If you haven’t kept up with my saga, let me give you a little recap. About 7 months ago I (or should I say my wife and I) decided to make a major change in our life. We decided to leave everything we have known, our good jobs and our family and friends and move to North Carolina. Why? Because my son, daughter-in-law and grandson were there. Those grand-babies make you do strange things!

To make a long story short, it didn’t work out. We left June 12th and by Sept. 21 we were moving back to Texas. In this process, we left all our furniture and a big portion of our processions in North Carolina. We put our pictures, keepsakes and computers and televisions in storage. I’ve made one trip back and gotten half our stuff but we still have more to get.

In the last few months it has crossed my mind more than once that we would have been just as well off to have stayed in North Carolina and struggled along there! Starting completely over here has NOT been easy and we still have so much to do in order to get back on our feet! It would have probably been easier to have gone through it where we were at but we have to live with the choices we made. There are no do-overs in life! We only get one chance and have to be content with whatever choices we make.

The last 2 months have been hard. Holiday season and we have no (extra) money, struggling along and we are missing our grandson so much! I’ve been in no mood to blog and have basically just hidden in my room and played FarmVille just to have something to occupy my mind. Christmas seemed like just another day this year. I believe it was the worst Christmas I’ve ever had! Not be able to give my daughters what they wanted. Having our car repossessed and haveing to get a used car that now has to have the transmission fixed.

Nonetheless, I’m still hoping that the New Year will bring us new hope. I have no intentions of staying as we are now! I will do what I must to make things better for my family in 2010.

So, back to the question. What about my blog? Well, unfortunately for some, I am not going away. In bad times (and in good times) it is always good to be able to share what you feel with others. I will continue to write about my research, my family, and my life. It may be a little different than in the past but I will write it anyway. This blog has sustained me through many trials, frustrations, and heartaches. It’s also been there when things were going great. I hope it will continue to be there in the future.

I cannot and will not commit to being able to post everyday. My life and my family will dictate how often I can post here. When I do post, I will try to make it worth your while to read. I’ll begin to try participating in blog prompts, such as Wordless Wednesday and Tombstone Tuesday, and will try to get back to my 2 favorite blog carnivals. There will be dry spells, of that I am sure, but I will try to make them few and far between.

No one knows for certain what the future holds. For me, I just want to slow down and take time to enjoy the present. My oldest daughter graduates this year and my youngest will graduate in 2012. I need to enjoy my time with them now, because I’ve learned that once they graduate and begin to start their own life your relationships change. My children have been my life for so long I could never imagine it without them, but I have to face the facts that soon they will have their own lives, their own families and my life will have to make another sudden change.

I’m sorry if I rambled or said anything that I shouldn’t have. I just wanted to write what is on my heart. I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and I pray that you all will have a very happy and safe New Year. I wish you all the best.

Thanks for stopping in,

Ken

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Your Genealogy Blog’s Obituary. If your blog ended or was lost/deleted today, how would you write it’s obituary? What were the highlights of your blog? What is its history?

Please note: This is not an actual obituary for my blog. I’m offline for a while but I’m not dead yet!

Beyond Fiction Is No More!

Beyond Fiction, a small and mostly personal genealogy blog authored by Ken Spangler, has come to an end today! Since March of 2007 Ken has shared his research openly in the hopes of getting more family members involved with his research. In the course of this time, Ken made many friends in the geneablogging community and was encouraged by them to “keep on keeping on”.
Through the years Ken has shared many different series with his readers including his series on The Elusive Martin Isaic Spangler, which helped him to establish many new contacts on his Spangler side and his series on his Stevenson roots which resulted in a connection that helped him to finally make that jump across the big pond. Ken never really knew how big his readership was because he didn’t care to try to track them, choosing rather to just put his words out there and see what would come of them.
Many would possibly call the passing of this small blog just a blip on the huge scope of things but it is hoped that at least some small portion of the readers will find a void with the disappearance of Ken’s writings. Never one to try to keep up with the latest trends, Ken simply shared what was on his mind with his readers. He pondered questions, shared his thoughts, posed more questions and challenged only his family to try to make his blog a little more than what it was. Was he successful? This is something that can only be learned in the course of the next few months. Will his children pick up where he left off and continue with his blog as he wished? Will a family member step up and try to continue Beyond Fiction?
In either case, let it be known that Ken has enjoyed his time blogging. When times were tough and he didn’t really know what to do he could always come to his blog and find some kind of solace there. The many friends he made through blogging kept him going many, many days. It is an experience that he never regretted and wishes he would have started sooner.
Arrangements have been made for the blog to continue to stay online for at least another year or so. No new posts will be added but those who would like to take one last look at Ken’s writings will have an opportunity to do so. After that, it will be left to the descendants of Ken Spangler to continue his quest.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I look forward to being able to get back online and write more but I am currently 1300 miles away from my computer and I don’t see us reuniting any time soon!

I’ll miss everyone but will try to check in if I can get to the library or some other place to connect.

