What happens when a young woman marries and takes on her husband’s name? In the past as the United States expanded, the new couple often settled far away from their parents and siblings, and as a result, often their stories were lost to the family.
The Paulding County Genealogical Society program on January 10 will tell the stories of descendants of the Simmons family, created when Mary Elizabeth Puckett married William Simmons in 1822. They settled in Walker County, Georgia; several of their adult children settled in Arkansas; from there, descendants spread to Oklahoma, Texas, and even California. The Puckett cousins who remained in Paulding County probably never imagined that their future relatives would serve in places as far away as Hawaii, and as varied as England, India, China, and Burma.
Marilyn Cranford, a family history teacher at the Dallas FamilySearch Center, will be sharing “Finding the Rest of the Story,” as an example of how to find and preserve the stories of one’s own family. The program is open to the public at the Dallas Public Library on Saturday, January 10, from 10-12

Photo Caption: Lynn O. Reno (3rd from right), age 19, served as an aerial mechanic gunner during World War II from 1943-1945 in Central Europe. He is one of the Puckett family descendants whose stories will be shared Saturday, January 10, at the Dallas Public Library at 10 am, no charge, and the public is welcome.