Introduction

Motivation

 Privacy Issues 

 Acknowledgements  

 Surnames

 History

 Taylor Tree 

This web site is for me a celebration of my heritage as well as a tribute to my ancestors before me. It is dedicated to providing interested family members with a shell of what I learned about our family's genealogical history. The primary focus was on information regarding William Harrison Taylor of Memphis, Tennessee; and John Fluker and his daughter, Bessie (Sarah Elizabeth Fluker) Jones of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Our desire also, was to gather information that would serve:

To enlighten the family community about our roots, from our earliest known ancestors to my great-grandchildren, born over 130 years after those ancestors, and

To record the history of our family in some form that will continue to exist for generations to come.

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Motivation

Some families know a great deal about their roots; others know very little. In times like these, with families scattered all over the country, if not the world, we also need a way to stay connected. Another goal of this web site is to facilitate family connectedness.

I began this quest after my paternal grandmother died, and I received the beautiful photo you see above that my father had taken of us around her bier. I thought at first that it was a morbid thing to do. But if it hadn't been for my father's insight I wouldn't have that photo of my family members to cherish for as long as I live. Thank you Daddy wherever you are now.

Before my father died, he confided in me his desire to pull together a family reunion for all the relatives scattered about the country, in New Mexico, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, California, and other places. Also, my maternal grandmother researched her own genealogy very late in life, and expressed to me her wonderment at the things she had not known all her life. She gave me the documents she had researched from public records. I vowed to take up the effort when she died as it was also my desire to do what my father had wanted. Now I had two promises to keep.

Economics has been a tremendous roadblock to a family reunion, but it occurred to me that pulling together the family genealogy and making it available to all family members would provide at least a 'virtual' connection. Most of the information was obtained from talking to living relatives, and friends of those who have passed on, reading obituaries and other public announcements and databases. Also, it incorporates the information my grandmother obtained researching public records in Arkansas. In the process of compiling this research, I discovered that I have many more relatives than I ever thought possible! They are literally "all over the place, including the USA, Germany, Africa, and France.

This is a work in progress, so please contact me if you have any information that might help with this effort. Also, if you would like a printout of your own family connection as it relates to the whole tree, please send your personal information to me for input into the family database. There is no charge for this. All I ask is that you cover nominal expenses for printing and postage.

Privacy Issues

We hope you like what you see. Privacy rights dictate that certain information not be output here. For that reason, the "Person Sheets" and links to certain specific information on family members, have been excluded from the website. They only exist in the database for retrieval upon request. The most you see is garnered from public databases and information sources, obituaries, and just plain common knowledge. Any personal information sent to me by interested family members will be treated in the manner requested. Privacy issues also prevent the use of some photos but we hope you like the ones we do have. Excluded information and photographs can be made available to family members upon request with payment of the reproduction cost and postage fee. If you see anything objectionable, please let me know so that it can be considered for removal from the site. We hope that the publishing rights will expand in the future. For now, just sit back, and relax with some latte (or whatever), have a nice visit, and ya'll come back soon!

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Acknowledgments
Much of the credit for information on this site goes to my favorite Aunt, Dorothy Taylor Brown of Washington, DC, my cousin, Delores Jean Taylor-Martin of Memphis, TN, and to my grandmother, Octavia Johnson-White, God rest her soul. They were especially helpful to me.  Also, just recently I've had some really enlightening input from the cousin I grew up with on Fluker Farm.  We all called her "Teedie".  Thanks Eddie Barbara for all your help.