In the mid 1990s when I started researching my family history I never dreamed I would one day be able to do most of it from home. But now, thanks to sites like ancestry.com, find-a-grave, USGenWeb and others, I am finding history I never dreamed of. You will find some things you aren't too proud of but it is your history and you have to embrace it.
My interest started in the graveyard. I have always been interested in cemeteries and remember roaming around them as a young child. I had an aunt that actually lived behind the cemetery where most of my maternal ancestors are buried. I played there as a child, never knowing that my 3rd great grandparents were buried there. I also remember as a teenager finding an old family cemetery in the woods not far from my home in Sumter, SC. It was covered in weeds and vines, the gravestones covered in lichen. Last year I went back to find it and someone had cleaned it up and put an iron fence around it. Nice!
Several family mysteries have been discovered along the way and I plan to share them all here, hoping that someone, somewhere, will have the answer. I have also met several distant cousins and found out things I never knew. Big family secrets. Ancestors gone astray. A couple murders. They say well behaved people never make history, and I will have to agree with that.
Many thanks to family members who have helped me along the way. My Aunt Barbara Mosier wrote a wonderful book about my 2nd great grandfather Henry James Mosier, which I treasure. My cousin Jim Mosier, who I met online, has provided me with a ton of information on his great grandfather Thomas Milburn Calvin Mosier, who was the brother of Henry James. Last year I found out my great grandmother had a cousin that was still alive at 106. I went to visit her and she was able to give me first hand knowledge about my 3rd great grandfather, who died six years before she was born! I also found out the grandson of one of my notorious trouble making great uncles was alive at 89 and went to visit him. He had no idea about the trouble his father and grandfather had gotten into and was "tickled pink" to find out. And my new distant maternal cousin Harold Davis in Tennessee has been a great help in finding old obituaries and newspaper articles.
My maternal and paternal sides will be covered here. On my maternal side the surnames are : Belk, Abernathy, Collett, and Correll. On my paternal side the surnames are: Mosier/Moser, Dees/Deese, Maples, Whitaker, Sistare and Small. My paternal step-grandfather was a Rorie and seeing as he was the only paternal grandfather I ever knew I claim him!
On a closing note I will tell you I have found more than one link between my parents, Anne Elizabeth Abernathy Mosier from Rowan County, NC and John Edward Mosier from Chesterfield County, SC. I sure wish Dad was around to hear he and Mom share the same 4th great grandfather.
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