We used a time share in Florida and decided to take the kids to see Disneyworld since they've been to Disneyland (pictures in the gallery). We had alot of fun but we could have saved alot of money if we hadn't gone. I'm not saying that I regret the trip but I will say that Justin's favorite part was sliding in the rain (SAFEEEE). We could have done that at home since we've had a good bit of rain this year. That and he loved getting pictures with all the characters like Mickey and Goofy (I have a buzz and a woody).

I also made the trip to Chicago to see Patrick and Brianne's wedding which was alot of fun. My old army buddy JR drove down from Michigan and we hung out when I wasn't at the wedding. We saw a bulls game and went to the top of the Sears tower. The wedding itself was beautiful and they definitely made it memorable. They rented a trolley for driving the wedding party around the city of Chicago and getting photos. They even got to appear on the evening news during the weather forecast on Channel 5 news.

Maybe now I'll get around to posting pics of Christmas.

While they were there, they got a few pictures of the trip and the falls. We're planning a trip there next year as well and I'm actually pretty excited about it since I haven't been back in a long time. In the mean time, I'll just look at the pictures from my bro and post them for everyone to see for yourselves how beautiful the area is.

Anyways, we're driving along singing a song and realizing we're up doo-doo creek without a paddle. We get home and unload everything. Thus begins the trial of trying to figure out what happened. Basically, we found that fuses for those areas were blown out. So I go buy more fuses and put them in. Turn the key and pop goes the fuses again. Apparently, I'm thinking there's something wrong with the electrical system. So it's time for a trip to the service center since I don't know where the problem is in the electrical system.

Needless to say, $1400 later, I find out that my youngest son who is 2 years old has put 35 cents into the cars CD player. He had stuffed the coins into the slot. This was actually shorting out the whole front panel and cost us a pretty penny. In case you're wondering, the $1400 wasn't just for them to find the loose change. They also did a 60,000 mile service on the vehicle while it was there. We also found that the brakes and motor mounts needed to be replaced. Happy Happy! Joy Joy!

Out of curiosity, what does everyone think it looks like?

So where is this going? I like to read the rootsweb newsletter (sent via email) that they send out every week. They have interesting tidbits on what people have found and offer insight into what we can use to help us in our search. The latest newsletter had an article about a woman who had found where a relative was buried and managed to get a headstone for his grave for free. It seems that the Veterans Administration offers free headstones for soldiers of the Civil war. If you can verify their service during the war, they will pay for a headstone to be placed where the individual is buried. This is fantastic news because the Hattaway cemetery has 3 Civil War soldiers; Alfred Baton Hattaway, Nathan Hattaway, and John M Hattaway. Currently, there are no grave markers in the cemetery other than some cement slabs. I would love to have 3 headstones put in the cemetery and especially for free. As the saying goes, "if its free, its for me." I'm also hoping that by having this post on my website, I might help someone else get a gravemarker for their relative. According to the rules of eligibility by the VA, anyone who was a soldier prior to 2006 and did not receive a dishonorable discharge is eligible for a free gravemarker.

Happy Hunting and always enjoy the mystery.

I don't know if I've mentioned it in the past but my sister-inlaw has her own blog. She's had one in the past which I had a link to in the Links section. She recently changed over to a new blog service called tumblr.com. It's pretty nice. I can't say how the backend compares to the blogspot service but it seems more customizable for the user. There is also the ability to post youtube videos (which she's doing alot of lately) in addition to the usual things. The only drawback that I've seen is the lack of comments. The site doesn't offer a place for readers to enter comments on the stories she posts. She's been able to overcome that with a free service that she's added to the site called Disqus.

In case you're wondering, her online name is Vika. It's Russian for "I like to blog". Joking. Seriously, it's Russian for Vicky.

Be sure to check out the dorky video by my bro and his friends. They have some online video hosting service called Vimeo. You can upload a video of yourself singing a song and watch the match magic unfold. It's not a bad rendition but Andy needs to work on his Karaoke or just lip syncing ability. By the way, the shades don't help unless you want to be called Cory Hart (I wear my sunglasses at night).

