Oklahoma Smedley's Website Build Day Two

Whew! Ok, well my mind is going ninety miles an hour today, I went this morning to the cemetery in Poteau to grab a few snapshots of family I know to be there. I have completed cataloging Monroe, Vaughn (loads of family here), and I went to Shiloh as well a few days ago. I must say that Shiloh is an interesting place, for every standing headstone there are 5 rocks just stuck up out of the ground marking someone. In Shiloh, as well as at Vaughn, there is a "Smedley" section. Rev. Joseph and Benjamin and several others rest here. I have a call out to the keepers of Shiloh so I can get the plots scheme so I know who is where, there are about 10 Smedleys marked with rocks, no headstone. It is my goal to get them identified!

WELL, I just posted on Ancestry about this site, I know it will be a slow process but it is my hopes that in the coming weeks, months this site is swarming with Smedley's far and wide, gathering bits and bobbles. This site will always remain free for the Smedley's, it is a precious gift to me from my bestie, Andrea!

So, something I want to talk about is the information I provide here. I want to assure you, if you see someone on my family tree, they have been confirmed, reconfirmed and most likely triple confirmed. How do I do this? Well Andrea and I traverse websites, like Ancestry and others, gathering census information, birth records, death records and because I am centrally located in Oklahoma where my relatives seem to originate, it is easy for me to hop over to a cemetery to grab some pictures for further confirmation.

Rarely does my information come from word or mouth, or friends or family information I can't confirm. Although I don't see anything wrong with that type of information, for me, I need to be able to confirm it before I commit it to fact. For every fact, it seems we disprove 5-10. Family word of mouth and he said she said, is great for starting information but for me, I want to bring life to that information by gathering the aforementioned forms of 'proof'.

I won't make this post too long, tomorrow I want to discuss name spelling, transcription errors, Okie Accents, and the stumbling blocks it can place in our searches! Good stuff!

See you tomorrow, I am in the throws of creating my LARGE family tree to place on our site here so you all can take from it what you need, help me add to it, and add to yours so our family trees are flourishing with Smedleys!!!

Take time today to enjoy life, enjoy your search,

~Alisha~