Genealogist at Large

Researching family history is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle without knowing how many pieces you’re meant to have or what the finished picture is meant to look like. It can be frustrating, surprising and exciting.

And along the way, you can learn some of the local and social history of the time and the area in which you are researching, as I did about Tennessee.

In 2015 a friend in America said that there was no known family history back beyond his great grandfather Clarence Monroe Barnes, because Clarence’s father had died when Clarence was young and there was no oral history.

I set myself the challenge to follow the paper trail and uncover his family history.