genealogy

Bert and I went on a vacation to Colorado in September of 1999 to see the Aspens at the peak of their season - my favorite time of year there! On the way, we stopped in Long Beach, Mississippi because Bert wanted to show me a live oak tree there in front of The University of Southern Mississippi at Long Beach, Mississippi. Here is one of the pictures and to get an example how large the tree is, look very closely just right of the middle and you'll see me standing there in a fushia pink shirt. Pretty big tree! So I thought it was an appropriate picture to put here because it represents My Family Tree which has become a very large "LIVE OAK" with all it's branches :-) To make it even more appropriate the tree is named

"The Friendship Oak Tree".

To see my research go to the following three sites:
RootsWeb Genealogy Site

Family Tree Maker Home Page

My Mother's Key West/Bahama Roots

Braddock Cemetery (between Callahan and Hilliard, FL)

Sampson Cemetery, Sampson, St. Johns County, FL - Photos

St.Joseph's Catholic Church Cemetery, Loretto, Duval Co., FL

Beauford Cornelius Braddock (WWII POW) [my uncle]

A Few Old Family Pictures

See More Genealogy Links on Home Page

My family is solely from Florida on both sides:

My Father's Minorcan side came to New Smyrna Beach in 1768 and then moved to St. Augustine where they settled for many years. My Father's paternal Grandmother, Matilda Ortagus who was Minorcan, married William Braddock in 1877 in St. Augustine. They lived in Sampson, FL where they raised 11 children: one being my Grandfather, Leavy Francis Braddock. Leavy worked for the Florida East Coast Railroad and was the conductor for many years, working and living back and forth from Jacksonville to Miami. My Father's maternal grandparents were William Wesley Campbell and Mary Jane Reams whose families lived in Madison County, FL from the early 1800. The Campbell's had 7 children in Madison Co. before they migrated to Dade Co., FL around 1903 where my grandmother, Mary "Mamie" Amanda Campbell, met and married Leavy Francis Braddock in 1909. Mamie and Leavy had three children: my Father, William Vernon Braddock, Beauford and Lois.

My Mother's family, the Roberts and Pinders, immigrated from the Bahamas to Key West around 1850. Her paternal Grandfather was William B. Roberts that married Mary Ann Curry in 1862. William and Mary Ann lived in Key West and had 9 children one being my Grandfather Albert "Abbie" Norman Roberts. My Mother's maternal Grandfather was William Leroy Pinder that married (possibly) George Frank Parsons (as remembered) and called "Mama Georgie". They had 3 children one being my Grandmother, Mabel Bertha Pinder. Albert "Abbie" Norman Roberts and Mabel Bertha Pinder met and married in Key West around 1911. Abbie and Mabel had four daughters: one being my Mother, Nellie Mae Roberts.

My Mother and Father (pictured below) are progeny of these long time Florida families.

My Family Tree Maker Home Page has some large file on the Braddock/Ortagus, Campbell/Reams (of Florida) and my husband's line, Descendants of John Martin Campbell. More surnames are shown on the FTM Home Page for each of these families. All files are in outline format. The RootsWeb has my entire database where you can peruse names you are looking for by surname. Much of my research is furnished by others who have helped me to find my ancestors. I'd like to send a great big hug and thank you to all of you who helped and are continuing to help. Family research started out being just a hobby and curiosity, but has turned into a little more serious project where now I want documentation especially since I have found so many variances in dates and names. I have a lifelong project to collect documentation on this research, some of which I already have. It's a never ending huge human puzzle, but it's fun and especially been fun meeting so many distant cousins on the internet where we have shared our research. Be sure to check out my Links on the Home Page.

Thanks to all of you, Verna Mae (Braddock) Campbell

The Strangers in the Box
By Pam Harazim
of Connecticut

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.

I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories,
Are lost among the socks.

I wonder what their lives were like.
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away?

Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.