Shown here, a painting on the wall of Ajax, bar in Oxford, MS, and a wall on a bldg in New Albany, MS

And a pause to refresh is just what is needed. We are in Chat-Town, TN, back at L and W's for a little respite from travel and a moment to assess our progress. Alas, as hard as we tried we did not find the graves of Isaac and Lovey, (I'll write more about that tomorrow) but we did establish, we think, that they did not even move to Mississippi at all from TN. They are certainly not buried at Rucker Cemetery outside Ripley MS either. IN fact, their son, Barney, My gg whatever grandfather, while he is mentioned in histories in the Ripley Library (what helpful ladies there!) as an early pioneer of Tippah County (which was later split into several counties) owned land well west of Ripley (Benton County side) not way east where Rucker cemetery is. While Isaac, his dad, isn't in the Tippah records at all. And while we took the trouble to literally scrape around old graves, revealing some old inscriptions, and hunting down a few of the old cemeteries out his way, though mud prohibited us exploring some roads to a couple of old cemeteries, we still think Isaac and Lovey aren't there in MS at all and that Barney is buried in Benton County, not in Tippah. In fact, the census places him there in Benton in 1845, three years before he died. So Barney and family probably lived not in what is Tippah County now (but used to be) but in what is now Benton County. This accounts for many dead ends by other genealogists along these lines, wrong place. We plan on following up on that asap, getting some records from state archive resources. I still think the one citation I saw somewhere is correct, that Catherine Lovey is buried in Spanish Grove Cemetery in mid-western TN, near Carroll Cty., and I intend to find that grave. Another day.

I learned a lot about ways to search for ancestors on this trip. And of course, the biggest lesson of all for all of us is to get the family stories down told by the old folks who know them best now while they're still alive. Do it and you won't have regrets later.

Road life has been fun but it's as easy on you in as many ways as it is hard. We need a little time to regroup and make some life plans, etc. So we're headed for South Carolina near T2, to be still and spend precious time with her again. rent a cheap place for a few weeks there, off season now. Then, well, I guess we'll know then what's next. T needs a job and I need to find a literary agent who can sell my novel so I can write the sequel. This trip just filled me with a xzillion ideas for stories.

See you here in a couple days...... xoxo