I don’t know how she found it, but Sarah Sullivan found and responded to a wonderful story we did in September of 2004 on the Price family of Deerfield, Conn., whose descendants ended up here in Fayette and Coweta counties. The story was submitted by Ken Arnold who has been a regular contributor to our genealogy section over the years.

What Germans call a Tannenbaum, Americans call a Christmas tree.

That’s what it is, a tree that is put up in people’s homes at Christmas. They do it whether they celebrate the holiday as a time to mark the birth of Jesus Christ or they just use the holiday as a time to get together with family, exchange gifts and have a good time.

Is Peachtree City mayoral candidate Harold Logsdon an empty suit? Is it enough that he is “not Brown,” the current mayor?

We’re picking up this week with the continuation of the Stamps family of Coweta, submitted by Carol K. Garrett of Chamblee several months ago (sorry ‘bout the delay). Carol’s letter was in response to my column of several years ago on the Stamps family of early Georgia, which I tentatively was connecting to my Noel Johnson and Tempy Stamps in Oglethorpe. Noel and Tempy are said to have moved to Tennessee and lived near the Johnson family which was connected to that of President Andrew Johnson. The families are said to be related, although, for the life of me I can’t make a firm link.

What day is this? You there. Boy! What day is this? December 4, you say? Praise God, I am not too late. Here, take this schilling and buy the fattest Christmas goose you can find. What do you mean what's a shilling, you silly simpleton. Never mind, I shall buy it myself.

I’m going to have to make a serious apology. Late last spring/early summer, when I was totally caught up in the families at Bethany, I received an e-mail from Carol Garrett of Chamblee who responded to a column I did last year on the Stamps and Johnson families. I had to put a lot of letters on hold back then so as not to break the flow of the stories.

In the throes of covering Peachtree City’s mayoral campaign, and this being Thanksgiving Eve, constituents in Cart Path town should thank their lucky stars I can’t run for mayor.

Happy birthday, dear Thanksgiving.
My, you look good for your age.
Has it been 384 years already?
Well, time has made you more sage.

I happened to be at conference at Emory in 1977 to present a paper on the impact of “belief” on human consciousness. Also presenting that day was another Georgia State student. Her paper held that Science qualified as a “belief system.” She was not the first or the last to put forward that thesis. A belief system, according to Webster, is a fixed, coherent set of beliefs prevalent in a community or a society. It is also defined as faith based on a series of beliefs but not formalized into a religion. Once a little known term from Anthropology, the term “belief system” is much more widely used today, including as an often-used substitute for the word “religion.” This is because, by its very nature, a belief system explains the origin and existence of life and the Earth, the nature and origin of the universe and so on.

Before you start getting all excited at the names in the title, I should advise you that I have found no connection of these families to the Harps and Norrises in Fayette (except for one teeny tiny clue), although the author of the letter I received does live in Fayetteville.

The Kaiser Family Foundation looks into sexual content on television programs every two years and their recent findings have made national headlines.

So *this* is how political rumors get started.
Heard one yesterday about Peachtree City's code enforcement department yanking up numerous Steve Brown for Mayor signs because they were in city right of way, running afoul of the city's sign ordinance.

I am writing this column as fast as I can.

I am at home, the baby is awake and so, like everything that my wife and I do now, it has to be done in five-minute increments.

This week I’ll give you a little more on the third family mentioned by Tim Turner in his letter a few weeks ago, and that is another family of Boyds who ended up in our area. As far as I can determine, these Boyds are not related to the Boyds at Bethany or the Boyds of Meriwether and Cleburne (Ala.)

I live in Peachtree City, work in Fayetteville and buy lime slushes in Tyrone. If I could vote in each of these two cities and one town, here’s how I would cast my ballots.

I wonder what this world would be like if people still challenged others to duels. You know, they remove a long white glove from their hand and slap the face of the person they want to take on.

This week I’m going to address Tim Turner’s letter about his Boyds, Corbins and Bradberrys of Gwinnett County, but first I want to say something about our new Web site.

On the occasion of my first-ever “blog” I’d like to congratulate every candidate who has put his and her heads on the public chopping block.

We’ll wrap up the Holley family this week with an e-mail I received from Tom McBryde of Austin, Texas, another Holley descendant. Tom’s information indicates that John Holley’s father was William Holley, as Johnnye Moore Clements was trying to prove several years ago.

My son, Colin, is still at least five years away from participating in youth sports and it may be longer with the way things are going in youth sports in general.

I always love receiving letters and e-mails in response to the columns, especially when you send me more family information to add to the growing number of surnames we have already covered. One of the purposes of the column is to hopefully connect those who do not have computers and read the hard copy version (newspapers distributed around Atlanta's Southside) with those who read the column on the Internet. This is a gap that desperately needs to be bridged.

The local political season is upon us, and Im scratching my pointed head.

Fayetteville has three seats to be decided, but only one contested race. Last Fayetteville election, fewer than 8 percent of the citys registered voters bothered to cast ballots.