I found a 3rd Cousin Once Removed by accident, and it's really awesome

[MrsBrady]

he's been doing research...and by accident, a few years ago I was doing random name searches on my great grandparents names on the internet...
well, he has is own website with research. his g-grandma and my gg-grandma were sisters. Cool, huh?

We met in Memphis this January when I had to be there for business. He lives there.
His family has been there as long as mine has been in Texas, for just over 100 years...when this leg particular leg of the family tree split off when people moved.


The kicker is is that I found a rare family document by accident this weekend when I was visiting my mother (she's living right now in this certain area of Texas where this leg of the family began.)
Her first cousin had a page torn out of a family bible. (that's another story) It's at least 170 years old. It contained death dates that I don't think this 3rd cousin and I would have found otherwise. It was a miracle really.
He didn't know how important this document was. And it's sitting in my living room right now. I'll be finding someone who can preserve it...like a real archivist with a piece of art work.
Maybe I can convince him to give it to a local museum that does good work.

I was never, ever interested in genealogy. But somehow it's giving my dear Grandmother immortality. I miss her so much, and she would love this, about absolutely love that we are doing this work.

So I had to geek out somewhere on this...your own personal genealogy is not important to anyone else but yourself. But it is very important. Thanks for listening.

[struggle4progress]

1. What sort of accident removed him?

It is good to hear that he has only been removed once by accident: hopefully, there will be no future accidents removing him

[MrsBrady]

2. thanks for the sarcasm

:hi:

I should have said I found him unexpectedly. Is that better?

[struggle4progress]

8. Sorry. It's cool to find these people. I once went searching into my greatgrandfather's family

and found his brother's civil war diary posted online

[jobycom]

13. Of course that's not better.

What kind of sarcasm can we come up with for that? :P

Cool story!

[marzipanni]

3. That's interesting. I think it's fun to be an internet sleuth.

My mom had a book that was written in the 1940s by a distant relative and she wanted to give it to a relative who was more closely related to the author. I was able to find the person's name, address, and telephone number in another state, and she called him, and then sent the book to him. At first when she called he thought she wanted a copy of the book, because it had been out of print and occasionally someone would look for a copy. He was happy to discover an old family connection, and receive the book.

If the page from the bible has handwriting on one side you could have it framed with acid-free archival mat and backing boards- most art framers do this kind of framing for original or limited edition art, or documents that cannot be replaced. This way the page would not have glass touching it, nor anything that would cause "foxing", those little brown spots cause by acid which you often see on old documents. Or if you just want to store it, there are acid-free sleeves and envelopes.

Did you tell your 3rd cousin about the page yet?

[MrsBrady]

4. as soon as I got the page over to my mother's house

I called him in Memphis.

He was sooooo excited. It was in glass between a mat, but it was taped down and not preserved properly...so I took it out. I scanned it. I know, I know. I shouldn't have scanned it. But it's in pretty bad shape already, and I wanted to make sure we have at least a digital copy. on edit: it's births on one side and deaths on another. I need to get it preserved in a gas, maybe, but at least an acid free matt in UV glass...and keep it out of the light. there is already some ink faded.

I uploaded the documents and a few rare family photos for him at a private page for us at photbucket.

There are are only a handful of family members left that are of my Grandmother's generation. I talked to two widows today...one of a great uncle, and one of another distant cousin.
I've started calling them, so my memphis cousin and I can try to get them to identify some people in photos.
They knew who I was when I called them today, but very surprised to hear from me. Also very glad that we are doing what we are doing.

geeky fun

thank you for asking

[marzipanni]

5. Yes, ask them while you can

I was talking to my mom on the phone a lot during the past year. She couldn't move around very well after healing from a broken hip and compression fractures of her vertebrae, from falling right before her 90th birthday, but her mind was as sharp as ever. I should have written down more questions that would pop up about her life to ask her when we talked. Since I moved from Massachusetts to California forty years ago, we didn't have opportunities to sit around having tea and talking a lot over the years the way mothers and daughters do. I did ask her quite a bit, but not enough. She died in June at the age of 95.5, the last of the cousins in her generation.

My mom's first cousin in California has a daughter and we call eachother sisters. About twenty years ago, when my mom was out here visiting, her cousin had a pile of old photos and they sat down together to try to identify the people in them, but it should have been done by their parents' generation. Now my cousin and I are being more attentive to writing names and dates on photos!

[Gormy Cuss]

6. Ugh, photos with no identification...

I have so many old photos that are clearly of relatives but no one's around anymore to tell us who they were. I am lucky to have other genealogists in the family and we have over time put names to many faces but there's still a bunch with no names.

[MrsBrady]

7. my grandmother was really good about naming photos

but this one is so old...it's before her time...and it's of a uncle when he was young, probably getting married.
so some of the people are the woman's that married into the family. which is probably why gma didn't know who they were.
otherwise she would have written it down.

[catzies]

9. That's a very sweet and touching story and more power to you

I have found I know myself better when I learned where I came from and from what folks. :)

There is something to that DNA stuff. ;)

[Rhiannon12866]

10. How very cool! I love family history, too...

My second cousin once removed ;) is the other person in my family who's interested, so we've helped each other and become friends because of it. Sounds like you've found genealogy gold and a new friend, as well... :D

You might be interested in the DU Ancestry/Genealogy Group. Another DUer and I started it in 2005 and there are numerous knowledgeable family historians here... :hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=331

[frogmarch]

11. Amazing!

Congratulations! I am happy for you. How thrilling it must have been to not only have met your 3rd cousin once removed (the "removed" business just indicates a generational gap, right?) and to have met him, but to have found the old family document. Great finds, both of them! :thumbsup:

[bikebloke]

12. Back in the 80's, I searched census records

In the National Archives. I went back further than anyone in the family knew. The mid-1800's. Since then, via the Internet tubes, I've reached back to the late 1600's. You have to be careful of some public trees. I found an error someone made. Luckily, I was able to sort it out.

It's kind of neat to have ridden my bike over land that was in the family 300 years ago. Decades later, it was bought up by some whipper-snapper named George Washington.