It's hard for me to remember a time when I was not considered the "Family Historian". It started with listening to tales about my maternal great-great-grandfather Lee Christmas, an adventurer in Central America during the late 19th century into the first two decades of the 20th century. Over the years, my mother become the holder of many old family photos, and I eventually became responsible for maintaining the collection. As I grew older, I begin to explore other members of my family tree, learning stories about my paternal line that included a Confederate soldier cited in a dispatch from the Battle of Franklin and families facing the challenge of living in post-Civil War rural Mississippi.

Working along with my mother, starting in the 1980s, I begin to explore library collections of genealogical materials. Since this was mainly in the "Dark Ages" before the explosion of computers in our society, we spent hours looking through microfiche, microfilm, and hard copies of records. As one can imagine, progress was slow.

Due to the demands of life (school, work, etc.), I was only able to dig into my family history on an intermittent basis. In recent years, thanks to the abundance of computerized databases, I have been able to make better progress on the search, although I still try to track the information I obtain back to a source document.

When I first found out about Find a Grave several years back, I would occasionally find incomplete information or inaccuracies on members of my growing family tree. More recently, I have been able to find more time to delve into the records of my family on this site. I have also been able to start creating memorials for both family members and -- to me -- strangers. I certainly have developed a great appreciation for those volunteers that have spent much time and energy to documenting those who have -- as the saying goes -- "shuffled off this mortal coil." Now, I am endeavoring to do my part to support those efforts.

I will gladly transfer management of any memorials that I create along the way for non-family, or to family members with closer ties to the deceased. I will also gladly correct any factual errors or inaccuracies that are brought to my attention. I will also reach out to those who have taken the time to create memorials for my close relatives so that I may be able to pass along additional information or photos to my family members.

I'm looking forward to preserving the past for those of the future.