Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Genea-Angeldom and Genea-Serendipity

The week since my return to genealogy has been a good one, especially in terms of connections.

The first connection was with a first cousin of my husband’s father. My in-laws met with her for lunch and learned that she was very interested in family history, so they put her in touch with me. We have been sharing information on the Terrana and Davi families.

The second connection was another Fichtelmann descendant. We know how all of the descendants of the Brooklyn Fichtelmanns are connected, but this man’s family settled in North Dakota. I told him what I knew and referred him to two Fichtelmann experts.

The third connection was Becky Jamison of Grace and Glory. Becky had previously met a descendant of Richard Brinlee, the brother of my great-grandfather Hiram Carroll Brinlee, Jr., and had put the two of us in touch. The other day I received a nice present from her: she had been taking pictures at a cemetery in Colorado and had found and taken pictures of some Brinlee tombstones. And Becky has learned that she is connected by marriage to the Brinlee family - the particular family that I have just been researching! Once again, Becky is a real Genea-Angel. Thank you, Becky!

7 comments:

  1. I'm constantly amazed at the kindness of "strangers" and what I think of as simple luck. It definitely sounds like your stars are in alignment!

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  2. It's sure been fun to connect with you and is a bonus to know we're REALLY honestly connected by marriage! I feel honored, Greta, and was so happy that I could help you by providing family photos! Thanks for writing about our "serendipity".

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  3. What a great week for you! It's so great when an unexpected contact comes through for you. I had a similar experience with a photo request from ancestry...a contact that will lead to my Grandmothers family in Alaska. Totally unexpected!!

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  4. Go you! Isn't it fantastic to have one of those weeks where it rains cousins?

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  6. Carol - Yeah....

    Cynthia - I'm keeping my fingers crossed - and one of my new contacts sent me copies of some great documents!

    Becky - Knowing that I am connected to you, even just by marriage, is just really neat!

    CTG - Exactly! That's why I try to put as much information out there in as many places as possible - you never know which one will result in something really fabulous.

    Dee - Yeah, it's funny how sometimes they all come in clusters - it's as though we get several Christmases spread out over the year.

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