Distant Cousins...Closer Than You Think!

Today I had the pleasure of meeting my second cousin once removed, my third cousin, and my third cousin once removed.

Huh?

Late last year I started a family genealogy page on Facebook, for my dad's side of the family. Since we had so many photos and I knew others also had some, I thought it would be a good forum for sharing them. It has been a lot of fun and through the wonders of social media, we have been able to make connections with distant relatives who share branches of our family tree. A few so happen to live in my area, and upon discovering this, one in particular contacted me and expressed her interest in meeting.

Leslie and I share a great-great-grandfather, Charles Schmitt. Our great-grandmothers, Emma and Helen, were sisters. It was about a 40-minute drive to Leslie's home, where I met her and her mom, Gayle, and also Leslies 5-year-old daughter, Laci. I also brought Lucy along, so those fourth cousins got to meet, too. Laci and Lucy. How cute! It was a wonderful time of looking through old photos and catching up on family members, past and present. We plan to get together again.

Since all of those ancestral photos seem to be so serious,
we tried to make stoic faces... not so easy.
As you can see, Lucy couldn't handle it!

What a wonderful connection to make, and as Leslie commented...I don't think when our great-grandmothers were taking all of those pictures years ago, they were thinking their great-granddaughters would be looking upon what may have been an ordinary day, and asking so many questions about these women from whence we came.

Sisters Emma, Gert, and Helen - June 1944