Cheryl Traces her roots

We took a genealogy trip for a long weekend.  Our base camp was Scottsboro, Alabama.  Our goal was to find grave markers for some of our ancestors in Jackson County, AL and Franklin County, TN.  We also visited county libraries to gather any information that we could find.  We hit the jackpot.  This is beautiful country, and the Paint Rock Valley is just gorgeous.  This was a great trip.

Our first stop along the way was Little River Canyon Falls.  After settling into our motel room, we went out exploring, and we found Cathedral Caverns State Park.

We then visited the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, AL.  This is where the whole space program started.  Near the Redstone Arsenal, they developed and tested many rockets for the space program.  The space center has a great museum of space exploration.  We saw a Lunar Landing Module, a Lunar Rover, a Moon Rock, and lots of other neat stuff.  They had an IMAX movie theatre, and we watched a movie about becoming a fighter pilot.  I am sure my seat was moving.

Matthew checks out a large section of SkyLab, and then tests the handles on an ejection seat.

They had a complete Saturn V rocket laying on the ground, with all of the stages separated, for viewing.

Then to the Paint Rock Valley.  I asked someone about the name of Paint Rock, Alabama and he directed me to the above rock cluster.  The rocks in the valley have iron in them that you can see as red lines through the rocks.  It looks as if someone has painted on the rocks with red paint.  There is also a gemstone that comes from the valley.  It is called the Paint Rock Agate.  It is really beautiful, and very rare.

One of the census records showed that an ancestor was from Big Coon, Alabama.  We went looking for Big Coon.  We found the Big Coon River, and some locals directed us through the valley where Big Coon was once located.

Then to Winchester, Tennessee to visit the library.  We found a newspaper article from 1860 about Cheryl's great-great-grandfather.  We really loaded up on information at the library.  Then to the cemeteries to locate some markers.  Again, we found everything we were looking for.

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