I have a story (don't groan) that might interest some of y'all. I had an article in the last issue of the White River Valley Historical Quarterly about what I call "hybrid" genealogy, mixing computer genealogy with traditional genealogy. At the end of the article, there was a little paragraph with my full name, and some of what I do in my "spare" (hah!) time. Jean Gleaves, who is the secretary-treasurer of the WRVHS, emailed me last week with a request that had been sent in by a lady named Ruth Hadlock in Klamath Falls, OR; Ruth asked that I contact her, so I dropped a little note in snail mail to her on Friday. Now, I have kin on both my Macomb and my Wilson (Daddy's maternal and paternal lines) who went to WA and OR and CA at various times in the early 1900s, and then later in the 1920s and 1930s. I joke about Butte Co. CA being populated by nearly all of Stone Co. and some of Taney, for if you can't find your people in MO or OK (another popular destination in the early 1900s), chances are, if you go the excellent CA Death Index at Rootsweb, you might find them there. So I thought this lady might be one of those long-lost lines I've not been in contact with yet... Nope. That's what I get fer thinkin'. She noted my married name as being Sheets and asked if my husband (pore ol' abused Greg) was kin to any of the Sheets in Taney County. Greg's dad was born in NE MO (Tarkio), and his grandfather, Cecil Earl Sheets, had lived all his life--as far we knew until last May--in northern MO and in NE. We found out in May that Earl, as he was called (I never had the pleasure of meeting him, unfortunately), was born in Agnes, MO, which was located in Laclede County. I met many of Greg's distant cousins from Laclede County at Earl's funeral in May, and got some info, enough to do some digging of my own. But that's another story, and not in the WRV region. I've not made any connection with Greg's Sheets line to the Taney Co. Sheets. Ruth was born about 1922 in Kirbyville; her maiden name is Gulls, her mother was a Morris--somehow, I neglected to get her parents' first names. I don't have her Gulls line, but her grandparents were Nannie Snapp and Alfred Morris. Alfred's parents were a Hiram Morris and an Emma Hailey, who were originally from Charleston, WV. Emma's second husband was the Hilsabeck who owned the motel in Forsyth. Nannie Snapp and Alfred were married 12 Jul 1897 in Taney County. (this from the WRV site of Taney). Nannie and Al were later divorced, and she married a George Wheeler. (this 2nd marriage must have happened after 1913, for I can't find it in my indexes, and I believe she said it was George Wheeler who took Nannie out West). Nannie's father was Samuel Snapp, her mother his first wife, Sarah Sims. Ruth has been doing genealogy for over 40 years, and said she has much of the Sims/Snapp info. What she doesn't have is where Susan Haggard, Samuel's 2nd wife, is buried. She would like to know. If someone has that information, email me and I'll send you Ruth's address (she isn't online). Samuel was shot and killed by Wash Middleton in the middle of the Bald Knobber regime; it was allegedly under orders by Nat Kinney. (Oh yeah, I'm owing more Bald Knobber stories, aren't I? oops) He was a witness to Andrew Coggburn's death at the hands of Kinney, and the Bald Knobbers allegedly thought he knew too much to live. But I digress. Ruth asked if I was familiar with Sheets Holler in Taney County. She said it was some 2 1/2 miles south and east of Forsyth. Now, I have quite a few maps of Taney, and I've never seen it. Don't have a clue where it is. I know Jo Stacey Albers went to school in Branson with a James Sheets during the 1940s; he was apparently Indian, and no one knows what happened to him. But I don't know if there's any connection between James and Sheets Holler. A family named Sheets lived in Sheets Holler (it doesn't always work that way), in a log cabin on a bench (mountain shoulder). Ruth said her mama always told her, "Stay Away From Sheets Holler", using the excuse there were too many snakes for the kids to play there. The Sheets family was apparently good-sized. One night--Ruth said she wasn't very old, it must've been around 1926 or 1927--the baby cried in the night, but no one checked on it, and it was soon silent. The next morning, Ruth said a big rattlesnake was found curled up in the cradle, and the baby had died from snakebite. Awful story. Ruth said another sad incident happened, she thought, not long after that, and the family just moved away without selling the place. Eventually the land came up for sale due to back taxes, and one of her father's neighbors told him he ought to buy it; the land was next to land that Ruth's grandfather Morris had bought. Her father did buy the land, and it is still owned by the family today--some 200-300 acres, she said. If I hadn't lost my Taney County plat book somewhere, I might be able to find Sheets Holler. Ruth's first husband was a Ryser--she married him out west in CA, I guess. Here is an article about the Bald Knobbers here (Taney And Beyond site) that isn't about Sam Snapp (I'm looking for that one...) The picture of Bald Knobbers there is not of the Taney county BK--the Christian Co. BK were the ones who wore the fancy black masks. http://library.thinkquest.org/50083/baldkexp.html Another article at Taney and Beyond (still not what I'm looking for, picture is the same Christian Co. BK) http://library.thinkquest.org/50083/baldknob.html Ruth has contributed several articles to early issues of the WRVHQ. Here's the one I'm looking for about Sam Snapp. You can go the WRVHQ site (linked off the WRV homepage), do a keyword search for "Snapp", and come up with 52 hits! http://198.209.8.166/wrvq/v6/n2/w77b.htm Vonda Wilson Sheets ListMom for MOTANEY and MO-AR-WRV at Rootsweb http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/