Leaves & Branches

In honor of the members of my family who have died while serving in the United States military: William Wardlaw, born 1771, died August 4, 1812, either of disease or at the Battle of Brownstown, Michigan.  William was my fourth great grand uncle in my paternal grandmother's family. Samuel Kincaid, my fourth great grandfather in my paternal grandmother's family, died May 5, 1813 at the siege of Ft. Meigs, Ohio. Campbell Dudley, born 1837, died July 29, 1864 while serving with the 48th Ohio Infantry when he drowned in the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  He was my great grand uncle in my maternal grandmother's family. The following information is excerpted from The United States Department of Veterans Affairs website, which can be found at http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp : Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decora...

This week I had the honor to receive an album of information, newspaper clippings, letters, and photographs related to the Dudley family.  This family documentation was apparently compiled by my great-grandfather, Jesse Dudley with the assistance of his eldest child, Charles.  After Charles' death, the information must have been passed on to his brother, Clarence.  One of Clarence's step-grandsons was kind enough to send the information to me.  One of the pages in the album reads as follows: These records was set forth by the hand of Jessey Dudley in the year of our Lord Dec-9-1922 and to him goes the credit for their keeping to the best of his knowledge, his records were handed down to his first born son Charles Henry Dudley who has faithfully kept them to the best of his knowledge.  And they will be kept and handed down to all the Dudley progenitors to come.  In God we trust.  Amen. This family record answers a lot of questions, but also raises a l...