Lucille Davis Buckland (86) d/o Altha Brooks & Asa Davis

Lucille & Clara Evans d/o Elsie Sutherland

Sherry Buckland Kelly & Clara Evans
Ruby Campbell – Lucille – Joe
CUZINS

I have returned from my expedition to Southwest Virginia, or more directly, Tazewell, Russell and Washington Counties. My mother, Lucille Buckland (86), my brother Larry and I stretched the boundaries of our comfort zones to experience, not just one, but two family reunions within a week.

I now have so many pieces of paper and discs full of pictures, that it may take considerable time to survey it all, transcribe to my Family Tree Maker and post info on my blog. However, I have memories of a wonderful experience meeting real people. People who don’t pretend to be anybody except who they are. And that’s just the way I like it. Down to earth!

I even have some strange idea that I know those in the cemeteries a bit better than I did a month ago when I began this journey. Spending hours walking isles of silent but awesome graves in well manicured straight lines, climbing fences in the woods discovering sunken fieldstones with inscriptions barely legible, and taking pictures as if there was a face upon which to focus; these things move me closer yet to my mountain roots, and I am thankful.

sherry

I have returned from my expedition to Southwest Virginia, or more directly, Tazewell, Russell and Washington Counties. My mother, Lucille Buckland (86), my brother Larry and I stretched the boundaries of our comfort zones to experience, not just one, but two family reunions within a week.

I now have so many pieces of paper and discs full of pictures, that it may take considerable time to survey it all, transcribe to my Family Tree Maker and post info on my blog. However, I have memories of a wonderful experience meeting real people. People who don’t pretend to be anybody except who they are. And that’s just the way I like it. Down to earth!

I even have some strange idea that I know those in the cemeteries a bit better than I did a month ago when I began this journey. Spending hours walking isles of silent but awesome graves in well manicured straight lines, climbing fences in the woods discovering sunken fieldstones with inscriptions barely legible, and taking pictures as if there was a face upon which to focus; these things move me closer yet to my mountain roots, and I am thankful.

sherry

Today I am tying up a few loose ends at work and packing my suitcase for an anxiously awaited trip to Virginia. I plan to spend two weeks tromping through the mountains visiting relatives and meeting some that I have never known.

First stop is in Bluefield, Virginia where my 86 year old mother, Lucille Davis Buckland, lives. Hopefully, she and my brothers will go with me to the SUTHERLAND/ KISER reunion – on Saturday, August 2, 2008 / 10 am in Cleveland, Virginia.

The annual Sutherland-Kiser reunion has been expanded this year to include the descendants and related familes of Daniel and Phoebe Fuller Sutherland and Joseph Jr. and Mary Childress Kiser.