Life is a Journey

In the late summer of 2008 I had the chance to get over to Spring Place. It was a brief, overnight trip and unfortunately the Whitfield-Murray Historical Society offices were closed by the time I got there. Nevertheless I got to look around the area, and gradually a rough outline of the settlement began to emerge in my mind.
   My goal was to try to learn more about the history of my anscestor John Beall (JSB). Spring Place formed around the home of Continue Reading »

Perhaps the most pleasurable part of digging into family history over the past couple years has been meeting people like Patti Johnston Case. Through one of my shot-in-the-dark queries asking some Beall somewhere if he know anything about my earliest known ancestor, Patti got wind from a mutual cousin, Jerry Beall of Portland, and dropped me an email. Lo and behold, I had a new cousin (and new relation, in her grandfather) that I didn’t even know I had before. John S. Beall was her great great grandfather, and she’s been gathering family material Continue Reading »