Our Family Stories

This story is about sharing important life events like getting glasses, moving, and going to a family reunion.

The Kendall Family: My Family's Stories in Print is a written documentary. The book records a collection of photographs and stories from the Kendall Family of Southwest Virginia, North Carolina, & Pennsylvania. Many descendants of our family live throughout the United States. Our origins date back to Northern England. Our first ancestor in America was Thomas Kendall "Senior" who was born in England in the 1600's and first documented here in Chester, Pennsylvania Friends Meeting in 1709.

Inspired by her mother’s numerous tales of growing up in Nebraska during the Depression, and as her life as a young bride and as a nurse, Mary Jane began compiling these anecdotes years ago when she began to realize their significance to her family’s history. With the birth of nieces and nephews and the death of her beloved mother came the realization that life does not last forever and the imperative to preserve these family treasures became even greater. With generous and enthusiastic contributions of photos, facts, details and insights, family members enhanced these stories and provided depth and luster to this glimpse into an American family descended from immigrants. Although it is typical in many ways, this family is unique – as perhaps all families are unique – and the author’s gratitude to her parents, her sister and each of her relatives is boundless.

My grandfather came from the Island of Barbados with his mother, brothers, and sisters to Tobago in about 1890. They established themselves in their new home, but no one alive today seems to be able to make any connection with our Barbados relatives, which for a very long time had been my desire. My father had told me some stories that I wanted to share with some of my relatives and began to do so as attachments to e-mails. Those relatives enjoyed them and kept asking me for more. I included some stories of my own that I recalled from growing up in Tobago. This book is a compilation of fifty stories about my family that I want to share with you. I hope that you, too, would enjoy them. Some of the conversations in some of the stories were written in dialect to retain a Caribbean flavor. Caribbean readers should have no problem following what was said, but for those who are unfamiliar with the way the ordinary island person speaks, I have included a key at the end of the book to help you understand what was being said.

Genealogists dedicate lots of time to uncovering their past. This involves hours of researching events, timelines, stories and other records. But what happens after the research results in mounds of papers, files and overflowing binders? It's likely that if the results aren't put into an interesting format, they may be lost or discarded by those who can't appreciate what they hold in their hands. The three sections of this book focus on preserving and sharing your family history - Your Family, Your Photos and Your Stories. It presents steps in researching Your Family and organizing your findings. Your Photos are invaluable and require organization and preservation too. Finally, Your Stories are unique and should be shared. This book helps you to organize your research and photos and create a digital scrapbook including unique, intriguing collages of photos, documents, stories and even video interviews. It will be a priceless, artistic album that will be treasured for generations to come!

In Esther's Story: Journey from the Cross, P.K. Thomas brought the first century birth of Christianity alive by blending Biblical truth, and human history as seen through the eyes of one young girl on her journey of faith. As Esther's story continues, we follow this now young woman, along with her husband, Anthony and their adopted son, Nymes, on their mission to bring the Word of God to Anthony's mother's family in Macedonia. However, a journey that was expected to be only a few months takes an unexpected turn when a massive earthquake changes their plans and puts them on a detour. Now they face many obstacles that require all of their faith to make the right choices in order to meet the needs of others, both physical and spiritual. But what at first appears to be just a series of un related encounters turns out to be much, much more as they will discover God's hand at work. Despite these obstacles they push on, unsure as to when or if they will reach their destination. And if they do, what will they find?