ZDUTTON – No mail, and a new contact

Cousins,

Whew! We've suddenly dropped off on our posting. I'm sure we're all very
busy--I know I have been. But there's one thing I'd like to add. The
purpose of this list is to discuss issues publicly--I feel that we need to
reply to the list as much as possible rather than e-mail each other
individually. Unless it's a "private matter", I think everyone in the group
would love to hear about it (I would). I think we'll be better able to
communicate our ideas and work together if we keep this an open forum.

I've just contacted another researcher, who may be joining the list pretty
soon. Eula Dutton Coleman is descended from James Dutton of Walker County,
Alabama, son of John Dutton, Zachariah's son. She has already shown me a
lot of data that I did not have, and I am sure that she will make a great
addition to our forum. It may be a few days before she's completely hooked
up--but she's receiving this now.

I've been hoppin' all over the place genealogging this week. I've been out
to Friendship Cemetery twice this week--I'm trying to transcribe the whole
thing to post on the AlGenWeb and maybe on the list. It's coming along
pretty well. I've got nearly all of the newer part of the cemetery copied.
And Thursday, I went to Moulton, in Lawrence County, where a major branch
of the Duttons resides. I went to the Lawrence County Archives for a
minute, saw Myra (hey Myra!) and then went out to Union Hill (or
Parkertown) Church to meet with Glenn Dutton. Glenn knows all about the
early Dutton settlers of Lawrence County--he is a great man and a great
storyteller. He took me around the cemetery, pointed out the graves of his
ancestors, and told stories of each of them. Glenn has even allowed me to
borrow his pride and joy, photographs of all of his early clan, made by
Kaye Shirah's ancestor, Reason Dutton, for me to scan them in order to
better preserve them. After I get them scanned, I would love to send them
out to each of you. I have also been to the Morgan County Archives, where I
looked up a few obituaries (actually, I racked up) and added a great deal
of information. (The MCA has a large obituary collection, composed by the
genealogical society--I happened to look up the Hogan surname, and in doing
so was able to copy out the obituaries of at least 20 relatives all at
once!) Yes, it's been a pretty good week.

Well, let's get back to talking. I think somebody else should raise a topic
of discussion this time. Things have been seeming to run pretty smoothly
the past couple of days--I've been so busy, I haven't really had time to
read e-mail, but things appear to be taking care of themselves. That's
great. I look forward to hearing from each of you,

Love,
Cousin Joe