I am a retired high school teacher and librarian and have been interested in my family history for many years. Many of my ancestors were too poor to be able to afford headstones or tombstones. We have oral histories, but not very much printed records. Slowly, I and my cousin have been adding these records to prove or disprove our family stories. The one thing that has been so discouraging in finding info is the changing of birth names to nicknames or the misspelling of various first and last names which provides problems when using a computer search program. I have found many errors which I have wanted to correct and now plan to do so if possible to the best of my ability.
I was born and raised in Lecompte, Louisiana and now live in Lafayette, LA. My father's surnames are Brady, Ussery, Vailes, Beatty, Wheatley, Pipes, Stilley, Cannon, Hollis to just name a few that have been in LA since before the Civil War and back to the Carolinas before that.
My mother who was born in Alabama, has surnames of Holloway, Archer, Shelton, Beck, Gilbert, McGuire, Brandon, etc. and we have traced some of these families from Alabama back to Georgia, the Carolinas, and Ireland.
Though I have not been able to spend as much time as I wish on this research, I still work on it when I can and any help is appreciated.