Hello,
I am Donna Keener from Preston County, WV. I have been researching my family for over 25 years now. I have over 68,000 names in my database. I am researching Keener's, Ayersman's, Shay's, Wright's, Sidwell's, Squire's, Comb's, Trickett's, Mitter's, Street's, Benson's, DeWitt's, Casteel's, and many others. I have published two cemetery books on Preston County. I have added the material from both volumes as they are no longer in print.

I will be happy to enter any links that you are willing to provide to me, or will attach any obituaries that you wish to send to me.

Per Find-a-grave guidelines, "Transfer requests should be for direct relatives within four generations. This would be your siblings, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Be sure to explain your relationship in the request! Any relatives who are more distantly related to you are not required to be transferred."

When requesting updates or transfers, please use the EDIT TAB on the right hand side of the memorial page so that a direct link to that individual is provided for the update.

Please do not send me information from Census records to be posted in the bio!!!!! There are enough sources online with census information that I feel that individuals should be able to find that info without placing it in Find-A-GRAVE.

I would encourage anyone researching family members in Preston County to visit the Terra Alta Library. I've been working with them for the last 15 years trying to build their genealogy materials. They have a nice microfilm reader. They have a complete set of film from Preston County's newspapers. They also have partial collections for Taylor County, Barbour County, Marion County, Monongalia County and Tucker County. They have collected obituaries from the Dominion Post and have them indexed and in binders. They also have collected and bound the civil war series that was printed in the Preston County newspapers.
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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.
That, is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.
(Unknown Author)

Hello,
I am Donna Keener from Preston County, WV. I have been researching my family for over 25 years now. I have over 68,000 names in my database. I am researching Keener's, Ayersman's, Shay's, Wright's, Sidwell's, Squire's, Comb's, Trickett's, Mitter's, Street's, Benson's, DeWitt's, Casteel's, and many others. I have published two cemetery books on Preston County. I have added the material from both volumes as they are no longer in print.

I will be happy to enter any links that you are willing to provide to me, or will attach any obituaries that you wish to send to me.

Per Find-a-grave guidelines, "Transfer requests should be for direct relatives within four generations. This would be your siblings, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Be sure to explain your relationship in the request! Any relatives who are more distantly related to you are not required to be transferred."

When requesting updates or transfers, please use the EDIT TAB on the right hand side of the memorial page so that a direct link to that individual is provided for the update.

Please do not send me information from Census records to be posted in the bio!!!!! There are enough sources online with census information that I feel that individuals should be able to find that info without placing it in Find-A-GRAVE.

I would encourage anyone researching family members in Preston County to visit the Terra Alta Library. I've been working with them for the last 15 years trying to build their genealogy materials. They have a nice microfilm reader. They have a complete set of film from Preston County's newspapers. They also have partial collections for Taylor County, Barbour County, Marion County, Monongalia County and Tucker County. They have collected obituaries from the Dominion Post and have them indexed and in binders. They also have collected and bound the civil war series that was printed in the Preston County newspapers.
=========================================================

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.
That, is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.
(Unknown Author)