My Half-Sister's Cousin

by Altonya White
(Southfield, MI)

My friend of many years had introduced me to genealogy about 15 years ago. I, not being one that would be comfortable at my local library, I attempted to research my family. It felt terrible as I walked in, and I felt the walls closing in on me.

As I walked back out, I saw that I had a parking ticket. I never returned. Then computers came into my world. The same friend told me about Ancestry.com. On I went, only to hit the "brick wall" at my great-grandmother's name.

Being an impatient person, I stopped again. A few more years went by and once again my friend encouraged me to try again. This time she helped by starting the detective work. She hit that same wall as I had.

She gave me the tools to find my way around inside of Ancestry. Lo and behold, I discovered my grandmother's name was being misspelled. And, my family's handed-down information on her father was incorrect. They had his middle name as his given name.

I was excited to keep digging but the brick wall came again. So I decided to follow my sister's father until that wall emerged. Then one day a message came through asking about one of my sisters' ancestors.

I was so afraid to write back to this person. I thought it was someone trying to get personal information. Mustering up the nerve, I wrote to this mysterious person, this wonderful person that turned out to be my sister's cousin.

How excited I became, and it didn't stop there. She introduced me to her web site with all the information she has on the family with pictures. How much greater can it be with pictures.

Thank you Joyce, from Your cousin in spirit.