We make a decision concerning who we add to our files based on a number of criteria. You may find individuals here that seem unconnected, but in fact they are more than likely "waiting" to be connected.

Web sites serve a number of useful purposes, not the least of which is working to connect individuals and families through information collected. Our web site has a core group of families that we know are connected, and then we build out from that group by connecting surnames, marriage information, obituaries, and other sources..

At times we find people who we believe are connected, but we lack the evidence to make that connection. Perhaps the most obvious example would be from cemetery visits. When we visit a cemetery we start with a core list of surnames we know are connected to our families. While we are there, we photograph known relatives. However, we almost always find some people who have the same surname who are not in our files or we do not understand the relationship to the others (assuming there is one). When appropriate we add these people to our files so that others who are doing research on a specific area of the family can connect to us and, hopefully, explain the relationship.

There are other individuals who have the same surname, appear to be connected, but are not. When we discover that we have collected information on people in this category we will continue to present what we have, but it is unlikely that we will update it going forward. A good example here is also found in the cemetery records, where we might add a family group and later discover that they are unreleated. Removing the tombstone pictures or accompanying data serves no useful purpose, and it just might help someone else in their quest.

If you find an individual in our files with either incomplete or innacurate information we hope you will contact us to help improve the reporting. It is always our goal to present information that is as accurate as possible, but the process of information collection and correlation always leaves room for improvement.

If you are a genealogist, then please join our efforts as we work to present a more complete portrait of our family. It is often the small facts about a person that help complete the picture of one's life. No one person can build this picture alone and we need a collective effort if we are to complete our picture.

It is hard for us to believe, but as of July 2008, we have just over 42,500 people in our files. Scattered out in all this are just over 5,000 different surnames. So out of all this information, which ones are our primary surnames?

Well if we go back to the great-great-grandparent generation for each of us there will obviously be sixteen surname groups. We know fifteen of the sixteen names. For my Whitehead line the key paternal surnames are:

• Whitehead
• Wise
• Southerland
• Gregory
• Comer
• Fulcher
• Deadwyler
• Johnson

The key maternal surnames in my line are:

• Peacock
• McKinnon
• Culpepper
• Turner
• Boland
• Lighon
• Lowe
• Vinson

In my wife's line there are obviously 16 and for the paternal side of her familiy we know 7 of the 8 surnames:

• DeVore
• Whatley
• Callahan
• ?
• Garrett
• Stoddard
• Yeargin
• Coker

In her maternal line we know all eight and these are:

• Rollins
• Irby
• Faglier
• Williams
• Lyon
• Jennings
• Rankin
• Miller

The program we use to present the information on the following pages removes information on living individuals based on the following criteria.

If we have no death date for a person, then it is assumed that they might be living if they were born after 1915 or married after 1930. This does not mean that we lack the information, only that it is not openly displayed.