1997

• Mounds, OK, Rolla, Edgar Springs, Houston,  Sherrill, MO
• Lampasas, TX

My mother's grandparents were all born in or near Texas Co, MO. Her parents were born there too, although they didn't meet until they had moved around quite a bit and wound up in Beggs, OK. This first sojourn introduced me to my Chambers, Dunham, and Mathis cousins. We visited the University of Missouri in Rolla where I found out more about John J. Watts, a traveling minister that recorded many of the family histories of the people he ministered to. He worked in Texas and Pulaski counties for the most part. There is a cemetery that sits on the county line with his name on it. Some of my Chambers ancestors are buried there.

I visited numerous cemeteries documenting the information. We spent some frustrating time trying to locate one that was new to us all. This one held my grandmother's side of the family, the Wilson's. We stopped to ask where the cemetery was from a Massey. We decided if they lived in the area, they must be related to us. The young man did look like my great uncles, but to date, I don't know the connection. We did find the cemetery! Several of my Wilson's are buried in that little cemetery. We go back every time we are in Missouri.

It was after this trip that my neck pain got the best of me and I was flat on my back from 31 October until March 1998, then I was able to be for a few hours at a time.