Born August 10th, 2001, I was adopted after almost five years of legal battles between the State of Nebraska, my biological parents--acting independently--and the Choctaw tribe. Biological son of Shawn Michael West and Renae (McDaniel) (Witt) Mauser, adopted by Dennis Hazen and Debra (Phillips) Hazen on June 19th, 2006.

I find myself related to almost everyone around me, and having a very large extended family. Legally the grandson of Stan and Louise (Nelson) Phillips, Dale and Donna (Gilliland) Hazen. Related, through adoption, to the families of Funk, Heryford (Hereford), Frank, Brandenburg, Doyle, Meyer, Nichols, Brown, Nutt, Ruppert, Anderson, Fischer, Nelson, Ball, Gilliland, Cole, Stuckey, Keene, Hinton, Marsden, Dunn, and many more.

Born a West, I'm related to the families of Barrett, Wolfe, Hunter, Dixon, King, Roundtree, Knippers, Robinson, Yeary, Baker, Griffin, Pendergraft, Twigg, Witt, French, Moreau, Carey, Weskamp, Blanton and several more I can't recall now.

I credit my interest in family history to my grandmother, Donna Hazen. Throughout my childhood she had a story for everything. She and her husband, Dale, would go on trips around the country taking copies and notes of old family records from courthouses, archives, and genealogical libraries, truly a pioneering-type in the world of genealogy before the internet. When she died, I realized that she told me all kinds of stories that I couldn't attach names to. In that realization, at the age of 13, I figured I needed to get myself into family history before it would all get lost. I'd tell my bits and pieces of a story to my grandfather, and when he couldn't help I'd ask Harvey Cole, my grandmother's first-cousin, who could sometimes even tell me that he was there when the stories happened.

Born August 10th, 2001, I was adopted after almost five years of legal battles between the State of Nebraska, my biological parents--acting independently--and the Choctaw tribe. Biological son of Shawn Michael West and Renae (McDaniel) (Witt) Mauser, adopted by Dennis Hazen and Debra (Phillips) Hazen on June 19th, 2006.

I find myself related to almost everyone around me, and having a very large extended family. Legally the grandson of Stan and Louise (Nelson) Phillips, Dale and Donna (Gilliland) Hazen. Related, through adoption, to the families of Funk, Heryford (Hereford), Frank, Brandenburg, Doyle, Meyer, Nichols, Brown, Nutt, Ruppert, Anderson, Fischer, Nelson, Ball, Gilliland, Cole, Stuckey, Keene, Hinton, Marsden, Dunn, and many more.

Born a West, I'm related to the families of Barrett, Wolfe, Hunter, Dixon, King, Roundtree, Knippers, Robinson, Yeary, Baker, Griffin, Pendergraft, Twigg, Witt, French, Moreau, Carey, Weskamp, Blanton and several more I can't recall now.

I credit my interest in family history to my grandmother, Donna Hazen. Throughout my childhood she had a story for everything. She and her husband, Dale, would go on trips around the country taking copies and notes of old family records from courthouses, archives, and genealogical libraries, truly a pioneering-type in the world of genealogy before the internet. When she died, I realized that she told me all kinds of stories that I couldn't attach names to. In that realization, at the age of 13, I figured I needed to get myself into family history before it would all get lost. I'd tell my bits and pieces of a story to my grandfather, and when he couldn't help I'd ask Harvey Cole, my grandmother's first-cousin, who could sometimes even tell me that he was there when the stories happened.