Hello Cousin!

Researching my family history, I discovered that the most interesting relatives were the hardest to find. For instance, there was the greatgreatgrandfather who changed his name about as often as he changed his socks. It appears he was a bigamist (not all that shocking, since divorce was next to impossible in those days - easier to change your name and run away).

I searched through every record I could think of, not just to go back through my ancestors, but to trace forward - what happened to the descendants of all their brothers and sisters? That's just as interesting to me. I found a good many of them. Some eluded me. I posted queries on message boards and e-mail lists, got a few answers, some seemed determined to remain lost.

Just in the past couple of weeks I have had a couple of unexpected e-mails. That's the wonderful thing about the internet - those queries, several years old, are still there to be found by anyone with a search engine. So, hello to Patty in Georgia. (connected to me via Scotland, Chile, and New Orleans). And a big hello to Carolina. I had given up hope of finding out what happened to my greatgrandmother's brother after he left Scotland for the United States and then disappeared. I now know he went to Peru. Here is a great description of his daughter Tia (Anna) Bates.

I wonder where the remaining missing relatives will turn out to be? I have renewed hope that one day they will find me