See ya when I see ya!

Ken

Well, I almost forgot to post this before I shut off my Internet tomorrow. This is one of those pictures that you wonder about posting. Is it right to post this or will someone ask why I would want to do this? The simple fact is that we can’t choose who is in our family tree, we can only research and report what we find.

This is a picture of my maternal grandfather’s 3rd wife, Mary Jane Hayner. He married her shortly after his second wife died. If you were to look at his situation you might be able to realize that he just felt he had to have someone to help with all those children! She was like 18 (or younger) and he was about 47. Of course, when he found her with some of the younger boys he was quick to divorce her, or at least that is how I have heard it. He did have one child with her and I have been able to find him and set up a meeting between him and my youngest uncle.

Anyways, to cut this story short, I was very surprised when I was allowed to take a photo album home and scan it and found this picture inside. I guess after hearing all the stories that my mother’s siblings told about her I would have never guessed that they would still have a picture of her.

Today, I share that picture and my little story with you all!

Have a great weekend,

Ken

I am moving back to Texas!!!

Yes, I know I have only been here in North Carolina for 3 months and that I have just recently found a job and things seemed to be working out. However, things are never quite what they seem, are they?

I began to contemplate this about a week ago. I sat down my wife and daughters and talked with them for some time about how they felt things were going here. I could tell they weren’t all happy and that perhaps we should think about moving back to Texas. My youngest daughter was dancing and saying “Yes!” and even my oldest daughter was thrilled about it. My wife was a different story. Saturday was a strange day, what with my daughters going around happier than I have seen them in a while and my wife hardly speaking because she did not agree with the idea of moving back.

Sunday I sat down with them all again and said that I could understand where my wife was coming from. We both had jobs now and we would be going back to no jobs at all. It only makes sense to stay here! Well, now my wife was happy but my daughters weren’t! What to do?

On Monday we got a note from my youngest daughter. She wrote that she didn’t think we were listening to her or understanding her feelings. We talked with her and explained that they only way we could go back to Texas was to have a job and that was that.

Tuesday I got a call from my wife. She said she had something to tell me and to call her as soon as I got off! So, like a good hubby, I called her and asked what was up. She said she had gotten a call from her old job in Texas and they wanted her to start on Sept. 21. She told them that the earliest she could do so would be the 28th! Great, now my wife has changed her tune!

We began to make plans for how we would go back to Texas. We would put everything in storage here and then take just the clothes we needed to get started. We would return later to get the rest of our stuff. I called my old job and they confirmed that I had left in good standing so I am eligible to be rehired. Of course, they probably won’t hire full-time until Spring but I would have a good chance of getting back then. In the meantime, I am eligible to work through a temporary agency until then. That was good news.

Wednesday we had to change our plans again. We had been in a financial bind as I had gone for several weeks unemployed and we had burnt through the money we had saved for our relocation quicker than I had expected.  We had gone to a place that promised to help us pay our rent and that would help us to get back on track. They called us on Wednesday and told us that things had changed. The employment verifications we had sent in were showing that my wife wasn’t even  on the schedule for October and therefore our income would be bad and we would be asking for help again in October. Because of this they said they wouldn’t be able to help us.

Now, Thursday, we find ourselves trying to pack everything as quickly as possible and get it out by the weekend so that we won’t be evicted and lose everything. We got a storage, made arrangements for a truck on Saturday and got tons of boxes to begin packing. This afternoon, my wife and I were sitting down talking about it and decided that it was going to be too hard to try to pack it all, put it in storage and then come back later and get it. First off, it would take 2 days driving up here, a day to pack and another 2 days to bring it back. Of course, then we would have to add a day to unload it all. That’s 6 days, 2600 miles round trip, several hotel rooms, and the price of a truck rental and gas. The least we were looking at is $1500 to do this and the earliest time frame was Thanksgiving.

Fast forward to now and we have made up our mind. We are going to get a hitch put on our car, rent a small (4X8) trailer and take back just the bare essentials. The rest we will leave here. We will let my son and daughter-in-law choose any of our home interior, furniture or whatever and then let them see if any of their Marine friends need anything. Everything that is left can be sold by the apartment owner. Our little trailer will be enough to hold our washer and dryer (my wife says this is a woman’s best friend!) and then all our pictures, my genealogy, the computers and other non-replaceable things.

It will be hard to walk away from these things but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. It’s all just stuff anyway. I can always get a new entertainment center, dressers, beds, whatever. We already have a couple of beds set up when we get back anyway! We knew when we moved up here we were taking a chance. I’m just glad that we will have the opportunity to get the things we need back to Texas with us!

For those of you who may wonder, yes I did make a mistake by moving up here. It was a mistake we all made together however. I should have stood up and said “NO!” but I could see that everyone wanted to go and I gave in. The happiness of my family has always been what is most important to me. This move back to Texas will make those I love a lot happier.

