new cousins . . . i found them . . . so psyched . . .
holy, holy, holy, holy . . . fuckin' shit!!!!!
i know you can't see it, but behind my monitor, i'm practically dancing!!!
so as some of you know, since last March & deaths of my uncle & grandfather, i've been on a genealogy kick. I've made 2 new "connections" distant half-cousins, but that was pretty much it. while i learned lot of info on my paternal grandfather's side, other than learning of a ton of previously unknown relatives on paternal-grandmother's, my info on their side pretty much stopped at 1920/1930. My paternal-grandmother's mother had 4 full-blood sisters, one half-brother & a half-sister.
at my grandfather's funeral, i met for the first time, my grandmother's half-cousin, Lenore, the daughter of her mother's (my great-grandmother's) half-brother, who gave me all the info she had & with that I made up a family tree & began researching. Unfortunately, this side of the family did not believe in obits or at least any i could find, so i was left with census reports that only go back to 1930, manifest documents for the early 1900's & the odd military report from 1914-1917 & 1944.
so i posted questions on every conceivable board i could think of, using every name/location i could think of - spouses, kids names, whatever - entering the barest scraps of info i had (& believe me, some of them were flimsy as hell!) & waited & waited & waited . . .
everyone said be patient, i'm not very good at patience though, i want to know & i want it know NOW!!! so frustrating was not the word for it.
finally, a post I made back in June, finally actually fucking PAID off. i found actual, real-life, freaking cousins!!!!! i found Verka's great-granddaughter!!!! Verka is my great-grandmother's full-blood sister! Her grandfather was my grandmother's 1st cousin, making her mom my dad's second cousin, making her my 3rd cousin! considering the fact that i only have 2nd, 3rd & 4th cousins anyway, this is a HUGE find for me!
i so far am beyond psyched at this moment!
the funniest thing is that she didn't think that we were actually related.
see this is how it works - Malaka (one of my great-grandmother's, Rebecca, sisters) married a man named Jake/Jacob Dain & had 3 kids. Heather (that's the name of my newly found cousin) had a great-grandmother named Dora who married Jake, but it was a second marriage. Dora's previously married name was Dora Schuman & she had had 2 kids from that previous marriage. now the last name of Schuman rang a bell for me, because there was another sister - Verka who married a man named Schuman & had 2 kids, Paul & Hyman/Herman. but how the hell do you get from Verka to Dora, right?
in our first communication though, Heather, asked me if there a Musicant connection - a family from Teaneck, NJ who owned a florist shop & funeral home. and actually there is. my grandmother's sister, aunt Edna married into that family, who did own a florist shop & funeral home.
but i thought it was so weird that Heather would ask me that. if her great-grandmother married Jake & wasn't actually related to me or aunt Edna & thus to the Musicants, why would she even know that name? who remembers the extended family of their grandfather's step-father's family? i'm all for obscure family history, but that was a bit much considering how hard it's been for me to pull such scraps of details from my relatives about people who actually blood relatives, nevermind the families of people previously married who aren't related.
lol, have i lost you yet?
so the "Verka changed her Dora & then married her sister's husband after thier respective spouses' death" theory was looking very plausible, considering that 1. this family was known for changing thier names 2. there is a definite precedent for such remarriage on my the side of my dad's family & the Heather's grandfather's name was one of my Verka's sons. it also explains the Musicant question because Verka's son would have been my aunt Edna's cousin!
all i knew about Verka's kids was one was named Paul & the other Hymen. supposedly Paul was dentist in Brooklyn & Hymen a gym teacher in Mamamorneck, NY where he ran a camp - they both married & had kids, but no one remembered the names.
so crossing my fingers, i asked Heather, if either her grandfather or great-uncle were a dentist or a gym teacher teacher & did she know of a camp in Mamamorneck, NY? i had already researched the camp in Mamamorneck/gym teacher angle with no success & i was struggling to not get too excited.
maybe it was all a big coincidence & i was reading too much into this - it was possible & i have got excited about things before only to be disappointed in the end, but i really had a good feeling about all of this.
so as soon as i check my email today, i have an email from Heather waiting for. she tell me that her great-uncle Herman was a dentist & her grandfather Paul was the gym teacher in Brooklyn . . . who also ran a camp in Mahopac, NY! Mahopac, NY not Mamamorneck, NY!
w00t!!! {{{does the vindication dance}}}
so new cousins, new pictures, new leads - the hunt is on again. i am so thrilled!
