The Mother Lode

I've always considered myself to be the genealogist in the family.  But it was my mother who found the son of my father's cousin (got that?) on, of all places, Facebook.

So I piggybacked on Tom's Facebook account and introduced myself to my never-before-known second cousin, Bill Rowley.  Having been cousin-deprived all my life, this is soooooo exciting!

And as an added bonus, Bill and his wife, Gillian, have traced the Rowley family back to the 1700's!

(Flashback to our first trip to Salt Lake City when Tom entered his mother's maiden name into the Family History Library and pages and pages of information spilled out, like the jackpot winnings from a slot machine.)

Bill's info catapulted me back into the genealogy swamp.  I added his info to my records, updated my PAF and Ancestry.co.uk genealogy charts, checked all the "hints" on Ancestry.co.uk and, generally, retreated into my head for days, trying to make sense of it all.

I am pleased to report that I have now boldly gone where no Rowley in my family has gone before.  All the way back to the 1600's.  How exhilarating!

Now, I was planning to add a picture of my genealogical chart right here, but I've discovered that there's also a problem with Too Much Information.  In my enthusiasm, I have added people into my family tree more than once, mixed up marriages, and generally given myself a lot of work sorting the whole thing out.  Sigh ....

But what I have learned is that, while it's interesting to know where you come from, it's way more exciting to learn you have a real, live cousin you've never met before!

Way to go, Mum!