COUSINS by  the  DOZENS!         

This section is a genealogy of the Bean, Brawner, Coley, Cook, Donoho, Driver, Dyer, Gross, Hurst,   Jenkins, Krantz, Lawson, Pedigo/Perrigo,  Shrader Families and numerous others, researched  and compiled by Gladys House and her sister, Peggy Hurst, along with lots of help from various family members of the listed families.  

genealogy site. I have found to my delight and dismay that I do have quite a few of them. So feel free to browse through these pages, hopefully, you might find your own ancestors in them.  Who knows, we just might be true blue cousins, give or take a few generations!!
   This site, as you will soon see, is still very much under construction, so please be patient and be sure and book- mark this site and check back with us from time to time, 

as I will be adding, subtracting, changing and updating these pages, as I get more and more information from my E-mail genealogy pals and kin.
   It is a sight how many names are interwoven into these families, of which we are trying also to get family infor- mation on.  So if you can help us on any of the names on the Surnames Page, we would welcome your additional input and information.  

                            HERITAGE

     I've heard it said that you don't really know how to appreciate something or someone until that thing or that someone is taken from you. How sad that is but true! That was the case with me.  One day I was running and playing with my brother and sisters, a happy little 6 year old girl that did not have a care in the world at that time, then suddenly, without warning of any kind, my heritage  was snatched away from me, forever to be, I thought. My family was torn apart by the Black Market of Babies in the early 40's, where they would take several children from the family, so it would not appear they were after the baby.  We had a 13 day old baby in our family at this time. (Report to TN Gov 1952)  Three of the smallest children, of which I was one, were placed in the Nashville Childrens Home. My older sister, 8 yrs old at the time was placed with a foster family.  That was way back in May of 1941.  

   At that time, my life and emotions began to swirl around  in turmoil; my younger brother (an infant 13 days old)  and sister (4 years old, were adopted out within three months of us being placed there. There I was, 6 years old, alone in the world, scared and lonely, so during the year I was in the orphanage, I ran away fhree times trying to find my lost family and was planning a fourth try at it when  I was adopted by the family that had adopted my younger sister.  

   I tried my best to remember who I was, tried to remember my birthname, I would write it down on my school paper, and my adoptive mom would find it and tear it up, thinking or hoping I would forget.  I did not forget that I was adopted, but I did forget my last name, and that just made my anguish deeper. I did not know who I was or where I came from for so many years. A child's identity should never be taken away from them at the age I was. It would have been ok at a younger age maybe, but not at my age, I had a memory of a mom who loved me, of a family I belonged to and would not get to see ever again, I thought. What had happened to me?  Why was I here and not with my REAL family that I loved?

    Due to the loving efforts of my older sister, who had searched for us for 31 years, in October of 1983, after 42 years being

apart from one another, during which time our grandfather had died in 1947, our mother had died in 1968, (without her getting to see her three youngest children ever again!) I was reunited with that brother and sister that I had remembered playing with in early childhood, with even a younger brother who was an infant 13 days old at the time of our separation.  What a change that brought to my life!!  (Read Testimony) 

   Since then my older sister and I have worked diligently on researching our family tree. We enjoy doing this so much.  We don't get together too often, both of us living in separate cities of TN, with the gas prices so high and all,  but we keep in touch by phone and Internet often.  

    I would like to pass all the information I can to my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and their descendents, hoping to instill in them just how priceless and precious their heritage is. May God grant that none of my descendents will 

ever know the agony of "not knowing" who they are or where they came from, thus losing their sense of "belonging" as I suffered with for so many years.  

                                        Lorene Cora Cook, (birth name)

See Website:  www.my.homewithgod.com/lovejesus

Surnames Page

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