 1870s. I have discounted this man as Fort Clark was manned by the 10th Cavalry Regiment, the Buffalo Soldiers. So I continue to search.


9 May 2021
Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there!

I have created a mini database to test adoption narratives and including all the appropriate families. Michael J. HANNAH has a website and an online book that seem to go into greater depth about the options available in The Master Genealogist and Second Site software packages. I hope to be able to incorporate these changes soon, but have a lot of testing to do first.


4 May 2021
May the fourth be with you (Star Wars fans will get it).

Update and a chart for the CAMACHO family. I've added quite a few cousins and nieces and nephews.

I'm also experimenting with a test site to see if I can get adoptive and biological kindred together.


20 Apr 2021
More additions to the CAMACHO family.


19 Apr 2021
(The wee hours of the morning.) A quick posting to do some catch-up work. An exciting event happened even earlier this morning. I spoke, for the first time ever, with one of my biological half brothers. Steve CAMACHO, thank you for calling me. Also thank your daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, for reaching out after discovering our DNA connection on Ancestry.com. Steve is one of three surviving brothers of which there were originally seven. This is exciting!


17 Apr 2021
One of Sherry's BOLES cousins had married a Marie Pauline TUTTLE. I wasn't sure if it was the same family as my son-in-law's mother. So I traced both sides I haven't found a connection yet. It's possible, but I haven't gone back far enough (past 1808) if there is. Suffice it to say, Brenda, your great-great-great-grandfather is now part of the tumbleweed. That means Thomas C. TUTTLE is the ggggg-grandfather of two of my grandsons. Pretty great!


13 Apr 2021
Just learned of the passing of a 2nd cousin, once removed. Walter DeWitt LAYNE was a grandson to my great-grandaunt Cynthia Ann HUNTER.


3 Apr 2021
Posted an update of the website. I finally added the BOLES descendant chart. It will grow as well since there are a lot more of them to add.

There are also a couple of other minor changes to the charts. I added birth and death years to the descendants.

I discovered last last night that my grandaughter Helena has a great-great-great-great grandmother named Helena as well. This was not known at the younger's naming.


1 Apr 2021
I hit a brick wall on the LONDON family, so I turned my attention back to the BOLES family. I have been entering some of the descendants of Harry Otto. He was married three times and there are a lot of children. Many of them have rhyming names.


29 Mar 2021
More additions to the LONDON family. I am up to my great-great-grandfather, but I don't know if he is James Martin or Joseph M. LONDON. I haven't found and evidence yet. Will keep looking.


21 Mar 2021
Since the DNA results have come through, I've been working on my biological parents. It's been a little more time consuming as I am entering data in my TMG database and on Ancestry.com. I have done more work on the CAMACHO family, but the LONDON line is not far behind.

Through Ancestry's messaging service, I have been in touch with some of my CAMACHO cousins. There has been some hesitance in case I am some one out to get their money scam artist. Rest assured dear cousins I am not. My research is real and who knows, maybe we'll get to meet one day. I hope so.


14 Feb 2021
A couple of days ago I was contacted by a JORDAN researcher who wanted more information. I hadn't been researching this line of cousins for a while, but have broken through a brick wall (and maybe more). Some of the surnames are DETORE, LABEAU (LABOU, LABON, LABOW), TRUDEAU and TREDO (this could have been TRUDEAU as well).

I was whining about an automatic renewal of ancestry.com a few days ago, but I'm glad it went through even though I wasn't prepared to pay the $199. I was able to use the subscription(s) to work on this research and will continue to expand my work.

The week before some remote SHULER cousins were found via Facebook here in Morgan County, IN where I currently reside. I hope to trace them back soon to Grayson County, Kentucky.


12 Dec 2020
In between bouts of working, I managed to add more family members. Cousin Odessa MILLIKEN's parents and siblings (the SUMMERS family); some of the SEAY family; some of the KEATTS family, the GAFFORD clan and of course, more MILLIKENs. These are kin around Montgomery and Stewart Counties in Tennessee.


8 Dec 2020
40 years ago this day, musician and former Beatle, John Lennon, was shot down and killed.

On a lighter note, I've added some of the ancestors of my cousin Ann's husband, Tommy MORROW.


4 Dec 2020
Just found out that my son-in-law's paternal grandmother passed. Added to the tumbleweed some of the ancestors of Margaret ROOKSBERY SAVAGE.


30 Oct 2020
Get out and vote for your preference.

I have just expanded on the RUGGERIO family a bit. I discovered a year late that my cousin's ex died back in May of 2019.


21 Oct 2020
Happy 37th birthday to our daughter, Ashleigh SAVAGE!

Belated birth announcements for Georgia GOODFELLOW back in June. She is a MILLIKEN descendant born down under (Australia). Also, announcing Aila SNODGRASS, born in September down in Florida. Little Miss Aila is a BOLES descendant.


