Posts Tagged ‘Writing’

Cornett Genealogy Research

Posted: August 20, 2026 in Family
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I started researching my dad’s Cornett ancestry back in 2012 while living in Hawaii. I have dedicated countless hours into seeking out information that would let me kind of get a feel for where I came from, who my family really was, how they lived and where they originated from. Just who are they, really?? What kind of careers did they have? Were they farmers, merchants, prominent citizens of society?

This was and still is one of those life-long projects that seems to have no end. Yes, you may have some brick walls here and there in those family tree branches, but it is really rewarding when you find documentation that lets you continue your chase into the past, that you thought may have been lost forever. This past week I have been basically starting from the beginning, starting with my father, Billy Edward Cornett. My parents divorced when I was just a six-year-old girl, so I don’t know much of him. I have a few random memories, but it’s not nearly enough. I want to know where he was born (I’m currently waiting to receive his birth certificate from the Virginia Vital Records office), I know he was born in Virginia, but I do not know any more than that. Like what city and county? What hospital was he born in? Where did he live? Where did he grow up? What school did he go to? What was his first car, first job? I have more questions than I do answers, unfortunately.

So far this is what I know:

My dad was born on March 15, 1944, and died on April 28, 2001. I have not been able to locate a newspaper clipping of his actual obituary yet, so this was initially my starting point, to dig even deeper into his life. He is buried at Bel air Memorial Gardens in Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland. (Sunrise Section 26D-3)

                                                                               {Photo courtesy of Daniel Cole}

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92141363/cornett

My father’s parents were Walter Allen Cornett Sr. and Lucia Rose Cornett Cornett. I am not sure how they both got married, being that they both had the same last name. I will have to investigate this phenomenon later. I don’t know, were they kissing cousins, distant cousins, perhaps, or were they from different Cornett ancestry lineages altogether? I know the Cornett family is vast, and they weren’t the only Cornett’s in the area, I’m sure. As I mentioned before, there were so many questions, and there were not nearly enough answers.

This week I contacted Hartenstein Funeral Home in New Freedom, Pennsylvania, where I received his death certificate via email. It’s just a working copy not a certified copy. I’ll take it, thank you very much! The funeral director there told me if I need a certified copy, I can purchase one through the Vital Chek website. I have contacted the Virginia Department of Health and requested a copy of my father’s birth certificate as well. I am excited to see it, I am hoping it will give me a little bit of information that I do not already have.

I was able to get a copy of my parent’s marriage application through the Clerk of Circuit Court in Baltimore County, Maryland. When searching for my parents’ marriage records, I was able to reach out to the St. John’s Lutheran Church (Sweet Air, Phoenix, MD) where they were married to inquire whether they had any documentation of my mom and dad’s ceremony. I was told that they do not have marriage certificates on site from that long ago. So based on the information I was able to get, I found out they were married on April 24, 1971. The image below is what I was sent by the church. It looks like maybe it was a sign in book with the marriage dates and the bride and groom’s names.

My parents were married by Reverend Partee Boliek, who is now deceased.

                         Photo Courtesy of Laurie- Office Manager- St. John’s Lutheran Church Sweet Air (Phoenix, MD)

In conclusion, I have located two separate documents related to my parent’s divorce, which were filed and recorded in Marion County, Florida on August 24,1981. The first document was a Dissolution of Marriage, and the other one was a Motion to Transfer.

All in all, I think I have made some accomplishments this week!

I am currently seeking information on the following, if anyone can help me, please contact me.

  • Name of school(s) attended
  • Report Cards
  • School Photos or Yearbooks
  • Post cards or other mail addressed to my dad
  • Any personal items he may have had
  • Occupation- Employer information
  • Close friends
  • Hobbies or favorite sports activities(what did he like to do?)
  • Church attended
  • Involvement with any clubs
  • Family Bible
  • Photographs

Seeking and searching for my next genealogical treasure! Happy hunting 🙂

Source Citations:

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92141363/billy_edward-cornett: accessed 20 Aug 2026), memorial page for Billy Edward Cornett (1944–28 Apr 2001), Find a Grave Memorial ID 92141363, citing Bel Air Memorial Gardens, Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland, USA; Maintained by: Find a Grave.

Don’t Forget Dad!

Posted: August 17, 2026 in Family
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Hello everyone, this is my dad, Billy Edward Cornett, born March 15, 1944. He passed away in April 2001 and lived to be 57 years of age. From what I can recall, he lived with his mother, Lucia Rose Cornett in the family home that I remember from when I was maybe 6 years old, in Whitehall, Maryland. He lived in this house for about 28 years (since April 1998).

