Roots

My wife is a genealogy enthusiast and she has been inviting me to join in the fun. I was bitten by the bug recently when I got more evidence that my great-grandfather, James T. Evans, was in the "Orphan Brigade," the only CSA unit from Kentucky in the Civil War. My Uncle Roy told me this before he died and I found an "Evans, J.T." who was a "1st Cpl" in "Co. C, 3rd Kentucky Mounted Infantry Regiment."

I also found James T. Evans in the 1850 through 1900 census records as a farmer in Trimble County, Kentucky. His parents were Charles and Lena Evans, who were both born in Kentucky in 1794. James T. married a woman whose name, I think, deciphering the spelling and penmanship of the people who gave and recorded the information to the best of my ability, was named Jo Agnes. He was a widower by 1900 and lived on the farm with a 29-year-old daughter named Cassandra. (She was the notorious "Aunt Cassie," who my dad made a face over every time he said her name. She later lived in Madison, and once served my dad and mother wine at her house when they were newlyweds.)

I need to find out the surnames of great-grandmother Jo Agnes and great-great grandmother Lena, and I am itching to get at the records. I also found a record of the marriage of "Thomas Evans" to "Annie Dunn" in 1895, in Jefferson County, Indiana. That's "Tom" (John Thomas I, son of James T. and Jo Agnes), and Anna Elizabeth Dunn, (daughter of Albert and Martha), Tom and Annie being my father's parents.

I also found some really neat pictures of my mother and dad, one when I speculate they were dating or possibly newlyweds, and they were a good-looking couple. I also found pictures of my dad and his older brother and sister when they were small kids. Well, I'm rambling. I'm impressed. I have a beautiful family, both ancestors and offspring, and I'm very proud of all.

Another new development in my life: a friend (another unpublished writer) and I are taking a course in writing one's life story at Indiana University Southeast. It's going to be fun.

Love to my loved ones who might read this.