About

When I retired from teaching electrical and computer engineering I decided I wanted to do something entirely different with my time.  One of my dad’s cousins was a professional genealogist who had researched our Pottinger and Barry lines pretty well but I knew little about my mom’s LEE family or dad’s mother’s DANIELS family.  I decided to find out who all eight of my great grandparents were.  That was then and now I’ve got more second and third cousins than I can shake a stick at.  My SITZES and YOUNT ancestors were early pioneers in Madison County MO and  a  Yount uncle even went out west to start Yountville in Napa Valley CA. A Yount cousin became the first park ranger in the first national park: Yellowstone.  There’s even a mountain named for old Harry Yount. My grandmother’s BOUL ancestors were pioneers in the St. Clair County IL area.  The LEE’s traveled the same roads in the south as my BARRY relatives, both ending up in MO to make me!  Needless to say, every question I answered has led to at least two others and many ‘brick walls’.  This is an attempt to document my searches and learn a bit about WordPress along the way.

I’m working on POTTINGER/LEE/DANIELS/SITZES/BARRY/POLLOCK/YOUNT/HUFFMAN/BOUL and a host of other surnames.  I’m particularly interested in the LEEs of 1850 Dale County AL, my grandmother’s parents William Daniels and Magdalena Boul of St. Clair County IL, and the Richardson’s of early 1800 Hickman County KY.  Another puzzle is the origin of the Walden name of several of my LEE cousins. Another is the origin of my own name ‘Hardy’. Legend has it that grandpa was named for the doctor who delivered him but I’ve not found a shred of evidence to back that up.