Kells Komment's

    The picture above is of my grandmother Catherine Colvin and my birth father Earl Colvin Stewart, I grew up not knowing they existed. In 1974 at the age of 34 I found out that I was adopted as a baby. At that point I began the search for my roots. I was raised by great parents, my adopted mother was the first cousin of my birth father. Many family dynamics were involved in the entire story but to make it short and not terribly sweet. My birth mother Marybelle Pettigrew Stewart had postpartum depression after I was born in 1944 she was considered insane and was hospitalized. My father could not care for both my brother and myself so I was adopted. My adopted father did not want me to know I was not his daughter so it began. Completely by accident I found out, and before I told my adopted parents I knew about the adoption I found and met my birth parents. What I did not find was very much about their families so I decided to find out as much as I could about them. It has been quite a journey and a fascinating one. It led me to Switzerland County, in Southern Indiana where my birth fathers family had lived from around 1830. From there to Jennings County where his grandparents Simeon & Geneva (Ayers) Stewart lived in the little town of Paris in Montgomery Township.

     The early part of my search was done before computers, I spoke to both birth parents on the phone prior to actually meeting them. In fact my birth father was found with the help of information operators back then who gave me names of people with the last name Stewart who lived in Phoenix Arizona. Fate stepped in with my birth mother as strangely enough we were telling a friend about the quest and when I mentioned Indiana the wife said "where in Indiana?" I replied I was not sure with my mother because she was committed to a mental hospital. Her next question was "which one"? It turns out she had worked at Richmond State Hospital for about 15 years before they moved to California. She said "give me a couple of days and I can get your information for you." She did exactly that and included in the records was phone numbers for her next of kin. The numbers at that point were from back in the 1940's but I tried the first one and it turned out to be my aunt Ruth who still lived in the same home from way back then and had the same phone number. Amazing, but true.

    I believe in free genealogy which is why I try to put as much as I can on this site for you to use. If you have pictures or information you would like to contribute to this web site feel free to contact me and we will get it added. Genealogy is a persuit where we will never get all the answers, we just go from one bit of information to the other, it is like a treasure hunt, sometimes you find a big treasure sometimes just another clue but the more information we make available the better for others who come along later.

I live in Vernon which is the Jennings county seat and you can contact me either via e mail at Kfurballkell@aol.com or by phone at (812) 346 - 1806, if you have something to contribute or if you just have a question about researching here - if I don't have the answer I will try to find it or at least find someone who can.

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