19 Oct 2020
I have mailed (overnight) the request to the adoption agency to have my adoption records unsealed. This also included the court order for the unsealing of those records. Now I wait...

In the meantime, I have added some information on the recent death of the mother of the husband of Sherry's 2nd cousin (Marie Louise BEAM). I've added her obituary plus the parents of same.


10 Oct 2020
Had a phone call meeting with my DNA "biological" sister. I had done some background research and her high school year book picture looks very much like me from two two years later.

It was a good converstation and she gave me some important background information which I researched.


6 Oct 2020
Ancestry.com DNA results are back. Apparently, I have a biological sister out there I didn't know about. Not particularly surprising since I was adopted as a child.

Adopted... of course, this means that all of my MILLIKEN and SHULER cousins are not related by blood. But, never fear dear cousins, my adoptive parents and all of their family will always be my family.

This discovery just means that another branch of family has been added. I have sent off to the adoption agency the court order to release all of my records. This was done on 19 Oct 2020. I anxiously await.


13 Sep 2020
Added obituaries for Dick GREEN, Wesley BOLES, Richard Ora BOLES.


31 Aug 2020
Happy 64th birthday to me!

I have done some additional research on Granny LAYNE's daughter Mary. I've gotten down to children who were my parents age and I'll dig a little deeper to find some more living cousins.


29 Aug 2020
I just recently added a Donna Jean PRINDLE BULLARD FLEMING to the tumbleweed. She was married and divorced to a man who was married to a distant cousin of the HUNTER descendants. But I had to include her just to list her life story obituary. It was fascinating and this is why I do genealogy research If you are interested, look her up.

I also recently added some REES cousins.

In my research, I have never been to the graves of my mother's parents who both died when she was young. Someone (semi-)recently published pictures of their gravestones on the website Find-A-Grave. I was very touched and contacted that person with my sincere thanks.

And speaking of the HUNTER family... my third cousin sent me a photo of my great grandaunt, Cynthia Ann "Granny" HUNTER LAYNE. My understanding is that when my great grandfather left Tennessee, he and his sister never saw each other again. I'm not sure if I'll ever find out if that is true.

There will be more to come soon. So many babies and weddings (not necessarily in that order).


14 May 2020
As a researcher it should go without saying that I should check my email frequently. After the move and the chaotic hours I've been working I haven't been very effective at that task. Basically, I missed several from other researchers. One of them had photos and papers to send concerning one of my offshoot families. Unfortunately I got back with her too late and she had already disposed of the items.

One of the emails was a spelling correction and I finally have that accomplished. The others were descendants of other offshoot families adding additional info. After all this I will not be negligent in check my email from now on.

The MyHeritage.com research site has had free access to high school yearbooks and I've been trying to look up as many as I can in the short period of time that I have. After all these downloads I will need to spend a lot of time on photo editing and add all these updates.


26 Apr 2020
I'm not sure how I got here. but I've been researching some of the MILLIKEN clan from Freestone County, Texas. The Portal to Texas History has a wealth of digitized newspapers from Freestone County.

As I continue to gather more information, I will be expanding some of the descriptive text for individuals.


20 Apr 2020
Since the Corona virus pandemic panic has gripped the nation, I have been declared a non-essential employee and have been relegated to working from home. At least I don't have the additional commute and I can spend a bit more time on genealogy research.

On my wife's JORDAN side of the family, I have been doing a little more research on her uncle Ed's 2nd wife Mary Sue MCDANIEL. I have traced back to Mary Sue's paternal grandfather, Major Cleveland MCDANIEL. However, there are may similar names of his father and a large host of the family from their original eastern states. More to come as I sort out the correct ancestors.

While researching the above family, I came across a newpaper mention of the marriage of Robert Campbell MILLIKEN of Thorp Springs, Texas. I have added his wife and continue to look for any additional stories.


12 Apr 2020
Easter Sunday and I just learned of the sudden passing of one of my younger cousins, Ethan DUTTON. Ethan was my 2nd cousin, once removed on the SHULER side of the family. He leaves a wife and little daughter.


7 Apr 2020
Was contacted today by another HUNTER descendant cousin, Bonnie PRINCE. We had a nice chat on Facebook and I hope to be able to share (and receive) some of our family info.


11 Mar 2020
There is a new MILLIKEN decendant cousin born in Texas. Welcome to the family Rhett SMITH!


6 Mar 2020
"Remember the Alamo!"
While this researcher does not have any ancestors that died there that day, being a Texan, I will always remember.

Now that we have that history tidbit out of the way. Let's move on...

Donnie BOW, Sr. passed the other day. He was a cousin of my wife. I'm not sure of the exact relationship as his branch of the family hasn't been tied in (so to speak). I believe I have his great grandfather listed and will endeavor to get more of the family added.


