Dear Callins Family Members,

Did you know that Papa George had brothers and sisters who left Alabama?

Did you know that our family might have come from the country of Haiti?

Well, I didn’t know any of these things until I started to do a little digging into our own family history. I would like to invite you to join with me in telling our family’s story. This can be done, but I need your blessings, cooperation and support. Here are some things that you can do to help:

· Volunteer to serve as one of the family historians

· Complete and return the family questionaire. E-mail me for this questionaire at familygriot@gmail.com

· Be prepared for an interview in the near future.

· Try to find old family photos and label them on the back using a pencil or have them scanned and put on a CD.

· Try to find all of the family’s old documents, especially who has the bible.

I will be contacting you in the near future to explain in more detail. In the meantime, work on those forms for me. Hopefully this project will be completed in time for our 2007 family reunion in North Carolina.

Our family history can only be told with the help and support of all family members. This is our story, and we need to tell it for our sakes and for future generations of our family.

Sincerely,

Family Griot

L. T. L.

Callins Family Research

Happy New Year's! I've been busy trying to drum up information about our family in order to create a book for the Callins Family 2007 reunion in Charlotte, NC. I've been on the internet searching for tips and techniques in order to make my research got a bit smoother.
One thing that I did do was purchase family tree software. That worked out great for me because I was able to talk to some of my family members who I only get to see during the reunions. I was able to get some good information from them about their branches of the family tree.
The information that I was able to get so far is the following:
My grandmother Lucy Callins-Lanier is one of 14 children of George and Lucy Callins of Dallas County, Alabama.
George Callins had at least 5 siblings. Many of his siblings stayed in the vicinity of Dallas and Autauga counties in Alabama and raised children there. However, he did have one brother who left Alabama and went to Plant City, Florida. Today there are many Callins who live in that locale.
This summer I am planning on making a trip down to Alabama, if all goes well and I don't get sidetracked, to talk to some of the oldest living Callins who are in their 100's and 90's.