What a year, so far.

In early December my brother told me that his son had decided to do a DNA test with a company called 23 and me. My response was that should be interesting. I have from time to time taken an interest but have not done very much in tracing family history. I did start on a site called Family Search and had found some interesting links on a site called a Billion Graves. However, I had not added any information or looked at these sites for at least 7 or 8 months. It might be interesting to find out some of the things my brother's son found out, so I said when he gets the results maybe he would be willing to share some information. My brother said he would ask.

In late December my brother phoned at said that his son had received his results, and he shared. It was interesting in that it confirmed an Irish connection and confirmed a Polish (now) but at the time an Austrian Hungarian connection along with a British and French connection. The only surprise was the French connection but that could be on my nephews' mothers side. My brother also said that there were 1,080 third and fourth cousins listed for my nephew with connections. As I listened to some of the names I recognized many but not all. I thought if my Nephew wins the lottery he will have all these people in contact with him.

About two weeks after Christmas, my brother phoned to say that a person had been in touch with my nephew and wanted to know if my nephew had a connection to a family from the town my father was from. This person had been looking, along with another person for two years and my nephew was a link they hoped would lead to more information on their family. It did for both people. After some phoning and talking to an aunt, we were able to confirm that one of the people was a long lost cousin from an aunt who had died in childbirth of her second child in the '50s. My aunt who had died had given birth to a girl about four years before she died trying to give birth to her second child. That child also died. The person contacting us was the son of my aunts first child. So arrangements are being made for the reunion of the great aunt and her nephew and we hope that the story has a happy ending.

The other person engaged in the search did contact me via FamilySearch but I ignored the message because I had not been on the site for at least six months. With the investigation going on about my long lost cousin I went back to FamilySearch and saw the message that had been sent to me in Sept. I saw this message in mid-January. I responded and after much investigation, it appears that I and my three brothers very likely (according to DNA results) have a half brother who is three years older than I am and who was born in England during the war years. 

We are still investigating this avenue, but my brothers and I find it (after our initial shock) interesting and hope to learn more about our half brother and his story and look forward to welcoming him to our family. With parents gone, these revelations cannot lead to or should not lead to anyone being hurt or upset by the situation. Life is good and always surprises. 

If January is any indication, 2019 will shape to be a very interesting and exciting year.