23 Feb 2020
The siege of the Alamo began 184 years ago this day.

Anyway... earlier in the month I learned of the death of my 6th cousin Irie MILLIKEN. I had spoken with him a few years ago to see if he knew where his parents had come up with that name. It just so happens that this researcher has a grandson named Irie and I wondered how coincidental that could be. It turns out that Irie (the elder) did not know why his parents named him that. I did see a census record that listed him as Ira, however.

While reading Irie MILLIKEN's obituary, I discovered he had a sister that I was unaware of and began researching her descendants. I have sent Facebook friends requests to some of those family members and hope to hear back from them.


5 Jan 2020
My paternal 1st cousin once removed Dorothy SHULER HEATH died Dec. 29th. I've added her obituary and a few additional details about her family. Thanks for the update from cousin Kim SHULER.


30 Nov 2019
Having been contacted by email in May of 2018, I have begun research in the family DEMKE. This "cousin" had found my website and reached out with corrections and additional names.

It is interesting to note that the head of the family immigrated from Russia. The area he came from Russia were mostly German emigrants looking for better conditions.


29 Nov 2019
I found a funeral announcement for Samuel ALLISON, my uncle Ozro's father. It was in the Abilene Reporter-News.


28 Nov 2019 Happy Thanksgiving
Updates to the YORK clan. This is my aunt Lee's family of origin. Now to post to the website.


27 Nov 2019
Woke up in the middle of the night and came down to do a little research. Cousin Yale ST.CLAIR posted and obituary of my gg-grandmother Sarah Ann WORTHAM MILLIKEN back in August on Ancestry. Yale descends from Sarah's daughter, Emma and I descend from Sarah's son Robert.

The obituary (more of a memorial) was written by grandaughter Ammah Grace MILLIKEN to the Fairfield Recorder newspaper almost a month later. Ammah would have a turbulent marriage and life a few years later.


17 Nov 2019
My sister's ex-husband contacted me requesting that I remove him from the website. He doesn't want his children to know he was married before. Too bad he contacted me from one of his kid's Facebook accounts. Anyway... I'll remove him from the site.


12 Nov 2019
In case anyone was concerned I have added an SSL certificate to the website making it more secure. You can use https://www.familytumbleweed.com and see the little lock graphic indicating the site's security.


9 Nov 2019
At the request of one of Sherry's uncles, his father has been removed from the website since there is no definitive proof of parentage.

I added an obituary for Al BOW, Sherry's maternal grandfather.


27 Oct 2019
More new MILLIKEN descendant cousins: Brooks GARCIA born back in June and Colt HAMMITT born this month. Let's also welcome Brooks daddy, Gabe, to the tumbleweed.


26 Oct 2019
Added spouses and children for cousin Arlene WHITE's two boys. She sent me a Facebook message back in August and I finally have had some time to add these cousins to the tumbleweed. They are MILLIKEN descendants.

Interestingly enough, David WHITE's wife Jessica STRUBE's grandfather was a western swing musician and vocalist and had been recorded several times. He has been inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Western Swing Hall of Fame, the North West Swing Hall of Fame and possibly others. I don't know if he ever played with the legendary Bob WILLS, but he has played with many artists who have.

It is these kind of "gold nugget" finds that really make genealogy an enjoyable hobby. I kinda got on a bender and traced Jessica's lineage back to her 4th great-grandfather. While none of these folks are actually related to this researcher, you never know if one of their descendants may have married one of my ancestors along the way. In Texas, anything is possible!


20 Oct 2019
Finally took a day to do some catching up. Thanks to Facebook and my families for helping me keep caught up with all my cousins. So... here we go...

Added Stephanie DUNSON, the grandaughter of Margie Marie SHULER. She is a second cousin, once removed.

Also added Jesse MCCLAIN's (a JORDAN descendant) wife Esther DANSBY. Welcome to the tumbleweed Esther.

Joseph MILLIKEN was married to Katherine HICKS in August. Thanks to cousin Doug MILLIKEN for passing along that information.


14 Jun 2019
One of my 4th cousins posted a picture of her grandchild swearing in as a police officer in Port Lavaca, Texas earlier this week. Unfortunately, the newly sworn officer is not listed on the website, because in 2011 this person's father adamently threatened to sue me is I did not take his name and family off the website. I kindly explained that this information was a matter of public record. After several back and forth messages with him threatening this and that, I removed him and his family. If he had only asked politely to begin with, I wouldn't have drug him along. It was actually kind of fun though.

Anyway... I have reached out to the new officer on FB to make contact and hope to get their permission to add them back on the website.

On the MILLIKEN side of the family... (come to think of it, those folks previously mentioned are MILLIKEN descendants as well) I was reading "Fire in the Hole! An Oral History of Moonshine and Murder in Cumberland County, Kentucky" and accidently found a brief mention of Judge (John Mottley) MILLIKEN in Bowling Green. This came as a bit of a surprise since I originally obtained the book looking for BOW or SCOTT families. I do have Judge MILLIKEN and most of his descendants listed. However, since their initial listing, two of the grand daughters have gotten married. Congratulations Whitney and Caroline!

