Evening Shade is a beautiful place, however, after visiting the former county seat and the present county seat our research revealed no trace of my grandpa Givens’s family.

On our way back we stopped over at Little Rock Historical mall but time was cut short due to my wife’s Illness.

I had been told that Uncle Neal’s Two oldest daughters, Odett and Lorene lived in Texarkana, so after a phone call to Clara, aunt Fannie’s only living daughter, in Dekalb TX I got their address. One was in poor health and the other was in the first stages of ALS. I learned later that Lorene had passed away and Odet was in a nursing home.

Since my grandparents were buried in Hugo, and I was born there, we decided to go visit the cemetery and to look up the residence where my grandma died. I had accompanied mom to her funeral when I was about three years old. We found the place where the house was, however, it was covered with trees and brush. From there we went to the cemetery and located both their graves. Still no luck on Grandma’s name, Just the initials L.L. like her death certificate.

On to Dekalb to visit cousin Clara, she was living in aunt Fannie’s house. It was a beautiful place, with large trees bordering the drive. Since walking affected her breathing she rode her Lawn mower to the mailbox. She was a great cook and fixed us a country meal we’ll never forget. After lunch we toured the country. Visiting the farm where Grandpa lived. We dug up some bulbs from where the old house was. I found a horseshoe near the gate, could it have been from the horse mom rode to school? Next we went around the section to a church where a graveyard where a couple of Grandma’s babies were buried. The land near the church was donated by grandpa for a school. They named it Givens Grove. It was later known as Mt Sterling. It has all since passed with time.

I received an address of my Aunt Alpine’s daughter, Mandy. who lives in CA. She is wheelchair bound but still lives alone and keeps house. She has recently celebrated her 95th Birthday. She has had several mini-strokes. But has been able to write once a week. She furnished some data about her family.

Through the LDS Ancestry I obtained a phone search of some cousins. My uncle J.W.V (Will’s)family. Would you believe sorting through 9 million names? I sent queries to about 30 people and finally hit paydirt. My cousins, Elmer Durwood and Cecil R. Lee furnished data for their families and made an audiotape of their childhood experiences. When I told them I was looking for names of the two brothers of Grandpa’s who fought in the civil war they said their Dad was named after the three Givens brothers. J.W.V.

stood for James William Vandine BINGO! The long lost were found.

Mom used to tell me about her two uncles who fought in the civil war and were "Bushwhacked" on the way home. Durwood had related in his audio tape the same story mom had told me. What luck! Oh, I forgot to mention that he had lost his wife to cancer and was taking chemotherapy and other medication himself. In the latter part of the tape he said he had stopped taking all of it. Soon after we were advised he had passed on. I don’t think he realized what a blessing his contribution was to me.

Armed with my confederate soldier’s names I returned to the LSD Historical library. Found their names and marriage records, and ordered some microfilm. Unfortunately, their marriage decrees were not where they were supposed to be.

Meanwhile, I had joined the O G S and submitted a data card

query for my newly found Grand uncles. (ref.M-614) of Quarterly Vol.43 No 2.this same Vol. shows purchases of "Index to AR Confederate Soldiers" Sure enough, there they were all the information needed to obtain their service records. Including applications for pensions.