A Name Carried Forward

What survives when a family name must carry memory across nine generations? In A Name Carried Forward, Janette Rochelle Beam Murphy traces the Colbert-Beam family from James Logan Colbert through Levi Colbert, two Martins, two Benjamin Franklin Colberts, and into the lives of Juanita Christine Colbert Beam, Larry Gene Beam, and Janette herself. It is an intimate family chronicle shaped by records, recollections, silences, and the determination to understand where a name has traveled. The past does not always answer clearly. Set against the changing landscape of Chickasaw history-from the southeastern homeland and removal era to Indian Territory, allotment, Oklahoma statehood, and the twentieth century-this story honors Chickasaw heritage without forcing certainty where evidence ends. Each generation faces its own crossings: movement, labor, family responsibility, loss, adaptation, and the quiet work of belonging. With an honest eye for both documented fact and inherited memory, Murphy turns genealogy into a living narrative. Names, dates, and family stories become a path toward identity, revealing how the Colbert, Beam, and Murphy connections endure through change. For readers drawn to family history, Chickasaw ancestry, and the meaning of what we inherit, this is a thoughtful invitation to listen closely to the lives carried forward.