New To Me Cousins!

Got an email the other day from Jo Ann who was  googling around and found my post about the Kelly Pump in Eckhart Maryland. I had been back to Western Maryland to see Mom this past spring and we took a drive to Eckhart to look for the site of the old Eckhart Mansion and the old Kelly homeplace. And there was the Kelly Pump too.

Guy getting water from the Kelly Pump.

Kelly Pump

Old Kelly Home Place down the hill and

across the road from the pump.

I posted to this blog about the trip (remembering to put tags on entries... see those things at the bottom, well they are searchable.) And Jo Ann emailed about her interest in the pump, its history, and possibly getting it a historical designation. The old pump has been on this stretch of road for a really long time since this was part of the Old Pike and the first National Road west. Yup, it's historic. Here's the Wikipedia entry for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Road

So I emailed Jo Ann that I'm on board and willing to do whatever to move this nice project along. Then I realized that we might be related!

Emails back and forth and we find that she's the granddaughter of my grandad Kelly's sister's husband's brother. Hey, Jo Ann, did I get that right? Mom, is that right? Remember guys, I'm a newbie here and by definition prone to error! Using the Steve Morse Relationship calculator, Jo Ann is my second cousin and a blood relative. Here's a link to Steve Morse's calculator: http://stevemorse.org/relation/calculator.html

Then Jo Ann told me about grandad Kelly's sister's son's daughter who lives in Florida, Eileen! I just love finding new cousins!!

See, this is just one of the reason why it's nice to have a blog:)

FOUND: Second Cousin Debby!

A while back I posted about small genealogy groups and how they work to make connections between lost relatives. Here's a link to that post:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/09/thank-goodness-for-small-genealogy.html

Finally I just took a note card and used snail mail to see if I could make contact with the people mentioned in the Genealogical Society of Allegheny County's newsletter Old Pike Post. Well guess what? Received an email back! As best I can figure using the Steve Mores One Step web site's Relationship Calculator (and I need to say that figuring relationships is a mystery yet to be unraveled to this newbie so I'm happy to have Steve's widgit) Debby is my second cousin and a blood relative! WOW!

This is the very first time that I'm had the great pleasure of using genealogy work to find an actual living relative... most are of the other kind with a tombstone and all;) And this is very cool!!!

By the way, my Dad's Uncle Gene is Debby's Grandfather. Am hoping that we'll spend lots of time comparing charts and family stories.  Oooh, maybe she has pictures to share... my favorite thing!!!