What makes some of these discoveries fun are the ones that have been news worthy. Whitney and Caroline both had excellent wedding announcements in the local paper (Over The Mountain Journal). Caroline also had a feature writeup in a bridal registry publication (Bromberg's Bride News). It's too bad that my website won't display details about living persons. These great articles won't be seen (on my website) by anyone who cares until after they are dead and I'm pretty sure I'll be long dead before then.

Last bit of today's discoveries... (more MILLIKEN descendents) cousin Gerry WARBURG wrote a great Father's Day piece for the Marin Independent Journal. It was about his dad Felix WARBURG. It was very moving and heartfelt. It was also more than just a 'what Dad meant to me piece'. It touched on how Felix had impacted his community and the world at large. I hope you take an opportunity to read it.

If you enjoy family and world history, the WARBURGs are a great place to begin. Their family lineage can be traced back to the 15th or 16th century and have affected the worlds of finance, music, art, literature and more.


13 May 2019
I've added some info on the MILLIKEN family of Stewart County, Tennessee.

I have also added a chart for the SHULER family as I know of it at this writing. There are a lot of additional cousins to add to the SHULER line. The SHULER family are my paternal grandmother's family. The information I have on her father Hamon is uncertain so I haven't gone futher back on this chart listing until I can find more definitive information.


23 Apr 2019
The day after yesterday's update my cousin Scott SHULER contacted me via Facebook to inform me of the passing last November on one of my father's 1st cousins, Billy Ray SHULER. I don't have much listed for him, but will do some background research for living family.


22 Apr 2019
This update includes many of the ancestors and some of their descendants of my son-in-law Jacob SAVAGE. I will attempt to contact some of the living descendants via Facebook and hope they will connect.

Cousin Kayla BOLES had a baby earlier this month. Welcome to the family tumbleweed Sebastian Maximus BOLESCARRASCO!

On the opposite side of life, cousin Mariesa HERRMANN MILLIKEN's father, Dr. Joseph HERRMANN passed away on the same day little Sebastian was born. There's a song that has a section of lyrics for these situations:

"And when I die,
"And when I'm dead, dead and gone.
"There'll be one child born,
"In the world to carry on, to carry on."
1964-Laura Nyro


16 Mar 2019
Updates and additions... These are all folks who are ancestors to the ALLEN family that married into the MILLIKEN line very close to me. I have added the surnames of ALLENs, BARFIELDs, WILLIAMS, RIGDON. There are some pictures on Find-A-Grave of a couple of the oldest BARFIELDs. I hope to be able to get a better copy.


11 Mar 2019
One of my maternal cousins contacted me yesterday to tell me about an error on my site. Apparently I had placed her mother's death date into her sister's entry. Well, of course, sis is not dead. She also told me that I didn't have her grand daughter listed. Now she has been added.

I also asked this cousin about her dad since I didn't have any background there. I did a little checking on my own and got as far back as her great grand parents. I stopped at that point as I discovered that the great grandmother had commited suicide. The doctor wrote as the reason "guess family". I haven't found a newspaper article yet, but it was surely reported somewhere.

Unfortunately, research such as this will uncover tragic issues in some families. My own great grandfather killed a guy in Tennessee. Shortly after, he moved his family to Texas.

On my wife's side of the family, her great grandfather killed himself. One of his eldest grandsons killed his second wife and then himself. Two of his children killed themselves as well.

The band (ironically named) Bloodrock phrased "It's a sad world. In a troubled time."


3 Feb 2019
Have done a little cleanup on the database and added additional info on the JORDAN clan. I also recently discovered the lineage on son-in-law's SAVAGE family. I hope to get that entered soon.


26 Jul 2018
Condolences to Mary MILLIKEN on the sudden and recent death of her brother Troy. Researching her family has revealed the demise of 3 siblings due to tragic accidents.


2 May 2018
Last month I was contacted by the wife of a 5th cousin, once removed on the MILLIKEN side. Kate MOORE asked me to add her children to the website so they would have something to look back on if they were interested. So... Shane and Kate, this is for you.

You may have noticed that the website hasn't been updated since Oct. 2017. I have finally added the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software to the new computer so that I can update all the additions/changes that I have made. From Jan. through Mar. I had been working 12 hour days and was just too tired to do much in the way of research or updates. However, I did spend a few hours in the genealogy section at the Indiana State Library last Saturday looking up info on the BOW family in Cumberland County, Kentucky.


24 Feb 2018
It has been awhile since I've updated, but I have been doing research. Programs and files have been transferred to a new computer that came from my Dad's house.

On to genealogy... a hearty welcome to J. Mark MORGAN. He's a MILLIKEN descendant formerly from the Simpson County, KY area. He contacted me via Facebook recently.

