Another new-to-me cousin found me through this blog! People Google around looking for general info about their ancestors and find this blog with regularity. She was looking for connections to her ancestors William Workman and his wife the Indian Princess Tereca, and William's father Andrew Workman all of whom I blogged about not too long ago. So she sent an email! Enter Cousin Denise!
Right off we found out that she and Cousin Brenda and I are all DAR members. That's super fun right there because in addition to being DAR sisters we're also blood cousins! So many great ways to be connected.
Right now I'm awaiting approval of my additional DAR application verifying my lineal descent from my Patriot Ancestor John Trimble. And Denise is working on her additional application proving her lineal descent from William Workman's father Andrew Workman. Because Denise had already submitted an additional application for my John Trimble, she had some documents for me just as I had Workman documents for her. We burned the midnight oil playing document swap! What fun!
Now you need to know that for me, the very best thing to happen besides breaking down one of my giant brick walls, is finding a new DAR Patriot Ancestor. (You can find the DAR Patriot Ancestor database and check if your ancestor is listed
here.) The DAR has already verified my applications for five Patriot Ancestors and I have two more at National right now and if they go through that will give me seven in total.
I also have a list of other more challenging ancestors that I'd like to get approved by the DAR as new Patriot Ancestors. I'm working them all and that list is right by my side at this very moment. These individuals who are ancestors on my tree that I can prove my descent from but are not yet recognized as Patriots by the DAR because no one has yet submitted an application linking to them. There are about 20 ancestors of mine who might possibly be proven, with a lot of luck. But documenting a new Patriot Ancestor means proving their service and residence at time of service as well as the usual dates and places of birth and death. As you can imagine, each one takes massive amounts of work.
So, with seven Patriot Ancestors done or at National, when Denise casually mentioned that John Trimble's father, David Trimble, is also a Patriot Ancestor, my head about exploded!!
But that's truly not the point of this story. The real point is that I connected to both Brenda and Denise because this blog with my email address was floating around out there on the internet for them to find. We've had a blast sharing a ton of old family records and getting to know each other. None of that would have happened had it not been for this blog.
Take every chance you can to get out there and make connections to both cousins and others searching for your ancestral lines. Start a blog, post to message boards, join genealogical societies and historical societies in the places you research, join Facebook groups and post your questions. Make yourself and your connections to your ancestors visible on the internet. You'll be so glad that you did.
