I am from Hancock, NY originally but currently live in Tampa, FL. I have done both the paternal and maternal sides of both my father's and mother's families, plus have done some of my wife's and friends families. I have connected a lot of these relatives and friends with their relatives on find a grave.com.

I have to give credit to where credit is due for the two major reasons I got into building family trees in the first place. When I was growing up in Hancock, NY my family lived right across the street from a woman and her husband who originally owned Shackelton's garage which was right next to their house. Her husband's name was Richard "Dick" Howell and her full name was Lucile Persbacker Howell. In 1980, Mrs Howell gave my father Hilton Homer a typewritten copy of the Homer family tree which she had compiled over the previous few years. Lucile was the Hancock Village Clerk for years and consequently had access to the Township of Hancock records but also records in other Townships in nearby counties in New York and northeast Pennsylvania mainly Wayne County, PA. When both my father and I read this family tree we were extremely surprised that Lucile was related to us through my father's father's side of the family. Lucile's grandmother Caroline Elizabeth Homer was my grandfather Frederick Homer's Aunt. Lucile's memorial number is 179552120 if you want to trace how she is related to me.

Needless to say, I was fascinated by this family tree because I knew a lot of the people in it so even from the very beginning I was intent of filling in the gaps of the family tree which there were many but not able to do so until about 5-10 years after the advent of the Internet. Sometime between 2000 and about 2008 I found two family trees of the Lord side of the family which is my father's maternal side. The first site I found by looking at websites pertaining to the small hamlet of Lordville, NY. A much younger relative of Dr. Cora Adams Ballard posted a family tree that his grandmother or great grandmother had compiled way back in the 1930's which traced her ancestry all the way back to the late 1700's.

I found out that I was related to Cora going back 5 generations. The first John Lord who moved to Lordville NY from Connecticut via New Jersey married a Minisink Indian woman with a last name of name of Van Dunk from New Jersey. Her sister or cousin Betia Van Dunk married Deliverence Adams who was one of the first Adams relatives of Cora Adams that had moved to America. John Lord I and Deliverence were both married in the early 1770's. Cora's memorial # is 157335157. I remember her when I was a kid. She died in 1957 when I was 8 years old. Read her obituary when you get a chance, it is quite fascinating. Her son John Adams Ballard was a Colonel in the US Army, her grandson of the same name John Adams Ballard, Jr was a Commander in the Navy, his wife Elizabeth Rosenbaum's brother Frederick was a First Lieutenant in the Army and her father Otto was a Brigadier General in the US Army. All 4 are buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

So as you can see I only ended up as a member of findagrave.com because it is such as great tool to connecting many of my long lost relatives.

If anybody who reads this needs any help connecting their relatives to build their family trees, let me know and I'll do what I can to help and give you a start on how to build your family trees. I have learned a lot of tricks and acquired a lot of information on how to do this over the years and would be more than willing to help anybody who is new to this. As you probably have figured out by now it can be quite complicated and complex. I can tell you what I know to help you cut through the maze and save you a lot of time. I am also sure a lot of you have also figured out ways to search for your relatives that I do not know about yet so we could be of help to each other. I have found out that searching for your relatives is a never ending learning experience which I find absolutely fascinating. I am looking forward to volunteering my help to anybody who needs it. If you have attention to detail it definitely will help you a lot to learn how to do this much quicker. My e-mail address is: [email protected]

Most of the sites that I have created in Delaware County and Sullivan County, NY and Wayne County plus Susquehanna County Pennsylvania with an obituary included were copied mainly from the Hancock Herald newspapers printed in Hancock, NY, the Binghamton NY Press & and Sun, Wayne County Independent in Honesdale, PA, the Scranton PA Times and Newspapers.com unless the bottom of the obituary says otherwise. If any of you members need a copy of an obituary for the site you created in cemeteries in any of these 3 counties primarily, I just need the exact date of death and their memorial ID and I can send it to you via suggest other corrections on their site and you can copy and paste it from there onto the Bio Information section of their site in Edit mode or I can copy and paste it in the upper left hand corner of their site for you. I have access to about 75% of the obituaries which were in the Hancock Herald. Also if anybody wants me to post an obituary of a site I manage, don't hesitate to ask me and I will be more than happy to post it. I'll take a picture of it or copy and post it to the proper site from the newspaper.

If you have any corrections to any of the sites I have created please don't hesitate to let me know via e-mail or through the site. If you take a picture of a headstone that is a lot better than the one I took, don't hesitate to let me know and I will delete my picture. Also if you find a site I created with no cemetery listed and you found a headstone or proof of where the deceased is actually buried, let me know and I will change the site to the name of the cemetery they are buried in. If you see a picture of a family tree with usually the parents and children posted on a findagrave.com site, I found those family tree's in familysearch.org family tree sections.

I am a Vietnam War Veteran so I am kind of partial to all the Veterans out there especially the ones who gave the ultimate sacrifice. That's why I created the Township of Hancock NY and surrounding area Virtual Cemetery for our War Veterans near my hometown who gave their lives for our country.

I am looking forward to us helping each other build our family trees and improving the sites that have been created with the most complete information we all can find.

