I seldom post more than a few words but this will be long. Nearly 15 years ago, shortly after moving to Peaks Island, I started researching and organizing my genealogical records. I had a wealth of information about my mother’s side of the family and could trace many of my maternal lines back to their early voyages from England, Holland, France and Wales to settle in America in the 1600s. But I could trace my paternal ancestors only as far back as my great grandparents. I took advantage of the many online genealogy bulletin boards and posted what little information I had in hopes of finding someone who could fill in some of my missing information. Shortly after I posted the info I got a response from a woman named Kathy in Minnesota. She thought we had a connection and provided what she knew of what she thought could be our common relations. I laughed when I saw her data and wrote back to say that not only did we have a connection, but we had met each other as children. When I was about 12 years old I took a trip to Minnesota with my grandparents to meet some relatives. I was young then and had little interest in how I was related to these Minnesotans and while it was a great trip I left with only a vague idea of how all the people I met were related to me. On that trip my grandparents and I stayed at a farm owned by Kathy’s grandfather. There was little for me to do and so they brought Kathy over to keep me company and to keep me from just running around the farm and scaring the chickens. I still had photos from that trip. I got them out and there she was at about the age of 7. Shortly after we connected via the bulletin board on the internet (some 40 years after our meeting in Minnesota) Kathy and her husband were making a trip to New England. They added a ride out to Peaks Island to their agenda. Kathy and her husband, Roy, came back to New England this year. I met them in town today for lunch. As with many families, there are lots of mysteries. Over lunch, we shared some of the puzzle pieces we each had. There are still many unanswered questions. We may never, for instance, know what happened to our 2nd great grandmother, Sarah Cook Parker. She came from England as a 48 year old widow with Annie, my 14 year old great grandmother and Annie’s 10 year old brother Frederick, who was Kathy’s great grandfather. They came through Canada and settled in Minnesota. I’d love to know how and why my father’s maternal grandmother, Annie Parker moved from Minnesota to Scranton, Pennsylvania where she met and married my great grandfather, John Casper Auer. John Auer’s family came from Germany to live in Albany, New York. Why did John Auer move to Scranton? Kathy and I will never have all our questions answered. In the end, it doesn’t matter. As they say, the journey is whats valuable, not the destination. But, it’s good to have my 3rd cousin along on the search. Oh, and by some quirk of fate, Kathy’s husband and I share Dutch ancestors from my mother’s side of the family. Kathy posted a photo of us at the Drydock earlier today. The photo is below.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 03:26:29 +0000
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