The Pedigree Resource File contains many first-hand accounts and family stories passed down through generations, never before published. They are filled with humor, courage, hardship, tragedy and love. Only available on CD or DVD! Here are more samples.

"Great Grandad Womersley was killed at the pit (coal mine). There are stories that he drank heavily on occasion and one story that his wife Mary stitched him into a bed sheet after he had come home drunk."

Red Skelton biography

"One winter Mrs. Moore found her canned raspberries had spoiled, so she emptied the jars behind the log cabin and in turn they were devoured by the geese. Believing her geese to be dead she decided to at least get the feathers of them, and so plucked all of them. After she had thrown them out on a snowbank, to her amazement, she found they were still alive. They had only been tipsy. As it was cold weather, she made blankets for them to wear until they got new feathers."

"William Coleman snr. had a garden with a stone fence around it, but someone was stealing stuff on him, getting in and out a gap in the stone wall. One night William lay in wait for the thief, with a gun full of buckshot. As the thief crawled out through the gap with his loot, William let fire and shot him in the rear end.

A few days later, after no further raids on his garden, William met the man he suspected had been his 'visitor', so he asked him how he'd been feeling. The fellow said "Not too well". So then William knew for sure he was the one he'd shot though his garden wall."

"William Futch was the Berrien County Tax Collector. He was playing cards and drinking with some other men who got him drunk. He told them the combination to the Court House Safe and they later broke in and stole all of the money in the safe."

"Granny May went by the name Ellen some times. Granny May had an injuried thumb. The end of it had been cut off by Frank because grangreen had set up in it. She was picking cotton and a piece of cotton hull got stuck under her thumb. He meant to cut it at the joint but missed with the meat clever. He gave her the jug to get her drunk but the pain was so intense she passed out anyway. He carterized it by waving the clever over the lamp. A short nail grew out from the thumb."

The story of an Appalachian malady, an inquisitive doctor, and a paradoxical cure.

"One evening, with company waiting in the living room, Harve, who was terrified of snakes, was getting dressed in the bedroom. George had caught a snake earlier in the day, and being the "Imp" that he was, had a mischievous plan which included brother. As Harve bent over to put on his pants, George dropped that wiggling viper down his back and into the trousers. Poor Harve ran out thru the room, pants down around his ankles, oblivious to the room full of astonished and giggling visitors!"

"One day, Jack was sitting outside against a tree taking a nap, with his mouth hanging open. It being utterly impossible for his brother George to pass up such a golden opportunity, the young scamp ran to the house and came back with a bottle of hot sauce. Giving no mercy whatsoever, the bottle was tilted upward, then down into that sleeping, open mouth of dear unsuspecting jack, who came up screaming bloody murder! At which time, George shouted, "Maw, come quick... Jack's burned his goozle out!"

"Thinking of Joe reminds me of a little episode concerning his cattle. One day his milk cows were down by Moose Creek and came across a homesteader's still, which was a spring in the side hill. They cleaned up some of the barrels of mash that were fermenting there and you should have seen those cows that evening! "

The Nauvoo Neighbor suggested the following list of provisions every family wagon should have:

"Bill of Particulars For the Emigrants Leaving this Government Next Spring. Each family consisting of five persons, to be provided with"

"Charles Richard Wiley was considered the black sheep of the family. He sold bales of hay that were arranged over tree stumps so they would look fuller. "

"JA and his son Neil Aubery built and ran a general store in Fredericton. One of their frequent customers used to shop lift a lot of merchandise. She would buy something and take something. Then, this lady would leave the store and put the item in a storage box on her wagon. The lady would repeat this action several times."

"Rather than confront this lady, JA would wait until she stole something, left the store to place the items in her wagon and return to the store. Then JA would sneek out the back door of the store and take the stolen items out of the lady's wagon and return them to the store."

"This went on for several years without eather JA or the lady saying anything about it."