Connie: A Mayflower descendent of Gov. William Bradford, I am originally from the mid-west. I now make my home in Texas. I've been researching genealogy since 1999 using Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com since 2007.

Kelly: A Texas native, I was born Stephen Alton Abell and adopted at birth by Eugene and Arline Byrd. Through my adoptive parents, I am a descendent of Texas pioneers who came with the Empressarios. My mother and her sisters researched our family tree for over 50 years and left a lasting impression on me.

Please visit the memorials of our dearest family members that have gone on: our beautiful daughter, Amy Cathryn Vaughn; Eugene Allison and Arline Lucille Sullivan Byrd, Kelly's parents and Gilbert Stivers Marshall, Connie's father; and our nephew, Nicholas Paul Marshall.

You are welcome to use, for genealogy, any pictures or information we have added; please be so kind as to credit us for our work as we would you. If you are a relative or even a friend, in most cases we will be happy to transfer a memorial to you. Just ask! We post many memorials for souls unrelated to either of us and always hope someone who loved them will find them and tell their stories.

The way we see it:

Unknown Author: The Story Tellers.....We are the chosen. My feelings are in each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family you would be proud of us? How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do? It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it For us. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.

Happy hunting!

Connie: A Mayflower descendent of Gov. William Bradford, I am originally from the mid-west. I now make my home in Texas. I've been researching genealogy since 1999 using Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com since 2007.

Kelly: A Texas native, I was born Stephen Alton Abell and adopted at birth by Eugene and Arline Byrd. Through my adoptive parents, I am a descendent of Texas pioneers who came with the Empressarios. My mother and her sisters researched our family tree for over 50 years and left a lasting impression on me.

Please visit the memorials of our dearest family members that have gone on: our beautiful daughter, Amy Cathryn Vaughn; Eugene Allison and Arline Lucille Sullivan Byrd, Kelly's parents and Gilbert Stivers Marshall, Connie's father; and our nephew, Nicholas Paul Marshall.

You are welcome to use, for genealogy, any pictures or information we have added; please be so kind as to credit us for our work as we would you. If you are a relative or even a friend, in most cases we will be happy to transfer a memorial to you. Just ask! We post many memorials for souls unrelated to either of us and always hope someone who loved them will find them and tell their stories.

The way we see it:

Unknown Author: The Story Tellers.....We are the chosen. My feelings are in each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family you would be proud of us? How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do? It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it For us. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.

Happy hunting!