Hi Paul, I read your bio and thought it was pretty neat. I seems that most people are up-tight about themselves and their living family which makes their family tree seem rather cold and dry. I guess I will have to write my own bio to let people know who I am and where I come from. I started writing, and writing, and writing ......... maybe I had better edit my Bio before sending it out. When and if I get it finished, I'll send you a copy. Anyway, I enjoyed yours and I hope it starts a trend. Ralph Lane crlane@erols.com PaulPhipps@aol.com wrote: > > Hi Earl, > > I could not find any connections that would make us cousins. boo hoo > > I thank you for all the info. I used some of it to fill in a few blanks. I > will keep the data in my Elliott. > > I do have abt 150 of your ancestors in my computer, but most of it you > already have. However, I can send you an attachment with those 150 > individuals in it. > > The 2nd wife of Fred Elliott is Jewel Ham. Jewel is my 2nd cousin. I have > visited them about 7 times in the past 15 years. They live on Rich Hill in > Ashe Co. > > I have a prepared Bio, which I will include here. > > Good luck on your quest. > > Paul > BIO OF PAUL J. PHIPPS > > I was born 22 Nov. 1919 in Shady Valley, Johnson Co., TN. I’m getting so > old, it is hard to have a short biography, but here goes. > > My parents were Quincy Ahart & Margaret Jane (Bowling) Phipps. My mother was > b. 1898 in Bristol, VA & my dad was b. 1894 in Lansing, Ashe Co., NC. Both > are deceased, and are buried in Seattle, WA. I have one younger brother, Edga > r William Phipps, who was born and lives in Seattle. > > My dad was in WWl, and when he came home from Europe, he realized there was > more than Lansing, NC. He went job hunting and found one in Seattle. I was > about 2 months old, when we left Shady Valley for Seattle by train. > > I lived in and around Seattle all my life, except for 4 plus years in the > Army in WWll. The War ended, while I was still in basic training. I landed > in Japan in October 1945. Spent the next 4 years in Japan most of that time > with my family. My youngest daughter was born in Yokohama. > > My family consisted of a wife, 2 daughters, and 1 son. All who still live in > Seattle. > > My second wife of 16 years died in 1994, and I am currently a widower. > > In 1951, under the GI Bill, I started college at Seattle University. At the > time, I had a wife, 3 children, had a home, and was working full time as a > supervisor at Boeing. I was so dumb I didn't realize I couldn't do all that > at the same time. > > I graduated in 1955, and entered the Engineering field at Boeing. > > I retired in 1980 from The Boeing Company after 41 years. I was a Lead > Engineer in a MR&D group. My specialty was metal forming. > > I first became subconsciously involved in Genealogy, when I saw the TV > series, Roots. My comment was, “I don’t know, where I came from either”. > Then a niece, who had become a Mormon, asked me in 1985 about our ancestry. > I couldn’t give her hardly anything. I knew both of my grandfather’s names, > and that was it. I had never knowingly met even a cousin. > > Well, my niece not knowing any better, wrote a letter to the Bristol, TN Post > Office, asking them if they would put her in contact with anyone living in > the area named Bowling, my mother’s maiden name. Lo-and-behold they did. My > niece received a letter from an Ida Mae Boling. It turns out that Ida’s > father was my mother’s brother, so Ida and I are first cousins. > > I thought that was pretty neat, so I asked my niece to ask Ida if there was > someone I could write to. I received the name, Curtis Bentley, who lived in > Shady Valley, TN, where I was born. > > Curtis answered my letter, then there were the phone calls, and the next > thing I knew I was on an airplane going to Shady Valley. Curtis’ mother and > mine were sisters, so we were first cousins. I was surprised to find that > there were 3 aunts and 1 uncle on my dad’s side that were still alive. I met > the 3 aunts, but never saw the uncle, as he didn’t live near. One day in > Bristol, TN, I met 8 first cousins and their mother in one house. Their > mother was an aunt, but by marriage. > > When I got back from that trip, I was a hooked genealogist, and had even > learned to spell the word. > > In 1989, I bought a computer. My handwriting was so bad, that even I > couldn’t read it. People then started answering my letters, and I was really > on my way. > > I am on my 4th computer and have over 37,500 people entombed there. > > I may not be a great genealogist, but I am an avid one. > END