We're in Lake Providence!

It's taken me forever just to get to the Internet!

I LOVE Lake Providence. It is truly a beautiful city. The people are so friendly. Jean says that they have cleaned it up immensly since the last time she was here, which was about 10 years ago. They even have a coffee shop with WiFi here. LOL We've met so many people since we got here on Wednesday. I have not a nary a cell phone signal, so I've been calling people back as soon as I can although I know my bill is going to be crazy with the roaming charges. I'm staying on the same road that my grandmother, uncle, mother and hosts of people in my family were born and raised on.

I've found a lot of records at the courthouse, and also at Evergreen Cemetery. We have not found anything on our ancestors as slaves. We were sort of disappointed that we hadn't, but we're hoping that something may be in Jackson, as the Balfour family was based out of Natchez, MS. It's been amazing going through original 100+ year old documents. It's also been sort of sad seeing your people sold like they meant nothing. It's also been great to see that they were selling a couple of horses and things for 150 bucks way back in the 1870's too.

I've taken a bunch of pictures and plan on getting some soil from my great grandfather's land to bring back with me today. I forgot to mention that I also took pictures and got to see the tools that my great-great grandfather used as a blacksmith. They're on our land down here.

We met a couple of my grandmother's childhood friends yesterday. They all kept telling me about how pretty I was and how pretty my mother was. Florence gave me a picture of my mother that I've never seen. She was pretty cute although I know she'll try to steal the picture from me!

We also met a relative who works as a butcher at the grocery store. I got his phone number and will probably call him when I get back to Atlanta for information. It's for yet another branch of the family I was stumped on.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to update this thing sooner!