About Me

Hi, my name is Darnell Baker.  I was born in North Carolina, raised in Miami, Florida and returned to NC to raise my family.  I'm a city girl with a country heart and a lover of old things. I'm a young at heart Mother of four, three sons and a daughter, all are grown and live nearby.  I have five grandchildren that I adore. Family is and always has been the most important thing to me.  I love learning and have all my life. I'm a book lover and forever curious about a great many things.   When learning something new, it's my curious nature that makes me want to find out all I can about the subject.  I can't say I have mastered many of those subjects but I have sure learned a little about a lot.  I love people and can talk a blue streak but I also enjoy time to myself. 

Genealogy is like a good book to me, you never know what you are going to find when you turn the page. I have been doing family genealogy for over 30 years.  I've picked it up and put it down many times over the years. I'm retired now and have more time to devote to this life long passion.   My mother had a great interest in our family history too and I'm glad to have the memories of the times we shared together doing research.  It was great to have someone else to share my enthusiasm with over a new found fact about our family history.  She would be in awe of the technology available today and just how much can be done from the comfort of home.  We spent many hours together traveling around to libraries and family places searching for clues, that was pretty much the only way back then. I  like to think she would be proud about how far I have come since then.  I wish I could share what I know now with her, she would be over the moon.

Sharing  with others is the primary reason for my decision to blog about my family history and what I find  and learn along the way.  I enjoy history and like to dig into the places I come across in my research. I will be sharing facts and stories about some of those interesting places I find along the way as well.  Some will have a connection to my ancestors and some will be unrelated to my specific family search but either something I think is worth sharing or I personally want to know more about. 
I will also be sharing current news, resources and links regarding genealogy and history.

I don't know nearly as much about my ancestors as I would like, but hopefully through my travels around the world via the internet I will be able to leave something behind especially to my children  and grandchildren that otherwise  they would never have known about their family history. I enjoy reading, writing, genealogy and history and this blog allows me to combine all of these.

The personal benefit for me is this blog will also serve in some ways as a journal of my attempt to get farther down the road as I look for my ancestors.  I chose the name Generations Down a Red Dirt Road because it occurred to me that most all of my ancestors came from just that, down an old, red dirt road.  Some have traveled far and some never left and some wish to return to those places we call home and where some of our fondest memories linger.  I hope you will join me as I travel down that red dirt road looking for clues. 

I welcome suggestions,comments and questions and look forward to hearing from you. I can be reached at lenoradbaker@gmail.com