Dad would be 98 today! And, my 'One Year Anniversary' of Blogging!

     Dad would be ninety eight years old today.  This is one of my favorite pictures of Dad at age sixty three, sitting at his desk at Lewis and Clark Elementary School Pocatello, Idaho. He retired from the Idaho Education System in June of 1976 (35 years ago) after forty three years of teaching/principal starting at the age of twenty.
I miss him; I miss his pleasant smile, his gentle mannerisms, his humor, his love I would feel just being in the same room with him.
     I inherited my dad’s beautiful dark skin and for this reason in 1996 I started doing ‘Family Search’.  Where does the dark complexion come from?  Dad didn't know!  Blogging about this will be sometime in the future but, I will say that two years ago I thought the answer would be found only to experience great disappointment.   I suspect Dad’s father’s line that goes back to 1831.  I was told a story that seemed very probable and a DNA test would prove the ‘story’ to be right or wrong.   It would be so simple if one of my brothers could take the test but, it had to be all males back to 1831.    Example; starting with Dad it goes like this, male, male, female, male.  The female which is Dad’s grandmother, Ellen Burns has two brothers.   I searched the 1930 census records and found a male descendant of one of Ellen’s  brother’s  and contacted him, (a second cousin once removed) living in Twin Falls, Idaho.  He agreed to take the DNA test which I paid for.   Something went wrong; the DNA that was sent to Gene Tree (the company I went through) by cousin Warren Burns was contaminated and Warren wouldn't redo the test or would no longer accept my phone calls! I got my money back from Gene Tree and I have put this matter on the ‘back burner’ to my great disappointment.

     Also, it was one year ago today I finally started this genealogy blog.  Of course the one who learns most from this blog is me.  One year and still I am not finished with KIDGELL/CASHMORE line,  because it forced me to do more research which takes time.   Having a 'cousin' who sent me the 'Histories of Kidgell and Cashmore's" has been a great help and I haven't begun to post all that is in these histories.  The next line will be the HEPWORTH ancestor's.  And they had eleven children who lived to be adults. So this blogging about my ancestors will go on for a long while.
   
     I would like to post at least once a week but, in the summertime that goal is very difficult.  I golf a couple times a week and we do travel.

    You might  be interested in reading one of my favorite blogs  by Nancy: http://nancysfamilyhistoryblog.blogspot.com/  I love the way she 'brings to mind' about her ancestors and her style of writing.

2 Aug 1913-13 Sept 1991