Legacy of Faith

I've spent the past 9 months working almost exclusively on my ancestry research. Inadvertently, I've pushed God back on the priority list. In the middle of the most time consuming part of my research, I ran across an old newspaper article regarding the second cousin of my G-G-G grandfather, Robert Brown Merrill. Reverend Robert Brown Merrill to be exact. He was a Southern Baptist preacher in the small community of Leon, Alabama which is roughly 5 miles north of where we live now. From his obituary in the Crenshaw County News, we do know that he had a 'home' church, but I haven't run across the name of the church yet.

While searching for information regarding Rev. Merrill, I came across several old church records that mentioned numerous other ancestors. It was so wonderful to read through these old records and to learn that my family loved the same Savior as I do now. While some of the churches that they once attended no longer hold services, most are still standing and I've tried to view and/or photograph as many as I can. One in particular is where 5 generations of my family were laid to rest.

In the middle of my research it dawned on me that my ancestors left me a legacy. They left me a legacy of faith. Each generation took the responsibility of teaching the next about our Lord and Savior. Each generation served Him in their own way. Some chose to serve Him in the basic tasks of running a farm and praising Him for putting food on their table. Two generations served Him in the Civil War by serving as field chaplains. The next generation chose to serve Him from behind a pulpit. Yet another chose to serve Him by donating a parcel of land for a church to be built upon. Finally, my grandmother chose to serve Him by showing others how He worked through her. Those works helped lead me to Christ during my early teenage years. It is now my duty to one day pass this legacy along to the next generation.

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy
(Legacy by Nichole Nordeman)

Oh my gosh...I've got a blog award!

Cherie at Still Digging for Roots picked my blog for a KreativBlogger award. I am so honored! Thank you!

I'm going to buck the rules a tad and instead of nominating a set number of blogs, I'm going to pick two that I read on a regular basis. Both Taylor and Sarah pour their hearts out on their blog and I feel that both have more than earned it! :)

a little slice of Heaven...
Storing Up Treasures

Digital Scrapbooking

Photography has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was 12 or 13 so it was a natural assumption on my part that I would love scrap-booking just as much. WRONG! I am sorely lacking the patience to be a serious scrap-booker. I can sit down, have a game plan in my head, and get a good start on my layout and then my patience wears thin and I stop. I usually repeat this every 6 months or so.

Imagine my sheer delight when a friend of mine mentioned the ScrapBlog website! I have spent the past week putting together a few layouts with my favorite family pictures. My goal is to get 30 or 40 pages done, print them, and bind them in a simple leather cover. Here is one of my favorite layouts. For those of you who happen to be dyed-in-the-wool scrap-bookers, please feel free to offer any advice and critiques!

A layout of our sweet Sophie.

Introducing...

I just realized that I've not included many pictures of our wonderful family. I'd like to spend a few minutes to introduce you to Brett's step-mother (my wonderful mother-in-law), Marlene. Jim and Mar live in north Alabama and if we're out of town for the weekend, you can bet we're up at their house. Marlene is a retired art teacher, a very talented artist, and a soon-to-be published author. I've had the privilege of catching a few sneak peaks at the manuscript as well as seeing the first draft of the cover. I can't wait to read it in its entirety! Here are a few of her paintings that I absolutely adore. Enjoy!

Mar and "The Annabelles"

A more detailed view of "The Annabelles"

Mar and her most recent "Pansy" painting

A detailed view

When it rains, it pours...

Brett and I just returned from a 10 day trip to Niagara Falls to spend time with my grandfather before he underwent open heart surgery. While the surgery itself was successful, he's developed a few complications and is still in the CVICU at Buffalo General. Please pray for his comfort and emotional/physical well-being as well as for the doctors and nurses who are attending to him. My mom made the drive up with us and she is still there with him.

While we spent as much time as possible with him at the hospital, we did do some winter sight-seeing outside of visiting hours. I was able to show Brett the house my dad grew up in and some of our favorite local haunts. For the record, if you do vacation in Niagara Falls anytime soon, make sure you go to the "Why Coffee Shop" off Main St. for breakfast. You can't beat the food or the price! Here are a few pictures of our travels...

Brett and I at the top of Devil's Hole Gorge

Niagara River Gorge

Frozen Niagara River and the Rainbow Bridge into Canada

The American and Bridal Veil Falls

Close up of the American and Bridal Veil Falls

My very dirty, very snowy car

Brett received a phone call on the way home telling us that his maternal grandmother in South Carolina was diagnosed with lung cancer. We don't have many details as her first oncologist appointment isn't until later this week, but please pray for clear answers and for her to feel peaceful regarding any decisions she has to make in the coming days. We will be going to South Carolina in the next couple of weeks to spend some time with her and hopefully we'll have a game-plan in place shortly.

Just us.

I was reminded about my blog a few weeks ago when someone asked the simple question, "Do you blog?" Um, yeah. About that. Oops. I forgot to update it again. I am setting a simple goal for myself of updating AT LEAST twice a month. Once I accomplish that, I'll work towards a weekly update. I find that I'm having a major problem with time management lately and I'm trying to work on it. Bear with me!

PERSONAL UPDATE

• Brett and I rang in 2009 with a trip to Emerald Coast Dragway's New Years Nationals race. It was a great day for racing (minus the cold wind and the track not sticking at first) and we had a blast hanging out with family and friends. Brett ran into some of his friends from high school and I was able to meet some people who I've only heard referred to in stories by Brett and Steve. Luckily, most of the stories weren't that bad! :)

• My main goal for 2009 is to spend more immersed in my Bible and less time reading celebrity gossip magazines. I'm using the devotional book I picked up last year, but only haphazardly read.
  

