You never know where the path will lead when you start out on one of these research adventures. Last week after I posted my queries on the Internet and people started responding, not to the Owen side, but to the Cole side of my questions, I stood at the fork in the path, wondering whether I should really take off on this new family or politely thank them and state that I was only interested in the Cole-Owen part of the family.

This started out to be one of those difficult stories where the wife dies, the husband remarries, and the census records give a different variation of the surname each year. When that happens and you are totally confused, you go to the Internet message boards and mailing lists for help.

Peachtree City is truly a fine city. It is one that continues to be heralded as one of the most desirable in the United States in which to live and raise a family.

From time to time, I get called a Yankee. It’s done mostly in a joking manner and the person calling me that isn’t thinking about my deep hatred for the baseball team with the same name. The word typically comes up when something truly southern comes up in conversation.

7th grade dance

We had been going out for a week, although we hadn’t actually gone anywhere.

We had agreed to meet at the school dance, which was to be held in the gym, that Friday. I don’t remember what I wore that night, other than a liberal amount of English Leather, and I can’t remember what she wore either.

It took me the better part of the day, but last Friday I was able to copy all the will and estate information pertaining to Coleman P. Owen, the only provable child of Brice and Sarah Law/Lane Owen of Rocky Mount, Meriwether County. Research has indicated that Coleman may have had a sister, Martha, who married John Moncrief, and I have put out "feelers" on Internet lists to see if anyone has proof. There are several references to Moncriefs in Owen family documents, but nothing that would tell us without a doubt that Martha was the daughter of Brice and Sarah. Early census records indicate that Coleman had a brother and two sisters, but I have not been able to find any information on them at all.

It is with great difficulty that I must let the readers of the South Fulton Citizen know that this edition will be the last one our company produces.

Whenever I do an in-depth study on a family, I try to get as much of a "feel" for them as I can, and try to visit the area where they lived, if it is not too far. In the case of the Brice Owen (senior) family, this wasn't hard to do. Last week I went back to Greenville to gather some more Owen/Owens land records. My route takes me from my home near Thomas Crossroads through Sharpsburg, then through Luthersville, then on to Greenville.

I sat in the living room of my cousin Lisa’s apartment last year watching the AFC Championship game between the Patriots and Colts with family members I hadn’t seen in years. We ate this great chicken pot pie and had a few beers, celebrating and hooting and hollering as the Patriots ran up an 18 point lead over Peyton Manning and his boys.

Is everybody O.K.? Did you have enough bread and milk to last you the night on Saturday?

Whew, that was some batch of flurries.

Close your eyes and try to imagine what the news room of The Citizen looks like. Don’t get scared. We won’t let Ben bite.

My sister, Kay, and I attended an estate sale in Pike County, a few weeks ago, which involved the descendants of the Owen family. This family (I learned after doing a little research) was in Meriwether County before Pike, and In Wilkes and Jasper counties before that. Since Martin Owen(s) of Upson and Meriwether was my ancestor and he has been my brick wall for years, this event held more than just a mild interest for me. I have long wondered if Martin was connected to the other Owen/Owens families in this area. My sister also was very interested since Bricy Owen, a relative of the family who was having the sale, was buried in the Hollonville Cemetery, just a few hundred yards from her home. Could he be one of our distant relatives?

I was surfing the 'Net the other day and stumbled across a blog which caused me great concern. It was on Ancestry.com and was a place where customers and technicians could share information and opinions on different programs offered by Ancestry.com, probably the largest genealogy corporation in the world (The Generations Network, Inc.). I have been a member (subscribed to their services) since 2000, when they were in their infancy, and, for the most part, have been quite satisfied with their performance.

First off, this is not in response to not getting what I wanted from Santa Claus for Christmas. I understand that there is really no room in Santa’s sleigh for a vending machine full of Hostess’ Suzy-Qs and Drake’s Devil Dogs. Besides, it is important to be careful what you wish for. You wish for a mega-supply of delicious baked goods and you get something else, like a huge gut. Or worse.

Happy New Year 2008 and welcome to the start of our eighth year of "Finding Your Folks!" The very first column was published Jan. 12, 2001 and we've really covered a lot of ground (and a lot of families) in the past seven years.

A very long time ago when I was a not-so-young but new reporter for the “other” paper, Cal would challenge me each year to come up with a “Year in Review” story, hitting the highs, lows and main news stories of the past year. (Yes, Cal was my boss even back then.)

Even though I've temporarily shelved the Byrams until I can find something documentable to prove Beverly Byram's children, I want to thank the people who wrote in last week and sent a little more information on William Dawson Byram (son of James William Byram and grandson of Beverly Byram) who moved from Pike County, Ga. to Blountville, Ala. I could not find him in any census, although I did several searches with several variations on the name.

Here’s a Christmas carol story.

My first job was playing Christmas carols. I was hired Dec. 15, 1959 at age 15 for a two-hour disk jockey slot on a little 250-watt AM station not far from the bluffs of the Chattahoochee River. My first official action was to cue up Percy Faith’s version of “The Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah.”

Ahhh, the slow news days of December. A time to read about Hannah Montana’s march across the country, raunchy mannequins in a shopping mall, teddy bears named Muhammad and the return of Don Imus to the airwaves.

James A. Parker was the second son (and fourth child) of John and Martha Byram Parker, and the grandson of Beverly Byram and Sarah Williamson who had moved from Mecklenburg County, N.C. to Pike County, Ga. in the 1820s. James was 11 years old when his grandfather died in 1849 and, as close as the family lived, I think we can assume he was well acquainted with his grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Right in front of you, I’m going to wrestle with some conflicting political feelings.

First up is the runoff race next Tuesday with top vote-getter Mike King facing Doug Sturbaum for the Post 2 Peachtree Council seat.

They say one of the joys of parenting is being able to re-live your childhood by playing with your children. You get to re-read classic tales like “Hop on Pop,” a book which my 2-and-a-half year old son, Colin, has just recently decided to take quite literally, play games like Hide and Seek, color and use some of the eight million toys, many of which are battery operated, annoying and/or noisy, that people have bestowed upon your child in the hopes of driving you as completely bonkers as their children drove them.

I'm still trying to tackle these Pike County Byrams and I have to admit this is one of the most difficult families I've done. Either there is little documentation of information on the early members of this family or those who have it ain't partin' with it. I have been to the Pike County probate office three times and have only found two references to our Beverly Byram, who was there at least from 1826 (when he purchased land) until his death in 1849. One probate reference was his will and the other was a notice that he had been made administrator of the estate of a James Byram Sr. in 1835. This raises a whole 'nother set of questions in itself … the first one being, who the heck was this James Byram? There were a lot of them.

Halloween was a over week ago, but the candy that little Colin amassed will be with us for a long time to come. If you love candy (and who doesn’t?), slap a monkey costume on a toddler and watch the goodies come rolling in.

My recommendations:

Don Haddix, Peachtree City Council Post 1