When the Thames/Tims Family Association was organized in April 2003 in Gastonia, North Carolina, by a group of Tims, Timms, Thames researchers who are searching records for their ancestors, we set up some very specific goals for our organization with a particular mind toward collecting, expanding and sharing research about our families.

The purposes of the Association are to locate, share, preserve and make available to researchers information on the surnames that sound like Thames, Tims and all known variant spellings. Our primary means of distributing all this information is to house it on our website so that it is available to all researchers. In cases where copyrights prohibit housing the information on our website, we have a Look-Up Library for researchers' use. Some of the projects we have in store for this and coming years are:

• Begin acquiring old county histories and books (copyrights expired) that are significant to our families, and then scan and place on the website any specific materials from those books that pertain to our families. We will make sure that the histories and books contain enough relevant information to make their purchase worthwhile. If you own or know of any good histories or books that have expired copyrights, please get in touch.


• Begin acquiring county histories or books that are significant to our families that are still under copyright. Since these items cannot be photocopied, we would start a pool of Look-Up Volunteers. Items already in the Lending Library that are subject to copyrights would be incorporated into the Look-Up Library, too. Once again, we will make sure that the histories and books contain enough relevant information to make their purchase worthwhile. If you know of any good histories or books that are still subject to copyright, please get in touch.


• Start obtaining images of census pages that contain Tims-Timms-Thames and upload them to the website, linking the images to people in the Tree whenever possible.


• Obtain Thames-Timms-Tims images of World War I draft registrations and Revoluntionary War and Civil War records about our ancestors from the National Archives, then scan and publish them on our website.


• Obtain images of Government Land Office Patents issued by the Bureau of Land Management to our ancestors and make them available on the website.


• Begin searching for old newspaper articles, obituaries, clippings about our ancestors, then scan and publish them on the website.


• Purchase software to add a Bulletin Board to our website where people can send queries, post news, attach photos and document images, etc., and post look-up requests to our look-up volunteers. We are still analyzing this one, and if the administration of the Board proves too time-consuming, we will forego it. But we thought it would be a good way to stay in more frequent contact with members and other researchers.


• Begin preparation for another TTFA-sponsored reunion.

All these efforts, not to mention the upkeep and maintenance of the website and server space, come at a price. That's why we rely on membership contributions from other researchers who wish to help us all expand our research resources and maintain this central place of distribution on the World Wide Web. If you are interested in becoming a full member, thereby helping to financially support the TTFA's goals, click here for an Application for Membership. Full membership in the TTFA is $15 a calendar year.

The TTFA's Full Members elect officers on a rotating basis. The officers lead the TTFA to ensure its efforts and goals remain intact and on target, and that funds are properly utilized. No officers or members receive remuneration or salary for their efforts - everything accomplished for the TTFA and its website is done on a volunteer basis. Current officers are:

President - Becky Thames-Simmons
First Vice President - Julie Thames Howell
Second Vice President - Billie Shaw Powell
Secretary - Vivian Pridgen Brockway
Treasurer - Barbara Thames