Condolences go out to the families of Sandol Milliken STODDARD who passed in January. She was first and formost a mother and an accomplished author. We had never met, but had been in contact a few times via email. She "sounded" like a wonderful person.


30 Sep 2017
Welcome cousin Jonah John MILLIKEN! He was recently born to my 1st cousin once removed Madison and wife Danielle.

A hearty and belated welcome to Karter Jo MARTINEZ. She is another MILLIKEN descendant and was born a couple of weeks ago. Parents Jordan and Aaron are, of course, proud.

And... last but not least... another welcome to new cousin Emmalyn Grace DUTTON born to Molly and Ethan back in July. Emma is a SHULER descendant.

Now we have some new babies added, I've updated the website to include a search feature and decreased the number of persons listed per page to make it easier to load in your web browsers and not have to scroll thru a bunch of names to get to another page. The slow forward march toward progress continues.


24 Sep 2017
I had been contacted by my MILLIKEN cousin Lainey FOUST on a couple of deaths that she had come across. One of them was the Reverand Maxie MILLIKEN and the other was Brenda JOHNSON (another MILLIKEN descendant).

I had to add in some other family members before I could get to these two. I still haven't gotten Brenda added. I did discover another MILLIKEN / PARKER tie-in where a brother and sister from one family married a sister and brother in the other family. You can see this particular example in the children of Hill MILLIKEN.

Anyway... I'm not sure why Maxie's obit listed Charles as his father. Maxie was born to Leroy and Earline M. (PARKER) MILLIKEN. At some point in his life Leroy began going by Roy L. (Maybe Roy Lee?) His birth record and early census records list him as Leroy, however.

Enough for now, thanks for the updates Lainey.


9 Sep 2017
Yesterday Sherry's cousin Judy EPPERSON gave her bibles that belonged to their step-grandmother Naomi BOW. There are names, dates and newspaper clipping in two of the three.

She also gave Sherry high school senior photos of Larry ACKLEY and Loretta BATMAN (formerly married). Larry is Sherry's uncle/brother. It's confusing, but I'll add the story one day.


1 Sep 2017
Lat October I reported finding another SHULER line in my research. I haven't tied them directly to my great-grandfather Hamon SHULER, but I probably will.

While visiting my father, last September, I came across a picture that my grandmother had written on the back "Peggy and Grandma Kirkland". Peggy is my father's cousin, so I checked with her daughter and found out grandma KIRKLAND was Violet SIMS whose husband was Lloyd KIRKLAND. Well, after some research I found that Lloyd's mother was Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" SHULER. Lizzie's father was Joseph Stephen SHULER. I'm not sure how Joseph is related to my great-grandfather Hamon SHULER (yet).

After my father's death I found a laminated newspaper article announcing the 50th wedding anniversay of Mr. and Mrs. J.S. SHULER. In just these past two days I've also discovered that Lloyd's father, Ezekiel Templeton KIRKLAND, was a brother to Martissa Evaline KIRKLAND who was Henryetta PARROTT SHULER's mother. Henryetta had married my father's uncle, Ernest Muriel "Dutch" SHULER.

I sent out a Facebook search to a KIRKLAND descendant seeking more info. I'm looking forward to linking Joseph and Hamon SHULER together back in Virginia or Tennessee. More to come...

Last but not least, I want to welcome Jarred and Ginny MILLIKEN to the family tumblweed. Jarred and his Dad are direct descendants of Walter Clarence MILLIKEN (Russell senior's brother).


30 Aug 2017
A little data entry while doing laundry. Added obituaries for some of my Texas MILLIKENs. Still much more research to go. I also added a few descendants based on those obits.

I've recently been using GenealogyBank.com's website. They had a great deal for a 1 year membership and I couldn't pass it up. I also wanted to see how they compared to NewsPapers.com. Fold3.com eventually came out with a great price so I renewed my subscription there as well. Since Fold3 went to almost exclusively military, I don't use them as much. My personal opinion is that the Ancestry buyout didn't improve the site.


20 Aug 2017
Several family losses in the MILLIKEN clan and related recently. Mollie Dandridge MILLIKEN SCHWANTZ HAYES just today, Nelda Jean MILLIKEN STEWART last month and Paul STUTEVILLE about 3 weeks ago. Paul was the step-father to Bridgett MILLIKEN. Our condolences to all three families.

On the families that carry on portion of life, a few new babies have been born recently and I'll get them added and listed as soon as possible


4 Jul 2017
Independence Day research. I've added Bettye Jane SHULER's birth family. There was a bunch of WALTONs in that group. Lots of obituaries have been added. I've also begun focusing more on the HUNTER family.

I had been contacted by cousin Vicky BECK, who is a direct HUNTER descendant. She has sent me info on the family that I'm slowly putting in the database as time allows. By coincidence I had been in touch with her brother, Todd, years ago while researching the HUNTERs. It is truly a small world.

