Some of you may have noticed that, in lists of events pertaining to people on this list, the dates were not sorted. Instead, they appeared in the order they were entered into my database, which made for a fairly random list, since I rarely found out about things in chronological order. Now, they are finally sorted! As an example, see my great grandmother Hillery (pictured as a child at the top of this post), and notice that her birth is listed before her death (it wasn’t before…) Also, have a look at my 7th great grandfather, John Ross.

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Researching family history is enjoyable and interesting, but it is also a bit sad because, well, most of your relatives are dead and you never got to meet them. Many of them lived full, and presumably reasonably happy lives, but often there are those who died at a young age. The death of William Hillery is particularly sad. William Sanford Hillery was my 2nd great grandfather. He was born in Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1846, and he married Margaret Ann McKee in 1872.

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I ran across this photo in one of the Patterson albums. It is badly faded, and I can’t tell who is in the picture, but it is very clear that the Pattersons took their snowball fights very seriously. This is one of about a thousand family photos on the site. There is no overall index of photos; you can see them by visiting the page for someone who has photos.

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