MEET "The Graveyard Rabbit of Attala County" and "The Graveyard Rabbit of Holmes County" and "The Graveyard Rabbit of Madison County"

JANICE BRANCH TRACY

the Graveyard Rabbit of Attala County,

the Graveyard Rabbit of Holmes County,

the Graveyard Rabbit of Madison County,

Mississippi

The eighth in a series featuring the members of

The Graveyard Rabbit Association

presented in order of their membership.

I am Janice Branch Tracy, Graveyard Rabbit of Attala, Holmes, and Madison Counties, three early counties in Mississippi where I have deep family roots. A native Mississippian, I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, graduated from high school there, and attended the University of Mississippi. Go Ole Miss!

Over the course of my career with the U. S. Government, I lived in six cities in four states. Now retired, I write from my home in Van Alstyne, Texas, a small town north of Dallas, where I live with my husband, who is also retired. He is an avid golfer, a very good one, who is as passionate about golfing as we rabbits are about “digging.” Although I occasionally golf with my husband, there is no way that I will ever be in his league. Together, we have 7 children and 11 grandchildren.

About ten years ago, I began researching my family history, beginning with only my father’s name and my mother’s maiden name. Although I had known since I was a child that both families had lived in Mississippi for over 150 years, I did not realize how little my family really knew about their ancestors. I soon found that family research was a fascinating pastime, and I decided then and there that genealogy would be my new hobby. Having worked continuously while raising my children, I really had not had too much time for hobbies of my own, other than cooking, reading, and some occasional travel. So when I retired four years ago, I began family research in earnest and eventually produced enough information to write a book.

By mid-year 2008, my book was slowly taking shape, but I still needed some information that was still “out there” in Monroe County, Mississippi. One afternoon while searching on the internet for this missing link for my great-great-great-grandparents, who were married in Aberdeen, Mississippi in 1843, I found Terry Thornton’s Hill Country of Monroe County blog. After reading some of his posts, I thought Terry might be able to help me find some details about this mystery couple whose history continued to evade me. Terry, always gracious and helpful, as all of us know (he’s from Mississippi!), offered to publish a copy of my ancestors’ marriage record, in hopes that someone in the Monroe County area might have the missing information. Terry’s post promptly produced a response, and I was quite pleased with what a geneablog could do!

After reading Terry’s blog and after perusing some of the many other geneablogs I found on the internet, I wondered why I had not thought about writing a blog myself. After a bit of thought, I decided that blogging might be a better approach to sharing my family information than publishing the book I had planned. And the rest is now history. I became an overnight blogger, with no experience, when I began writing at Attala County Memories. Since then, I have written over 100 posts and have had several thousand visitors. I still have lots to learn about internet publishing, but I continue to find blogging both challenging and rewarding.

When Terry invited me to become a Charter Member of The Association of Graveyard Rabbits, I immediately jumped (or was that “hopped”) at the chance to become a “rabbit.” Within a short time, and so typical of rabbits, my original GYR blog, The Graveyard Rabbit of Attala County, multiplied. Now I write two more, The Graveyard Rabbit of Holmes County, and The Graveyard Rabbit of Madison County. Within a few weeks, I plan to introduce The Graveyard Rabbit of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which will cover cemeteries in several counties in Mississippi that were formed as a result of the treaty by the same name signed with the Choctaw Nation in 1832.

I hope you will take the time to visit my blog. I continue to learn so much from reading your blogs, and every day I consider it an honor to be associated with such a talented group of researchers and writers.