I did genealogical research for about 15 years and then it started eating into my budget, particularly as family lines traced back further in time and geographical distance. The electronic databases have been very helpful but I so enjoyed combing through the records in historical societies and the basements of courthouses. Dust allergies be damned. It is always fun to find "lost" lines, and to discover that you were in a "lost" line too. I have binders full of information according to family line. I'm trying to talk my daughter into becoming the custodian of this information but it may end up going to an archive somewhere in a few years.

So happy you were able to make such a connection. Hope you get to meet your newfound family member face-to-face sometime. I was able to do this a couple of times. It was a wonderful circle in time to close.

I find genealogical research boggling- I've done very little and I just can't imagine adding that to my plate right now. My original post was just something I've written and I posted it for that reason. You can imagine my surprise at this man's post.

About 20 distant relatives in four countries as Facebook friends. It's nice since my own branch of the tree is pretty sparse.

One of them found me because I posted a picture of my aunt who has the same name when she passed away. She had met her years ago on her only trip back to Ireland.
We've had some great chats, and it's nice to see some oddly familiar faces.

My mom has been really into genealogy and her mom's line goes back to a Puritan ancestor. I'd like to trace my dad now - I suspect back to Poland or Germany from what I know so far. I need to dedicate more time/funds to it on one of those on-line sites.

Congratulations!

"We the People of the United States" created the internet and gave it to the world for free.

We should have licensed it to a 1%er for peanuts, then free-market forces would have made it a great success.

You need a chill pill. Here, have a beer on me.



-Laelth

I have my own theory on why these things happen.

In the late 1970's, I met a lady from across the state at a meeting of people supporting the Iroquois. Chief Waterman, her, and I were discussing the Revolutionary War era, and she talked about some of her ancestors in PA. I told her that we were related, and she ignored me, and kept talking.

Four years ago, on an "ancestors" web site, she connected with one of my aunts. When I next saw her, she laughed and said she remembered my saying we were related -- but she had thought I was joking, crazy, or both.

but it's nice that it happened.

Jumg's theory is a part of it. I also remember Gandhi saying that you will meet the right people at the right time, if you're living right.

About 25 years ago, I got a letter in the mail. I could tell by the hand-writing it was from an Elder. As it turned out, it was from my grandfather's cousin (grandpa was born in 1874 on the Old Sod). He had seen me on the news, talking about a struggle to protect Sacred Ground. He said that I reminded him of one of his cousins (grandpa's brother). He asked what Clan I was from?

His mother had been the family historian. He had the family bible, from Ireland, plus photos. Tin-types from Ireland, photos from the US. He was in his 90s. He gave all those items to me. I was able to put faces with the names that I already had on the family tree. Way cool. A couple months later, he died. His wife told me that, had we not met, she thought those things would have been thrown out.

They came in mighty handy in my book on the contributions of the Irish immigrants to the northeast -- those who built the canals, fought the Civil War, and then built the railroads. Also, for the first time since 1950, I re-connected the family here with relatives there in Ireland. I have my grandfather's grandfather's walking stick; now I have photos of the farm they lived on.

Very cool--a new relative!

Thanks for sharing!

the odds of it happening seem pretty slim to me.

And found it relatively quickly. They must have been looking for something.

and he typed in a name that was in my post and presto. He's for real. He knows relatives I have met.

How wonderful for both of you.

Last edited Mon Jun 2, 2014, 10:31 AM - Edit history (1)

in a volume that became known as the "Herd Book". It traces our genealogy back to 15th Century Scotland. The family name is rare as hens teeth in America.

And I have a painting hanging on the living room wall. My Grandmother, born in the 1890's, painted it in the 1940's. It is of the family homestead in the mountains of Idaho as she remembered it. Her parents and grandparents came here from Missouri by covered wagon and settled at a hot springs. She told me of the Christmas celebration at the meeting hall and of a young boy who died after falling into the springs. And of her mother who died in a snowstorm while trying to seek help for a difficult childbirth.

I also have a photograph taken at about the turn of the century that is simply remarkable. It shows my grandmother and her siblings, all toddlers, gathered at the front of a crowd of people that appear to be actors from "Wagons West". There are men on horseback with long white beards, a couple of covered wagons, and women in the long dresses of the time. Grandma would point to one woman with her hands on her hips and relate that "no one could really stand her". It is unbelievable that I not only knew most of the children from that image but learned to paint, fish, and laugh from a couple of them. If I can ever locate it, I will post it for DU.

How nice that you still have links to the history in the form of paintings and lost cousins now!

I got as far back as S.C 1860, then blank. I or my family tree did not exist. Go figure.

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