Retiree enjoying a fun hobby, detecting for relics and artifacts. My family history travels from Maryland and Virginia and into NC, SC, GA, AL, TN.  Ancestors fought in every war which occurred on  American Soil. Benjamin James Gray was my 2nd Great Grandfather. He fought for 3 years and 10 months in the Civil War.  On April 5 1865 the 3rd Virginia was near Petersburg.  Benji was wounded during a battle having received a shot through his right thigh muscle. This injury crippled him and after recuperating he walked only with the help of homemade crutches. Having been a Blacksmith, Wheelwright, and Buggy maker he had to find another line of work. He started dealing in land:  buying, selling, leasing; he would lease a landowner’s fields to other farmers. One landowner was a widow with no family (they all died) and he handled her land leasing, etc. for many years. It is amazing the giant books (ledgers) in the Southampton County, Virginia Courthouse.  This is where my Gray paternal line is from for many generations. You can learn a lot about your ancestors from these ledgers. There is one book with lists of names of those sent to the insane house.  Some were sent there due to being senile or suffering from seizures. It is really sad to me. On my maternal side one ancestor went from Long Island, NY to the mountains of VA to Greene County, TN where he built a cabin in the woods.  One day the Native Americans. He lived. His name was Zephaniah Woolsey.  Two female family members were scalped but lived.  He shot and killed 2 Native Americans.  After that incident they were left alone. The Woolsey’s were buried in the Camp Creek Cemetery in Greene County, TN.  I find Genealogy research to be fascinating especially when their stories continue to be passed down to descendants. Their lives were interesting and full of problems which most of them overcame.  I am proud to continue passing their stories along to my descendants.

Purchased an Equinox 800 with a Garrett Carrot Pinpointer.  Renting a GPX pulse induction detector for DIV so any advice about the machine is appreciated.  I purchased Killer B headphones for use with the Minelab GPX. I rented it from Keith Leppert, Fort Bedford Metal Detectors.