My Aunt Lillian passed away last week at her home in Kerman, California. Her obituary, as well as some family stories and memories, follows:
Lillian Louise Killen
(1934 – 2021)
Lillian Louise Killen, age 87, of Kerman, California passed away on Saturday, November 6, 2021. Lillian was born October 23, 1934.
Continue reading Lillian Horne Killen: In MemoriamI set many goals at the beginning of 2020, completely unaware of what the year had in store for our world. Even with COVID-19 shutdowns, I’ve made good progress on my professional genealogy journey:
Continue reading 2020 Review & 2021 Goals
My fun, spunky, vivacious Aunt Georgia passed away unexpectedly yesterday. The world has lost a lady who was truly one of a kind. Her obituary, as well as some of my memories, follows:
Georgia Horne Lofton
(1937 – 2020)
Graveside service for Mrs. Georgia Lofton, 83, of Henderson, [Texas] will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 2, 2020, at Rusk County Memorial Gardens with Bro. Bill Kuykendall officiating. Interment will follow under the direction of Crawford-A. Crim Funeral Home.
Mrs. Lofton passed from this life on November 29, 2020, at her residence. She was born in Winnsboro, LA to the late Dewey and Ethel Horne.
Continue reading Georgia Horne Lofton: In MemoriamBecause my recent research has focused on Mary Smart McMurry, I decided to obtain her husband John McMurry’s federal land records. I needed to expand my “reasonably exhaustive research” — a tenet of the Genealogical Proof Standard — to her closest male relative in the absence of records for Mary. John patented approximately 160 acres in Gaar’s Mill, Winn Parish, Louisiana, in 1898. His land patent application could give more clues about his family structure, including Mary’s origins or her date of death.
So I hired my first NARA researcher to retrieve the records. Brian Rhinehart from Rhinehart Roots was easy to work with — affordable, professional, and quick. He goes to DC almost monthly, and I placed my order with him while he was on a research trip. Because of this great timing, I received his photographs of John McMurry’s homestead application within 24 hours!
Continue reading Learning More About John McMurry from Federal Land RecordsMyHeritage has an intriguing new feature — MyHeritage In Color. As its name suggests, this feature adds color to black and white photos.
I decided to colorize the only childhood photo I have of my granny Ethel McMurry. It shows her with mother Lula McKaskle McMurry and younger brother John Wright “Unc” McMurry. I’m not sure where the photo was taken. There are telephone wires in the background, so it wasn’t on their farm in Liddieville, Franklin Parish, Louisiana. But John, born in 1918, appears about 3 to 5 years old, which dates this photo to the early 1920s.
Here’s the before and after with MyHeritage In Color:
Wow! The photo is so vibrant and has so much life. I wonder if that’s a function of our modern-day brains thinking “old” when we see black-and-white photos, but “current” when we see color. The colorizing algorithms had trouble with Granny’s left leg, around Unc’s knees and hands, and with Lula’s left ankle. But, overall, I love the effect. And now I wonder if Granny was a blonde in her early years…
Upload your own photos to MyHeritage In Color and give this new feature a try. I’d love to see your results!
