The story of Richard Peter Taylor’s family search

Some years after my great Aunt Gladys White (nee Hood) died in 1980 I came across a scrap of paper which simply read GA Hood, Naples, Texas,

I knew that my great grandfather’s brother, George Arundel Hood has emigrated to America and that my great Aunt had been in regular contact with some of the family, but it was now 1995 and I had no leads except for a scrap of paper!

As I was completing my family tree and, I also owned a computer and Internet connection (no genealogist should be without one) I began to search various sites for information. I came across the Atlanta library, which gave the name and address of the Cass County Genealogy Society. A quick search of the map revealed that there was a Naples in Cass County Texas. Could this be the Naples I was looking for?

I went to my bank in England and managed to exchange some pounds for dollars and duly sent off my subscription to someone called Charles Steger. Little was I to know at that time that Charles would be such a great help to me in my research on the Hood family and that we too would become good friends’ Charles sent a package to me every few weeks with more and more details of the Hood family and especially George Arundel Hood, his wife, and children. We had a few bits of wrong information, Red Herrings as we would call them in England, but I received packages so frequently and so heavy that not only did the postman curse me, but the UK Customs decided to open a few for a look inside!

Charles would not accept any remuneration for his work, and after I found out that he would have preferred English money for my subs. I finally sent him a collection of English coins dated 1914. which would have been in circulation in England while GA Hood was using your US coins.

Only one thing was missing now, my US cousins.

I sent Charles an item to be included in the Cass County Connections magazine, an advert asking if anyone else had information on my Hoods.

To my great surprise, a few days later, I received another package, not from Charles this time but from Juanita Greenhill Harrell. This package included a letter, family trees and pictures of all my relations; I could not believe it! Juanita was also on the Internet and over the next couple of years I corresponded with Juanita by e-mail and Charles by letter (You really must get a computer Charles, from WalMart perhaps???)

Juanita then told me of another relative in Fort Worth, Altus E. Hayes, and his wife Virginia. A kinder more generous couple I could not wish to meet. Again, we corresponded and by 1998 we were set to travel to Texas for a holiday to put faces to all these names. We arrived at Dallas/Fort Worth airport on the evening of 2nd November and were met by Altus, Virginia, Jimmie Lou (Altus sister) and her husband Bill and Paula Culpepper Mullins Thomas received some presents, and we were soon on our way to Altus home at Fort Worth and our first US meal Barbecue! I can still taste it now; it was a firm favorite, and unobtainable in England.

We spent time with Altus and Virginia visiting Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston before traveling to Jefferson to meet all our US cousins. Three days into the trip we noticed three spots on Thomas back, it is the change in water we thought, but no, in Thomas’ own style, he had brought Chicken Pox with him from England!

He was so excited though, he hardly noticed that he had them. We arrived after traveling on a Greyhound bus and were met at Jefferson by Charles, Juanita, and Melba Tullock. Again, sightseeing was in order and we spent the rest of our days there visiting Jefferson, Texarkana, and the area where George Arundel Hood raised his family near Marietta.

Charles would never forgive me if I did not mention that we also visited Wal-Mart (quite a lot!) The evening of the 13th was spent meeting John and Patsy Livingston and other members of the CCGS at a Mexican restaurant at Atlanta, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

On the 14th we visited with Georgia Hood Culpepper, one of GA Hood’s daughters. This remarkable lady is 99 years of age and was such a wonderful link to my great grandfather’s brother.

That evening we all met at Melba’s house for a party. There were around fifty of us from all over including Juanita and her husband Wimpy and John Hood who had flown in from California and had not seen the family for 48 years!

Again, we received such a wonderful hospitality and more presents reminders of such generous people. All too soon it was over and on the following day we said our farewells to everyone before traveling back to Fort Worth for our final night before returning home to England.

Our house now has reminders of our holiday in pride of place and we are just wondering when to plan our return visit.