Down the Hallway

Our Family's Journey Through Time

The Chosen

We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do.

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The Bones of My Bones

main imageThe bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before. "by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943.

The stories of our family are interesting and are the ways for us to discover how we came to be. So, I've tried to put together stories of our family from collections of various sources available from census reports, newspapers and letters. Each story is a thread in a huge tapestry that binds our family together. Through this I've discovered that our family has a roots in many places around the world.


I hope you enjoy and get to know more about your family.

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Learn about the Hawkins and Hall families

The Hall family is really the Hawkins family. How did this happen? Bessie, daughter of John Oscar and Elizabeth Rheuhama Barry Lipps married Edgar James Hall. Edgar was born a Hawkins, son of James and Jane Robinson Hawkins in Devonport, Devon, England. When John Hawkins died at an early age, his wife, Lillie Coghill Hawkins married James Truett Hall who adopted Edgar. Read all about this famiy.

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The Major Surnames in Our Family

Where did we come from? The Lipps family originated from Germany. The Barry family originated from Ireland. And from there we have the McKissicks and Claybrooks. We'll have to learn more about them and from where they came.




Our Families

Our Ancestors Were Amazing
Cousins
Barry and Claybrook Cousins

Barry and Claybrook Cousins

On the back of this photo it says cousins of Tidy which were the McKissick and Claybrook cousins. Tidy was the nickname for Elizabeth Rheuhama Barry, the daughter of David William Barry and Elizabeth McKissick.

John Wilson McKisick
John Wilson McKisick

John Wilson McKisick

The parents of John Wilson McKisick were John and Rebecca Bonham McKisick. This Bonham line goes directly back to the Mayflower. His grandparents were Lt. Col Daniel McKisick and Jane Wilson who were involved in the Revolutionary War.

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Grififth Coombe Barry
Griffith Combe Barry

Griffith Combe Barry

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Julianna Coombe
Julianna Coombe

Julianna Coombe

She was the wife of James David Barry.

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George William Rockefeffarbottom image

George W Rockefellar helped to start the Elks Club in New York. He was an alto and banjo musician with the Mistrel groups in New York, California and Australia.

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Our Favorite Genealogy Quotes

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G C Barry and Eugenia Calhounbottom image

Eugenia had four husbands and played piano at the famed Prescott, Arizona Palace Bar.

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We strive to document all of our sources in this family tree. If you have something to add, please let us know.