I've also traced HUNTER descendants down to Roy GILMORE. Roy's wife Janis was very helpful when I first began researching. She had done a lot of the HUNTERs and has posts and family group sheets all over the internet. Maybe I'll get to meet her and Roy on my next trip to Texas.


12 Mar 2017
Welcome new baby Claire MILLIKEN. Born to Eric and Mariesa in February. I have also added Samantha BOW NICELY and her son, Noah, to the tumbleweed. As soon as I find her brother's birth date, I'll add him as well.

Back in December, I was contacted by one of my wife's BOLES cousin who reported finding another branch of the BOLES family living in Florida. Welcome Lee DUSING. I still have quite a bit of work adding your family since your dad was married 2 or 3 times.

Speaking of BOLES family, I just purchased the PDF version of David B. BOLES book "The Origins and Descendants of James Bole of Westmoreland and Armstrong Counties, Pennsylvania" (2017). It's an up-to-date version of the 1986 publication. Some of my website research is even referenced there. Makes me feel special!


9 Jan 2017
Belated season's greetings to all of you.
Condolences go out to the WHITE family on the passing of Guy, Sr this past week. His son Guy Jr. is married to my cousin Arlene. I also discovered that Guy, Sr. had a much younger brother named Jack and have added him to the tumbleweed.

Guy Sr.'s grandfather, John Andrew WHITE, was a soldier in the Civil War from Alabama. According to his younger brother, John was wounded in battle resulting in the loss of one arm. After the war he and his wife moved to Texas. So there you have today's tidbit.


27 Nov 2016
More additions to the tumbleweed. Sean HEPLER and sister Tina HEPLER SPERRY. They are 2nd cousins on my RICHARDSON side of the family. I need to do more research on those descendants as they are quite numerous as well.

Two new babies William David NAULT (grandnephew) and Elora Lynn SKURZYNSKI (2nd cousin twice removed). Let's not forget Morgan COOPER BRITT who married nephew Jordan back in August.

The number of persons in my database exceeded 5000 today. I added a few folks who aren't directly related but, were close relatives of a former brother-in-law on my wife's side of the family. Anyway, his brother had passed in Oct. so I added them based on the obituary.

Another note of interest one of my MILLIIKEN descendant cousins contacted me about possible land availability back in Kentucky. I put him in touch with the cousin who lives in that area so I hope they are able to find what he's looking for.

It'a amazing who you might meet doing genealogy research and who you might be able to help in some small fashion.


11 Nov 2016
On this day and every day, thank you to all those that have served our country, either in the military or civilian service.

With a heavy heart I post the most recent and difficult update which includes the passing of my father Kenneth Dee HUNTER. While I was in Texas dealing with his affairs another family member (not direct) died. Patrick Michael ALEMAN. He was the brother of my wife's aunt Lupe CARNES.

An interesting coincidence is that Patrick's daughter Alicia ALEMAN lived next door to us in Fountain Square and we discovered it by mere happenstance during conversation. It's truly a small world.

While in Texas, I stopped by the Herman Brown Free Library in Burnet, Texas and ordered the audio and transcript of my uncle's (Russell Franklin MILLIKEN, Jr.) WWII experiences. It was an interview done on 27 Jun 2005 for the Burnet County Genealogical Society. As with all genealogy material, I look forward to listening to the audio recording.


4 Oct 2016
I just found some more MILLIKENs that are 5th cousins. They are originally from the Bowling Green area. Some of them were already on the website, but I have contacted them via Facebook. They are descendants of Judge John M. and Barbara (Thompson) MILLIKEN. I will post updates soon.

While in Texas last month, I discovered that there is/was another branch of SHULERs that came from Lee and Grayson County, Virginia. Now I need to find out where the branches join together.


19 Aug 2016
Not much new. I've been attempting to trace other 2nd cousins. Descendants of Bobbie Louise MILLIKEN THOMPSON. I've sent out a feeler via Facebook so maybe...

I've also been contacted by an individual who was listed in the website and had married into a 'famous' family, but has already been divorced. He was asking to remove his name and I have done so. To me, it seems a shame the marriage didn't work out. The wedding seemed like one of those "spare no expense' affairs. Well... life happens and the marriage didn't work out so in respect to his request I have removed him from the website. Now it's up to you to figure out who it was (if you care).


22 Jun 2016
I was contacted by Stephanie HODGE who was researching Charles William BOYEA and she wanted to know what information I might have. I had to honestly tell her I didn't have any info as he wasn't even in my database.

It just so happens that Ancestry.com adds these little "leaf tips" to enhance research and Charles had been added to my starter tree on Ancestry. Surprise! Anyway, doing the research, I discover that Charles BOYEA is the maternal grandfather to my cousin Kerri's husband.