Jack

I am from Hancock, NY originally but currently live in Tampa, FL. I have done both the paternal and maternal sides of both my father's and mother's families, plus have done some of my wife's and friends families. I have connected a lot of these relatives and friends with their relatives on find a grave.com.

I have to give credit to where credit is due for the two major reasons I got into building family trees in the first place. When I was growing up in Hancock, NY my family lived right across the street from a woman and her husband who originally owned Shackelton's garage which was right next to their house. Her husband's name was Richard "Dick" Howell and her full name was Lucile Persbacker Howell. In 1980, Mrs Howell gave my father Hilton Homer a typewritten copy of the Homer family tree which she had compiled over the previous few years. Lucile was the Hancock Village Clerk for years and consequently had access to the Township of Hancock records but also records in other Townships in nearby counties in New York and northeast Pennsylvania mainly Wayne County, PA. When both my father and I read this family tree we were extremely surprised that Lucile was related to us through my father's father's side of the family. Lucile's grandmother Caroline Elizabeth Homer was my grandfather Frederick Homer's Aunt. Lucile's memorial number is 179552120 if you want to trace how she is related to me.

Needless to say, I was fascinated by this family tree because I knew a lot of the people in it so even from the very beginning I was intent of filling in the gaps of the family tree which there were many but not able to do so until about 5-10 years after the advent of the Internet. Sometime between 2000 and about 2008 I found two family trees of the Lord side of the family which is my father's maternal side. The first site I found by looking at websites pertaining to the small hamlet of Lordville, NY. A much younger relative of Dr. Cora Adams Ballard posted a family tree that his grandmother or great grandmother had compiled way back in the 1930's which traced her ancestry all the way back to the late 1700's.

I found out that I was related to Cora going back 5 generations. The first John Lord who moved to Lordville NY from Connecticut via New Jersey married a Minisink Indian woman with a last name of name of Van Dunk from New Jersey. Her sister or cousin Betia Van Dunk married Deliverence Adams who was one of the first Adams relatives of Cora Adams that had moved to America. John Lord I and Deliverence were both married in the early 1770's. Cora's memorial # is 157335157. I remember her when I was a kid. She died in 1957 when I was 8 years old. Read her obituary when you get a chance, it is quite fascinating. Her son John Adams Ballard was a Colonel in the US Army, her grandson of the same name John Adams Ballard, Jr was a Commander in the Navy, his wife Elizabeth Rosenbaum's brother Frederick was a First Lieutenant in the Army and her father Otto was a Brigadier General in the US Army. All 4 are buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

So as you can see I only ended up as a member of findagrave.com because it is such as great tool to connecting many of my long lost relatives.

If anybody who reads this needs any help connecting their relatives to build their family trees, let me know and I'll do what I can to help and give you a start on how to build your family trees. I have learned a lot of tricks and acquired a lot of information on how to do this over the years and would be more than willing to help anybody who is new to this. As you probably have figured out by now it can be quite complicated and complex. I can tell you what I know to help you cut through the maze and save you a lot of time. I am also sure a lot of you have also figured out ways to search for your relatives that I do not know about yet so we could be of help to each other. I have found out that searching for your relatives is a never ending learning experience which I find absolutely fascinating. I am looking forward to volunteering my help to anybody who needs it. If you have attention to detail it definitely will help you a lot to learn how to do this much quicker. My e-mail address is: [email protected]

Most of the sites that I have created in Delaware County and Sullivan County, NY and Wayne County plus Susquehanna County Pennsylvania with an obituary included were copied mainly from the Hancock Herald newspapers printed in Hancock, NY, the Binghamton NY Press & and Sun, Wayne County Independent in Honesdale, PA, the Scranton PA Times and Newspapers.com unless the bottom of the obituary says otherwise. If any of you members need a copy of an obituary for the site you created in cemeteries in any of these 3 counties primarily, I just need the exact date of death and their memorial ID and I can send it to you via suggest other corrections on their site and you can copy and paste it from there onto the Bio Information section of their site in Edit mode or I can copy and paste it in the upper left hand corner of their site for you. I have access to about 75% of the obituaries which were in the Hancock Herald. Also if anybody wants me to post an obituary of a site I manage, don't hesitate to ask me and I will be more than happy to post it. I'll take a picture of it or copy and post it to the proper site from the newspaper.

If you have any corrections to any of the sites I have created please don't hesitate to let me know via e-mail or through the site. If you take a picture of a headstone that is a lot better than the one I took, don't hesitate to let me know and I will delete my picture. Also if you find a site I created with no cemetery listed and you found a headstone or proof of where the deceased is actually buried, let me know and I will change the site to the name of the cemetery they are buried in. If you see a picture of a family tree with usually the parents and children posted on a findagrave.com site, I found those family tree's in familysearch.org family tree sections.

I am a Vietnam War Veteran so I am kind of partial to all the Veterans out there especially the ones who gave the ultimate sacrifice. That's why I created the Township of Hancock NY and surrounding area Virtual Cemetery for our War Veterans near my hometown who gave their lives for our country.

I am looking forward to us helping each other build our family trees and improving the sites that have been created with the most complete information we all can find.

Jack