Goldie's Grandson Found Us

My husband Larry and I have always adored this photo of his grandaunt, Goldie Roberts (Mrs. Samuel Leasure) King. She was born in 1892 and died in 1972 in Greene County, Pennsylvania. We were surprised and excited last week to receive an email from her grandson whom we didn't know. I suppose her grandson had met Larry when they were small children living in Waynesburg, Greene, Pennsylvania, since their grandparents were siblings. But my husband doesn't remember him. 

As I've done our family's research over the past decade, we've connected with hundreds of relatives, but most were either very remotely related or were related to my family. Seldom have we met a relative of Larry who also shares an interest in their family. So we were really thrilled to hear from this gentleman last week. And he's equally happy to have "found" us, since I've done quite a bit of research on their mutual ancestors over the last decade. 

It was through our Public Family Trees at Ancestry.com that he made the discovery of his "relatives in Colorado" and wrote to me. There's been a lot of discussion on blogs recently about the validity of information found on Public Family Trees, but I've found them to be quite valuable for making connections with others who are researching the same family, or are related to us! The tree I put up on Ancestry of Larry's ancestors is not totally documented, sourced or proven. But it's value has been established, if in no other way, by this recent connecting and getting acquainted with Larry's 2nd cousin. We'll be able to share stories, photos and family information that we'd be deprived of otherwise. And we'll know cousins that were unknown until now! What a blessing. We're sure that Goldie is smiling on all of us right now!