Wayne Fielder

My mother found herself interested in tracing her family history soon after the movie ROOTS was shown way back in the day.  Soon we were travelling all Southeastern Kentucky roaming through dusty courthouses, church attics, and lonely graveyards looking for information on our genealogy.

All that came to a screeching halt on April 20, 1986 when I wrapped my very small car around two oak trees in Lexington.  My mother was planning another trip to Pike County the next day but instead she was in the hospital with her 18 year old son and his broken leg.  Once I was all healed up I went off to college and the entire project pretty much dried up.

In 1990 I graduated school and got started in the real world.  This was just as the web was being born and many people started preparing to place their information online.  By 1995 USGENWEB was getting started and the floodgates really opened up for information that was previously scattered across the country.  I got bitten again and the rest is pretty much history.

I think anyone interested in History will find themselves wondering if their family had a hand in any of the historical exploits that they read about.  That typically leads folks to researching their family genealogy.  My path is more nurtured than being a means to an end but still, my love of history drives my genealogy research.

I not only research my family history but also certain members of American Civil War organizations.  I have been working on transcribing the muster records of the 7th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry(US) and the 8th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry(US) for the past several years.  The results of this work can be seen at another website I have run for years called Kentucky Regiments.

This blog is going to be about my genealogical travels, perhaps some of the tricks I’ve learned along the way, and just about anything I find interesting as it relates to History.