Last February my mother died. In some ways, the last five years had pointed to her unhealthy state, but still it was unexpected when she experienced her first stroke in January. My brother and I had moved her down from Utah in December and had enjoyed her for all of a month before the tragedy occurred. It was a grueling few weeks of hospitals, nursing homes, and shipping her body back to Utah to be buried next to her husband. But her passing was almost a relief to me, for it had broken my heart to see her over the last year unable to do the one thing she loved most in life: work on her genealogy.
Over the last thirty years, Mom and I had worked together on family history. We had been blessed with an abundance of information. We wrote two books together about our Cole family and allied lines. As I raised a young family, Mom immersed herself in more research and corresponded with lost cousins from all over the United States. Many on the Internet considered her an authority on the Cole line.
Upon Mom’s passing, I realized I had inherited a treasure of information, when I filled my office with ceiling-to-floor boxes of her genealogy. Never in my wildest imagining had I supposed her research had been as extensive as it was. Research books, letters, journals, family bibles, and old photos were now in my care, and it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about the time she donated to such a righteous cause.
This blog is dedicated to Mom and her devotion to our family. I hope to share the information and pictures about both sides of my mother’s lineage, as well as provide research helps and ideas to those who seek advice. I encourage my readers to add to or correct what information they can within these lines. The culmination of all comments and research data will help me complete the most extensive books to date about my mother’s family. I have no doubt our efforts will raise hallelujahs from her and her ancestry she is now getting to know first hand.
