This time of the morning 3 years ago I was sitting in a waffle house with Laura, blubbering over bacon and eggs. My dream of becoming Mrs. David Byers would come true that day. I would be marrying my best friend, my confidant, my lover, my everything. 3 years later we are still living the dream and if I had a choice of winning the lottery or being with Dave...the choice would be Dave. I would rather be poorer than a church mouse and be with Dave than have all the money I could need and be without him.

3 years ago today I married the man that all men should aspire to be because his goodness, his loyalty, his devotion, his caring and his understanding truly has no equal on this earth.

The vows I made that day are just as important to remember today
I chose you for who you are, what you will become and who you help me to be.
I give myself to you without reservation or fear of what is to be and
promise to stand by your side come what may.
I promise to trust, honor, and cherish you and to always remain
faithful to you and our love. I promise to never break the faith or
dim the hope that you entrust me with today.
I promise to always try to remember to share my problems with you
because together there is nothing we cannot conquer.
I promise to keep you as my partner for life and let you be the person
God meant you to be.
There can be only one.....
And that one is you and will be until the end of my days

Happy Anniversary to the man that gives me a reason to love him more each and every day AND gave me a new family to do genealogy research on!!!

Is there anyone here that gets (or buys) the print magazine called Internet Genealogy?  Most of you know the inspiration for this site came when I was asked my thoughts about whether or not myspace was good for genealogy research, well the article is appearing in the current issue of the mag and I'd like to see it.  So if anyone has access to it and could scan the article I would appreciate it, I'd like to know if my thoughts are in it or not lol

I finally got the website for the dedication service done, if anyone is interested in looking at it :)

 Dedication Service

I have not gotten everything I need to make the website for the tombstone dedication I held last Saturday, but here is the newspaper article about it

'For those who wore the gray'

By Daniel Silliman

dsilliman@news-daily.com

There's a breeze under the Magnolia tree, up at the top of Tanners Church cemetery.

The breeze flutters the four flags: The American flag with 50 stars and a military fringe, the old Georgia flag, the one with the Confederate cross, a Confederate battle flag and a dark blue flag bearing the name of a long-disbanded battalion.

It's Saturday morning, the last days of summer, and somewhere in the back of the Ellenwood graveyard, there's a bagpiper practicing. About 50 people mill around in the shade, even though the summer heat is really only a memory now. Shannon Bradley Byers, a woman wearing a Celtic cross and an emerald, is making sure every thing is read. Down at the bottom, by the giant old oaks, across the street from the church that names the cemetery and the street, a group of Civil War re-enactors unload a cannon out of a trailer.

They're here to remember a man they never knew.

They're here to honor a man who's been buried for longer than he was alive.

They're here to recognize someone who fought in the war they remember, a war they call -- out of stubbornness, romanticism or both -- "The War of Northern Aggression."

They're here because they value a heritage, a history, and the sort of service and sacrifice represented by the deceased.

"On July 13, 1923, at the age of 83, William Redding Byers answered his last roll call," says Shannon, reading a eulogy. "Eighty five years later, a group of family he never knew gathers to pay him respect. I have long said that when I passed I did not want some stranger speaking about me at my service. Ironically, I stand here to do just that."

About three years ago, Shannon was researching her husband's family's genealogy, when she found William Redding Byers. Excited to have a relative who fought in the war, she's put together what she can about him, and now erects a white memorial stone, marking his service as a soldier.

He was, Shannon says, called "Redin," and Redin had red hair. He was born in South Carolina, in Pickens County, in 1840, and got married at the age of 18. He joined the Calvary, the 2nd South Carolina Calvary, in August 1861, eight months after his state seceded. He probably rode into battle at Second Manassas, Boonsboro, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Second Brandy Station, Fort Fisher, and a lot of other places with names inscribed in history. He was shot in the throat in December 1863, during a battle in Virginia, and fought until the Southern states surrendered in 1865.

"I often wonder what that time period must have been life for the families," Shannon says. "We can read books and watch documentaries on how things were, we can catch glimpses from diaries, but until its been lived, I sincerely doubt there is true understanding of what kind of hell it was."

The bagpiper, Richard E. Smith, takes up a sad song for the Southern soldier.

"The marching armies of the past, along our Southern plains, are sleeping now in quiet rest, beneath the Southern rains."

He stands back a ways, behind the flags and the fluttering magnolia, on the hill where about 50 people pay respect on Saturday morning, even if they didn't know exactly what it was like during four years of war, a century and a half ago.

"We bow our heads in solemn prayer, for those who wore the gray, and clasp again their unseen hands, on our Memorial Day."

There are children, looking at the soldier on a horse on the cover of the memorial program. There are senior citizens, reading the words of Gen. Robert E. Lee, from when he surrendered at Appomattox in 1865. There's a man with a Santa Claus beard who introduces himself as "Robert E. Lee" Gray. He says he's fought more than 500 battles, and adds, just to be clear, that they were re-enactments.

Tom Stoud, with the Patrick R. Cleburn Camp 1361 Sons of Confederate Veterans, lays a wreath on the grave. Linda Ramey, of the Frankie Lyle Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, lays a second wreath, too.

Someone says a prayer, thanking God for "Brother Byers," and uniformed re-enactors fire the cannon in salute of the real soldier, who is buried beneath the Ellenwood sod and the solitary Magnolia tree.

It seems footnote has gotten into the "social networking" scene :) I have to admit their concept is interesting, and I've made a page over there to play around with it and see what it will do for me.  I will be trying to figure out what information I can add to my page without having a paid subscription to the site.  I sincerely hope that those of you that have joined here will keep up your pages and keep connecting!!!  Just remember, in genealogy, the more you have your info out there there better chance you have of finding research, so having a page on both places definitely wont hurt!!  (specially since AS is free)

I'm intersted to hear from anyone here that has an account there to see what they think of it?

***Edit, I have now played with this some, and it seems you cannot add documents from their document collection unless you are a paying member....great marketing idea for them huh? I guess it would work for people that dont have an ancestry sub, but since I have one of those and can see and save document images, Im not ALSO going to pay footnote for one just to be able to add census pages to my "page" there.

So...the purpose of AS was not as a "document collection" site, the purpose was to network with other genealogists and share ideas and to possibly find other members of your family, I will conclude we are two different sites.