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Updated April 5, 2011
Genealogy, why do we do it. What is it that gets you trapped. Well for me it started out as wanting approval. Approval from whom? My parents of couse. I just want to do something that would please them. Facts are facts that I really believed my parents never wanted me. A lot of us feel that way from time to time but in my case it was true. My dad was handy with the belt and my mom was always on my case of "Why can't you be like your sister? Why do you always have to be a misfit?" One day I just blurted out "Why did you even have me?" I sure wasn't expecting to hear what I heard. The answer was "I didn't, you were an accident."
Well this is how I got started and hooked. I found who my fathers grandparents and his Aunts and Uncles were and I found my mothers grandparents brothers and sisters. Seems mom never knew she had all these Aunts and Uncles. This was a little distrubing considering some were still in Kewanee, Illinois and didn't go to Missouri with the rest of the family. There might still be some there yet today. If there is I do hope they see this and can give me some more information about the Stanley and Hampton families. My sister won't tell me anything because she thinks it's stupid. Her exact words to me were "They're dead and gone. They're not coming back so forget about them.
Either way, my mom did tell me she had a brother but he died when he was a baby. Seems her grandmother told her this on her death bed. Said she couldn't go to her grave with a secret. When asked what his name was she couldn't tell me. She didn't know. We went to the cemetery one day and I went to the office to check records. I found it. I just wish I had a photo when I asked her if she would like to know her brothers name. I told her his name was Richard. With the information I had found and showed it to them, they seemed to be happy about it. I felt I finally got the approval I had seeked all my life.
They're both gone now. They passed away exactly 12 weeks apart. Me? I'm still at it. Just searching away and having a good time doing it. Guess it just makes me feel good about myself. I finally got some self confidence. Of course brick walls aren't so nice but maybe someday they will be broken down.
Anyway the following pages will have the research I have done. It wouldn't have been possible if not for the lessons in computing from my daughter and the online help from contacts. My special thanks to my daughter Veronica, my contacts Susie Martin-Rott, Madelyn Edwards, Ralph Stanley, Edwin Reynolds, June Riccio, Kay and Bill Hampton, Ed and Edna Lane, Lila Hutton [usa], Ian Stanley, Tom Wagstaff [England], Emma Jane Maddern [Australia], Sara Andersson [Sweden], and many more.
I do hope what information I have can be of help to others for their research but not for commercial or profit. I will not post information on any site where you have to pay to look or something.
Happy Hunting Everyone,
Janice [Hampton] Mercer
