Finding Family

When I started looking into my family tree a few years ago, I knew my father had a half-sister, but didn't know much more. After some research, I discovered that she had had three children, two sons (Eugene and Edward) and a daughter (Sonjie). I remember Eugene (known as Gene) visiting my family from time to time, and this clarified his relationship to me (my cousin). The others I don't recall meeting, and both Gene and Edward were now deceased. By some luck I made contact with Sue, the daughter of Gene, who indicated that she had lost track of her aunt. I did discover that Sonjie had spent several years as a missionary in Japan.

About a year ago, I recontacted Sue to ask if she had located her aunt. She had not, but with the aid of Sue's cousin we determined that she was a retired minister associated with a church in Toronto. With this information, I was able to establish email contact with Sonjie and put her back in touch with her niece. Since, on this trip, we were planning on passing through the area where Sonjie lives, we arranged to stop by for a couple of days to visit. Earlier in the trip I had given her the address of this blog.

On Mon. July 21st, we were able to meet. We did not know what she looked like, but she recognized us from our blog pictures. I had brought my laptop with my genealogy database and many scans of old family photographs. She also had many old photographs. We looked through what each other had and found some that we each had copies of. Others were new to either Sonjie or myself. We had a wonderful time getting to know each other and discussing our common family members. She seems to really enjoy reconnecting to different parts of her family.

Later in this same trip, we hope to meet Sue who lives on the East Coast. Sue is technically my half-first cousin, once-removed; but definitely family!