Welcome!

Welcome to my family history blog! 

Here you will find the story of the Cheathams, Fosters, Goldies, Mabens, and many other branches of our family.  I was first introduced to their stories by my grandmother, Ruth Goldie Cheatham, who was generous enough to write her own volume of family history and give all of her children and grandchildren bound copies.  It was through the stories and photographs within that I came to have a broader understanding of who we are and where we have come from.

So, why did I decide to start this project?  Well, when I received my copy of the family history in the late 1980s, I thought that what was inside was pretty much all I was ever going to have access to.  But then came new bits and pieces of information from my Aunt Mary's research, and then came the internet, and then came Ancestry.com.  I started to research my husband's little-known family history, and when I had hit enough dead ends there to become well and truly stuck, I decided to pull out my good old family history binder and enter all of that information into my own tree, and then see if there was anything new I could discover.  Easy-peasy, end of story, right?  Actually, not really.

Because I love history, and I love doing research, I thought researching family history would be a fun endeavor.  And I wasn’t wrong – not until I started coming across a whole bunch of conflicting and even sometimes nonsensical information.  You see, I kept finding our ancestors in other people's trees with birth or death dates that conflicted with what I had found, or that couldn't possibly be correct because it would mean that their first child was born when they were only like ten years old.  That was actually super frustrating.  Because, as much as I love knowing things (Yes, I have always, always, even as a child, just wanted to know things!), I really hate the idea that the things I "know" might actually be wrong.

So what did I do?  You guessed it - more research!  I started looking for old newspaper articles, I read old court records, I looked up deeds and other land documents, I found old books and magazine articles that mentioned the individuals I was researching, and I went down to the state archives and scrolled through microfilm after microfilm.  Over the time that I've worked at this hobby, I have discovered so many new primary source documents and found so much new information that I am constantly jumping up and down with the desire to share it.   Some of it called into question or actually contradicted some of the information floating around in those trees (and even some things in our own family history!).  Some of it just rounded out the family stories and gave a better picture of our ancestors.  And some of it filled in what were pretty much complete blanks in our knowledge.

But how to share it all?  I was originally going to compile it, and then print it out to be passed around, but that would probably take months and months for everyone to get a chance to see it.  And then, what if someone wanted to have a digital copy of a photograph or census record, etc.?  Finally, I decided that putting it all online would be the easiest way for everyone to access the information and accompanying documents.  That way, everyone gets too see it all at the same time, and can download whatever they want.  Yay!

As you go through this site, you might start wondering why I chose to create this in a blog format.  For starters, the blog format will help me sort through the piles of documents I've collected to pull out the information for my own personal new and improved version of the data sheets.  It will also allow me to share my reasoning behind some of the conclusions I've drawn from the research.  And, the truth is, even though I can’t set things up the way I really want to, I already have two other blogs, so I am familiar with how this format works, which means I won't have to waste time learning a whole new platform, which means you all get to see some fun stuff sooner.  (Yay again!)  There are some drawbacks to using a blog format, so if viewing and navigating the information is not as easy as it should be, I’m sorry. 

On the upside, you won’t find any annoying ads popping up all over these pages.  There is probably nothing I hate more than trying to navigate a web page and having all those stupid ads get in my way.  So, as much as I’d like to make some money off one of my projects (you know, so I can tell  my husband that I didn’t do any housework today because I was working at my job), I figured it wouldn’t really be fair to inflict that mess on you. 

This will be a work in progress for some time, with changes in content and formatting and links and who knows what all else, so check back often for new content and bear with me if you can’t find what you’re looking for.  And, of course, I would always love to get my hands on any research or documents you might want to send my way!

So here we go.  Hopefully you find this blog illuminating and interesting, and not too frustrating when you can't get all of your questions answered.  (Because, believe me, the more you find out, the more you'll want to know!)

                                                                                                                                      - Therese

But wait!  Before I go any further, I would like to give a special thanks to my grandma, Ruth, for sparking my interest in our family history, and to my mom, Ruth Ann, for always answering my phone calls and patiently putting up with my constant questions and requests for photos.

Wait again!  This one is REALLY important!  My posts really should be read in chronological order, and this format won't allow it!  I suggest new visitors look over there on the left-hand menu, click on the oldest post in the archive (the one at the bottom of the list), and navigate through the posts that way.  If you catch my updates regularly, you can just get on with the new stuff that is going to pop up right after this welcome message.

Note as of July 2024 - As a result of an update performed by Blogger, all of the images that are arranged in a grid pattern have broken links and are blank.  However, due to the way I coded the grids, you should still be able to view and copy/download each image by clicking on the white box where the image should be.  Hopefully some day I'll have the time to go back and actually fix them!