New surnames that have been added to the tumbleweed are: BOYEA, LAIRD, MCCANLIES, WEIDMAN, PAYTON and ODELL. That ought to confuse the other researchers,


20 Jun 2016
Today I've been adding REES cousins (MILLIKEN descendants). Most all are out in west Texas and I haven't seen most of them since my cousin Jug's funeral and they may not remember me. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to attend his funeral since I had missed so many others, After work the night before the funeral, Sherry and I drove like a bat out of hell to get to Colorado City from Indianapolis. Thanks to the hour time difference, we made it just as the service had started. I'm glad I went. It would be the last time I would see some of my other family alive as well.

The week before last I was adding to the RICHARDSON clan of Freestone County. I found a few obituaries and added them as well.


8 May 2016
Happy Mother's Day. For the past few hours I've been working on the SKURZYNSKI family. Jim and Sandy's grandfather George was a coal miner in Pennsylvania and was born in Polska (Poland). He took on a wife who had two children. She then bore him two more and he provided for his family the best he could. There is a pretty good website concerning Duryea, PA and it has a lot of photos (www.duryeapa.com). Enough for now. It's time to make coffee and breakfast for the mother of our children.


7 May 2016
After a long and painful move to a temporary home, I take time for research again. Today I entered my 2nd cousin's (once removed)wedding. Michael SKURZYNSKI and Sarah TEROKOWSKIE were married back in March and honeymooned in beautiful Rome, Italy. Welcome to the family tumbleweed Sarah and congratulations to you both!


24 March 2016
It's my grand daughter's 2nd birthday. Love you Helena Kaye HUNTER!

Other great news... I've been contacted by a 2nd cousin once removed (MILLIKEN descendant) who found the website. She updated me on various family members and low and behold we don't live too far away from each other. This is exciting news. I've done some updating to the website for the descendants of Robert Hamilton MILLIKEN.


22 Feb 2016
Exciting news! I spoke with one of my 2nd cousins on the HUNTER side of the family. Deborah Stopera is one of the grand daughters of Cleo (HUNTER) HESSEY PHILLIPS. This was quite a discovery as Norma MILLER (another cousin) pointed me in the appropriate direction while I was looking for Cleo's daughter, Juanita HESSEY.

I have added Juanita's husband and daughters to the Family Tumbleweed and some of their descendants, but I still have a long way to go. Hopefully time will allow me to get some information entered.

On the MILLIKEN side of the family, I have some emails to answer from David GRAY and a letter to write to Bob LAW who actually took time to write me a real letter and actually mail it.

Anyway... there are some updates and a few corrections to errors I found on the website. As always, I look forward to hearing from you.


15 Feb 2016
Welcome to the world Samuel WHITE, son of Matthew, born on his father's birthday. I believe he's my 1st cousin, twice removed and grandson to Arlene and Guy WHITE. (Samuel is also a MILLIKEN descendant.)


17 Jan 2016
Tara WIESE posted on Facebook about the passing of her grandma, Nina (GAFFORD) MILLIKEN. My condolences go out to her and the rest of her family.

I did make contact with some other MILLIKEN family via Facebook. They are descendants of Alfred Hill MILLIKEN. I will also follow-up on these leads.


Late Dec 2015
I have received a letter from Bob LAW who is a MILLIKEN researcher originally from Simpson County, KY. He gave me some excellent pointers to follow and I will pursue them and also find out his relationship to the MILLIKEN family.


26-28 Nov 2015
The other day I came across a listing of the papers of Rena Edna MILLIKEN in the Manuscript & Folklife Archives of Western Kentucky University. The second page had a mini-biography of Ms. MILLIKEN and on discovering that she was from Logan County I pursued further, After some backwards research I discovered that she was a grand daughter of L. Hiram and Rena (HITE) MILLIKEN. I did not have any information in the database on this union.

From further research the past two days I have filled a hole that I had not gotten to from G.T. RIDLON's work. RIDLON, however, did not get much past the children of Hiram and his second wife, Betsey BURNS. After going through some of the records of FamilySearch.org I was able to get much closer to modern times. I also discovered that some of those descendants had died in Louisville while I was living there! Dang I hate being late. Never-the-less a gap has been filled and an update posted on the website.


2 Nov 2015
Was doing some late night research on the descendants of Judge William Alfred MILLIKEN. Those being Sandol Humphreys, Lavinia, Lucy Perry and John Humphreys MILLIKEN. I fould quite a bit thanks to earlier research by Richard LAKE. Now I just need some time to get it all entered into the database.


18 Oct 2015
I was notified my cousin Suzan VALDEZ that she has a new grand nephew, Titus Robert HUME. Titus was born on the 12th. Welcome to the tumbleweed baby cousin!


6 Oct 2015
Our little grandniece was born last night. Welcome Vivian Kathleen RESENDEZ!


3 Oct 2015
Met my 5th cousin, Kitty MILLIKEN, in Austin, Texas while on vacation. It was a wonderful opportunity and she regaled us with family stories that I hope to include in this database.


