Welcome. I have been working on my families Genealogy for over fifteen years and my brother Terry has been working even longer, perhaps thirty years. All of our lines were in this country before the Revolutionary War and many were here from the late 1600s.

There are 5269 persons and 1764 families in my database. I try to keep the surname index under resources updated so it will be the quickest way to find out if you have a connection to any of my lines.

Genealogy is more to me than just knowing the names and dates of my ancestors. I want to know what they looked like. I have been working on finding pictures of as many as I can. Also correspondence, diaries, official records are other way to get a feel of how they lived. I was so very lucky to get access to letters exchanged between Seth and Charlotte Alger and their folks back East during the mid 1800s. These and other documents can be found in the resource area of this web site.

12.12.2009 Well where did this year go? My sister Sherri opened an account with Ancestry.com and was kind enough to let me stowaway for a few months. I was able to look at a lot of census records. It was very helpful. I just recently put up a new page under Resourcesfor PDF files. This will give you a look at some documents in their original form. I am also experimenting with different methods of showing photos.

At this time I have 5269 individuals and 1764 families in my database.

1.1.2009 Here we are in a new year. I have just put up an update of the SURNAME INDEX in a new format. I put it in PDF format this time around which I hope will make it easier to search, download or print. I have also joined Find-A-Grave which has been useful in finding dates for ancestors in my data base that had been a challange up till now. You can find a link to my Virtual Cemetery under the Obits/Cemetery tab.

7.27.08 In my Obit/Cemetery section I did have links to some very fine work that volunteers put in many hours of their valuable time so that researchers had access to grave marker information and photos in most cases. We no longer have this because a greedy for profit site has taken control of these and other materials. Now we have to pay for information that was intended to be shared among researcher in the genealogy community. What a shame.

I have replaced my cemetery links with a link to my virtual cemetery hosted by Find A Grave.com, so far a non-profit site. We will see how long it takes Ancestry.com take over this site.

1.26.08 I have put up the Stewart photo album that I have tried to modify so that it can be viewed from the photo area. It actually opens in a new browser window. The photos have not been resized or digitally compressed so if you are on a dial-up connection it may take a while for the pictures to load. If you want a copy of any of the photos feel free to copy them for your personal use. DO NOT USE FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES!

1.12.08 We are into a new year and in the last four month this web site has logged visitors from ten U.S. states and eight other countries. One of the most popular areas is the photo pages. There is not much to see at this time, however, by year’s end I hope to make significant upgrades to these pages.

I would like to thank my Thomas cousins for letting me join their research group. They are very active genealogist and have given me a wealth of new information. I have incorporated the Thomas line with the Strait line that I already had because for me they are pretty much the same.

5.28.07 On a recent trip to Oklahoma Bob Smith, my brother Terry and I drove out to the old Riverside Cemetery. This is the Cemetery where Jesse and Rilla O'Dell were first buried. I wanted to see if any of the remaining graves had family connections. What I found was a very well cared for cemetery. It is now part of the Mustang Cemetery Association. I have expanded the "Obits" area of this web site to include cemeteries. Some just have text listings however there is a group of volunteers in Canadian Co. that are doing a great job of photographing the head stones. It would be great to hear from anyone who are descendants of those listed in Riverside.

2.15.07 While I was searching the Huntingdon Co. PA GenWeb site I found these 1790 census images showing Robert Stewart. HuntingdonCoPA1790census.jpg shows several Robert Stewarts but the one I outlined in red I believe is the correct one. There are other Stewart on this page and on HuntingdonCoPA1790census2.jpg however I can not connect them at this time. Perhaps they are related. Robert was born in Chester Co. PA so there is surly more family in the area.

1.5.07 This last year has been slow for working on family history but nun-the-less the number of individuals in my data base has grown to 4193 and families are now at 1390. I have made some additions to the surname index in the Resources section but will try to get full update done soon. If you are from one of the families listed I would very much like to hear from you.