J.K. Rowling Update -- Who Do You Think You Are...

The episode is now available on Youtube!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vsDGjdbgAg

J.K. Rowling to appear on Who Do You Think You Are!!!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated the blog,but there hasn't been anything new going on right at the moment. Here ya go!!

According to Harry Potter fan sites Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling will appear on the BBC version of Who Do You Think You Are!!! They sometimes do air the British episodes over here, they did with Kim Cattrall last year, so we'll see. They also have some of the British episodes available on Youtube.

That's all for now, hope it won't be quite as long until I post again. :-)

Who Do You Think You Are?

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. This update is just to let you know that NBC will be airing a 2nd season of it's genealogy series" Who Do You Think You Are", starting on Feb 4th! The celebrities this season will be, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Rosie O'Donnell, Steve Buscemi, Kim Cattrall, Lionel Richie, Vanessa Williams and Ashley Judd. I'll be watching!

Fallen Tombstone...

At Green Hill Cemetery, the tombstone belonging to my Grandmother's Mother Emma Lee Morris Roberts had fallen over face down at some point, and I had been hoping to get it flipped over or set up. I was told they couldn't do it, and that I had to get someone that was ensured to do it. I tried again a couple of years later and was told within a few days that the problem had been fixed!!! The Cemetery grounds keepers had done it. Now, thanks to a kind volunteer at Find A Grave, I have a pic of the stone after it's been set up.  Above is a pic of before and after.

Weston State Hopital

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.

I will post this creepy little tidbit...

My Great Grandfather Samuel Edward Roberts was a patient at Weston State Hospital in Lewis Co WV. He stayed there for about a year, and died there in 1946. 

Around Halloween of last year, I was watching a show on the Travel Channel, and it turns out the hopital was once callled the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and was built during the Civil War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Allegheny_Lunatic_Asylum

The Travel Channel has featured this hospital on some of it's shows about places that are supposedly haunted..

Pretty cool huh?

My Grandmother's sister Nannie

On the left is a picture of my Grandmother's sister Nannie Viola Roberts Miller. In the picture she is about 14 years old (at least that's what it says on the back). Her short life ended very tragically at the age of 20 from a botched abortion. I don't know the circumstances behind why she tried to abort the baby, and I would hope that if any strangers read this blog, that they wouldn't post any mean or judgmental comments. She must have been very desperate to do it, knowing it could risk her well being. For years I didn't know if the story about the abortion was true or not, but in the past year or so I found her death record which confirms it. Her obituary above right claims she died of pneumonia, because obviously the family wouldn't have wanted everyone to know the truth.  I believe she is buried in an unmarked grave at Green Hill Cemetery in the lot in the pictured at the top. I  hope that women would never have to go back to the days of illegal abortion.

                                             

I wrote to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and asked them where the death records were for 1907 to 1916. They told me they had them, but hadn't put them up yet. They sent me 3 records I asked for from those years.

1. My Great Great Grandfather John Bell, who died in 1909. He is the 2nd one from the bottom, and it says he died of Pneumonia.

2. My Great Grandmother Emma Morris Roberts, who died in 1911. She is number 20 from the top and it says she died of "Tuberculosis Pulmocondis" I think.

3.  My grandfathers brother Kirk who died in 1913. He is the 5th one from the bottom. It says he died of "Heart Disease". He was only 28, so he might have had a congenital problem, I don't know.