• As my EDD of February 8 comes closer, I'm having a much harder time with things than I once thought. I find myself constantly wondering about how things would be if we were still expecting two beautiful miracles.
  

• There are a couple things that I really feel the Lord is impressing upon my heart and I'm trying to open my mind and heart to Him and His will. The most challenging part is to make sure that these things are "of Him" instead of "of Janice".
  

Since I'm at the office, I'm going to cut this short, but expect to see the "unexpected" in 2009!

I'm such a slacker.

ANCESTRY UPDATE

• I know I've been slacking on my weekly updates, but I haven't been able to spend a lot of time with my ancestry research lately. I was able to snag several hours of it while we were in Scottsboro and I've been able to work on it some this week, too. My focus this week has been on the Wiggins part of my family. Eula Lee Wiggins (1874 - 1914) married by GG grandfather Hugh Daniel Merrill (1863 - 1953) and was one of the first Wiggins' connections. Isabella Merrill, Hugh Daniel Merrill's sister, also married a Wiggins (George Washington Wiggins). My Wiggins connection is also the connection that I share with my mother-in-law, Marlene. She and I both descend from William Wiggins (1755 - 1819) and Elizabeth Cooper (1759 - 1825). I descend from their son Willis Anthony Wiggins and she descends from their son Stephen Wiggins.

• My next ancestry project is to track down and clear up the ancestry of Elizabeth Cooper (1759 - 1825) and her father, Fleet Cooper. This is proving to be a very daunting project, so I doubt I'll have anything "clear" to show for it for quite some time.

• Brett and I will be in Aiken, South Carolina for Thanksgiving and while we're there I plan to visit the graves of several of my South Carolina ancestors. I would love to be able to drive up to North Carolina and do the same, but our time is limited on this trip. This will probably be a project to undertake sometime in the Spring and I plan to wrangle Marlene up for it as well.
  

Farewell and Hello

PERSONAL UPDATE

• Jerry Morgan (a very close family friend) passed away last night in Pensacola, Florida. Though he had been fighting cancer for the past two years, his death was sudden and unexpected. Please keep the Morgan family in your prayers as they get through this very tough time.

ANCESTRY UPDATE

• With the help of Crenshaw County genealogist Joyce English, I have been able to track down my grandfather's maternal grandparents and their immediate ancestors. The Moores were buried in Leon Cemetery this entire time and we never made the connection. I think the reason we had such a hard time with them is because we were going off of their nicknames/family names rather than the given names that would appear on a census. Brett and I will be going up to the Leon Cemetery this weekend to take pictures of their grave sites and update the family tree accordingly. My grandfather's maternal grandfather is buried at Zion Baptist Church in Dozier (rather than at Leon with the rest of his family) so we'll stop over there and take pictures as well.

• I've also tracked down some ancestors that are buried in the Kimbro Cemetery in Dozier, Alabama. While they're not "direct" ancestors (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) I'm still planning to stop and photograph their grave sites for the family tree.

• I also learned that I have a divorce (circa 1849) and two murders in my direct lineage. Phew!
  

We finally found it!

ANCESTRY UPDATE

• The only burial record we've ever had of my GGGG grandmother (Susanah McDade Merrill) listed her in the Leon Cemetery with her brother-in-law, Jacob Merrill. Brett and I scoured Leon Cemetery from front to back, but never found anything that mentioned her. I emailed a 3rd cousin* (once removed, to be exact!) and he told me that he found her gravesite in the Goodhope Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery several years ago. My immediate family (and NUMEROUS ancestors) are buried at Good Hope, but we never noticed her headstone. It turns out that she remarried a David Holland the same year she obtained a divorce from my GGGG grandfather William Merrill. She was buried (as Susanah Holland) directly behind her son Jacob Perry Merrill and his wife Elefare Parrish Merrill.

Susanah McDade Merrill Holland
1810 - 1875


Jacob Perry Merrill (Left) Susanah Holland (Center) Elefare Parrish Merrill (Right)

*Ron Head, Montgomery, AL (Thanks for all the information, Ron!)

It all begins somewhere.

I had every intention of starting this blog when I first started researching my family tree, but as always, I got sidetracked and forgot all about it. I plan to use this blog to record new developments and information as well as a place to update friends and family on what's going on in our every day lives. I had originally planned to keep the two separate, but I'm bad enough when it comes to updating just one blog. The second would never stand a chance. :)

ANCESTRY UPDATE

• Brett and I located the Valley Grove Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, Leon Community Cemetery, and Veasey's Chapel cemetery where my Alsabrook and Merrill ancestors are buried. I took well over a hundred pictures and updated my Family Tree accordingly. I'm still having some issues with locating all of the gravesites that we know should be in this area, but I'm slowly but surely making headway.

• With the help of my dad's cousin, we were able to get access to the Nall Plantation Cemetery to photograph the gravesites of Marlene's ancestors. The cemetery is quite over-grown and it took over an hour with an axe and weed-sling to clean it out enough to take pictures. A cleaning campaign is in the works and I'll be sure to take new pictures of the cemetery once we get it cleared out.

The Nall Plantation Cemetery in Gantt, Alabama.

PERSONAL UPDATE

• Without giving out too much information, it looks like Brett has a good lead on a new job. We don't know all the specifics yet, but it looks like he's a solid contendor and hopefully we'll know something more either this afternoon or tomorrow. If you're family and want all our details, send me an email and I'll fill you in!