Cross-post. I've been found by relatives I didn't know I had!

[Blue Diadem]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=6621129&mesg_id=6621129

I posted the link to my original post.

I'm so excited!

[NOLALady]

1. My Father is 82.

About ten years ago I discovered that he had a half sister. She was dead but she had 10 children including a set of twins. It took me another 3 years before I found them. Actually, one of them found me. She became curious about her genealogy and googled her (our) grandmother's surname. My queries came up and she contacted me.

About a year after we met, I had them over for our first Family Reunion. There were a lot of tears. I assumed the emotions had to do with being reunited. That wasn't it.
My home was decorated almost exactly as their Mother had decorated. My kitchen is bright yellow. Their kitchen was bright yellow and so on. When they walked into my home, they stepped back in time to their Mother's home.
While I look nothing like their Mother, they tell me that my mannerisms, movements are so similar to hers. It's wierd.

My Father and his half sister do not resemble at all. My Dad resembles his Maternal GMother while his sister resembles her Father. Strangely, her ten children and my Father's five look so much alike that some have had a hard time telling us apart.

Trust me! I really know how you feel. It's like walking on air!

Enjoy!!!

[Cybergata]

2. The Closest I'm come . . .

was actually for my husband's former wife. We are all friends since my husband and she share a daughter and grandchildren. I have a genealogy web page, and have her included as part of the family. I received an email from a wonderful young man who was hoping that my husband's former wife was his mother. It was amazing. She had given him up for adoption when she was 15 or 16, and has been wondering about him her whole life. It was amazing just how much they look alike, and have similar mannerisms, even more so than my step-daughter & her mother. I can't even begin to tell anyone just how wonderful it feels to help them find each other. It is one of those wonderful experiences that makes life "grand." Now if I was feeling so excited, you can imagine how mom and son were feeling.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. That's very cool!

I've been doing this with lots of third cousins to write my book. Using obituaries to find next of kin, seeing if it has locales for them, and then using anywho.com to try to get phone numbers and call them.

It's very cool collecting all these photographs of ancestors from all the family branches. I've been very excited to do it and collect all this. It's become like a big jigsaw puzzle I'm intent on unraveling.

[sybylla]

4. Closest thing I have are internet cousins

The most startling discovery of which was a cousin in Germany. One branch of my family left Wuerttemberg in 1832. Everyone boarded a ship except one son who had to stay behind to complete his mandatory military service. Most of the family died in the crossing. I'm descended from the one couple who did survive. He was descended from the son who stayed behind. There were orphans and we (another cousin and I) had trouble finding them so I put up a request on a Rootsweb message board. That cousin from Germany found me asking if I had any information on his family. It was a common German name so I figured the chances were nill and was very surprised to see him list information for my ancestors. He said his father, who was in advanced years, had always wanted to know before he died what happened to them. He was so grateful and very helpful in finding and deciphering old German church records.

Congratulations on your discovery (or being discovered in this case) and your new family!