Here are two stories that attest to the good things you accomplish with your love and dedication for this website and the history of Bradley County. I too have benefited from photos and other information that has been posted at this site, as well as your guidance and suggestions. And, I believe that many more others could send in similar stories. Thanks for the best site I have found since I started researching my families. Diane -----Original Message----- From: arbradle-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:arbradle-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Gerald Hickman Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 4:37 PM To: arbradle@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ARBRADLE] Hairston Reunion Good story, Anne! Back in the 1920s a first cousin of my mother, a man with the unusual name of Holyar Johnson, disappeared. A photo of him at about age 20 stood in our home while I was growing up. Holyar was a handsome young man, born about 1904. His last communication with any of the family was a postcard mailed from Los Angeles in 1926. His parents had left Arkansas several years earlier, moving to Texas, then Oklahoma, back to another part of Arkansas, and finally Mobile, Alabama. How Holyar came to be in California wasn't known. In the mid-thirties, Holyar's parents told my mother that they had heard from someone who claimed to have seen Holyar, as he was called, in California. That person reported that was Holyar married to a French woman, or at least a woman with a French name. He supposedly had two kids, John Holyar Jr., and a girl, name unknown. No one knew if this was true or not, but that was the very last that any of our extended Johnson family heard of Holyar Johnson. Last year I sent a photo to Barbara Logan that she kindly posted on the Bradley County web page. It came from the estate of my first cousin, Addie Jane Stanley Russell, and was forwarded to me by her son Ricky Russell, a Little Rock architect. Shown in the photo was John F. Johnson, his second wife Sarah Larkin Callaway, and all his descendants. Among them was a toddler named Holyar Johnson, as well as the sisters who were mothers of Addie Jane and me. A few weeks ago, an elderly gentleman in the Las Vegas, Nevada area typed the name of his father into the Google window on his computer and directed the famous research aid to look for him. The man at the computer had looked many places before, but to no avail, and had little hope that his Google search would work, either. Still, his father had such an unusal name, maybe something might show up. The man at the computer knew almost nothing about his father --at least, nothing from the time before his now elderly son was born. His father's parents, his immediate family, and his past were topics that his father would not discuss, although he once mentioned that he grew up in Oklahoma. Not only was the father silent about himself, there were no papers or documents offering so much as a single clue. While the elderly gentleman at the computer had never heard the names of his father's parents, little more did he know about his mother's family. His maternal grandparents disowned his mother when she and the man's father married. He knew that their name was Boyer, and that they lived in New York, but there was never contact with them. The Boyers were French immigrants of the Jewish faith. When their daughter left the faith to marry a gentile, they cut her off completely. After their deaths, the grandson, now the elderly gentleman at the computer, was astonished to receive a small inheritance from the grandfather, who apparently outlived the grandmother. Literally, the man at the computer had lived a long life without an extended family. No grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins touched his life. Suddenly now, his computer screen identified a link to someone with his father's unusual name. Following the link, he opened a photograph on the Bradley County webpage. It was a picture of a family --that of John Fletcher Johnson, his second wife, Sarah Larkin Callaway, and all his descendants. In the photograph, a small boy bearing his father's unusual name was shown with his mother, father, and sisters. His heart beat rising with excitement, the man at the computer quickly calculated that the age of the little boy fit perfectly with that of his father. So the name and the age corresponded, but there was more. The man had a younger sister named Della. Now, he saw that the name of the mother of the little boy in the photograph was the same as that of his sister. Astonished, he realized that he was looking through a window of time --a window through which he saw not only his father but his grandparents, and even his great-grandfather. That he had roots in Arkansas was surprising, too, and a bit sad, because his sister had lived in Arkansas for several years. He saw too who had submitted the picture, and even his email address. A bit nervously, he began