All Because Two People Fell In Love...

Over Christmas, I asked my grandma (my dad's mom) if I could scan in some of her old pictures of family. It was really fun to find the pictures, and one day I want to get more of them scanned in. It made me want to make a super huge family tree diagram that would take up a whole wall in someone's house, but the thought of all that writing makes me tired right now. So until then, here's an abbreviated family tree in pictures...I hope I got all the names correctly associated with the right picture...here goes:

Anna Elizabeth Bratcher at a ladies Bible Study Retreat (above), and on her way to church (below).
Anna Elizabeth fell in love with Wesley Trussell Walker and they got married (I didn't find any pictures of Wesley when he was young). These two are my great-grandparents.

Anna Elizabeth and Wesley Trussell had 3 kids: Mary Ellen, Anna Jane, and WT Walker Jr.

This is Mary Ellen when she was young - what a knock-out!

Mary Ellen grew up and married Jim Rowe (I don't know his middle name). They never had kids of their own, but boy did they love their nieces/nephews! (Anna's kids)

Anna Jane was the 2nd child born to Anna Elizabeth and Wesley Trussell. She's pictured below with her baby brother, WT Walker Jr.

Yes, WT Walker, Jr's full name was WT because Pappy (Wesley Trussell Sr.) told the doctor that his baby's name was to be WT Walker Jr. and that's what went on the birth certificate. So he got the nickname "Dub".

Here's Dub on his horse in Tennessee. He was sick a lot when he was younger...they finally moved down to Florida due to his health problems in hopes that the warmer weather would help.

Here's Dub as a grown man...I don't think he married or had kids.

Anna Elizabeth (the middle child in the Walker family) is my grandma - my dad's mom.

Now for the other side...

This is Joshua Ernest Smith.

Joshua fell in love with (get ready for this name): Anna Estelle Reeves Leigh Chapman Below is another portrait of Joshua and Anna when they were younger...I think.
Below is a picture of them when they were much older (but still deeply in love).
Joshua and Anna Estelle Reeves Leigh Chapman Smith (had to throw that name in again) had several kids - I think 7 in all?? And William Lawton Smith (pictured below) was one of the youngest if I have my facts straight.
So William Lawton Smith (he went by Bill) fell in love with Anna Jane Walker and they got married and had 4 kids together (in birth order): William Lawton Jr, Ted Wesley, Sue Ellen, and Julie Gay.

Below, they are pictured with Bill Sr and Anna in the back, then (L to R): Sue, Bill Jr, Julie, Ted. Uncle Dub gave them those pajamas one Christmas and they all put them on for the picture.

Below is a picture of my dad's parents - my grandparents the way I picture them in my mind the most.

Here are the kids all grown up (from left to right): Ted, Bill Jr., Anna, Bill Sr, Sue, Julie. Bill Jr is my dad.

So there's a little history of how I came into this world (one side anyway). One of these days I'll get a family tree put together with pictures, etc. of all my family and Paul's family. But that's a bigger project than I can tackle right now.

I'm off work today, and will be off tomorrow, too. So maybe I'll catch up on my blog posts and get some pictures up from Christmas in Georgia and Virginia tomorrow.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying warm. It's 30 degrees and wet/rainy out today - a perfect day to stay home from work!

Work, Work, Work...and more Work!

Well, we had a great Christmas - lots of driving since we drove to Georgia, then Virginia, then back to Texas. But it was great to see all our family. As soon as we got back though, we went straight to work and haven't stopped since! Since Jan 4th, I've had 1.75 days off. So needless to say, I haven't had energy to post pictures or anything else interesting. This weekend I go to Dallas for the Gift Market (3 days of intense shopping for the gift shop and camp furniture)...then it's back here and I'm taking time off!!!! So maybe next week I'll get an update with pictures up on my blog. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has started 2008 off on the right foot!