Family history is more than a collection of names and dates. I wish we had the stories that belonged to many of the people who came before us. This section is an effort to preserve the stories we do have—and to pass them down the line before they are lost.
We begin with my mother, Elisabeth Victoria Bird Mooney, and with the Bird and Marionneaux families from which she came. Her own handwritten memories give us something a family tree alone cannot: her voice.
The Bird and Marionneaux Families
The generations leading to Elisabeth, including the Levert and Templet connections.
View the family treeReflections from a Mother’s Heart
Elisabeth’s handwritten answers, preserved as a question-and-answer memoir.
Read Elisabeth’s storyThe Mooney Family
Elisabeth and Cloise, their children, and the family stories that followed.
More stories and photographs to comeA Working Family Tree
This simplified chart follows the direct line to Elisabeth and then to her children. It will grow as records, photographs, and stories are added.