My name is Susan Harper. I'm new to web page construction and I'm having a ball. I've had a page since about November 1996, but it was pretty basic. In the fall of '97, I began working in earnest on my site and I must have changed it a dozen times in the first week. It's probably going to be a continuous "work in progress," but the important thing is. . . I'm having fun and I'm learning. Don't ever stop learning!!!

On, that note, I'll tell you I'm a former schoolteacher. I was a high school and middle school band director in a small town outside of Atlanta in the '70's. I moved back to Alabama to be closer to my family due to illness in my family and couldn't find another teaching position (the music profession is a somewhat closed society), so I ventured into the secretarial field. That's where I developed my computer skills, such as they are. When I began working as a secretary in the mid-70s, I knew how to use a typewriter (both manual and electric) and an adding machine. Not a calculator, mind you, but an adding machine. Thanks to OJT (on-the-job-training), I soon developed skills with a Xerox 860 word processor. It used diskettes that were about 8"x8" in size. Looked like an overgrown 5-1/4" diskette.

Then the company bought a computer... an 8086, to be specific. (Remember those Dark Ages?) And I wanted to learn. But my boss applied the Tom Sawyer philosophy of painting a fence. That clinched it. I wouldn't leave him alone until he taught me how to use it. Reluctantly (ha! ha!), he "let" me work on a spreadsheet. Just a few minutes here, a few minutes there. Then he had to make an out-of-town trip and called needing me to fill in some figures on the report. Since I could read a financial statement, getting the figures was no problem, so I set to work. Horror of horrors... I typed over or deleted a formula. Whatever I had done, the spreadsheet was no longer the way it was supposed to be and it was MY FAULT!!! Well, I couldn't let my boss know about that. At least not until I had figured out how to correct it and had done so. So I pulled out the old Lotus manual (I don't even remember what version!) and started reading. I soon figured out what the formula should be (thank goodness it was a very simple formula), I fixed it, and I NEVER told my boss about that. Well, soon the job of spreadsheets became mine. I later tried word processing on the computer with Word Perfect 4.2 for DOS. Remember that one? And the only printer I had was dot matrix. But I learned to use graphics and all the fun things that went with word processing.

Then I got a computer for home. It was a Tandy 1000SL - I think that was the equivalent of an 8086. Boy, was I hooked.

I have since bought a new computer starting with a 486 DX2 and upgrading in 1998 to a Pentium 166 motherboard, complete with 3 hard drives and all the bells and whistles. This genealogy stuff can really fill up a hard drive, evidence my last purchase of a 4.2 or 4.3 (I forget which) gig hard drive. I've learned how to install an internal CD-ROM, so I'm gradually getting over my fear of killing my pc by looking at it.

I do a little contract work at home, spreadsheets, graphics presentations, training manuals, etc., but my love is my genealogy. I only started on it around 1995-96 and I've developed the "Genealogist's Disease." I learn history nowadays the way no one could ever teach me in school. Little things become so interesting. And I remember it.

I haven't really told you much about me. I'm an Alabamian both by birth and by the grace of God. I am very family oriented. I never married (God knew my parents would need care) and have no children, but I do have 5 of the most wonderful nieces and nephews that you could ever hope for. (I love you... Jennifer, Adam, Andy, Charlie, and Holly!) I'm an Auburn graduate (yeah!! Class of '72), I played in the Auburn marching and concert bands. I was band director at Duluth High School in Duluth, Georgia from 1973-1976 when I moved back to Alabama. One claim to fame is that I taught George "Boo" Rogers - Heisman Trophy winner for South Carolina and later of the New Orleans Saints. "Boo" was one of my choral students. If any of my former band members find this site, hi to Teresa, Kim, Randy, Max, Debbie, Jane and all the others who have a permanent place in my heart. Go, Wildcats!!

Other than that, I'm really pretty dull. I still love to teach, but nowadays, my teaching is done at work where I help others with computer software problems and applications. I'm by no means an expert, but I sure do hate to let a machine get the better of me, so I work at solutions until I can figure out what's messing me/us up. Must have a little pit bull blood in me. Or maybe it's my Irish!

Bye for now. Please come again to see how my pages are turning out. I want to keep adding and changing and making it better.

Let me know what you think about my pages. I welcome comments (be kind please, but don't hesitate to point out spelling or grammar errors) and/or suggestions. You can send me mail and comments at suharper@bellsouth.net .

Susan Harper
Birmingham, AL

Researching the following lines:

Harper, Burttram, Millican, Bobo, Vickery, Stephens, North, Malone, Wynne, Owens, Bolton, Williams, Grimes and many more, as I discover every day!

Hobbies and Interests:
Genealogy, reading, fishing, SEC sports, Highlander, C/W dancing, RELAXING!

Thanks for coming by. Y'all come back now, ya hear?