On June 16, I sent this to East Texas Roots and Texahoma ... it didn't make it because dumb me probably didn't read his mail adequately and failed to change the addresses ... ============================================================== Finally took some time off and spent this past weekend seeking my roots and kin in East Texas. Went to Woodville, where we visited with cousin Ben Bythewood and then on to Fletcher (now Lumberton) and finally to Port Arthur (my birthplace). Previously, cousin Jim and Mannes Bumstead had found my web page on the Parsons site http://www.parsonstech.com/genealogy/trees/tcloud/Cloud.htm and, last Thursday, they drove from San Antonio here to Austin to visit my mother, wife and me. Turns out we are all cousins of some degree or another, my g-grandmother being Dora BUMSTEAD who married William Simon WIESS II (William Simon 1st being the tax collector at Houston under General Sam Houston) and Ben BYTHEWOOD being descended from Dora Bumstead's sister, Ella. We visited the BUMSTEAD Cemetary in Fletcher and photographed the graves of my grandparents and great grandparents Dora and William S. WIESS(Dora BUMSTEAD being the daughter of Morad Whitfield BUMSTEAD who came from Long Island, New York to fight at the Alamo but, alas, was too late). The visit to East Texas was pleasant, hot and humid. Saw no dragon flies or alligators, and only one stand of cattails. Also saw very few mosquitoes. Still glad I live in a dryer, though just as hot, part of the state now ;-) - Please visit the Parsons' web site above and view my genealogy and tell me if we are cousins. Tom Cloud <cloud@peaches.ph.utexas.edu>