>[Note: I am including the following to give you some background. Please >delete this message if you wish to not read it.] > >INCIDENTS AND CHARACTERS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF METHODISM > >By > >The Reverend John Elmore DuBois > >Edited by Elizabeth A. DuBois >(c) 1998 DuBois Publishing Co. All rights reserved. > >Preface > > In May of 1998, I caught this strange disease called >genealogitis. It >seems I had an unquenchable desire–or need–to research my family >history. > > I was soon immersed in this new addiction–too serious to call it >a >hobby–and found myself spending long evenings, lunch hours, weekends, >and every bit of spare time that I could at my computer either >researching on the Internet, or writing notes for future use in what I >decided would be a book. For how else could I justify the time, energy, >and money in such an endeavor? > > Within a month, my mother packed up all of her genealogical >records, >family pictures, and miscellaneous artifacts and shipped them to me. >What followed was a magical journey into my family's past. > > The prize possession in terms of what a genealogist would want >turned >out to be an 1824 Bible belonging to my great-great-grandfather, Rev. >John Elmore DuBois. Big, beautiful, and fairly well-preserved, this >volume was impressive even without the words within. > > But what made this family heirloom completely priceless were the >meticulous, beautifully scripted, and loving entries made in the Family >Record section. > > Births of John's children were all dutifully recorded, along >with some >other family events. I knew from a letter that John had written to his >nephew that these entries were made by John himself. > > What moved me to tears, put me in awe, and completely >transported me to >another time, another plane of existence altogether was a newspaper >clipping glued to the page titled "Deaths." Here is what I read: > >[To be continued...] > > >==== ALABAMA Mailing List ==== >If you need to contact the list manager, please send your e-mail to >mmanson@snet.net >