Family History Through The Alphabet Challenge: The Letter C

 

The lovely folk at   Gould Genealogy  have  issued a challenge to genealogists and family historians. Their idea is The ‘Family History Through the Alphabet’ Challenge   We will work our way through the alphabet, using one letter each week  and discuss anything relating to our family history starting with that letter. This week, being Week 3 is the letter C.

C is for Cousins: During my childhood, I had contact with four cousins, the children of my mother’s only sister. I was aware that my father had brothers and sisters, but for many reasons, we weren’t in contact with them.  My father’s parents, died when  he was 6 years old.

At primary school, I was always quite envious of the children who came from large families, and often thought of how I would love to have more cousins to play with.

Shortly after I accidentally started researching my family history, I started to think about Dad’s family. It wasn’t long before I was in touch with a few of my first cousins from this side of the family. This lead me to the realisation that I had dozens of first cousins from the Jones branch of the family alone.  I have now met quite a few of these family members, but still there are many that I haven’t met as yet.

Over the years, I’ve been contacted by many second and third cousins from all branches of the families of both of my parents.  They have found me through various internet sites and recently, through this blog. These cousins are from all areas of Australia and around the world. Some are interested in family history and some have no interest at all. Many just have a general curiosity about this strange person (me) who blogs about their family.

Many of these cousins, I keen in regular contact with, some I hear from occasionally, after reading a blog post that interests them. Many I have met face to face both in Australia and overseas.

I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have met so many cousins over the past ten years. They have all had a major impact on me and my life is greatly enhanced by them.