I am blessed that I have perhaps more aunts, uncles, cousins than others. It is unfortunate, however, that some I have never met, others that I now am only able to get acquainted with. I wrote a short, short story once entitled, "My Best Friend I Never Met." It sort-of holds true here, for you will see in these pages many that I never knew that I wished I could have met.
 
     So follow me, if you will, as I go back to meet my kinfolk, those that I have missed along the way and those that I know very well, love and cherish as my family. The DeShazo name is not a very common name in the English speaking country of ours. I have heard many tales as to how it ended up in it's present form.
 
     The most often original form I hear is de Chazeaux. It has all the earmarks of the name as it is today. The de' would suffice for the De' today, (pronounced Dee') the Cha' for the Sha' (pronounced Shay') and the zeaux' for the zo'. My personal story for the transition is, after coming to this English speaking country and perhaps being thrown in some of the jails of that time, we were asked our name. When we pronounced it, the ruddy Englishman in charge of the admissions wrote it down in the only way his limited educated mind could. De Sha Zo. Take it or leave it, it could have happened.
 
     Of course this is a joke. But, it could have happened for we were certainly in the jails of the French for some of our beliefs. FOR THOSE THAT COME TO MY SITE On a more serious side here. None of this would be possible except for my kinfolk who have furnished me with pictures that I didn't know existed. - If you have a picture of a relative that I do not have PLEASE SEND THOSE TO ME so that I can make them a part of this site. I would like it to be your site as well. If you have some light stories to tell of those pictures please include that as well. I love to write and I sure would post them.
 
     Thanks to Mildred for her help and certainly to my Aunt, Ina Mae. A special thanks to Dick (Richard) DeShazo and Bill (William) Hughey.  They have helped me to no end. Their knowledge of the DeShazo family history is outstanding. Many hours of work by Bill has produced one of the best written and factual family history approaching a volume I have come across. There will be more about them later and links to their work. Because of Bill's talent you will see pictures that were thought gone. He waves his magic wand over them and they come back to life again.