Sunday, January 29, 2012

Another Response to Letter Writing Month

January is almost over, but letter writing and contacting cousins is exactly what I've been doing this month.

Back in the 1980s I corresponded with a FLAGG family 4th cousin who I heard was now in her 80s in a nursing home. So I decided I better work on that family again while I could still ask her questions. I did and called her. She is still fine mentally and was delighted to hear from me, and asked to write and visit if I got over to Belfast. I mailed her what I was able to find on the family, to see if she had anything else. I also drew a map of now-discontinued roads in Belmont so she could place for me, just where the old Flagg farm and cooper shop used to be, in relation to the old family cemetery I found in 2010. I plan to visit Belfast this summer. She said she planned to still be there!

I was also working on my LEAVITT family, and a 3rd cousin down in Salem MA from a branch that was totally missing two years ago that left Maine. It started with a cousin finding my website and contacting me on Facebook, and telling me how to reach his mother. I have talked with the two Leavitt sisters in their 80s who told me the old family stories and where they were buried, and giving me enough info to search more online, and also calling cemeteries, newspapers, libraries (and got copies of old obits and articles), and town halls (who gave me contact info from their current voter registration lists), and found the address for their 2nd cousin they had lost contact with, who I have mailed their family charts to. I also asked if any family photos or stories survived in their branch of Leavitts. Still hoping to find old photos. Through these distant cousins, I learned exactly where to find the grave of my gg-grandmother Mary Morgridge Leavitt (1840-1922) in Salem.

Also, a BOUDWAY family cousin on Facebook replies that she is talking with the older people for a major update of their branch that moved from Orono to Northampton MA.

I have always made a point of tracing all the cousin legs forward to find current-day cousins, and sometimes I do get lucky with lots of new family data. I put all my findings on my website when I get time so that more cousins can find me. It's nice to find new cousins that appreciate the family genealogy. This is fun.

Roland Rhoades MGS #1151
Maine Families Genealogist
www.RolandRhoades.com
seeker@maine.rr.com
2010: 30 Years as a Genealogist

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