We will be just fine! I’ll miss Isaiah, Joseph and Stephanie! We will be back around the rest of my family though. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and I believe that being away from Texas has helped me to see that I really love my family a lot more than I thought. We may all have a few hard feelings between each other but we are still FAMILY! I plan on trying to resolve my differences with my loved ones when I get home!

In the long run, this little adventure will prove to be a turning point in our life. Yes, we made some mistakes but in doing so we learned some valuable lessons and we learned a little more about ourselves! That’s worth a lot more than any money we lost, any “stuff” we lose or any other shortcoming that may have happened over the last 3 months.

For all my readers I ask that you understand that this blog will be inactive for a while. I am going to be staying with my sister until we get things together and therefore will be limited in my online activities. I will try to keep up with my Facebook and such but it will most likely be done by using the computers at the library. I’ll get back online as soon as possible but that will not be the number one thing on my list!

For all those who have sent me such kind wishes in the past few months, I thank you for your encouragement. I regret that I was not able to stay long enough to be able to share the adventure with you all but I believe that this experience will help me to grow into a better person (and blogger) later.

For all my family in Texas, I can’t wait to see you all again. I’ll be there for the birth of my new nephew and niece in January and for the birth of my niece’s first child. I’ll also be there for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I look so forward to it all.

For my son, daughter-in-law and grandson here in North Carolina, we will miss you so much. It’s been fun and I wish it could have lasted longer but we will still stay in touch, visit when we can and you’ll always have a place you can come to in Texas where you will be welcomed with lots of love!

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my saga!  I’m sorry if I shared too much information. I consider all my readers as close as if they were my own family. It’s like sitting down and talking with old friends!  Just know that I and my family will be just fine. I look forward to being able to get back into the swing of things later.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Ken

My Paternal Great-Grandfather

William Henry Gamble

(Husband of Abigail Mae (Miller) Weeks)

Born – January 31, 1881 in Bowie Co., Texas

Died – June 8, 1971 in Denton Co., Texas

Buried in Hopewell Cemetery, Clarksville, Red River Co., Texas.

For this weeks challenge, please go read Sheri Fenley’s blog (The Educated Genealogist) post Trading Cards, Get Your Trading Cardsand then:

1) Make your own Trading Card(s) on http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php . It’s easy to do, but you need a head shot photo of your subject.

2) Post your Trading Card on your web site, your blog, or on your Facebook account (or some other account where you can upload a JPG file).

3) Can you think of other uses for these trading cards? If so, tell us about it!

I went, I created and now I am publishing. Here is my trading card:

I decided to change my picture since this is something that will be forever remembered in history!

Oh, and the best way to use them is to just collect them. Can you imagine how much a footnoteMaven card will be worth in about 20 years?

Thanks for the fun, Randy (and Sheri)!

It’s been 8 years today. Eight years since our world was changed forever!

I can still recall the events of that day. I had been up all night playing around on the Internet. I had just gotten in to bed when my wife came in and woke me up. She was saying something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. We didn’t have a television at the time so I turned on the radio and listened. We thought it was just a small plane that had hit it but as we listened we began to hear it was something much bigger.

I remember the shock. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! A huge plane has crashed into the WTC. I began to try to imagine how horrible it must have been. Then came the news of the second plane and all of a sudden my shock was now turned to anger. I knew this was no accident! Who would dare to do something as horrible as this? Back then I was not much of a current events person. I stayed away from the news because I didn’t care about all the negative stuff you heard. I had no idea who Osama Bin Laden was or of the attitudes of some Muslims to America. Now, I am beginning to hear all these things. I was so angry and wanted to just do something! What could I do? I remember that I hopped into the car and just began to drive. I was listening on the radio and heard about the Pentagon and then about Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. I had to pull over because by this time the reality of so many lives being lost had hit me and I was crying so hard. I remember praying like I had never prayed before. Not for me but for those who were being affected by this. I also remember praying that justice would be delivered swiftly.

That evening I had to go to work. It was an Internet service provider and we were getting so many calls from folks in New York wanting to know why they didnt’ have access. I was confused at first but then I thought to myself that they must be trying to find out as much as possible about their loved ones. My confusion turned to sadness. I began to pull up some images from the Internet. The horror of it all was there before me and I realized that everything I had tried to imagine in my mind was so far from the truth. It was so much more horrible than I could have ever imagined!

The days following were just a blur. I remember holding my children so tightly and cherishing everything I had. I wanted to do something but what could I do? I did the only thing I could think of, I continued to pray.

To this day, I can still remember the nonchalant comment I made to my wife when she woke me up. “Aw, it’s probably just some accident”. How terribly wrong I was. I remember the shock and then I remember how that turned into such anger. I believe that the thing I remember most is that I actually learned how to sincerely pray for folks who I didn’t even know. If I would have been around New York, I believe I would have had no problem giving of my time.

I was proud to be an American! I knew we would overcome and be stronger.

I knew life would never be the same!

God bless those who lost loved ones and were affected so strongly by this tragic event. May your peace wash over them on this day and comfort them.

Ken