typing, "My name is John Holyar Johnson, Jr..." Jay, as he is called, had seen the picture that Barbara Logan placed for me, and I soon received Jay's email. I too was convinced of his ties to my Johnson family --the coincidences were too great to ignore, even if irrefutable documentation wasn't at hand. I replied to Jay, sending some information about the Johnsons, and my phone number. He called me within a couple days, and told me much about his life and that of his father, Holyar. Another example, like yours, of the small world we live in. Gerry nothing of his father's past and very little about his mother's ancestry, directed Google to search the web for anyone by his father's name. and to his surprise that picture on the Bradley County webpage was identified. Most surprising to him was the baby named Holyar Johnson. The name is so unusual, he thought, it must be who I'm looking for, but he had no inkling ----- Original Message ----- From: <DAJSB@aol.com> To: <arbradle@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 10:08 PM Subject: Re: [ARBRADLE] Hairston Reunion > Oops! Arthur Lee Hairston married Nora Dean Temple, not Rebecca. That was > his mother's name! > Anne > > > In a message dated 1/19/2008 9:59:16 P.M. Central Standard Time, > DAJSB@aol.com writes: > > Dear List, > Just thought I would share an interesting situation with you all. I live > near Chicago and work as a portrait artist in Chicago area malls. This > weekend > I was in Chicago Ridge Mall when a lady came up to me and we began to > talk. > And we talked... and talked! We really hit it off... She happened to be > African American and I happen to be Caucasian, but that was neither here > nor > there. We talked about everything, and when we had been at it for quite > some > time, > she mentioned that her mother had moved back to Arkansas... I asked where > she lived, and she said Cotton Plant, near Pine Bluff! I don't know > about > Cotton Plant, but I did recognize Pine Bluff, and told her that my family > was > from Warren, not far from Pine Bluff... Then, I asked her if she knew > what > her > family names were down there.... The first name out of her mouth was > Hairston, > (pronounced just like a true Arkie- "Harston"! I let her know that my > grandmother was a Hairston, and that I have many relatives descended from > that > family. We laughed it up because we realized that either my ancestors > owned > some of hers or we might even be related! She said her mother's family > have > always considered themselves white, but her father was Creole, so she > looks > African American. Her grandfather was Darcy Simon- a Jewish man in > Cotton > Plant. His wife, her grandmother, was born a Hairston- just like my own > grandmother. What a small, small world we live in when I can be in a > huge > city like > Chicago, so far from Arkansas, and run into another Hairston descendent > from > that same area! Thought I would share this. > Anne Jones > daughter of Earline Forrester White > daughter of Versie Mae Hairston Forrester > daughter of Arthur Lee and Rebecca Temple Hairston > > > > In a message dated 1/19/2008 4:30:24 P.M. Central Standard Time, > jann_woodard@yahoo.com writes: > > The sixth annual Hairston family reunion was held in Oakland Park in > Pine > Bluff, Sunday, July 29 [1962]. Among the forty-seven members of the > family > > attending were Mrs. Euna Watt and Lawrence Wallace of Pine Bluff; Mrs. > Ina > Grider and R. J. Grider of Fort Worth, Texas; Richard Grider of Monroe, > Louisiana; Mr. and Mrs. Larry Creel of Magnolia; Mr. and Mrs. Aubert Dean > Hairston and > Rita, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Hairston and Lathan, Mr. and Mrs. Billy Gene > Hairston, Rober and John, Mrs. Hazel McRae, Lana and Glenn, Miss Betty > Thompson, > Mrs. Susie Hairston, Mrs. E. L. McGehee and Wilbur of Warren; Mr. and > Mrs. > Dewell Blakley, Connie and Marcus of Bryant; Mr. and Mrs. Byron Hairston > and > Jeri Sue of Lonoke; Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Wallace, Anne, David, Susan and > Allan of > Gould; Mr. and Mrs. Herman Hathcoat, Mr. and Mrs. Arlie Hancock, Richie > Hairston, Leo Scheebee and P. H. Green of Benton; Thomas McFalls of San > Antonio, > Texas; Mrs. Laura Hairston of Palmyra and Benny Leval of Star City > > --------------------------------- > Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! > Search. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ARBRADLE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the > body of the message > > > > > > **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. > http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ARBRADLE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and > the body of the message > > > > > > **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. > http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ARBRADLE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ARBRADLE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message