One of the things I enjoy about family history research is connecting
with various cousins from all across the county (and beyond), from different
branches of my family tree, connecting through a number of different places.
I’ve “met” family from California, Texas, New York, even
emails from Afghanistan. I’ve made connections with people through Ancestry
family trees, Ancestry DNA matches, Find A Grave photo requests, comments on my
blog, other blogs, message board posts, obituaries and more.
Most communications are by email with a few letters, but I’ve
had a chance to meet some people in the flesh too. When I was in college, my
mom and I traveled to Pennsylvania and met up with a cousin who showed us different
family sights. In more recent years I’ve had coffee a few times with a 4th
cousin, twice removed (or half 3rd cousin, twice removed, depending on how you
want to look at things). We first met and emailed through Ancestry a number of
years ago and then reconnected when I moved to “her” town.
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| My first look at Elizabeth (McPherson) Phares. Thanks Cousin Gail! |
One of my recent DNA matches has a fun coincidence in that
we are twice related - he’s a 3rd cousin to my dad and a 3rd cousin to my mom!
And of course the shared information is fantastic! One cousin
helped solve a family name mystery, another shared information on family letter
from the 1600s she had discovered, and just this month I was sent some photos
and I saw my 3rd great-grandmother for the first time.
And the story continues – this week, I’ve having lunch with
a couple more cousins I’ve recently connected with. Here’s to meeting more
family and sharing more stories!
