Saturday Night Challenge - 14 November 2009

Randy Seaver, over at Genea-Musings, has issued a new Saturday night challenge:

"What is the Nicest Thing another genealogist did for you, or to you, in the last week or so? (If you have no examples for this past week, go back in time - surely someone has done a nice thing for you in recent years!)."

And so, armed with this challenge I thought back to my latest kindness by another researcher [there have been so many over the years! and so I chose the most recent]. From out of the blue I received an email from a very distant cousin [4th cousin once removed] that I was unaware even existed! He had been reading Mountain Genealogists blog when he realized that we shared not one, but at least [the very least!] three common ancestors! [All from different lines!!!]

This spry gentleman, who now lives in Florida, but was born and raised in Ohio, is a young 84-years of age. He has been so kind to share with me not only valuable information regarding a branch of the family for which we had little information about it, but also a wonderful treasure trove of anecdotal stories, essays and diaries.

I'm afraid, due to attempting to meet client demands for the upcoming holidays [I have had a large rush of clients wanting family tree research performed in time for holiday gift-giving this year!] that I haven't been able to work with my new-found cousin as much as I'd like! I am hoping once the holidays are behind us that we can collaborate and see a great deal of progress in shared genealogy!

So, Earl, if you are reading this, I haven't forgotten you! And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your time and sharing all you have! You are, indeed, my treasure box for 2009!!!

Blessings this Saturday evening to all! - cbh