This site is the repository for over 34 years of family history work.  It all started  about 1978 when my sister Patty shared some Longbottom information she had obtained  regarding the Longbottom family immigration to the USA from England in 1854.  I  started out with 3 ring note books.  This was before the age of the personal  computer.  I wrote down all that I could on my Longbottom side and then started with  my Mother's side of the family - the Snyder line.

The name Snyder was a different story - it was more like the Smith and Jones surname -  
 too common!  Unfortunately I began this after my mother died in 1968 so there was no  first hand info to help me out.  My Mom's only sibling Edna had also passed on.  I  talked with some of my cousins and little by little my data started to expand.  I  subscribed to Everton's Genealogy Helper,ran ads, mailed inquiries and waited  everyday 
 for the PostOffice to deliver the mail.  I even started a SSS (Schneider, Snider,  Snyder etc clearing house news letter on this Surname.  I learned that my Grandfather  Joseph Snyder had "gone on a hunting trip to West Virginia and brought back a bride".

I began sending letters to the Court Houses in Western West Va to see if they had  such 
 a record.  No luck.  I then purchased computer print outs from Everton's for Census  data on the Snyder and Longbottom names.  I began seeing first names that were common  to the names used by my Grandfather Joe Snyder's siblings in Berkeley Co., West Va.   This area is located in the West Virginia Eastern Pan Handle.  I wrote to the  Berkeley 
 County Historical Society and hit "pay dirt".  The rest is now history.

My big problem started to appear when my data became so large and took up so many 3  ring binders.  I would get new information and then had a problem finding where it  needed to go in one of the note books.  Fortunately the personal computer era was  dawning.  I spent over $5000 for a new IBM PC that had no hard drive - you had only  floppie discs to use and Bill Gates had not yet invented "Windows".  I started out  with "Brothers Keeper" software and am still useing it.  It has been a great program  for me.  I have about 123,000 persons in it now and almost 31,000 of them are the  descendants of my 3rd great grandfather's (Jacob Snider 1732-1790) 13 children.