Continuing the emotional roller coaster

[twilight33]

Googling an obscure German town's name where my great-great-great grandmother was born led to a website loaded with family stories and pictures, including several of my grandma as a little girl that I'd never seen before. It was completely overwhelming, so many personality traits were intimately familiar to me yet I never knew any of the people they were attributed to.

It literally was a goldmine, the Gold Rush was the reason the family settled in California. The bizarre part was that the family's last name was stolen from a dead passenger who was buried at sea. His papers were in order & my Danish ancestor didn't have a passport & needed one, so he conveniently took and kept that identity.

Curiously, there is mention of my great-grandfather by name & two pictures on a page dedicated to him... and not a single word on it. It appears my theory that I come from multiple black sheep for generations on both lines is true.

I've emailled the website's author explaining who I am, and that there are only 5 descendants of my great-grandfather left & we'd love more information about him and the rest of family. Hopefully whatever he did to piss off the family won't be held against us.

Comments

[spaceling.livejournal.com]

Discovery is a wonderful thing. :) Be sure to share what you find - I love geneology.

[twilight33]

I thought of you as I was looking at pictures of distant cousins and recognizing faces. I'm hopeful that we have a similar story of reconnection someday :)

[miss-becki.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness- that is so wonderful!!! When you run out of things to do on your own family I will give you my last name ans see if your magic wears off! ;)

[twilight33]

I have a fair number of bricks to go on mine still, this is just the one that was bugging me the most ;)

Have you already gotten all information possible from your family, including names of distant cousins and dates/general locations & checking the backs of old pictures? Those have proven to be the most valuable resources for me, the information I've needed is rarely with just one person but scattered over several. If you'd like more tips I can email you a bunch :)

[miss-becki.livejournal.com]

I'm always open to new thoughts- you can email me here at LJ. My main problems are that I am dealing with family outside of the US (specifically in Mexico), and that the names I need are very common- Rosa Reyes, Miguel Hernandez, etc... I drive my inlaws crazy asking them questions, though, and I think I've gotten about all I can get from them. Also, I dont really have a lot of time to spend on it, which makes a difference. :( Thx for your ideas!