i know you can't see it, but behind my monitor, i'm practically dancing!!!
so as some of you know, since last March & deaths of my uncle & grandfather, i've been on a genealogy kick. I've made 2 new "connections" distant half-cousins, but that was pretty much it. while i learned lot of info on my paternal grandfather's side, other than learning of a ton of previously unknown relatives on paternal-grandmother's, my info on their side pretty much stopped at 1920/1930. My paternal-grandmother's mother had 4 full-blood sisters, one half-brother & a half-sister.
at my grandfather's funeral, i met for the first time, my grandmother's half-cousin, Lenore, the daughter of her mother's (my great-grandmother's) half-brother, who gave me all the info she had & with that I made up a family tree & began researching. Unfortunately, this side of the family did not believe in obits or at least any i could find, so i was left with census reports that only go back to 1930, manifest documents for the early 1900's & the odd military report from 1914-1917 & 1944.
so i posted questions on every conceivable board i could think of, using every name/location i could think of - spouses, kids names, whatever - entering the barest scraps of info i had (& believe me, some of them were flimsy as hell!) & waited & waited & waited . . .
everyone said be patient, i'm not very good at patience though, i want to know & i want it know NOW!!! so frustrating was not the word for it.
finally, a post I made back in June, finally actually fucking PAID off. i found actual, real-life, freaking cousins!!!!! i found Verka's great-granddaughter!!!! Verka is my great-grandmother's full-blood sister! Her grandfather was my grandmother's 1st cousin, making her mom my dad's second cousin, making her my 3rd cousin! considering the fact that i only have 2nd, 3rd & 4th cousins anyway, this is a HUGE find for me!
i so far am beyond psyched at this moment!
the funniest thing is that she didn't think that we were actually related.
see this is how it works - Malaka (one of my great-grandmother's, Rebecca, sisters) married a man named Jake/Jacob Dain & had 3 kids. Heather (that's the name of my newly found cousin) had a great-grandmother named Dora who married Jake, but it was a second marriage. Dora's previously married name was Dora Schuman & she had had 2 kids from that previous marriage. now the last name of Schuman rang a bell for me, because there was another sister - Verka who married a man named Schuman & had 2 kids, Paul & Hyman/Herman. but how the hell do you get from Verka to Dora, right?
in our first communication though, Heather, asked me if there a Musicant connection - a family from Teaneck, NJ who owned a florist shop & funeral home. and actually there is. my grandmother's sister, aunt Edna married into that family, who did own a florist shop & funeral home.
but i thought it was so weird that Heather would ask me that. if her great-grandmother married Jake & wasn't actually related to me or aunt Edna & thus to the Musicants, why would she even know that name? who remembers the extended family of their grandfather's step-father's family? i'm all for obscure family history, but that was a bit much considering how hard it's been for me to pull such scraps of details from my relatives about people who actually blood relatives, nevermind the families of people previously married who aren't related.
lol, have i lost you yet?
so the "Verka changed her Dora & then married her sister's husband after thier respective spouses' death" theory was looking very plausible, considering that 1. this family was known for changing thier names 2. there is a definite precedent for such remarriage on my the side of my dad's family & the Heather's grandfather's name was one of my Verka's sons. it also explains the Musicant question because Verka's son would have been my aunt Edna's cousin!
all i knew about Verka's kids was one was named Paul & the other Hymen. supposedly Paul was dentist in Brooklyn & Hymen a gym teacher in Mamamorneck, NY where he ran a camp - they both married & had kids, but no one remembered the names.
so crossing my fingers, i asked Heather, if either her grandfather or great-uncle were a dentist or a gym teacher teacher & did she know of a camp in Mamamorneck, NY? i had already researched the camp in Mamamorneck/gym teacher angle with no success & i was struggling to not get too excited.
maybe it was all a big coincidence & i was reading too much into this - it was possible & i have got excited about things before only to be disappointed in the end, but i really had a good feeling about all of this.
so as soon as i check my email today, i have an email from Heather waiting for. she tell me that her great-uncle Herman was a dentist & her grandfather Paul was the gym teacher in Brooklyn . . . who also ran a camp in Mahopac, NY! Mahopac, NY not Mamamorneck, NY!
w00t!!! {{{does the vindication dance}}}
so new cousins, new pictures, new leads - the hunt is on again. i am so thrilled!