Daughters of Gip Akin

My Grandma was the Daughter of Ula Mae Akin Durbin and Raymond F. Durbin. The Akin sisters, Joy, Ula Mae, Ida Faith, Ora Lea, and Lovella had a special bond, the love of family. Aunt Lovella was only a few years older than my Grandma and was able to share so many stories with us of those memories with her sisters. My Aunt shared this photo with me, and it was perfect for this MyMemories.com layout.

The Akin sisters were Gip and Nancy Ola Akin five daughters, and lived in Dawson, Texas; later Venus, New Mexico. Gip was an interesting gentleman from all that I have read on him. While Lovella was a young lady, Gip Akin had become a local Baptist Minister. In his early years he had been part of the Night Riders of Dawson Texas, and had written short stories. 

This is part of a story that was shared by Lovella Akin Moore, who first heard this from her father Gip Akin. I will have to transcribe the complete story at a later date.  

Gip came to Howard, Texas 1890 and lived there for 35 years. They worked on a the Slaughter Ranch, where he was a horse wrangler--he was 17 years old. He took care of 150 head of horses and lived with the wagon - it was home. Started out in the spring about the first of April--worked until Christmas. The Ranch covered 5 counties. The year 1897 branded 18,000 calves, stamped Lazy S on both sides--ear marked figure 7 under bit in each ear and worked for Slaughter 3 years. Then went to work for Barts Ranch - 200,000 acres. Headquarters where the city of Lamesa is now (worked there for 2 years). Then took up 4 sections of homestead Land. Post office called Chicago - got the mail two times a week from Big Springs. Built the house on what was called the home section, a little one room house facing the South. Part of this Land is in the city of Lamesa now, then went to Live 16 miles North of Big Springs.

Gip and his brother Mit Akin participated in the Texas Range Wars, and they fought against the Big Ranchers who didn't want them (the nesters) or homesteaders) in the area the outcome being many killings and burnings had occured. Gip & Mit Akin at this time earned the title "The Night Riders".

Here is Gip and Nancy in their later years, standing with my Grandma and her sister Pat Durbin. 

Created using Mymemories.com software, promo code for $10.00 off is STMMMS36408

Printing your memories

There are many companies out there to print your special life moments with, some good, some horrible. Recently Photoworks went out of business and Shutterfly decided to take those photos. While this wasn't my first dealings with Shutterfly, it will be my last.

My first order for Shutterfly was my memorial album I made of my Grandma when she passed away in Fall 2009, the quality was horrible, pages were blurry. I contacted Shutterfly and got no response from them, even though they claim a 100% Customer Satisfaction. Never any response, complete silence. Now onto the Photworks/Shutterfly transfer.My heart sank when I saw that Shutterfly had agreed to take over accounts at Photoworks, I had positive experience with Photoworks, and couldn't understand how a great company could merge with a horrible one.  I had 425 photos at Photoworks that were to be transferred, however only 308 were ever transferred, and all my emails about this matter were ignored. Customers could no longer log into their Photoworks accounts to get the photos, but were all given $30.00 credit for the inconvenience. 



After months of trying to find those other photos and no replies from Shutterfly I decided to use the promo since it was expiring. The promotion didn't work fduring the order process and I spent over $30.00 that I never would have spent if it hadn't been for the transfer and credit offered. I thought that they would apply the credit and was informed this morning that they would not honor it, but instead give me more credit to apply to the next order. Really??!?!?!?!?? So they think I should chance another $30.00 on a gift certificate that guarantee won't work!?!?! The revolving door to continued dissatisfaction?!? It was an expensive lesson to learn and hope others will think twice about trusting their beloved memories in the hands of Shutterfly.

Shutterfly prices are higher than Snapfish as the online printing companies compare. And quality and service are awful.  As a Heritage Makers consultant, customers get a real person, not ignored through emails- it is a little more through Heritage Makers, but as a customer feeling left in the dark last night at 1 am. I personally like paying more for quality items and top notch service.

There are several printing services out there,

WalMart- the system is hard to figure out and the photos are grainy when printed out. No personal service.

WalGreens- same as WalMart when it comes to quality and service

Any one hour photo place will get your photos printed and have low quality. Their services is to bring in customers, they aren't pro's with photos and act more like a fast food restaurant, rather than a 5 star restaurant in matters of preserving your memories.

Shutterfly-offers tons of promotions that are not honored, prices are high, emails are ignored, quality is horrible and the guarantee is just a wishful thought on the customers part.  

Snapfish- great quality and price is much cheaper than than online competitors, they also have tons of promotions that are honored. They offer more personalized gifts. I have never ordered a book from them, but their prints have always been great.

Of course there is Heritage Makers which doesn't print out photos, but helps the customer to organize and place those memories in quality pieces of art. These wont be hundreds of photos lying around waiting to be placed in a scrapbook, but stored in a convenient online storage  for later publication into a quality scrapbook, brag book, cookbook, playing cards, or cards.   Consultants like myself  help you make sure your photo is crisp, clear of flaws and walks you through the process of making photo albums, preserving your photos to the highest quality.  Heritage Makers is the 5 star restaurant of photo preserving, why spend less on those special moments-you want the memories to last generations beyond today.