SERENDIPITY

Does anyone else ever get a case of descendant’s guilt, a feeling
that while you’re pursuing leads on one group you are neglecting
another?


Well, I was feeling a bit of it the other night when I mentioned
Cora Barker(my grandmother) and Louise Almata Richardson,
my great great grandmother. I’ve been so lucky with my searches
on the Ames, Abbots and Ellinwood lines that I’ve spent more
time on them than the other two lines.

So I started googling for Nathaniel Barker and ended up at
Rootsweb’s World Connect where I found on a member's page
a Nathniel Barker on who was married to a Huldah Karsting.

Mine was married to a Huldah Hasting.

Figuring it was worth asking I sent an email to the website owner
listing Nathaniel with my information and it turns out our
Nathaniels look to be one and the same and I broke through a
brick wall. Not only that but it turns out there are several other
connections between this person’s line and mine.


I’m not going to go into all the details now but the reason I’m
bringing it up is that it reminded me again this afternoon as I
exchanged emails with this new-found cousin that if this were say,
15 or 20 years ago, before the age of home computers and the
internet, I might have eventually found the information but I’d
probably never have made the acquaintance of the person who
shares my ancestry.

And that’s the biggest effect computers have had on genealogy.
Instead of just solitary researchers who might belong to a local
genealogy society, we also now have a global network of people
who might belong to a genealogy society on the other side of the
continent and who are able to make use of the archives from
their home as well as being able to meet and share information
with people on the internet who share their ancestry.

I know, I know, I've said all this before I think.


But isn’t technology great?