Forever Family

My dad wasn't famous or rich, he was just an ordinary man who was far from perfect, but I loved him all the same! He was a hard working country boy who loved to hunt, who loved country music, Hank Williams, an ice cold beer, his family and he loved me! Daddy was the seventh child born to Sam and Eva  Rivers Craig. He was born August 25, 1937 just as the great depression was coming to an end. He was met by five older siblings, Thelma, Herman, Joe,  Dorothy and Margie. There was another sister that died the year before my dad was born, her name was Helen Ruth and he named me after her. The family was poor, but they managed to get by! As I started to write this I realized that as much as I know about him, there were things that I still don't know. Dad died in 2005 and as I sit here writing I realized there is so much that I didn't ask! Daddy was the one person that loved hearing about my family research. He would sit with a big grin as I told him about the ancestors I...

       Genealogy has been one of my long time passions for a while now. But over the last few months I've developed another one. I frequent our local Goodwill stores searching for art that others have discarded. The photo on the left is one of those framed pieces that I've recently purchased.. When I saw it, it spoke to me and I knew that I had to take it home! Texas and Louisiana are a large part of my heritage. When I started my research to find out where my ancestors came from, I found that many had been there since Texas was ruled by Spain.    My research on my Rivers line was one that took me down that Spanish trail. I had no idea where my Rivers family came from and our "set" had always been told that they weren't related to the other Rivers in our community that appeared to be of Native American or Hispanic descent.  But over the years, I have collected enough information that leads me to the conclusion that my 2nd great grandfather Josep...

Even though I've been at genealogy for many years, I occasionally find a new surprise. I come from a small town. A town where everybody knows everybody; or in most cases they are related to everyone. But I have one line on my mothers side that I'm still finding new ancestors to research. My mom and her sister were raised by their paternal grandparents. This, along with the fact that her mother died when she was 7 years old and her maternal grandmother had passed away before she was born, left us with limited information about her mother's maternal side. For years the only knowledge that I had on this line was that my grandmother was Mrytle Meshell and she was the daughter of Joe Meshell and Lizzie Crowell. The Meshells  have been well researched in our neck of the woods; but, who was this Crowell family. Finding Lizzie's parents was somewhat difficult because Lizzie was born after the 1880 census and she married Joe Meshell in 1899. You know what that means, Lizzie ...

I would like to introduce my family! Front row: Frankie Craig, Dean Craig, and Charlie Craig (my father) Second Row: Joe Craig, Charles Pleasant, Thelma Craig Pleasant, Dorothy Craig, Margie Craig and                          Herman Craig Back Row: (My grandparents) Sam Craig and Eva Gertrude Rivers Craig holding the youngest child Jerry Craig I know that it isn't the best photo in the world...but it's the only one I have with all of the family. Grandma and grandpa got married in the early 20's. Their oldest child, my aunt Thelma was born in 1923 and the youngest son was born in 1947.  They would go on to have a total of four daughters and six boys.Nine of the children reached adulthood, a little girl died at the age of three. The oldest two daughters would grow up and leave the small town where they were raised. The oldest sister raised her family in Norfolk, Virginia and the middle sister would end up in ...

I grew up in a small town in northwest Louisiana. The community is heavily populated with descendants of Spanish soldiers and the Native American women who married them. Common surnames for the area include Rivers (del Rio), Manshack (Manchacha), Ebarb (Ybarbo), Sepulvado, Remedies (Ramirez), Garcie (Garcia), etc…I think you can get the picture! My maiden name is Craig and for as long as I could remember, I wanted to know where we came from. So, on that first trip to the library I searched books for possible Craigs that were in the area. I found a few, but I was new and at that moment I couldn’t connect them to my dad and my grandfather. Then it was onto the census records! I worked backwards searching for my grandfather’s family. Once I found his parents I was able to continue searching until I found my 3 rd great grandfather James Craig Sr. James Craig was my first ancestor to live in Sabine Parish, Louisiana. I found him on the 1840, 1850, 1860 and 1870 census records....