A few months ago my dad handed over to me a brown paper bag filled with a priceless treasure: old photos of family and friends. What fun browsing through them and reminiscing over childhood visits to our relatives' homes! Although I recognized many of the folks pictured, there were a few photos featuring faces that I did not recognize. I checked the backs hoping to find clues to whom ever was pictured or what occasion each photo represented. My mom had written brief notes on a few of the pictures, but most of the backs were blank. Maybe mom realized that one day someone would not recognize the faces and might want to know who they were and why they were being photographed. She was right. But she passed away before completing the task.

I safely tucked the old photographs away in a drawer, not knowing what should be done with them. On May 1, 1999 I decided to organize the photos and try to make heads-or-tails for everyone pictured. As is the case with most projects, things started snow-balling and, before long, I was asking more and more questions about our family's history. The next logical step was to start taking notes and recording whatever I found out.

That's where these pages come in ... this site reflects my search for information about relatives and ancestors of my family tree. At this particular time, the pages here are arranged by SURNAMES -- last names -- and represent the family members for whom I am searching for information. Because I am working backwards, starting with my parents' parents, the surnames are numbered accordingly (in other words, the generations that are farther away from my parents' parents are given higher numbers; such as, Graham #1 would be my grandparent ... Graham #3 would be my gg-grandparent and so on. This is the method I'm using in an effort to keep names and records straight). As I continue the search, more pages of surnames may be added and, hopefully, more details and facts will be added as I find more.

Some of the Family names (surnames) that I am presently researching are: Cyphers, Brewster, Graham, Day, Nunly, Nunnelly, Fletcher, Christian and/or Harris, Higgins, Hugins, and Whitt. All have migrated into or from West Virginia and/or Virginia. Some of the birth/marriage/death records indicate that our ancestors were from: Harman, Virginia (Buchanan County); Bandy, Virginia (Tazewell County); and the following towns and communities of West Virginia: English, Dryfork, War, Gates, Union, and/or Horsepen (McDowell County).

Please consider this genealogy site as an interactive, evolving one. If you think that you may have any information to help me along on this quest for my family ancestors, or have a helpful url or can suggest a good software that may add guidance in this research, I would greatly appreciate your sharing them with me. I have found that anyone who is smitten by the genealogy bug is more than happy to provide suggestions, point me in the right direction or add guidance and I appreciate it. If you would like to contact me with helpful hints, offer corrections to information found here, fill in the broken gaps of information, share information or memories of anyone mentioned/featured at this site, share your own memories of West Virginia, or just want to wish me luck, there are currently two options from which to choose: (1) using the forms and surveys located within the photo galleries, surname pages and/or folklore pages and/or (2) sending me the information by email. I believe in giving credit where credit is due, so if you are kind enough to provide helpful information, you will be credited.

As a final note, in the folklore section, you will find a few, fun short stories, superstitions, old-fashioned remedies, and recipes -- all passed down to me by family members. The folklore pages were started on June 13, 1999 and are gradually getting online entries. More will be added as time permits.

I hope you enjoy your visit to this site.

UPDATE: As of July 15, 2007 -- Please be patient with me while I work on the forms, email, guestbook, and other links.

Benita Cyphers