One of the down sides of living far from relatives, as we did in Hawaii, is that our children missed knowing what it was like to be around cousins while growing up. I'm sure they understood it vicariously, in that many of their friends in Hawaii were surrounded by cousins.After we returned to Utah for a brief period following our 16 years in Hawaii, our kids still didn't get to know their cousins, even though some were literally in the same town. Perhaps the closest connection was Michelle Malquist and Julie both going to Provo High. They were 2nd cousins, and probably felt some connection owing to their relatedness. Alan and Neal have been around Patricia Potts (1st cousin) and her kids enough to feel some connection there. They also probably feel a little bit of a connection to a few of their Aunt Linda's kids in Idaho. I don't think our kids feel any connection whatsoever to Fred's, Norma's, Carolyn's, or John's kids on my side of the family, and probably have no desire nor feel any reason to make a connection.
As I am gathering information the William Thomas Tew/Clara Elizabeth Snow Tew (WTT/CST) descendants, presently depending heavily on facebook and blogspot, I am struck by the obvious strong connections that exist at the cousin level in many of the family lines I am working on. I have found this project to be so fascinating. Even if this project falls well short of my expectations in obtaining all the information I am soliciting, I have already discovered so much about the WTT/CST descendants, my relatives, that the journey itself has been well worth the effort expended.
Here's just a tiny sampler of relatives (name, relation to our children, claim to fame) that caught my interest:
Kathryn Haynie (12/19/08), 2nd cousin, U. of Utah women's volleyball star on a nationally ranked team; was on the MWC All-Conference Team.
Sheldon Fisher, 2nd cousin, candidate for U.S. Congress from Alaska (Sheldon's family shown above).
Risa Tew Jorgensen, 2nd cousin, Mormon Tabernacle Choir member.
I also discovered that we have relatives, descendants of WTT/CST, in Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
1 comment:
Genealogy is so interesting to me, especially now that I'm older. You're right that I don't feel much of a connection to my relatives - people think it's strange I have as many cousins as I do but know so few of them. I guess I could say I don't really feel a loss of something I never knew, but I do remember lots of friends growing up with/around their cousins in HI.
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