The Short/Austin Family Connection

Many of you know that our family shares several connections with another family which also has it's roots in Haywood County TN. The Short/Austin Family, which produced both Alice Short and Luella Short--who were cousins and the wives of Wash and Dennis Williams respectively, is another old and distinguished family from Western Tennessee. Much like us, they trace their lineage back to a slave woman named Silla (Perscilla) Short (whose life was roughly contemporary with Mandi). You can find their web site at www.shortaustinfamilytree.com. The SAFT web site is absolutely first rate, in fact, The Short/Austin Family Tree was one of 3 finalist out of hundreds nominated for family web site of 2007 by www.BlackWebAwards.com.

The link to the complete list of final nominees is below. The family web site nominees are located at the bottom of the list.

The final Nominee list for the Black Web Awards 2007
http://www.blackwebawards.com/list_of_all_finalists

Visiting this site, holds interest for any African American Family, but because of the connections, it is especially so for members of the Williams-Rivers Family. When you get the chance I highly recommend that you check it out. The site was built and is maintained by Lamont Beauregard, who would qualify as a cousin to many of us because of the connections. Do check it out!!!

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