In 2007 while visiting my mother's sister in Pensacola, she asked if my sister and I had ever seen a picture of "Grannie" (her & my mother's grandmother). I expected her to go get a photo album so I was stunned when instead she had her husband drag out from under a bed a 26"x30" portrait of Martha Jane (Johnson) Edenfield. I was so intrigued by this young woman who was my ancestor that I started asking my aunt questions and making notes and the next day my sister Paula and I went in search of the Edenfield family cemetery in Altha, FL. Before this I had had no interest at all in my family history (hard to believe now) but there we found our great-grandparents Edenfield AND our great-great-grandparents Edenfield and I was hooked from that day.

Since then, genealogy has become a true passion (some would say obsession--I have a sign in my office that reads "there is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness") and have done extensive research on both my mother's and father's lines. As interesting and fulfilling as that has been, however, even better are the many, many LIVING kinfolk (over 50 now) that I have met either in person, by phone, or online that I never knew existed before. Because my parents left the small towns they grew up in and moved to "the big city", my experience of family growing up was strictly nuclear--parents and siblings--with only the occasional trip to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. My extended family is so precious to me now and it continues to grow.

My mother's family was concentrated in Calhoun County, FL and the surnames include AYERS, EDENFIELD, MUSGROVE, JOHNSON & YON. My father's family lived in Washington County, FL and the Georgia counties of Telfair, Pulaski, Dodge & Laurens and the surnames include BURCH, DUNCAN, HAYS/HAYES, HARGROVE, McCRANIE, RYALS, & HENDLEY.

In 2007 while visiting my mother's sister in Pensacola, she asked if my sister and I had ever seen a picture of "Grannie" (her & my mother's grandmother). I expected her to go get a photo album so I was stunned when instead she had her husband drag out from under a bed a 26"x30" portrait of Martha Jane (Johnson) Edenfield. I was so intrigued by this young woman who was my ancestor that I started asking my aunt questions and making notes and the next day my sister Paula and I went in search of the Edenfield family cemetery in Altha, FL. Before this I had had no interest at all in my family history (hard to believe now) but there we found our great-grandparents Edenfield AND our great-great-grandparents Edenfield and I was hooked from that day.

Since then, genealogy has become a true passion (some would say obsession--I have a sign in my office that reads "there is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness") and have done extensive research on both my mother's and father's lines. As interesting and fulfilling as that has been, however, even better are the many, many LIVING kinfolk (over 50 now) that I have met either in person, by phone, or online that I never knew existed before. Because my parents left the small towns they grew up in and moved to "the big city", my experience of family growing up was strictly nuclear--parents and siblings--with only the occasional trip to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. My extended family is so precious to me now and it continues to grow.

My mother's family was concentrated in Calhoun County, FL and the surnames include AYERS, EDENFIELD, MUSGROVE, JOHNSON & YON. My father's family lived in Washington County, FL and the Georgia counties of Telfair, Pulaski, Dodge & Laurens and the surnames include BURCH, DUNCAN, HAYS/HAYES, HARGROVE, McCRANIE, RYALS, & HENDLEY.