Lynne - as I was looking for something else, I literally stumbled across this video from a knowledgeable Ancestry.com person on tips for finding a woman's maiden name.  I found it *fascinating* .... but them I'm easily amused.   Since you're just starting out, you might find it helpful.

https://youtu.be/q0-8FY9mkIQ

You and Shelley might get a kick out of this -- Tangentially related to genealogy:  This photo of me (wearing shades) and my brother and sister - taken in Spring 2019 during a family history tour of certain sites in Georgia.  Besides being a silly photo of us swatting at all the gnats that were tormenting us, this just goes to show that headstones sometimes can have "typos".  This headstone of a distant cousin should say HALIFAX County instead of HALIFAF.  Hah!   This was taken in the Mountaintown Baptist Church Cemetery in Ellijay, GA (Gilmer County).     This also brings up another point.  If you are looking for information from a specific place, contact the local genealogical society or historical society or whatever they have.  We actually were fortunate enough to have other distant cousins who showed us gravesites in several local cemeteries, and told us about the Gilmer County Genealogical Society, where we found out that we qualified as members of the "First Families" of Gilmer County because of our ancestral connections there.  My brother and nephew are doing most of the legwork, but they offered to teach us what they had learned.  (My brother claims to have traced our lineage back to Edward I (Edward Longshanks).  But I don't know.)  :o)    

Jonna, it's a joke in the British Isles that anyone of a well established lineage is descended from Edward I because he was, ahem, a rather prolific breeder (to put it politely). He had a lot of legitimate children and a lot of the other kind as well. (Again, putting it politely.)

Well, we may be related to him after all, then.  My brother got one of those DNA tests some time ago, but he never shared the results with me.  I'm sure mine would be almost identical.  

My Daddy's cousin swears that we are also related to Pocahontas.  However, the research by my brother and nephew have debunked that.  But when she gets an idea in her head, it's hard to shift it.  She really wants to believe it.  LOL  

LOL!  I just read "The Other Bolyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory and he wasn't the only one!  Henry VIII was pretty prolific too.  

You would be surprised how different your DNA could be from your brothers.  My uncle is almost 10% Sweden, my mother none.  DNA is very interesting when you start looking at what each sibling has.

Jo

We don’t have any wind. I’m sitting outside watching tons of bees work on my crazy overgrown purple plant. Winter is hard. 

Thanks Jo.  These new boots are not bad and actually quite good for me with the bit of "sherpa" type interior they did mold to my feet well.  

Good planning Misha!  Good find of the lock box too.

We've got to pray you and your family through this year's fire season!