As some of you are aware, I have been doing my family tree, on and off for a few years now.
My Dad's side has people coming out of the woodwork to be related to me - common as muck you might think, but that's is a genealogists dream. You can grow your family tree very rapidly and feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment in the process.
My Mom's side of the tree has not been nearly so easy. It seems that they are a very well travelled lot, and I just kept getting stuck.
The hardest part has been, that I have known that I have cousins in the states, as I met them when I was 10, and they came to stay for a holiday. Then, as happens, grandparents pass away, followed by parents, and I suddenly have no way of finding this family, that I have thought of, on so many occasions over the years, and in particular since I started this fact finding journey.
Then, today, after yet another weekend chatting about these particular cousins with Sally-Ann and Mike, we started the search once more, but this time with avengance!
We took each of the 4 names in turn, and googled them - nothing. I did however find a law practice in the correct state, with the correct name, and recalled that my Dad had told me that D-L was a law student.... this was not enough to go on so the search continued.
I was on my laptop at home, and Sally-Ann was on her PC at her house, and we were chatting on skype as we both looked....
I suddenly heard a scream as Sally-Ann shrieked that she thought she may have found them in the White Pages online.
She told me the names and address, and I confirmed that YES! this was indeed who I had been trying to find for so many years.
It seems that they were members on MyLife.com, a sort of community website in the states. I registered my details and sent some emails, and waited.
There is about a 6 hour time difference by my reckoning, so I did not expect to hear anything for a while.
Half and hour later, I received an email from one of my cousin's and she too had been looking for me! In Birmingham! and of course I am now in Cornwall, so we kept missing each other.
I am so thrilled and excited, even more so, because they too are into genealogy, and have been tracking the family history, and are about 3000 people ahead of my 1300 people!
Don't you just love having a great best bud along with access to the Internet and what it can bring you, if you know the right place to look!
Thank you Sally-Ann! xx
It was my pleasure. I get a big kick out of finding people for family trees and was just so excited for you. You'd spoken about them on many occasions it was just great to actually see their names on the internet so that you could get in touch. xx
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