I'd like to introduce myself to other members.

My name is Dale Warren and I live in Springdale, AR. I was born 15 September, 1949 in Palmdale, CA. I grew up in Berryville, AR and lived in Washington State for 30 years.

As I grew up, my paternal grandmother told me stories handed down to her from her paternal grandmother. When my children began having children, I started to write down what I could remember to insure those stories were preserved. I wanted my gift to my descendants to be their family roots.

It was quickly obvious that I had no context for them; they were interesting but I had no names, no places and no dates. Ultimately, it led me to an organized search for my family history. That was 1994.

I took an early retirement from the telephone company in 1999 and spent five months on a motorhome trip. On this trip I traveled through 22 states, collecting genealogical data.

The trip was a deeply spiritual experience for me. The Warren family was split by the Civil War, and in Alabama I met descendants of the brother who fought in the Confederate Cavalry. I stood on land given to Jeremiah Warren for his service in the War of 1812, and walked the Missouri farm his son John H. homesteaded after the Civil War.

As I crossed Arizona on the return to Washington, I was thinking of my hope that my descendants grow up knowing where they came from. Suddenly I was struck by the realization that, in giving them roots, I had given myself roots.