Just last week, I submitted a request for a copy of his birth certificate online through the Virginia Vital Records office. Easy process and it only costed me $15, cheaper than I thought it would be, to be honest. I am waiting to receive this document via snail mail. I’m kind of excited to see what kind of information I can glean from his birth certificate! Then just this morning, I found that I misplaced his death certificate, somehow. I had placed the copy of it in an Evernote app, in a note I created several years ago. So once I decided to no longer use the app, I emailed it to myself and must have accidentally deleted it. (YIKES!) So I had to try and remember the funeral name from the death certificate so I could request a new working copy, not certified but just a copy, at least for now.

I contacted the funeral home via their website, and I must say within less than 5 minutes I was contacted by phone, they searched and sent a copy to my personal email address. How’s that for customer service?? In a past post, I believe the title was “Who’s My Daddy”, I mentioned that my father was a brick wall of sorts. Since I am a child of parents who divorced when my sister and I were very young, we do not have very much information on him. Maybe a handful of memories, a couple of photographs, I want to know so much more!

I plan on trying to have a conversation with my mother this afternoon, after work to see if her memory will cooperate with us both. She has early signs of dementia starting, so there are a few questions I would like to ask to see if I can maybe learn where he went to school, when they met, what he did for work while they were dating…you know the early years kind of stuff! Based on his death certificate, I know he only had an 8th grade education and his occupation was listed as a carpenter, but that’s really all I know the details of, sadly. Why did he not graduate high school like my mother had? Did he have to quit school to help support the family? Did he just not like school? SO many questions that I hope to enlighten you all with, in a future post!

The reason I wrote this post, is sometimes dads get overlooked and they can be an important building block to your future research as you travel through the many avenues or traveling down the long, winding dirt roads of our ancestral roots.

HAPPY HUNTING! May your adventures lead you to thrilling discoveries and unforgettable experiences, whether you’re exploring the great outdoors, searching for hidden treasures, or simply embracing the joy of pursuit. Remember to take in the beauty around you and cherish each moment as you embark on this exciting journey filled with new opportunities and challenges along the way!

A Story To Be Told, A Memory To Behold

Posted: June 12, 2012 in Uncategorized
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When I started writing this blog a year ago, my concentration was primarily focused on the history aspect of my family’s ancestral roots. I don’t know what I expected to find, being a novice and just starting to learn genealogy and all that it entails. I also didn’t know that it would become an addiction of sorts! My first impression of genealogy was the history part of it for sure, but also gaining a learning experience. 


Writing has always been a passion of mine since I was probably 17 years old. Not many people know this except my mother, but I actually wrote a romance novel! Ha! Who would have thought that a 17 year old girl would know enough about romance to write a book about it? I even typed the manuscript out on a typewriter, some people don’t even know what a typewriter is now that we have all this technology with computers, laptops,the iPad, and our smart phones. As a teenager I never even had Internet! So now everyone who reads this knows my dark secret! I wrote a book, submitted the manuscript to a publisher in New York and it was accepted, but little did I know about the publishing world. They told me I had to pay for the books to be published. Go figure! That never happened to Kathleen Turner in “Romancing the Stone”. So in my mind, I thought that it really wasn’t good enough to be printed. I requested my manuscript back and tore it to shreds and never wrote another word. Until last year when I started this blog, researching my family history.


So here I am today, still searching in the past. What about the future? What legacy will I be able to give my children and their children and so on? I think every family has a story, a past which no one person knows about unless it’s been written in a history book. Some stories get passed on from generation to generation but somewhere along those lines the original story was lost in translation. This reminds me of a time when I was in elementary school. The teacher would whisper a sentence in the first students ear, in turn that student told the next student what the teacher said and by the time the sentence reached the last student in the class, it wasn’t anything close to what she had told the first student originally! So you see, how just one sentence can change in just a short period of time between a handful of students. I can imagine what the different variations would be if a story were to be told and passed on from one generation to the next. There is always a story to be told and a memory to behold.


Photography is both a hobby and a passion for me. I take photos of just about everything; I guess it’s almost like a photo journal where I want to create the snapshot that will tell my story. One day I will create my own photo book of my life to pass on to my children. Memories are wonderful things and as the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, I believe it really does ring true. Photos are just memories in time. Times of happiness and memories to be made for future generations to enjoy. 


What keepsake will you create? Share your ideas in the comments below. 




Image Source:
Family Quote ~Tea Cups Of Life