Family Tree

So, I’ve been giving this some serious thought and I’ve decided to construct my paternal family tree.  I discussed this with a couple of my cousins and it seems like the logical thing to do.

I was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.  The last time I was there was a few years ago just before my grandmother passed away.  Before that, I can’t even recall the last time I was home.  I do know that the immediate family is quite large in numbers.  My grandparents had 12 children (my father being the oldest son) and most of them have had at least 2 or 3 of their own.  It’s gotten to the point where if my grandmother were alive today she would be a great-great-grand by now.

I look on Facebook and I see my younger cousins with friend-links to other family members.  No doubt, we have quite the extended-family.  It’s reached the point that I have no idea how we are all connected and they, more than likely, probably have no clue who I am. 

Compiling this family tree will be quite the undertaking but, at the end of the day, I believe it will benefit our clan as a whole.  I feel it can only be a good start to make note of who’s who, if not for the sake of those in my generation but for the sake of our children and their children to follow.  As I told my cousins, we can make this tree as big as it needs to be.  I think this will be a great documentation for future generations.

Family… and the wonders of the www

I just want to share a a little bit of joy with you all.  I’m just coming back from a brief travel jaunt to Bermuda where I visited a new-found cousin.

Long-story-short, she was given up for adoption at birth and is trying to re-connect with her birth-family members.  She found me in Facebook.  At first I had no clue who she was, but once I saw that she had a few of my own cousins already in her friends list I took a chance and accepted her request.  One evening, I happened to be showing my parents other family members photos in Facebook and my new cousin’s name came up.  My mother reluctantly told me that she knew who this person was but didn’t want to give me much more information than that.

Armed with this new piece of knowledge, I started dialog with my cousin.  Needless to say, she was very happy to hear from me and we’ve pretty much been in daily conversation ever since.  We met briefly a few weeks ago while I was staying in Washington DC.  We spent much a day together and had a wonderful time.  She in-turn invited me to visit her and I jumped on the opportunity.  While there we had some serious one-on-one time…  re-counted some personal stories, had some good laughs and shed some heart-felt tears.  She is a beautiful soul and I’m thrilled that we are are able to make this connection…  and we have YEARS and a whole lot of catching up to do.

Having said all that…  it never ceases to amaze me the good of what can come out from the www