8/25/2005 Topic: Meeting Cousins                     Title: Cousin Hal   Rick started calling various Prowetts on the web a few years back and Hal makes a habit of doing the same!   Bennie L. Prowett, Rick's granduncle had connected with Rick in about 1996, but we missed the opportunity of meeting him in person on his last trip to this area in 2000. (My dad had just passed away and I was a mess. I thought we'd have more time. I know better now!)  Rick's mom and he enjoyed a visit that year though.   Hal called up one day out of the blue a few years back and he and Rick must have talked for a good half hour, figuring out how they were related. We keep missing seeing each other when he comes through our area.   I put my foot down this time when I knew he was coming though. I figured, Rick wants me to keep track of his family genealogy information, he can make time in our lives to visit relatives! (Do you hear the 'so there' in there?)   Rick, the kids and I met with Hal, who was in town from Arizona today. We've been trying to meet up with him for the last few years. We grilled Hal for about 2 hours and got loads of family stories and legends and people to contact, as well as enjoying a perfectly delightful visit with Rick's '2nd Cousin 1 time removed'! Try explaining that one to the kids!   The local Fred Meyer parking lot was the site of the first meeting between cousins and we adjorned to the McDonalds across the road. (Yes, those friends of ours would say "it's our second, or primary, living room! LOL)   But really, our apartment is getting a new deck put on the unit above ours and the stuff from our back porch, like our freezer, is currently residing in the middle of the living room! It will stay there until they finish painting this summer so it may be awhile before I have a living room again...did I ever have one around the piles of our projects? That's a debate for another time!   I will be transcribing Hal's stories and those who want to know can contact me and get on the emailing list for a family newsletter/update whatever you want to call it. I won't go to snail mail. I can't afford the postage or the time.   I do intend in the near future to send out a letter to all of Bennie and Hal's contacts in the family to ask for information, pictures, and get email addresses of those who want to see the cool stuff I find as I find it (or soon after :)   Blessings all, Sondra

	8/14/2005 Topic: Cemetery Walk                    Title: Miller Cemetery in Millersburg, OR   Hubby came along too! Besides, they were his relatives! Me with my children on our first Cemetery Walk Genealogy is a family Affair! Rick and I needed to head south to Salem today to visit our storage units down there...(yes they are still there after 6 years, can't seem to get the energy to sort through the stuff from the 2600 sqft house we are now hosting in a 900 sqft apartment and 2 garages and 2 storage units *grin* or should that be *grim*?)   Anyway, I talked the sweetheart into going about 20 or 30 miles further south and taking in a cemetery or two with me *evil grin*  *even more evil laughter* We drove to Millersburg which is just this side of Albany and found Miller cemetery without a problem.   The kids were a bit spooked until they were actually walking the cemetery and looking at tombstones with ancestor's names on them. They've been hearing me talk about these people for weeks so I think having something 'real' to touch and see made them more 'real' to the children as people. I think they were apprehensive at first because the only time they'd been to cemeteries before we'd been laying to rest people the family knew, or visiting their grandparents graves. This was more tranquil, and a bit less fraught with grief.   I was pleased to hear that a group adopted this cemetery. They are scheduled for a work party to clean it up next weekend. Unfortunately, other commitments keep us from attending. The stones are weathered, the graves overgrown, but the sweetest thing was the stuffed teddy bear someone had left by the grave of my husband's 4g grandfather. I'll try to post the pictures of the actual tombstones, as I can get to it, on our history site at Freepages. William Thomas McClain (1796-1850)   Our other target, the Allphin cemetery , we tried to find for about an hour thinking to visit it as well. We finally gave up at dark and went to find dinner in Salem. I'll have to do some digging with the county to find out if it still exists, or if it has been flooded out as one local seems to think.   Blessings all, Sondra   Update: sent email to contact on Allphin cemetery web page with no response...BUT sent email to Linn Co Assessor and got a VERY helpful response giving me the name and address of the owner of the taxlot the cemetery sits on. Have sent a letter to them to ask for permission to visit and directions.   Update 9/2005: It's been over a month and still no answer to my letter to the owners of the property the cemetery is on. What a drag. I was really hoping they'd be responsive to us visiting.

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