Hi!

To understand a person's work, it helps to know a little about who they are. I'm married, with 5 children, and work outside the home full-time. The small amount of research work that I do is on families that are actually not in any way connected with me; my parents, Charles and Joy Gilchrist, have already done so much of mine.

At Christmas 1994, I found out that my husband's sister-in-law, Cinda Long Crider, was descended from the Long family of French Creek and Alton, Upshur County, West Virginia. I was sharing my parents' History of Old Lewis County: The Crossroads of Central West Virginia with her when she recognized some of the names and photographs as being her relatives too.

Cinda provided me with a list of about 36 names and six weeks later the list had grown to more than 1,000. I managed to connect with the right people at the right time. While most people have had a lifetime to learn about their familiesm, I took a crash course. It was a rewarding and insiteful experience.

My Wyatt, Long, Zickefoose information is collecting dust on a shelf now; but, if this information helps fill in a hole for someone else, than it will have been done for good reason. Please accept this information as the work of an amateur that didn't really know what she was doing and use it as a guide, not as the complete truth. I will gladly provide additional information that I may have in my files as well as the names of contacts that I used.

My husband's family, CRIDER, has been living in Holmes County, Ohio since about 1840. It simplifies research to reside in the county you are researching, especially when the family has been there since the beginning. I find this line to be challenging as it is a family that knew only about two generations of information. As a result of my interest in this family I became involved in the Holmes County Chapter, OGS and currently serve as president.

My three step-children and my own children have the distinction of being distant cousins. My own children are descended from John Hacker while my step-children trace their ties to Samuel Pringle. Their maternal grandmother Ruth Miller was raised in Weston, Lewis County, West Virginia. I would be interested in more information regarding ABEDNIGO CUTRIGHT, Ruth's g.g.grandfather, and his descendants. Considering this, there is no doubt that it really is a small, small world.

Indexed file of some Upshur County families and a few allied lines.
E-mail Dena Jane with your comments and questions.

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