I've reconnected with some long - and I mean long lost cousins thanks to dabbling in this thing called genealogy. I've been interested in family lore for a long time - as evidenced by the paper I typed (yes, a real typewriter) in high school or college about the Bullock. Typos and all. Lots of them.
Fast forward many years. I finally had the time to research the stacks of stuff I had collected from both sides of the fam. And I had the miracle of modern technology - the Internet and Google.
Late in 2008 when I was temporarily jobless I spent time tickling to Dell keys finding my roots. I joined a free site called Geni.com filling out the roots of my fam tree. So far there are 636 people on my family tree! That's a lotta leaves.
And Googling for the surnames of my relatives has yielded some nuggets - including a California cousin - Cathy Moorhead, spelled a different way than my Mom's family Morehead, yet the same tree - two brothers who decided to spell it their own way.
Last week I emailed Cousin Cathy Moorhead Miller's Grandpa's Iowa cousin Phil (she wondered if I knew him - hey, it's Iowa right?). I emailed back and asked what town, that might help. She actually had an email addy, so I sent him one, explaining who I am. He sent me an email starting with "Hey Cuz"
He's 87 years old! From Marion and his wife is still living along with his brothers. He grew up in West Branch. We hope to talk on the phone soon. Can't wait! Not too many family members left in Iowa you know.
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