Sandy Supposes....

Relative Round-up

PROMPT: T.S. Eliot said, "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." Have you ever taken a big chance and watched it pay off?

         Several years ago, I decided to explore my family heritage. Genealogy became a fascinating hobby. My hubby was more than disapproving, "Who in their right mind needs or wants more relatives?" Some of my curiosity was fuelled by the knowledge that I'd never known my mother's father. My Mom had only met him once, and she didn't have information to share.

         The internet is a wondrous search tool. I surfed, explored, and researched from the comfort of my own chair. My mindset was nothing ventured, nothing gained. I set forth with a name, a city, and the indisputable fact that my mother had been named after both of her grandmothers.

         I poured through online genealogy sites, seeking references to a certain surname; a name that wasn't a common one like Smith or Brown. When I discovered the reports of a man and woman, with the flagged surname, emigrating to Canada , and then settling in the correct city, I realized I was on the 'relative trail'. Everything clicked; the names, the time frame. I'd found my mother's paternal grandparents.

          They and my Mom's father were long since deceased, but I did ferret out surviving kin; first cousins my mother had never known existed. I began an internet relationship with five siblings who were nieces and nephews to my Mom's father. They were wonderful people excited to have re-discovered my Mom. They knew about her, but had wrongly assumed she'd been spirited away to the States as a toddler when her mother had remarried. My maternal grandmother had cut off all ties with her in-laws. My mother always refused to have anything to do with a computer, so I was the intermediary.

         Mom's 'new ' cousins were spread out across Canada, and when I found them, they and my Mom were seniors. Health issues and economic concerns didn't make it possible to meet all of the cousins in person before my Mom died. They chose to write letters and chat via the phone. My Mom was thrilled. I did act as chauffeur to facilitate the meeting of one cousin who lived in 'our' province; a seven hour trip one-way.

         Colleen resembled my Mom, not just physically, but in speech and mannerisms, too. I was fascinated that genetics obviously played a big part in this.

         My genealogical detecting really paid off! I continue to correspond with my Mom's long lost cousins, and I've travelled to another province to meet one of them. Unfortunately, the woman that first answered my queries, and introduced me to her siblings, is still just a correspondent. Someday, I hope to meet her in the flesh.