I've been doing genealogy, including transcribing and photographing tombstones, since the 1970s. I owe my love of family history to my mother, Myra Ware Williams Crenshaw (1921-1985). She was a dedicated and conscientious researcher, and a founding member and first president of The Butler County Historical Society in Butler County, Alabama. The 1960s photo on my profile shows her at a pioneer Butler County site, Poplar Springs (site of the Ogly-Stroud massacre of 1818) with Mr. Gilbert Steindorff.

Mama visited cousins in the 1960s-1970s and copied hundreds of letters, bible records, plantation journals, diaries and other documents. She corresponded with fellow researchers all over the country about our ancestors and Butler County families. She surveyed cemeteries and transcribed tombstones, and led school children on bus tours to visit and learn about local historic sites.

She published some of her typed transcripts of Crenshaw-Chiles-Womack-Lewis family papers in The Butler County Historical Society Quarterly decades ago. I shared more excerpts from those transcribed family papers in my "Southern Traditions" book, described below.

Her complete genealogy collection, filling 5 file-cabinet drawers, is one of my most treasured possessions. I've shared it with various relatives who now use her work to enhance their own family trees and genealogical writings. My mother isn't always credited for her previous work, but her careful hand is there.

I don't try to manage the highest number of memorials on Find a Grave, I'm just helping to identify people of the past, link them to their families of today, document sources, and provide correct information on any and all Find a Grave memorials.

It's very time-consuming to get the biographical and genealogical details correct, and I spend much more time helping other people with their data than trying to add to my Find a Grave "total."

If you have an EDIT SUGGESTION for a memorial that I manage, please send me an email as well as making the suggestion in the "Edit" tabs. I won't make changes without knowing the reasons and sources, and you can explain those in your email.

Please consider that the most important Find a Grave work is on PAST memorials that are so badly needed, finding lost graves and identifying unknowns, linking individuals to their families, and helping other people find relatives and ancestors. Don't race to get today's obituary made into a Find a Grave "memorial" when the person's body is still warm. Most obituaries are available on-line to anyone in the world today, so adding them to Find a Grave is mainly a "numbers" game. Unfortunately, we see that too much on Find a Grave, despite professional guidelines and common courtesy.

I may add suggestions to other people's memorials when I see names that I recognize and have more information on. Please take it as a helpful effort and not a reflection on your expertise as a genealogist (or not a genealogist). I don't make statements or ask questions about relationships and facts that I don't have sources for.

Sources are crucial – please ask! If you have sources that I don't, I'll be glad to compare notes and change any incorrect data on my part, too. We can only get it ALL as accurate as possible by sharing.

Why am I working with Findagrave? Not only did my mother inspire me with a love of history and genealogy, but that's been my career. I taught genealogy and Southern history and culture programs at Auburn University at Montgomery, Maxwell Air Force Base, and with Elderhostel at The University of Montevallo for over 35 years. I gave historic tours and presentations over a multi-county area, and gave "Roads Scholar" (Speakers Bureau) programs with the Alabama Historical Association. I did professional genealogical research for applicants to patriotic lineage societies such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, Jamestowne Society, Mayflower Society, Colonial Dames, Society of the Cincinnati and others. I'm now retired from professional research, instruction and tours, but I still help friends and answer queries. Findagrave is another way to help people, to share the genealogical knowledge that I've gathered in my lifetime, and to keep sharing my mother's amazing early work.

I'm a past officer in The Montgomery Genealogical Society and The Butler County Historical and Genealogical Society, and a former trustee of The Montgomery County Historical Society. I was a founding member of the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance, and worked on a number of historic preservation projects for the State of Alabama Historical Commission in the 1980s-1990s.

I served as chairman of The Butler County Bicentennial Committee in 2019, when we celebrated our county and state's double bicentennial. That was a wonderful year of history and heritage!

I produced The Butler County Historical Society Quarterly for 20 years, January 1999-April 2019, and established a web site about Butler County and the Butler County Historical and Genealogical Society (https://sites.rootsweb.com/~albchgs/).

I'm the author of a weekly genealogy column in The Greenville Standard newspaper, titled "Butler County Beginnings."

I was one of the authors of, and a committee chairman for, the publications of "A Pictorial History of Butler County, Alabama" (1999), "The Heritage of Butler County, Alabama" (2003), and "A Taste of Butler County, Alabama: Treasured Family Recipes of the Butler County Historical Society" (2004), among other books.

I wrote "Southern Traditions: Recipes and Reminiscences from Seven Generations of the Crenshaw Family" (1997, reprinted 1998) not only to share family recipes and stories, but to share our family history. I illustrated the book with photograph copies I made 25-30 years ago of lovely family daguerreotypes, tintypes and albumen prints, and I included over 100 pages of family history and genealogical outlines. "Southern Traditions" is out-of-print after 25 years, but you can find a copy on eBay every now and then.

I'm glad to share further genealogy notes on any families that I've researched. Particularly if you're interested in the Crenshaws and their many allied families, I'll be glad to help. DNA has shown that we're all related!

You're welcome to write me at my email address, or post a message here on Find a Grave.

