Saturday, November 14, 2009

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN

This is my first foray into Saturday Night Genealogy Fun hosted by Randy Seaver @ Genea-Musings .
I often see the topics and don't have anything to add to them but this Saturday night is different. Here is the topic for this week. 


What is the Nicest Thing another genealogist did for you, or to you, in the last week or so? (If you have no examples for this past week, go back in time - surely someone has done a nice thing for you in recent years!).

I don't have anything recent but several years ago I was contacted by my second cousin, Maureen. I didn't even know she existed as I was very early into my research. We agreed that the connection was there in the family tree and exchanged notes and details. I thought I had won the lottery because she had so much more information than I did. 

Then it came. It came in the mail. A large manila envelope heavy with family photographs. Photographs of people who I had never seen before. My family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents. Oh my, the photos it contained. 

You can get information and details, dates and places and names but when you see a photo of your blood family from a time long before you were even born it changes you. It connects you to a whole world of people. It grounds you and it is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in the genealogy world. 

Thank you Maureen. 
I was so lucky to meet Maureen in person for a lovely lunch. She lives about 5 hours away from me. When I look at her I see my mother and my aunts faces too.  

7 comments:

FranE said...

Great insight into the feelings that surround looking at those old pictures.
Maureen sounds great.
Thanks for the post.
Frances

Unknown said...

Lori,
This happened to me almost the same way, I was early on in my research and I went "back home" to Eau Claire, and my first cousin's daughter had all of the maternal side photos....there had to be 75 of them! Many we didn't know who they were, most of them we do now....it was such a rush! And I agree looking into their faces there is an instant connection! Thanks for the great post!

Karen said...

Lori, I'm a little late checking your "other" blog. This is great. I am so into genealogy, but have taken a break to get some updates done in my home and also to get ready for the holidays.
We'll have to share some experiences and tips in the future. I'd really like that.
Karen
Ladybug Creek
P.S. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Norma Lee @ Norma Lee Good said...

Lori, I'm glad to find you! Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday. I am very into genealogy and glad to have found you!

Evelyn Yvonne Theriault said...

Oh this is just so great when you get a bunch of photos like this! It's happened to me twice and I was really happy, also because they were unimportant to the people who had them so they would have probably been lost if they hadn't been passed on to me.
Merry Christmas,
Evelyn in Montreal

Celestial Charms said...

Oh I'm so happy for you in gaining access to those photos. Photographs, especially the first time we see an image of someone we have researched to death...can have such a moving effect on us. It sews up all the visions we have created mentally of that person. Lovely post.
Maureen

Michelle said...

I've not worked on my genealogy research much lately but in 2002 I contacted a man in Genesee Co, NY about my House family. A few days later I received a long email and it included quite a bit of info on my House family in NY which opened up my research and eventually my research is back to about 1200s in England.

And I saved his email and still have it today. Ironically, the gentleman and I are cousins, several times!