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We have enjoyed a couple of beautiful days, weather-wise, but cloudy today. The pictures aren’t spectacular but I’m encouraged by the signs of Spring.

…the safety of the RV Park!!

Four miles round trip; one-hour-twenty-five minutes away from home. This was “a baby step” toward future sorties.

Give credit where credit is due: Thanks to Jan!! She is so faithful about phone calls “to check on me.” We saw one another frequently when I was living at the RV Park in Livingston. She called… and we talked for an hour. Jan encouraged me to “get out.” I admitted the TV commercials for Dairy Queen had me hungering for a Blizzard. I must add that my friend, Deb, has encouraged me to “get out.” I’m so grateful for my dear friends!!

“Sleepless in America” was a story on CBS Sunday Morning.

It was very interesting to this sleep-deprived old lady.

Off-topic: This message prepared on my Desktop computer. My “clipart” is in some mysterious place on this computer and I have not worked out a “roadmap” to those images. Perhaps my messages will be brief and devoid of color?!

I keep searching…; these folks are invisible!! I’ve devoted hours to research in FamilySearch. That resource is always reliable when Ancestry.com fails to provide information. I’m losing my mind!! I don’t recall ever having this much difficulty finding individuals. Eleven-hundred-thirty-three folks in the Tiner database and I speculate half of them are not related to “Red” and Dee (Harris) Tiner. The “half” was saved during exhaustive searches for the desired family members.

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Where’s my camera? It’s my “sidekick”: I’m lost without it!! ~~ Believe it or not, I spent some time in the yard, checking the plants that suffered the recent miserable freezing temperature. It’s a cloudy, extremely windy day and (imho) “too windy” to ride the three-wheeler. I would have taken a picture of the indoor-outdoor thermometer if I could locate my camera. ~~ What’s my name?

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“What’s her name?”  ancient Asus laptop computer is struggling with every instruction. It took hour-and-fifteen minutes to document this (3:30-4:45) information.

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“Yes, I found the camera (in the most unlikely location).”

The fact that I can’t locate the parents of a great-grandfather is so frustrating for me. Sorry, I can’t “walk away.” (I want to walk away–but the challenge draws me like a magnet.) It bears repeating: The owners of this RV Park have been so-o-o-o good to me, I want to say “thank you” with details of their ancestry. (They requested…) I prepared those charts and I’m not even certain they are relatives. However, with so little information available, and so many hours spent researching, this may help another researcher. (Yes, those charts are attached to the relevant relatives.)

Turning my back and walking away. Consider it “burnout”? From one mother with the maiden name “Eppes,” I went to sixty-seven individuals with the “Eppes” surname—and still did not have her parents and her ancestry. She, and her son, have been virtually impossible to document!! True confession: My “Frantz” family—and collateral lines—has been easy to follow and easy to document. Decades ago, when we did research “the old-fashioned way,” people would talk about “hitting a brick wall.” They found it difficult to find and document their ancestors. That wasn’t my case. Documenting the Tiner/Harris family introduced me to “hitting a brick wall.” I can’t sleep, I’m not eating properly, and I don’t get enough exercise!!

Excellent researcher!! However, I’m doing a poor job documenting the ancestors of the owners of this RV Park. I’m screaming and pulling my hair!!

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10:00 PM: After fourteen hours of researching the Eppes family (today), I still do not have the answer I desire. I’ve lost track…; is this the third day?

Long past bedtime. I didn’t want to accept defeat; I was confident I’d find the parents and establish the ancestry. Confession: Vanquished.

“Never a stopping point”  was the title of this blog at midnight. My Internet provider chose that time to terminate service (briefly) and the message was not published. After an exhausting day of research, I went to bed but I could not go to sleep. In my mind, I continued to research. And I’m perplexed by something I read (yesterday) about the daughter of Thomas Jefferson: “Mulatto.”  Everything in the TV news is about race, about “Black” and “White,” and President Biden versus President Trump. Personally, I do not want to enter the conversation. I was surprised to see the word “mulatto” attributed to the daughter of the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Personally, I do not want to enter the conversation about the Oprah Winfrey interview with Megan Markle and Prince Harry. I’m thinking “oh my gosh”  because this is the first time “ancestry” (my research) has mirrored current events. ~~~ Here is an interesting article from the Internet: Thomas Jefferson’s Unknown Grandchildren. ~~~ Here is an excerpt that disputes the daughter, Martha, was “mulatto”:

Sally Flemings was in charge of his “chamber and wardrobe” and was recognized among Jefferson’s neighbors, according to several Virginia editors who researched the story, as the virtual mistress of Monticello. This lasted until Jefferson’s only surviving white daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, moved to Monticello permanently with her husband and family in 1809. Sally remained, however, in “the big house” until after Jefferson’s death in 1826, when Mrs. Randolph quietly freed her. Then about fifty-three, she left and moved in with her son Eston. The census taker of Albemarle County in 1830 listed both her and her son as “whites,” thus inadvertently underlining the irony and tragedy in their lives.

The owner–manager of this RV Park has been so good to me!! “Mr. Red” is interested in his ancestry and I’ve been “climbing his family tree” (off and on) for several months. (My small effort to say “thank you.”) As mentioned in an earlier blog message, I resolved the problem (I created) regarding the identity of his father. However, there is a problem with his third-great-grandfather.  Other Ancestry Member Family Trees want to attach Sidney Tiner to a couple age fourteen (14) and eleven (11) at the time of his birth. I reject that information but days of search have not revealed the true identity of Sidney’s parents. That’s what I call “chasing rabbits”  because I’ve been running full speed and catching nothing. So frustrating!!

Nine-hundred-fifty-six individuals in this tree, at this writing. Before March 10th, it may reach one-thousand.

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Yes, I reached one-thousand individuals in this database. The focus this afternoon, and evening, has been on the Eppes family. I’m trying to determine the Ancestry of Frances Ann Eppes Harris. Look at this interesting tidbit of information from Colonial Families of the United States.

“Thomas Jefferson, b. 1743; d. 4 Jul 1826. Second President of the United States of America; married 1772, Martha Wayles, daughter of “The Forrest,” Charles City County, Virginia.”

Yet to be determined: Who is “The Forrest”? Also:

Mary is the daughter of Thomas & Martha Jefferson, She was born at “Monticello” and died there. Her father’s nickname for her was Polly. Mary shared White House hostess with her sister Martha Randolph and Dolly Madison, the wife of James Madison. Mary married John Wayles Eppes on October 13,1797 at her father’s house Monticello. John is Mary’s half-1st. cousin.

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Another neighbor stepped up and offered to take me to Napa for a battery. THE KIA STARTED and I was assured the battery “is probably OK.”  We went to “brunch” at IHOP, and shopping at Home Depot. I “feel so good.” My companion gave me directions and I wasn’t experiencing “fear” while driving in Waco traffic. OMG, the omelet, at IHOP, was so-o-o-o-o delicious!! Except for the mask, entering and exiting, at IHOP, and mask in Home Deport, I felt surprisingly “normal.” Gospel truth: I plan to go out again this afternoon–to Walmart….