4 Apr 2015
Accidently got on a tangent early this morning (late last night). Sherry's 3rd cousin once removed married last year and I traced out his wife's maternal ancestry to her ggg-grandfather Anthony HERMES from Germany.


3 Apr 2015
Recent deaths are the passing of Lois WRIGHT the mother of my 1st cousin's wife and Dorothy JORDAN the mother of my wife's 3rd cousins. My condolences to both sets of families. I also did some genealogical side trips (online) to trace some of the ancestors of both of the deceased.

I have successfully tested and implemented a fixed side menu that will stay in one place as visitors scroll down the pages. This will make it easier for visitors to the site to move from place to place with relative ease.


28 Dec 2014
I've been working heavily on the SHULER clan the past couple of weeks. I've made and posted some updates. However I'm still attempting to prove that my Hamon SHULER (g-grandfather) is the same one born to David and Mary in Grayson County, Virginia in 1860.

The other issue is that I have somehow made a change to my menu design and messed it up so that I cannot publish the site until I find the change(s) and figure out how it happened.


1 Dec 2014
Didn't get to the HUNTER family, but I did add a portion of the EDWARDS family. These were members of Ruth Edwards Hessey MILLER's family. Ruth was adopted by the researcher's grand aunt and her first husband (Ward and Cleo Hunter HESSEY).

For Ruth and some of her siblings it was a tale all too common in many lives during the 1930s of how families are split up because of the economy and the general lack of basic needs when income is little or nothing. Other family members may have taken "extra" children in or the children may have been turned over to local orphans homes. However, many of these children learn to overcome adversity and it strengthens them and they achieve and prosper as adults.


29 Nov 2014
Recently made Facebook friends with one of Sherry's BOW cousins and added a few of those family members into the database. I also tied two families together that were both BOW descendants. It confuses me sometimes.

Hopefully I'll get some of these HUNTER ancestors added this weekend.


15 Nov 2014
Have spent most of the past month researching HUNTER ancestors. Denise RILEY (the aforementioned cousin) has sent me pictures of family to post.

Just out of the blue I began entering information I've gathered lately into my database last night. I started to enter Margie DISHAW's obituary when I began to hit a jackpot of MILLIKEN ancestors. Most of them are close cousins. The descendants of my grand uncle, Robert Hamilton MILLIKEN.

Today, I actually called and spoke to the wife of my 1st cousin one removed (Richard MILLIKEN). She suggested I contact Bob EPPS who is another of my mother's cousin. He just so happens to live about an hour drive from me. Time to go on a road trip.


19 Oct 2014
Upgraded to the final version of The Master Genealogist (the database software) this weekend. Have also upgrade the program Second Site, which produces the website, to the most current version. Lastly, upgraded my FTP software (Wise FTP) which transfers the files from my computer to my website host (1and1.com).

During the previous two weeks I have been researching my Hunter ancestors and found another "cousin". She has been helpful in providing the siblings of my gggg-grandfather, Thomas M. HUNTER, Sr. She also provided a name for his father, Joshua HUNTER.

I have printed a lot of information to eventually add to the database and website. I've got about a 1/2 inch stack of paper to go through. Enough notes for today time to get typing.


26 Aug 2014
Studied some of the website building scripts for John CARDINAL's Second Site application. I would like to have a floating menu bar on the left side of the screen.


22Aug 2014
Received the book and CD I had ordered to assist in research. The book is "Compendium of Local Biography, Marion County, TN" and the CD is "Researching Your Tennessee Ancestors".


18 Aug 2014
Added parents and siblings to Mahala ROWE wife of Jesse MILLIKEN.


11 Aug 2014
Sent myself some web links to MILLIKEN sites in the Chatham and Orange Counties area of North Carolina. I also discovered that there was a Charles MILLIKEN in Captain Stephen Poe's company of the Chatham County militia prior to 1776. I am almost positive that this is Charles MILLIKEN, son of Charles of Connaught, Ireland and a first generation American.


16 Jul 2014
Did some experimentation with the site's web display. John Cardinal's "Second Site" is a wonderfully powerful program and I've barely scratched the surface of its capabilities.

Good news! I found on Facebook that my 1st cousin once remove, Eric MILLIKEN and his wife Mariesa, had their new baby on the 14th. Welcome to the Family Tumbleweed Amy Caroline MILLIKEN.


14 & 15 Jul 2014
Did some MILLIKEN family research these past two evenings. Found Erastus G. MILLIKEN's marriage to Lucy PIERCE in Johnson County, TX. Discovered the death certificate of Mary Christian Milliken KIRK. Her's was a bit confusing. It was written as M.A. KIRK with the parents names as only Mr. MILLIKEN and Mrs POLLARD.

I also found Ammah MILLIKEN and her son Herman living in Ft. Worth in 1929. Ammah's last name was HUSS and Herman's was MILLIKEN. By 1932 Ammah's father and mother were living in the same house with her.