About Us
We are a family interested in from whom and where we came because in that discovery, we learn something about who we are today. Before us, there have been several who researched, located, and protected family records, pictures, and stories. We know they worked without the benefit of today's technology, without the internet, without computers, and without digital photography. They logged hundreds of hours and thousands of records; they preserved them safely for our enjoyment and for posterity. They have inspired us to continue their work. We thank each and every one of them, but we want to extend special recognition to:
Joanne Maxine Smart-Bisig-Mayers (1935-2003), daughter of Esther Maxine McGhee (1908-1967) and Mancel Franklin Smart (1904-1978). Joanne had such a "love" for our family and our history that she maintained and passed on some 40,000 individual family records, which is, most likely, the basis for many of our "trees" today.
Joanne Maxine Smart-Bisig-Mayers (1935-2003), daughter of Esther Maxine McGhee (1908-1967) and Mancel Franklin Smart (1904-1978). Joanne had such a "love" for our family and our history that she maintained and passed on some 40,000 individual family records, which is, most likely, the basis for many of our "trees" today.
We also want to extend special recognition to Leona Durham for her eleven-plus years of dedicated work in creating, editing, and publishing the McGhee Family Newsletter. We hope to thank her for another 20 years of excellent research contributions.
We want to thank each and every one of our family and many non-family members, who so benevolently share their time, efforts, pictures, memories, and information for the benefit of others, for the benefit of family.
Not all families are pedigree. In truth, a family is what you make it. The bond that links a true family is not defined by blood, but by respect, joy, tears, and laughter; by its strength and by its ability to overlook and overcome; by its power to see beyond faults, shortcomings, failures, and imperfections. A family is made strong and proud, not by the number of heads it can boast, but by the rituals and stories its members create; by the memories it shares; by the commitment of time, energy, and love shown to one another, and by the hope for the future which each individual holds for the other. We are grateful. - Janie B. McGhee-Cook
We want to thank each and every one of our family and many non-family members, who so benevolently share their time, efforts, pictures, memories, and information for the benefit of others, for the benefit of family.
Not all families are pedigree. In truth, a family is what you make it. The bond that links a true family is not defined by blood, but by respect, joy, tears, and laughter; by its strength and by its ability to overlook and overcome; by its power to see beyond faults, shortcomings, failures, and imperfections. A family is made strong and proud, not by the number of heads it can boast, but by the rituals and stories its members create; by the memories it shares; by the commitment of time, energy, and love shown to one another, and by the hope for the future which each individual holds for the other. We are grateful. - Janie B. McGhee-Cook