Got Stories?

My dear friend and sister-in-law Stephanie, who shares my love of genealogy, and is a full-blown geek in her own right, had a great suggestion after seeing this blog for the first time — invite others to contribute! So many others have stories, quotes, photos, and memories that would add to the richness of this blog. I’m doing this not only to make my life easier (one place to share all the goodies, instead of having to recreate emails/attachments on demand for interested parties) but also to provide a home base for this information that will be there — in some format (what comes after WordPress?) — for my daughter and all the cousins and all their kids and so on.

So please consider contributing. If you are at all interested, please contact me so we can discuss how that might work best for you. It’s all welcome, whether a simple memory, or a full blown story that could be written up, additional background on an existing story.

Please don’t hesitate if you are considering this; what I would give to go back in time and interview my grandparents in depth.

You are also welcome to add comments at the end of any individual story.

Mystery Photo – Men In Aprons

kanawha-falls?-masons?This photo was among a dozen or so large photos of the Rigg and Farley families in the Kanawha Falls area of West Virginia that were in the possession of my grandfather, then my father, and now to me. There is no notation on the photo and thus far the date, identities and location are a complete unknown to me (hence the “mystery” tag on this story). I’ve not done any cleanup of this photo, but you can click it to see a larger version, age spots and all.

The aprons, rods, pendants and other paraphernalia suggest to me that this is a group of Freemasons. I assume there is someone from the Farley or Rigg family in this photo; my grandfather and great-grandfather were both quite committed members. As I have no photo of Thomas Willis Farley (my 2nd great-grandfather), I like to speculate that maybe he is the bearded fellow seated on the front row with the jaunty hat.