I am the Grandson of Hiram & Hazel Ponder Burns and Velma Owens Moore.

I am the Great Grandson of Joe L & Sylvania Crook Burns and George L. & Lucy Hensley Ponder and Margaret Elizabeth Owens.

I am the Great-Great Grandson of John P. and Matilda Hudson Crook, and Perry Arthur & Sally Davidson Burns and Squire & Alabama Gilbert Hensley and William Dekalb & Luvica Metcalf Ponder.

I grew up in the Old Home Place of Joe L. & Sylvania Crook Burns, on Bullskin, Clay County, Kentucky. As a child some of the ones who would watch after me were Joe & Sylvania Burns, children (Hiram my grandfather, Henry & Minnie Burns), William Penn Burns grandchildren, and a host of other elderly neighbors/relatives, while my own parents were at work.

Hiram, Henry, Dewey and Oscar Burns, just to name a few, would take me with them to visit their friends in the area many of whom had been born in the late 1800's. The stories they would tell me of their childhood years was amazing to me. I didn't read about these people on a piece of paper, I knew them.

When I was 10 years old for my birthday I wanted a pocketknife, the reason to me was simple, old men of the community would gather across the street from Asher's store in Oneida, Kentucky to "widdle" and I felt left out. These were great days, as they would tell stories one after the other of people and the past. I remember many times being in the home of Valjean and Roxie Burns, (he was the local wood carver), to watch him work and listen to his stories.

So, I was primarily around adults growing up. One man I remember so well became at that time my best friend in the world. He was not only a cousin but former WWII POW. I will never forget him nor the things he would tell me. That man shaped how I even today look at the world, with God and family. Sites like this are so very important, assuring that each person can be remembered and never forgotten.

I believe that each person represented here should be more than just a name on a line, that fills in a family tree chart, they are the past, our past and our bloodlines. Each having their own story to tell.

I have spent my life not only looking for my own relatives, but it made me realize no one should ever be forgotten. I in my research found the grave of my great grandmother, which had gone unmarked for nearly 50 years at that point. It wasn't only my grandmother but an infant aunt and an uncle. That was my first Find A Grave addition.

I want to share with everyone actual stories and facts (that can be backed up by documents, not somebody said so, or copied just for the sake of having a line filled) of those whose pages I manage.