Serendipity with Friends and Find-A-Grave

I work as a Parish Administrator in a local church. Two days ago I had a visit in my office from a member of the congregation, a woman named Sallie. It doesn't take long for me to turn a conversation to the subject of family history. In this case I did it because I knew the woman I was talking to had cousin connections with several other members. 

When I had free time Wednesday evening I went to the internet to see what other information I could find on her mother's family line that Sallie and I had discussed earlier in the day.

On Thursday Sallie returned to my office with a family photo and a short narrative she'd written about her grandmother for her children. Our discussion turned to stories about her father. So when I returned home after work on Thursday my research efforts turned to Sallie's father's ancestry. 

I learned that her paternal grandmother's name was Sallie Biddix, for whom my friend Sallie was named. I found some comments on a genealogy forum that had been posted by Kelt Smith about his great grandfather, Francis Willard Biddix, the brother of Sallie's grandmother Sallie Biddix. I started a small database in my RootsMagic program so I could keep track of the discoveries I was making.  

As I crawled into bed last night after my searching for online entries about the Biddix family, I grabbed my iPad Mini to check my email one last time. I had one message, a photo request from Find-A-Grave. I was shaken wide awake when I read the request. It was submitted by Kelt Smith who was asking for someone to photograph the grave of his great-grandfather Francis Williard Biddix. 

I was just blown away, even though this has happened to me on many occasions. It stimulates me and gets me motivated to get back to heavy-duty research, which I've neglected lately due to other responsibilities in my life. But it sure makes it hard to go to sleep when this happens right before I turn the light out!