Dedication

To My Mother:

Sandra Sue Whitehead was one of the most incredible human beings I have ever known.  Being a woman consumed with idiosyncrasies, she was therefore quite... well... unique.  It was her firm belief that life wasn't worth living if she wasn't having any fun... but then again, it was also her firm belief that a dollar wasn't worth having if it wasn't also spent, so her "fun" was oftentimes significantly diminished!

During her high school years, she was a professional water skier at Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida.  She also danced modern dance, she cheered at football games, and she was often a winning beauty contestant.  Later in life, she became a legal secretary in Washington, D.C., where she rose to such significance that many of her good friends were high-ranking figures in the White House.  In every respect, she was an extraordinary human being... but far more importantly, she was my best friend.

She was the kind of person who fretted about a time when she was a small child, and at her own birthday party she became annoyed when another child repeatedly played a children's song on a record player, over and over and over.  So much so, that she furiously broke the record.  It's telling not that she broke the record in a childish fit of rage, but that she remembered the incident and was forever troubled that she destroyed another child's joy.  It's also telling that throughout her life she always befriended those who where excluded from other groups because they were "different."  She befriended them because she knew that it was simply the right thing to do.  In fact, there were countless other ways that she showed me why a person should always at least attempt to do the right and proper thing.  It's funny though... I simply can't remember a single lecture to that effect.

To be sure, my mother was not perfect - in fact she was far from it - but she was someone that I admired immensely and whose judgment I valued.  It is no exaggeration that those who surrounded her felt a desolate void when she was not around.

My mother passed away on the 10th of February in 2002 at age 59.  Maybe the good do die young.

Sandi's Project:

When I was going through my mother's personal property, among the tons of debris that was her life, next to her computer I discovered a copy of the Family Tree Maker genealogy software.  It had not yet been installed.  Lying next to it was a decrepit old family bible, turned to the part where the family tree resides.  Nearby, a scratchy diagram of lines and names were drawn on a regular sheet of copy paper... penned - of course - with multiple colors of ink.  Well, it was quite obvious that Sandi had started a little project, and I instantly became determined that her final project would soon be completed!

That rudimentary scribble of lines and names were  the beginnings of what has now become more than 9,000 individuals of our collective Family Tree.  This website is therefore dedicated to my mother's selfless dream: to honor those who came before us, to rejoice in those around us, and to pass on something of remarkable significance to those not yet born: a written history of who we are. 

Help Complete the Project:

I've long since abandoned the idea that I will "complete" my mother's project.  It seems that the best that I can do is to the make it as "complete" as I can.  Won't you please help me preserve this wonderful dream of my mother's by supporting this website?

Just by adding your name, providing an old photograph, or by telling a story of a family member long since passed, you can help preserve the history of not only your branch of our Family Tree, but you'll also be helping to write the history of our shared extended family.  Please tell every member of our family about this website, and don't forget to visit the Revisions to the Family Tree page to add your part to our tremendous Family Tree!