FaceBook Surprise

     I received a wonderful surprise over Spring break and couldn’t wait to share it.  I would say many of us are familiar with FaceBook and even have an account, but then I remembered my own husband doesn’t. The thought of having to take time to communicate with everyone and read the ongoing lines of political drama, personal drama and game advertisement isn’t appealing to many. But in this case this particular FaceBook page paid off.

     You can find genealogy, county and family history pages; I joined some pages that I have a family research connection to. It was on one of these pages I posted a scanned photograph of one page from our family bible and a photograph of my great grandmother posing with three other ladies and a small girl. I knew the names of those in the picture and simple just wanted to share something I had. Yes I like fishing sometimes, that fishing trip paid off. I received a reply to that posting from a nice lady who basically wanted to know who I was and how I had a photograph of her mother and grandmother. I replied with my answer as to who I was, how I obtained the photograph and my relationship to those in the photograph. She couldn’t believe it and neither could I, she was my mom’s cousin, we continued sending messages back a forth for a couple hours. She shared memories she had playing with my mom on my great-grandparents farm. I couldn’t wait to tell my mom and she couldn’t wait to get in touch with her and reconnect. It turns out that they hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in over 50 years and now they are sharing old memories and making new ones. Guess what I’m included and now have additional family members to connect with and learn more about my family, and their memories of my ancestors. We have all exchanged photographs; my mom and my great cousin are now looking forward to seeing each other face to face again. Oh yes, you best believe I will be there also.

Essie Mae Clinton, Flossie Clinton, Jennie Clinton and Sue Clinton

     Who knew FaceBook would play such a roll in our genealogy research.  If you haven’t look into adding FaceBook to your research toolbox I recommend you give it a try. Who knows you might receive a message similar to mine.