This site is devoted to genealogy and family history. Here you will find family group records, photos, military service records, and anecdotes on various related families originally from Valley River, Cherokee County, NC. Some descendants remain there today.
As time permits, I will add information representing twenty-seven years of research by both my husband and me as our shared hobby. The more data and family history we collected the more compelled we were to preserve it for future generations. Innumerable long visits to libraries, courthouses, cemeteries, and countless miles have culminated in this website. We have spent enormous amounts of time, sweat, and energy searching in overgrown cemeteries and copying tombstone inscriptions long before such data was accessible on the internet. In fact, we didn't even have an electric typewriter when we began researching in 1973, much less a personal computer with access to the internet! We have sequestered ourselves many days and long evenings in libraries reading faded out, blurry microfilm of censuses. On the other hand, we have enjoyed many outings and trips to national military parks and museums seeking elusive information.
The research took us to places unexpected and to doors of persons unknown who became friends and sometimes turned out to be relatives. We made friends through correspondence with researchers and relatives residing throughout the United States. The most intriguing part of this endeavor was the actual research -- working a puzzle with life breathed into it; the most enjoyable part, the travel; the most rewarding part, meeting and getting to know many people.
Through genealogy, history is not dull and remote for it "comes home to us" when witnessed by various grandparents. Truly, I hope you enjoy reading these family histories as much as we enjoy researching them. Bookmark and visit often as new families and data will be added frequently!
From good old Rocky Top,
Sandra Ratledge
B.A., Tennessee Wesleyan College
M.Ed., University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
