Western VA & Living Relatives -- Virginia in June -- 2007

I have a real thing about my ancestors. I've been that way all my life, although my energy for researching them waxes & wanes. It waxed this year with the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Jamestowne & the Virginia Colony (1607).

The Jamestowne anniversary seemed like the perfect time to walk the ground some of my ancestors did in the 1600's in VA, so we planned a trip. As we were doing that, we discovered that a 1st cousin once removed of Trout's on his mother's side lived near Roanoke. Her name is Pam & her husband, John, is also a racing nut. There really are no coincidences.

Western Virginia

So we flew to Richmond and drove to the Roanoke area to spend the first few days of our Virigina adventure with cousins. We stayed at Pam and John's house right off the Blue Ridge Parkway and had a great time meeting and visiting them. She called her brother and told him that Trout looked just like another family member.

The Blue Ridge is hilly and green. John can see the mountains where he hunts from his chair in his great room. This is the land next door to them which currently houses cows.

Similar to Trout and me, Pam and John built the big house after they retired.

This is Trout, John and Pam on their porch.

They tour guided us all around the area. We got our first glimpses of the James River.

We saw some of Roanoke.

And we visited the D-Day Memorial, accidentally on D-Day, June 6th.



D-Day Memorial


Bedford is the community in the United States that lost the most men during the D-Day invasion. This memorial is located there and was built without any government funds.

This is a representation of the soldiers hitting the beach.

This sculpture represents the Rangers who scaled the cliffs.

We had a wonderful time with Pam and John. It was way too short, but we had to move on to go to our lodging reservations in Williamsburg.

Florida -- February, 2007

This was a trip I made sadly & alone. There are no pictures of scenery or lovely views. It was all about family.

I went for the funeral of one of my cousins on my father's side, Pat, known as Tex by his wife & descendants. I had just talked to him a few days before he died. It was quite a shock. It was a very sad occasion, but I was able to meet family members I never knew before.

This is my cousin Pat's obituary. There seems to be a tendency in my family to have lots of nicknames or to name ourselves something other than the name we were given. The C.W. here represents Pat's real name but somewhere along the way he started calling himself Pat & as an adult he became Tex. His mom was my Aunt Agnes. Pat & his siblings were born in Texas but the family moved to Ohio for their dad's work.

There were two funeral services for Pat. This is from the military one. He was a WWII & Korean War veteran & was buried at Florida National Cemetery. This is his grandson presenting the flag to his widow, Lela. He's a firefighter, not military, but he was allowed to actively participate in the service.

This is Pat's youngest daughter, Brenda. She reminds me a lot of my Aunt Agnes, her grandmother. I stayed with her.

This is me with my other 1st cousins there, Pat's brothers, Jerry (standing) & Timmy (sitting). They both live in Columbus, OH.

Aunt Agnes had 5 kids, 4 boys & 1 girl. Shirley was the cousin closest to me in age, but she was killed in a car wreck as a young woman. The other brother, Mickey, died a few years ago. This is his wife, Anita, & their children. The boys look a lot like their dad.

There were originally 19 of us first cousins, all the grandchildren of Papa, Frederick Smith. Not all of us have the same grandmother but we were all close. The oldest of us, Josephine, was born in 1914. I'm the youngest, born in 1946. Papa died in 1948, so I really don't remember him at all. I depend on my older cousins to teach me about him. There are 5 of us left now -- 2 in Ohio, 2 in Texas & me.

These are pictures of Papa, probably from around 1910. He was born in 1870.

This is a picture of him from the 1940's so he would have been at least 70 in this picture.

The top picture here is of him & his children. There were 5 girls & my father, who was the youngest. He was born in 1907 & his oldest sister was born in 1895. That's Aunt Agnes standing next to him. The sister missing died in childbirth in 1923.

The 2nd picture here is of my father & his sisters in the 1950's in front of the house Papa built in San Antonio.

This is a picture of my father with Aunt Agnes & their niece, my oldest cousin, Josephine. Judging by their apparent ages, I think this is probably from around 1920.