Bizzie Lee [Beard] Brock

This is my grandmother, Bizzie Lee Beard/Brock with 5 of her 7 children. I have often wondered about her name. Bizzie. If you google it, you get only her. In early census records she is listed as Busy L. and Lee B. If she was born with Elizabeth or another eveyday name, she took the secret to her grave. I often heard people address her as Miss Bizzilee, running it all together like one name. My father, Rufus Lee, is the tallest young man in the back. He died in 2006, completely breaking my heart.

Bizzie Lee Beard was born May 28, 1909 in Atalla, Etowah Co., Alabama. She died January 8, 1989 in Seymour, Indiana. She was the daughter of Charles Pinkney Beard and Beatrice Brown, both of Alabama, and she married Rufus Marion Brock. She attended the Calvary Baptist Church all her life. She was a Sunday School Teacher when I was young. Her mother, Beatrice, died when she was a baby.

I remember her getting up every morning and making biscuits from scratch. Melt in your mouth biscuits. I have asked everyone for the recipe and no one was able to achieve them. The how to was never written down. Something lost in time, I am sorry to say.
My dad always said it was hard when his dad died, but he could hardly stand being without his mom.
I have not been able to get a lead on the Browns. Beatrice was born May 29, 1890 and died October 1, 1911. She possibly had a brother or nephew named Robert Brown in Alabama. The story is they moved away from the area. I do know that they were close to my grandma when she was growing up. I have heard that she lived with them for a while after her mother, Beatrice, died.
A story that Grandma told me was about her wedding day. She said that on the day her and my Grandfather wanted to get married they had to go looking for the preacher. They found him at the local filling station. He married them on the back of a buckboard wagon in the pouring rain. She told me this story herself when I was a young woman of about 13 or 14. So I believe it was true.
^..^

History is More Than Dates

I came upon a discussion on a list today about documenting things the way we do people/dates. The person who brought it up is one I have learned a lot from just reading his/her messages to others. In the list case, the talk was of photographing textiles such as crochet, quilts, and embroidery that one keeps safely packed away out of site in hopes of not allowing them to deteriorate. The idea was to make a CD for family members of these precious artifacts and their details and stories. They are as much a part of our history as the dates and places. And I think it would be a great gift for everyone. I suddenly thought it was important to document all the little things I have from my ancestors.
Textiles are not forever no matter how hard you try to keep them safe. Quite frankly, keeping them safe would mean packed away out of site and certainly would seem to defeat the purpose of the whole exercise that went into creating them. As a quilter from a long line of quilters I know that once gifted with a quilt, we expect you to use it and enjoy it. All those little 'accidents' and 'boo-boos' give the thing character. My daughter had one that she had gotten a place that her thumb could stick into at night and she was safe. I didn't mend it. That was her quilt and it just would never fit anyone else. We quilters want them to be loved.
So I have a new project to start. I'm a note maker. I am awash in notes. I am happy.

The Tools I Use

I wondered where I should start. What is your first blog entry supposed to be about? So, after some thought, I decided it should be at the beginning. I'll start with a list of the tools I use all the time. So here goes:

I use Picasa to organize my vast collection of photos. I simply can't lose one with Picasa. It will find every one. And it is pretty simple to work with.

Irfanview allows me to resize by the batch or singly. I couldn't function without this one.

I love HTML-kit (editor). All of my sites are made with this. I started with it and I have not been able to change to something else. I keep NoteTab Light for certain things. It is great for stripping code out of a page.

FileZilla is so easy to use and stable it is a breeze to upload/FTP anything.

I love Open Office. Everything is possible with this suite of tools. It will read Word files.

For my research I have 2 that I keep just for small things.
There are certain reports I like in PAF . I don't use it for a lot, I never really worked with it regularly, but I keep it handy.

I use the free version of Legacy . I am considering buying the full version. I like the program, but I really want a simpler program. I have not yet become sure this is it. I do work with it more and more.

I have FamilyTreeMaker 2005 that I use, but will never upgrade. I am going to either get Legacy [full version] or RootsMagic. Though I had read a lot of good things about a free program from MyHeritage called Family Tree Builder so I downloaded it to try. It looks good. I am going to work with it on a small file and see how it goes.

Other programs I use a lot are PaintShopPro 8 and Express Thumbnail Creator. Both are commercial programs. The Express program is wonderful and I got it free at Giveaway of the Day which I have listed in the side bar at the bottom of this page. I will buy The Thumbnail Creator. Yes it is that good. Any webmaster could use this little beauty.

Well I guess that is it. The first step has been taken. The hard part, right? Hope it all goes this smooth.

FYI: Flower graphics are almost always those of Sharon from the MSN group, AncestorChronicles: Our Kin And Their Times. They are a great research group. They love to help you. Sharon is a wonderful gardener. Want to get some help and meet new friends, go have a look.