Annie Crenshaw

I've been doing genealogy, including transcribing and photographing tombstones, since the 1970s. I owe my love of family history to my mother, Myra Ware Williams Crenshaw (1921-1985). She was a dedicated and conscientious researcher, and a founding member and first president of The Butler County Historical Society in Butler County, Alabama. The 1960s photo on my profile shows her at a pioneer Butler County site, Poplar Springs (site of the Ogly-Stroud massacre of 1818) with Mr. Gilbert Steindorff.

Mama visited cousins in the 1960s-1970s and copied hundreds of letters, bible records, plantation journals, diaries and other documents. She corresponded with fellow researchers all over the country about our ancestors and Butler County families. She surveyed cemeteries and transcribed tombstones, and led school children on bus tours to visit and learn about local historic sites.

She published some of her typed transcripts of Crenshaw-Chiles-Womack-Lewis family papers in The Butler County Historical Society Quarterly decades ago. I shared more excerpts from those transcribed family papers in my "Southern Traditions" book, described below.

Her complete genealogy collection, filling 5 file-cabinet drawers, is one of my most treasured possessions. I've shared it with various relatives who now use her work to enhance their own family trees and genealogical writings. My mother isn't always credited for her previous work, but her careful hand is there.

I don't try to manage the highest number of memorials on Find a Grave, I'm just helping to identify people of the past, link them to their families of today, document sources, and provide correct information on any and all Find a Grave memorials.

It's very time-consuming to get the biographical and genealogical details correct, and I spend much more time helping other people with their data than trying to add to my Find a Grave "total."

If you have an EDIT SUGGESTION for a memorial that I manage, please send me an email as well as making the suggestion in the "Edit" tabs. I won't make changes without knowing the reasons and sources, and you can explain those in your email.

Please consider that the most important Find a Grave work is on PAST memorials that are so badly needed, finding lost graves and identifying unknowns, linking individuals to their families, and helping other people find relatives and ancestors. Don't race to get today's obituary made into a Find a Grave "memorial" when the person's body is still warm. Most obituaries are available on-line to anyone in the world today, so adding them to Find a Grave is mainly a "numbers" game. Unfortunately, we see that too much on Find a Grave, despite professional guidelines and common courtesy.

I may add suggestions to other people's memorials when I see names that I recognize and have more information on. Please take it as a helpful effort and not a reflection on your expertise as a genealogist (or not a genealogist). I don't make statements or ask questions about relationships and facts that I don't have sources for.

Sources are crucial – please ask! If you have sources that I don't, I'll be glad to compare notes and change any incorrect data on my part, too. We can only get it ALL as accurate as possible by sharing.

Why am I working with Findagrave? Not only did my mother inspire me with a love of history and genealogy, but that's been my career. I taught genealogy and Southern history and culture programs at Auburn University at Montgomery, Maxwell Air Force Base, and with Elderhostel at The University of Montevallo for over 35 years. I gave historic tours and presentations over a multi-county area, and gave "Roads Scholar" (Speakers Bureau) programs with the Alabama Historical Association. I did professional genealogical research for applicants to patriotic lineage societies such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, Jamestowne Society, Mayflower Society, Colonial Dames, Society of the Cincinnati and others. I'm now retired from professional research, instruction and tours, but I still help friends and answer queries. Findagrave is another way to help people, to share the genealogical knowledge that I've gathered in my lifetime, and to keep sharing my mother's amazing early work.

I'm a past officer in The Montgomery Genealogical Society and The Butler County Historical and Genealogical Society, and a former trustee of The Montgomery County Historical Society. I was a founding member of the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance, and worked on a number of historic preservation projects for the State of Alabama Historical Commission in the 1980s-1990s.

I served as chairman of The Butler County Bicentennial Committee in 2019, when we celebrated our county and state's double bicentennial. That was a wonderful year of history and heritage!

I produced The Butler County Historical Society Quarterly for 20 years, January 1999-April 2019, and established a web site about Butler County and the Butler County Historical and Genealogical Society (https://sites.rootsweb.com/~albchgs/).

I'm the author of a weekly genealogy column in The Greenville Standard newspaper, titled "Butler County Beginnings."

I was one of the authors of, and a committee chairman for, the publications of "A Pictorial History of Butler County, Alabama" (1999), "The Heritage of Butler County, Alabama" (2003), and "A Taste of Butler County, Alabama: Treasured Family Recipes of the Butler County Historical Society" (2004), among other books.

I wrote "Southern Traditions: Recipes and Reminiscences from Seven Generations of the Crenshaw Family" (1997, reprinted 1998) not only to share family recipes and stories, but to share our family history. I illustrated the book with photograph copies I made 25-30 years ago of lovely family daguerreotypes, tintypes and albumen prints, and I included over 100 pages of family history and genealogical outlines. "Southern Traditions" is out-of-print after 25 years, but you can find a copy on eBay every now and then.

I'm glad to share further genealogy notes on any families that I've researched. Particularly if you're interested in the Crenshaws and their many allied families, I'll be glad to help. DNA has shown that we're all related!

You're welcome to write me at my email address, or post a message here on Find a Grave.

Annie Crenshaw