FOREWORD
I think that most of us at one time or another has given some thought as to - "Where did we come
from?" with respect to our ancestral background. My interest, I believe, started sometime in the
early 1980's. I don't know why, but I suddenly was curious about my ancestors. I was visiting my
parents in Oklahoma and remember asking if anyone had done any genealogical research on our family
background. My mom indicated that my aunt Lizzie (Perry) and aunt Wanda (Nichols) both had information
about the family that they had collected over the years through various sources. They graciously gave me
copies of the information that they had obtained. Also a cousin named Peggy Wimbish Hayes (pwh)
contacted me and provided information on the Wimbish branch of the family. I reviewed the
information, stored it away and would on occasion take it out and browse over it again. During the
last couple of years, I found that the information contained in the documents, started to have a
greater impact on my curiosity regarding the individuals whose names, dates, spouses and offspring
were listed.
Philosophically speaking, I feel we reach that point in our lives that we search for that level of
self-realization that Maslow and others describe in defining our hierarchy of needs, or basically the
need to know...who am I? I am overwhelmed when I think about the random sequence of events that
occurred to the generations of ancestors leading up to that moment of conception that focused the
genes of so many individuals and created me as a unique person. I have a tremendous need to know
more about these people and feel obliged to find out who they were and what they were like. I also
think we should take a few moments and leave a legacy of stories and memories about each other
to pass on to our descendants that will help them in answering the question that I am now pursuing -
who was I ... before I was me?
I hope this collection of genealogical facts and stories will be a beginning of that legacy.
James Perry Nichols (December 2012)