Site update coming in early June 2005

In the past few days we've received several updates to the genealogiccal website and have entered them all into the Gedcom data base. We will do a monthly update of the site between June 1st and June 3rd. A thousand thank-yous to all from the Williams clan who have responded and given points of clarification on your branches of the family.

Come and visit the site and share your insights with us by emailing any corrections, tributes, comments, etc. to email: ericjw33@gmail.com. If you are unsure about some of the family related dates, names, milestones and such, why not contact an elder in your branch of the family and then ask questions and take notes.

And then.... SHARE THE INSIGHTS WITH US ON THE SITE.

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POSSIBLE WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE to the Williams-Rivers Genealogical Website
1) Correct or update your personal file
2) Correct or update your immediate family's files
3) Fill in any knowledge you have about grandmothers, aunts, uncles or cousins
4) Write a recollection about someone (living or dead) we will add it to
the notes for that individual along with your attribution.
5) Write a TRIBUTE about Grandma Mandi or another family member
(for tributes page).
6) Send a comment to ericjw33@gmail.com
7) Add a comment to the Web log (directly on this page below)
8) We don't have a guest book yet, but may get one in the near future...
if so then people will be able to sign in

For people who want to be really thorough
DOWNLOAD the PDF form from the Corrections page
(http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/corrections.html/W-R-Questionaire.pdf) fill it in and fax it back as instructed

REMEMBER all changes will appear at the first of each month
as we output new updated web site pages.

Reply from the Short Austin Family Tree

In just a few hours I got a reply...from Lamont Beauregard, Short / Austin Family tree.

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Hi Eric,

You've made my day! Our ancestors in heaven must be smiling down at us.
I was as much pleased as surprised to hear from you. Prior to your e-mail the only information available to me on the Short/Williams side of our family was very limited. Now, thanks to you, I can add a lot of missing information.

I've just spent the past hour viewing your web site (with a deep sense of pride) and I must say, maybe even a little bit of jealousy. I must admit that my skills at web design, (I'm self taught), are quite limited and hopefully I can learn some pointers from you.

At the moment I'm somewhat at a lost words, or perhaps I should say in a "state of shock" so I'll make this brief, but I'm hoping we can combine our resources and tell all of our family's generations, present and future who we are.

Your Cuz,

Lamont


Short/Austin Family Tree
www.shortausatinfamilytree.com

Short/Austin Family Reunion 2005
http://www.shortaustinfamilytree.com/reunionflier.html

Making contact with distant cousins

While I was creating the Descendants of Mandi Genealogy Website, I did some searching on the Web based on key family names. One day as I entered some family names and browsed the results, I was stunned to find an exact match on what appeared to be someone else's family tree site. I made a mental note that as soon as I got our site up and running, I would contact the other site's webmaster and let him know that there was family on the Web.

Today, three days after lauching the new website, I kept my promise to myself. I sent the following note to Lamont Beauregard of the Short/Austin Family Tree Website-- Subject Line: My Website, Your Website, Our Family:

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Hello cousin Lamont!

Your website-- http://www.shortaustinfamilytree.com/The Short Austin
Family Treeis fantastic!!! ...and I am your distant cousin. Our Common relative is Silla Short.

My name is Eric J Williams and I live in Chicago IL. I came upon your
website a while back, and realized that our families overlap to a
considerable degree. I am the great-grandson of Luella Short and the
great-great-great-grandson of Silla Short.

I also have a family tree website charting the Williams and Rivers
Family of Haywood County Tennessee. Our website
( http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/ ) is very new...just
launched last week...though I have been building the Gedcom files for
several weeks from paper charts the family has done for family reunion
booklets and conversations with family members. I would love to hear
what you think about our new website.

If you click the link below, you can see and trace my relationship to
the Shorts who appear in your Short/Ausitin website.

http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/Records/INDIs/II0965.html

My grandfather, Lemuel Williams was the son of Luella Short. I was
very happy to find your webite as I was in the process of launching
our Williams-Rivers Family Tree website-- called Descendants of Mandi.
Your site will allow me to fill in many blanks about my
great-grandmother's family.

In the spirit of your message on the Short Austin website, I've
included a few notes which point out some missing or inaccurate spots
in your family tree--specifically charting our branch the Henry Short
family.

Here is a family record for Luella Short and Dennis Williams--my
great-grandmother and great-grandfather... notice the third child (my
uncle Donald), who your family tree identifies as Darner...which was
his nickname, click Donald's link for the note on his nickname).

http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/Records/FAMs/FF010.html

your page is:

http://www.shortaustinfamilytree.com/lueellashortpage.html

Here is a family record for Alversa Williams and Robert Edward Lee
(you'll find there are two missing children for them in your page for
Aunt Alversa). Click the link and you will find them here---Sandra
Faye and Lewis Edward) the correct place for these two is between
Wesley Gene and Brenda Aleece.

http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/Records/FAMs/FF279.html

your page is:

http://www.shortaustinfamilytree.com/alversawilliamepage.html

You'll also find that our new site contains considerable additional
info on offspring for the children of Dennis Williams and Luella
Short...enough to keep you busy for quite some time.

I would, however, be open to sending you a gedcom file which you could
merg into your existing file to pick up the additonal info...but we
can talk about that later. I will be picking up considerable info from
your site as well. Maybe we could swap files at some point and save
each other considerable typing.

Anyway, Lamont, I was glad to find you, and I hope to meet at some
point in the future.

Sincerely

Eric J. Williams
http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/
ericjw33@gmail.com

Getting this thing up and running

The Descendants of Mandi website is a labor of love to say the least. The site was just created on May 13 2005, but in fact it represents the genealogical efforts of dozens of people over the past 28 years. Printed family trees which were used as the basis for the genealogical links in this site, were first published as inserts in the keepsake booklets from the Williams-Rivers Family Reunions (1978-2004). This site is an outgrowth of the Williams-Rivers Family Website created in July 2004 for the 2004 Williams-Rivers Family Reunion.

I built the Gedcom files in late April and early May 2005, and went live with the website on May 13. There's always a bit of trepidation when going live with a site as large, involved and detailed as this one will one day be. The problem is that you have to start somewhere, and our booklet inserts, while great for showing the basic relationships between individuals, only gives spouse information for the first few generations. After that only descendants are shown, making it difficult to track changing famiy names for female membes of the family and their offspring.

I intend to correct these shortcoming in future editions through family interveiws and continued genealogical research. I am indebted to the following individuals for the basic knowledge and research that made this site possible: Alversa Williams Lee, Elaine Lee Turner, Susan Lee Adekpuitor, Eloise Williams Tolbert, and others too numerous to mention.

For now, I hope you enjoy the site for what it is-- a work in progress-- and please feel free to contact me with corrections, changes, and updates.

COTACT ME: Eric J. Williams

GENEALOGY HOME: http://www.descendantsofmandi.com/
FAMILY SITE: http://www.williams-riversfamily.org/