website specifics, plans, history, et al

The authoring software that I use is Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. Inputs are developed using other components of Microsoft Office Professional 2003. At this time I am not inclined to do otherwise: learning another authoring software would be very time consuming and expensive: $450.00 and up. This is a voluntary activity!

For now, users will have to understand and tolerate that this website is best viewed with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or a recent version of Apple's Safari. Other web browsers may not or will not show web pages as suitably formatted; Adobe documents in PDF (portable document format, end in .pdf) are unaffected by your choice of web browser.

Settings known to me allow suitable viewing of this website with Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 and up (8.0 current) or a recent version of Apple's Safari (current 4.0).

All Adobe files here were first developed with either Microsoft Office Word or Excel 2003, converted to Adobe PDF, and then manipulated by Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.1.6.

TIP: Unlike me, professional website developers use updated software, therefore users (viewers like you) should keep their internet browsers and PDF readers updated in order to view them properly or at all.

TIP: Improper display settings for your monitor/flat screen display may skew the image. For windows, display settings are made with the Display (properties) control panel. If you have changed monitors/displays since your system was purchased, settings could be the problem.

The purpose of www.grimestree.net is to inform family members and to nurture family ties: sharing information, good times and bad times, among kindred and developing and strengthening ties across generations and across time and distance barriers among family members and branches. And, to reach out to kindred beyond the descendants of William Grimes II (1813-1902).

Almost any activity promoted among kindred by this website meets that criterion.

My first dabbling with building a website was for the Annual Grimes Family Reunion in 2005. I later became the secretary of the Spring Green Preservation Fund, and I added a few items regarding the Fund to the same site.

The temporary website at http://home.ec.rr.com/grimesdirect had limited features and was relatively expensive (even though the first 5MB were free. Also the link http://home.ec.rr.com/grimesdirect was too laborious to type, remember, and communicate. Finally, its “location” depended upon someone's continued subscription to TimeWarner high-speed Internet service in the greater Wilmington, NC area.

We hope to sale our home in Wilmington. From our prospective, the Wilmington area is growing too fast and thereby losing it luster. We had hoped to sell our home and, for at least awhile, months or years, live in Alaska again before buying a home in or near North Carolina along the I-95 north-south corridor or the US Hwy 64 east-west corridor (even closer to Lew's brother's homes and second homes) and closer to an AMTRAK station. We anticipated that each state-to-state move would entail several "moves."

Now we have decided that we must buy something in/near NC (in a smaller place with services) in the same market that we sell. We will at least have that part of our life settled, and we still plan to rent in Alaska (but now simultaneously with home ownership) with a vehicle in both places. At least it will be easier to split our time.

In August 2007, I acquired two new website addresses through www.1and1.com. They are:

www.sgpf.net for the "Spring Green Preservation Fund, Inc." which became fully functional in September, 2007.

On September 16, 2006, the Spring Green Preservation Fund, Inc. adopted an electronic communications policy including establishing an official website. I volunteered for the task.

Since then and particularly during the nine months ending in July 2007, I assembled, scanned, and organized documents regarding the Spring Green Primitive Baptist Church, the Spring Green Preservation Fund, Inc. (1999-present), and the (1990–1999) activities of the group that ultimately led to the formation of the Fund.

When I investigated possible domain names for the Spring Green Preservation Fund in August 2006,

Both were already registered, but not in use. On June 23, 2007, I discovered that “SpringGreen.net” was available for $2,488.00. A number of “Spring Green” websites pertain to activities in and around Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Also sgpf.org was yet to be developed and held by the Sri Gopal Prakash Foundation whatever that is.

I never liked them, but they were available for use while other choices were being considered such as:

Shorter domain names www.grimes.net, www.grimes.com and other suitable choices that I tried were already registered.

Now www.grimestree.net wholly replaces www.grimesdir.net as the primary domain for the Annual Grimes Reunion, et al. E-mail addresses simply look better and are easier to remember and communicate. www.grimesdir.net is in disuse and will be discarded.

Depending on how topic 6, Other Grimes Lines, develops, it could evolve into a new, separate website. I have already reserved the domain grimeslines.net; it is currently a mirror site to www.grimestree.net

(Both my fraternal and maternal grandparents lived and worked on their respective family farms in Martin County. They raised their children and tobacco not far from the Spring Green Primitive Baptist Church. Their homes have been raised. None of the buildings, I knew them well, remain on my maternal grandparents’ farm. My maternal grandmother was a member of a different Primitive Baptist church; she only attended that church on special occasions because it was some distance away.

Descendants of my fraternal great-grandfather were active members of the Spring Green Primitive Baptist Church. Now his descendants are active among the other preservationist seeking to restore the Spring Green Primitive Baptist Church.

I remember occasions, in the late 1940’s, when the Grimes family reunions (descendants of William Grimes II, 1813-1902) were held on the church grounds following Sunday worship.

I was born 90 days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in adjoining Pitt County. Dottie, my hometown (Cary, NC) sweetheart and since 1963 my spouse, and I are retired educators; we taught in both Arizona and Alaska. President Kennedy was assassinated during my student teaching in 1983 while attending N. C. State, and the events of 9-11-2001 mark our last full year of my teaching. Also between those events I was on active duty in the USAF: serving before, throughout, and after the Viet Nam War. I never had duty outside the United States.

Between 1968 and 2003, Dottie and I lived and worked in either Southern Arizona (Pima County) or Alaska: fifteen years in Alaska. We moved between Arizona and Alaska four times: the first at the courtesy of the USAF.

Among other places, we have lived on the on the edge of the Bering Sea (9 years in Nelson Lagoon), the edge of Arctic Ocean (Barrow) and just a few feet above the Yukon River (Nulato). We also taught in Cold Bay 2 years and False Pass 2 years: about 80 and 95 miles respectively west of Nelson Lagoon. Normally you can only reach these Alaskan villages by plane or boat; however, access to Nulato changes when Yukon is frozen: by plane, snow-machine or dog team. Barrow is the most-north town in the USA: one year courtesy of the USAF.

Both before (1976-1980) and after (1999-2002) teaching in Alaska, we taught in the Indian Oasis School District, Tohono O’odham Nation

(the second largest Native American reservation), Sells, Arizona. We lived in Sells exclusively in 1977-1980 and had a work-week apartment there 1999-2002.

Among other locations and jobs were have had, our stay in Burma (officially Myanmar) was unique. Dottie had a temporary, full-time, (1998 fall semester only), 4th grade teaching position at the

More about us and our experiences, Alaska, Burma et al. at www.grimeseasy.com