I'm not sure of the symbolism but I'm pretty sure its an eagle (or a penis with wings and talons). If I had to guess, I would say an American Eagle. It looks like some of the early depictions of the American Bald Eagle. I've seen it used in the military as a representation of power and authority. It looks really cool but again, the whole pain factor is a major deterrent. I'm a wuss and I know it.

What was amazing to me was how one piece of information can change everything and suddenly send you down a path you had never thought to look. I've always heard that genealogy is like a puzzle with many different pieces. As you talk with other people or research documents, you find more pieces to the puzzle. In this case, I found a key piece of the puzzle. I was looking through Ancestry.com for Lou Gene and in particular, I wanted to find the WW1 draft card for him. It seems that it didn't show up as Lou Gene but Lugene. Once I found that, I was able to find his exact birthday and location. When I went back through the census records, I found him (with a slightly butchered name Lieu G) as a child in the house of "Renza Hataway". In all my research, I've never seen a Renza Hataway. So I was rather surprised. As I thought about it more, I realized that Renza could be short for Lorenzo. When I did another search for Lorenzo, He showed up in the 1860 census for Pike County, Alabama. At the age of 5, he was living in the house of Daniel Hataway.

It seems that there is quite a bit of information on Daniel. Daniel was a Civil War Soldier who served with the 61st Infantry Regiment of Alabama. He also filed quite a few land grants with the state. The problem that I now have is that I can't link him to a family. I haven't been able to find his parents. According to the census records, he was born in North Carolina and his wife was born in South Carolina. That leads me to believe that he's related to the Hattaway's of North Carolina but which ones, I'm not sure. It also leads me to believe that he made the journey through South Carolina with the other Hattaway's (based on the fact that his wife was born in SC).

This year, they made a trip to Europe and visited quite a few sites including Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. While it was only a week, they saw 1 city a day. Let's just say that they have sore legs now. Victoria got some great pictures as usual and now that they're back, she's been posting the pictures online.

Along with that, I wanted to mention how great they've been. Allow me to explain. My son Joshua received an assignment from his 1st grade class involving a book called Flat Stanley. The assignment was to mail a picture of Flat Stanley to someone that we know in a different city or country and ask them to send back pictures of Stanley from that location. They also need to write a short account of what its like in that city or country. Since I knew that Andy and Victoria were heading to Europe, I asked them to take Stanley with them on the trip. They were not only kind enough to take him but also take pictures of him at many famous locations. The picture on the left is of Stanley at the Eiffel Tower. They got pictures of him with the Venus de Milo, Arc de Triomphe, and The Louvre. That's just to name a few locations. There were quite a few. So to summarize, Josh was the hit of the class. His pictures were very well received by the class and they were all jealous. I really want to thank Andy and Victoria for their help with this. They did an outstanding job of helping Josh with his project and I owe Andy a Guinness (I LOVE YOU MAN!!). I will be uploading all the pictures of Stanley to this site once I've download them. Click on the link below to see all the pictures from their trip.

My feelings of being impressed are pretty obvious where they came from. Try seeing all those things (that I just mentioned) and not be impressed. My feelings of awe and gratitude really came from walking through Arlington. It was quiet and somber while I was there. As I was walking through, I could see row after row of soldiers who had died in the course of defending their country. I began to get a perspective of how much blood was shed and people who gave their lives so that I could have freedom. It showed me how valuable freedom really is and fighting for something that you believe in. The tomb of the unknown was equally impressive as everyone was completely silent.

What made the trip even more enjoyable was the fact that the Hattaway's have a relative who is buried in Arlington. In fact, I did some research and found that he was among the first to ever be buried there. John A Curry was captured as a prisoner of war during the Civil War and later died in 1864. He happened to be in Virginia when all of this happened. At this same time, Arlington was just getting started in 1864 and men from both sides of the war were being buried there. John was one of the fortunate few who were buried in Lee's circle which is the very first area that soldiers were buried in Arlington. If you get a chance to visit, he's in section 16, grave 55, near the Confederate Memorial. As a point of reference, he was married to Mary Hattaway (daughter of Baton Hattaway).

So needless to say, it was a great trip. I had an incredible time and would gladly do it again. I took a million pictures. Click on the link below to see some of the highlights.