An Introduction

My maternal grandparents, Timothy Richard Marsh and Helen Crawford Marsh were historians, genealogists, researchers and recorders of county histories and so much more. They were well-known to family researchers in the Middle Tennessee area for their publications. During their lifetime, they compiled, transcribed, abstracted and indexed records which resulted in approximately seventy publications. To me, however, they were simply "Grandmother Helen" and "Poppa Tim."

As a young child, I remember going with them on several outings as they navigated their way through the Middle Tennessee countryside searching for cemeteries. From large city cemeteries to small ones with only a few markers, they tasked themselves to find all of the cemeteries in several counties. They copied the information on each stone, typed up that information and created books that they made available to other researchers. A lot of this was done in the 1970's. Some of the markers (and even the cemeteries themselves) have since been lost to erosion, time, and lack of maintenance. Because of my grandparent's work, the information found in those cemeteries and the people interred within has been preserved for future researchers.

One of their first books was titled Cemetery Records of Lincoln County, Tennessee. That is the county where they were both born. I remember when they were putting that book together...literally! I recall carrying a light-weight cardboard box and walking up and down between dozens of tables, picking up one page at a time from each stack and putting them in the box until the set was complete. A set had 684 pages and I think they had several hundred copies published. If they had step counters back in the day, I can't fathom how many steps were taken to collate that book! To this day, the smell of glycerin brings back fond memories of that time because we used that on our hands to make it easy to pick up the pages.

In the early years, they self published their own books under the name Marsh Historical Publications. Their later works, as well as reprints of earlier ones were published by Southern Historical Press. I think most of their publications are still available through that company.

The original logo created by my grandfather for their self published books is below.

I now live in my grandparent's house. I have made it my home, but it is also a treasure trove of their publications, family history research, county histories, photos and lots of items I want to share. Thus, "Melissa's Ancestral Musings."

I miss them both dearly. As I do my own research, I still find myself saying "I need to call Grandmother Helen or Poppa Tim and get their advice." Oh how I wish I could...