I am very lucky to have have had my great grandmother Jennie Ressler Fetterman in my life for sixteen years and my grandmother Marie Catherine Fetterman Patterson for twenty-four. I have also been blessed to have many aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles, and so very many cousins. Until Jennie's death in March 1967, I had never experienced the personal loss of a family member. While I did not attend her funeral, I was there when my grandmother passed away, and her funeral was attended by over 110 descendants.

I remember taking my mother Naomi to visit my aunt Mary Jane Patterson over the Memorial Day holiday in 1979. During that four-day visit, one of our car rides was to Centralia and of course the cemeteries. I remember thinking at the time, “Why on earth would anyone want to go trekking through a cemetery and spend all of their time looking at each and every gravestone”? I must also mention that it seemed that almost every gravestone we looked at that day had the name “Fetterman” engraved on it.

I guess I just took it for granted that all of my family would always be here. In the last few years, I have wondered more and more about my ancestors and what their lives were like—what hardships they endured as well as their accomplishments. I started to ask questions that I never had asked when I was young, and my aunt and mother have been generous in trying to share with me the stories they knew and grew up with. I didn't realize it at the time, but between my aunt Lois Patterson Tomek and my cousin Donna and a few other cousins, I was slowly being drawn into finding out more about my “roots.” It also helped that I had considerable knowledge of the Internet and have been able to help my aunt with her genealogy research. I consider genealogy to be not so much of a hobby as a time-consuming passion.

The pages contained here are devoted to our fellow family genealogists as they trace their roots and will contain as much factual information as possible. If you have any information you would like to share in this endeavor, please feel free to contact me. My only criteria for posting your submissions is that the information you submit is not copyrighted and permission be given to post pictures. Pictures should contain complete information as possible in regards to the persons photographed, location, year, etc. If you want to submit a certificate, be sure that there are no restrictions on the certificate. If you have any questions, please contact me.

I received an email from my cousin, Donna Patterson Clancy, in July 2002 and saved it for a “special occasion.” It is appropriate to relate the story now, and so I share it here.