Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

I have been looking back across generations quite a bit lately and discovered so much about my family tree. I have connected with cousins in Ireland who were wonderful to share a copy of the family tree and another who helped me do research. At first we did not know we were related but discovered his great-grandmother on the family tree. Two volunteers, Margaret and David, at ‘Ireland Reaching Out’ helped me connect with my cousins and with research. Geraldine at The North Tipperary Genealogy Center with rootsireland.ie was a great help with questions about records. I met another cousin who spotted my posting on a message board and met a more distant cousin through Ancestry.com whose family came from the same county in Ireland as my great-great grandparents. I found the grandchildren of two of grandmother’s sisters. I have found the grandchildren of my Great Aunt and much more. Other Ancestry members have been generous with their help as well.

Now I need to pause and look at my own life as I am living day-to-day and the people living in it. I don’t want to lose track and let it all slip by. Lifetimes pass much too quickly.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lip.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “lip”in it.

I made an exciting discovery in my search for members of my family tree. In the late 1970s my aunt wrote in a letter information about my father’s family. She told me about my paternal grandparents and their siblings. At that time, my aunt still corresponded with a cousin back in Ireland. She told me what she remembered about her aunts and uncles. She said three of my grandmother’s siblings had remained in Ireland and her two youngest sisters had emigrated to Canada. She mentioned that one of the sisters had 3 children and other had none. At the time I received the letter there was no internet and I never thought I could access databases to locate family members. I envisioned myself making a trip to Ireland or Canada in search of ancestor records and maybe living relatives. I did not ask any follow-up questions about the married name of the sister or where they lived in Canada. When I recently started doing genealogy research I was amazed by all the information I could find online. But because my great aunts names were common I could not be sure of the records. I thought I might never find out what happened to them. After I had been researching for a while I decided to have a DNA test because I though it might make it easier to identify ancestors. I did have several cousins confirmed through DNA that I already knew belonged on my tree. I have used the DNA matches with various surnames to try to find answers when the records are not clear or not available. During a recent search for DNA matches and surnames a new name popped up on my match list. Ancestry was saying our DNA match was extremely high and this person could be my first or second cousin. I contacted him through Ancestry and as I read his answer I became very excited. It turns out he is the grandson of one of the sisters who emigrated to Canada. Through him I now know who my great-aunt married and the names of her children. I am in touch with her descendants and to me this is just fabulous.

‘Wild Irish Rose-Royal Canal’ by Peter Mooney on Flickr

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The ” prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “fab.” Use it as a word or find a word beginning with “fab.”

Creativity, self-expression, art, voice, vision, nature, wonder.

Wonder

Beach, Pacific Coastline by Roger Mosley

Valley of the Gods

Lighting strikes the Grand Canyon.

Photo by Davyd Betchkal NPS Denali National Park

Ancient coast redwood towers about hikers at Simpson Reed Trail

Documenta Kassel by Etel Adman

‘Secret Beach’ by Bryce Edwards

‘Dolores’ by Adoph de Meyer 1919

Goal, door by Tama66

Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SOCS is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘affirm.’