Biography & Memoirs > Family Memoirs on page 3

This book is about my life that began in 1936. My parents had lost their first born when a breach delivery went wrong and a baby boy was dead at birth. Now their second child had whooping cough and pneumonia in both lungs not expected to live. A miracle saved my life and began a total of five healthy children in my immediate family. A world at war and an enormous depression ravaged the nation, yet showing the resolution of its citizens our nation moved forward. This bare foot boy in grade school, now with a top-secret clearance was maintaining equipment that encrypted and decrypted our nations secrets in the headquarters communications center in the pentagon. This same boy, at a ...

My paternal gramma Helen Margaret Ranta Mattila was a jolly soul, who loved the Lord and her family. She was fierce and independent, yet kind and loving. She worked hard and took great care of her loved ones. She was inspirational!

We don’t always recognize the wisdom of our fathers while we are growing up and how they navigated us through the days when we were still wet behind the ears concerning what made the world go round. How their one-of-a-kind character was there to study, and eventually emulate, as we would have to learn to handle the same issues during our own life; realizing along the way that our character is the most valuable commodity we will carry with us as we embrace our own challenges and work to overcome them.

Who would have believed that a young couple living along the red dusty roads of Edgehill, Georgia in the early 1900's could have had such a heritage in these United States of America? Follow along as each of the four main family lines are followed from their earliest arrivals in the new colonies down to this couple that lovingly became known to all as "Ma & Pa." Along the way we find soldiers in the American Revolution, the Indian Wars, and the Civil War. Also we find stories of killings, and hangings, as well as those of miracles and healings and immeasurable faith.

"Making Your Own Sunshine" is an inspiration/spiritual autobiography about Dr. Kenneth Beneby’s saga, works of God, and his ancestors’ will to survive and accomplish their “dream”. The first half of the book describes Dr. Beneby’s ancestors journey from slavery in the United States to their freedom on the island of Acklins, Bahamas (Anderson Hill Settlement). The second half of the book describes the truly unbelievable challenges that Dr. Beneby and his ancestors had to endure and overcome. Those challenges have prepared the author to walk into his destiny.

I wrote this story to honor my ancestors, whose faith, courage and sacrifices inspire us and for the descendants of Albert and Frances McCamy Rymer. I compiled this story form my recollections and research combined with information collected from other's family history. National and international politics; local and national economy; and religion have influenced our clan. Some of my story cannot be proven, as it is not documented; some has been handed down, one generation to the next and some is deduction and conclusion. My parents are the keystone of the story. Section I investigates the Rymer family through the birth of Albert Rymer, Civil War and Polk County in the late 1800s. Sec ...

This is the story of two people that met, fell in love and proved that love would conquer all through every obstacle possible. They raised four children as a military family through peacetime and wartime. Their story is the example of what a marriage SHOULD be!

The following is a collection of writings taken from issues of The Old Pike Post, the newsletter for the Genealogical Society of Allegany County, Maryland. My mother, Harriet, was the editor of the newsletter for over 20 years, compiling stories and information relating to genealogy research and the history of the area. Many articles were written by other members of the Genealogical Society, but one article in each issue, “My Two Cents Worth”, was always written by Harriet. It was a more personal account of what was going on in my mother’s life at the time. Many times, these stories had little to do with genealogy, but more about life in general. The ups and downs. The laughter an ...