RELATIVELY SPEAKING

When I started this blog my main objectives were to record as
much of our family’s history that I knew and remembered and
to talk about the discoveries I’ve made while researching our
genealogy. There was the hope that by putting that information
on line I might find other relatives from either the West or White
sides of the family.


It’s been nearly a year now(my first posts were on 23 Jan 2007)
and while I’ve yet to hear from or discover any White relations,
I’ve found or been contacted by some very interesting folks on
my Dad’s side including fellow genealogy bloggers. A link on
Boston 1775 led me to Walking the Berkshires and Tim Abbott.
Besides the pleasure of reading his blog, I also discovered in an
exchange of comments with Tim that we’re related through
several of our family lines, some of which Tim detailed on a
comment to my post here. I’ve learned much from Tim’s posts
about the Abbotts and the Barkers at WtB and I’ve had fun
with his family photo caption contests.


I’ve also learned much from Janice Brown at Cow Hampshire,
another Abbott descendant, who among other things set me off
on the quest for The 49 Genealogical Uses of the Flutaphone and
has given me some sound advice and suggestions in my research.


Another connection I discovered is with Chris Dunham of The
Genealogue who is my 6th cousin through my Dunham line and
with whom I’ve traded some images and discussed the tangle of
the different Dunham and Donham lines.


Recently I think I’ve found some connections with Randy Seaver
through his Hildreth line but I haven’t finished running down all
of them as yet.


And as anyone who has read their blogs knows, all four have
great senses of humor!


I mention Tim, Janice and Chris first because they were the first
connections I discovered since starting my blog and surfing those
of others. I’ve also had two significant genealogy finds by
searching on RootsWeb’s WorldConnect sites. The first was at
Larry Overmire’s site which led to my learning that ancestress
Lydia Phelps had been married to Larry’s ancestor Sampson
Read but was a widow when she married my ancestor John
Ames, and that the pedigree I had for Lydia was wrong.
Some pruning of the family tree had to be done.


Another was N.’s site. I sent an email with a question about the
spelling of a surname and the ensuing correspondence led to
more information on the Barkers and Coburn/Colburns in our
family trees.


Some research on my Ellingwood/Ellinwood/Ellenwood lines
brought me to D.Balcro’s website. D. and I are related also
through the Ballard and Stone families.


The two most recent contacts include one from J. about a family
related to my Ames line. I didn’t have much that was of help I’m
afraid but she filled in some information about Sally Ames’ family
for me.


Lastly, I heard recently from H., another Barker relative who has
given me a lot of information about our ancestor Jonathan Barker
and his brothers Jesse and Benjamin. You’ll be seeing that in
upcoming posts I’ll be doing on the Barker Brothers. H. has also
given me the means to contact two other Barker relatives.


Before my blog, I had made a contact with a West descended
relative through Family Forums who shared some files on the
family of Louisa Almata Richardson, Jonathan Phelps West’s wife.
I am ashamed to admit that I can’t recall his name; it and his
email address was on the computer I used at the time which has
long since gone to Computer Heaven and I hadn’t yet added his
name to my printed backup list of email addresses beforehand.
So if that person ever reads this, thank you again and please get
in touch with me again using the comments link so I can share
some of what I’ve found with you!


So far all my contact with these newfound relatives has been
through the email, which I think is the least intrusive. I’ve
learned a lot I hadn’t known before and I am more than glad to
share anything I know in return with them or anyone else,
related or not, because I believe that knowledge should be
shared.


There are some folks who I have alluded to with just an initial
because for privacy issues I won’t give full names unless I have
the person’s permission.


It’ll be a year on January 23rd since I started this blog and given
how many relatives I’ve found met in the first year, I look
forward to meeting many more in the years to come. I may
never become rich or famous through my blog but that wasn't
the reason I started blogging, and the knowledge and contacts
I've gained have made it well worth the effort, relatively
speaking!

UPDATE 1/17: I've just made another connection, this time with
someone who is descended from my Griffith and Boyden lines!

((This post was written for the Carnival of Genealogy. Check it
out for links to other genealogy bloggers and great reading.))