Here goes nothing!
After FAR too much time spent trying to get this site good enough, and then, in frustration, giving up and letting it lie fallow, I've decided to finally just go for it and put it out there.
Yup, it's UGLY.
No, not all the data makes sense.
But...this family info and these pictures need to be shared, and the data needs to be enhanced and corrected. So please COME ON IN, stay a while, help me make this site better. It will keep changing, with any luck it'll keep improving.
Welcome
This is primarily a genealogy site - the Family Tree and Photo Gallery are the main focus for data.
I have information about and for Price, Riffle, Chamberlain, and Brenholts families, the Texas branches - and their ancestors.
But I don't want this site to be one-way dissemination of static data about dead people, so I'm working on adding things that might make this site a bit more interactive - ideas welcome!
Like...how about enabling comments? Yeah, that's coming soon!
I'm just barely getting this site off the ground, it would be generous to call it a first draft, so please bear with me. Content will be changing, layout will be changing, features will be added and deleted - again, feedback and ideas welcome.
American Roots?
Why the name for this website?
While I haven't traced every ancestor back to "before they were here", every single immigrant that I have found came to this country prior to 1776. They came from Ireland, Scotland, England, and Germany. They came here, made a life, made a family, and made a great nation.
The migration patterns are pretty interesting as well. My mom's family (Chamberlain and Brenholts) came into New England and worked their way to Texas via the Northern route, living in the cities.
My dad's family (Price and Riffle) came into the Southern colonies and worked their way to Texas via the South, living in small towns and on farms.
The lives and labors of each branch supported the other.
I have discovered that my family history is this nation's history, they are inseparable. And THAT makes me proud, grateful, and humbled, and motivated to continue the quest - to find out more about those folks from the past, to learn of their struggles and achivements, to connect with their descendants, and to learn what kind of legacy we are creating in their honor.
My genealogy research ended up not being a search for my Irish Roots, or German Roots, but truly American Roots.