[mommieswamie]

I would like to share a beautiful life-altering experience that has happened to me in the last two weeks. This was an experience that could have gone either way, but it went the perfect way and turned out to be beyond description.

I found my cousin. Now you might think that is a small accomplishment, but it was a big one. I had only one full blood first cousin on my father's side of the family, but the strange thing was that I did not even know that she existed until I was an adult and then I heard her mentioned only once. I knew my uncle quite well and knew his second wife whom I call my aunt, but knew nothing of a first wife and a daughter, as my uncle had been a terrible father to her and had deserted them both.

Several years ago, in spite of knowing quite a lot about both sides of my family for many generations back, I decided to do further research and begin to really look for my first cousin. Even though I am a retired reference librarian with quite a lot of research skills up my sleeve, I could not find my cousin beyond high school even though she was born 15 years before me.

Last week, I found her and with great fear and apprehension, not knowing how I would be received, I decided to call her. Amazingly, she answered the phone herself. I proceeded to identify myself, apologized profusely if this was an intrusion, managed to get out a few more words, then waited for a reaction. After a moment of stunned silence, she knew who my father was as her mother had mentioned my father, but she had no idea that my sister and I even existed. Within a minute, the first thing she said was that it was not an intrusion at all, she was so happy to have been found as she thought she was "alone". No other cousins, no husband, one daughter, no grandchildren. I immediately told her that she was absolutely not alone, that I had been looking for her for several years, and was so happy to find her. We talked for an hour. She asked about our grandfather and grandmother. She asked for pictures of her father. We bonded on every level and it ended with her saying that we will keep in touch for the rest of our lives. A few days later, I decided to call again, as she had asked for pictures and I wanted to talk about the pictures. I think I also wanted to be sure that she was still receptive to my just appearing in her life completely unannounced. The conversation was just as warm as before. She asked about my children, one of whom lives a hour from her. When she found this, the delight in her voice was so evident. She wants to meet him and we made tentative plans for this to happen.

Now for those of you who might be thinking - hmm, of course, here is a poor lonely old lady - who wouldn't be glad to have a whole set of new younger cousins show up - let me fill you in a bit on what I know of her life. She married well and she married famous, surrounded by more famous, but by me finding her, I filled a void as I always wondered about the child abandoned by my uncle, and by her allowing me in when she did not even know I existed, she is now not alone. She has close family when she thought she was alone.

I have been looking for her for a very long time and last week I found her. I am 70 and she is 85 and it was not too late. Words cannot express what I feel to have found the lost and abandoned and welcomed her back into the family.

[kittygilchrist]

thank you for a breath of fresh air and a touching story articulately told. I'm happy for both of you and am sharing in the feeling of love for a new family member that you express. Clearly you have a great heart to share..
The Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.
Kitty

[missypie]

Beautiful story to start the day. Thank you for sharing.

[jblum315]

Great story. I have been searching for cousins but no luck so far. But I did find a college roommate and that has been a great joy for both of us

[Yankee Quilter]

Enjoy ever minute! Wonderful.

[quirky3]

Wow! What a great story! Sometimes I think people would benefit so much from re-invent their dreams every now and then - and you've done that!

[RETIREDSFW]

Thank you for sharing your story. I just found my half-sister. My father was married before he married my mother. He had one child who he never supported. Two weeks ago, thanks to ancestry.com and findagrave.com, i find the last name of his first wife with a short obit that gave me my half-sister's married name. She grew up in norfolk, va & i was in portsmouth, va. I called her & we talked for a long time. My siblings & i will be meeting with her on july 27 which is her birthday. We are all excited about this. She will be 75 & i am 68. My friends laugh when i say i spend my day looking for dead people, but sometimes you find a live one.

[Schaumburger]

I love the posts about people finding family members after months or years of searching!

[ilovetv]

This is absolutely wonderful. Many blessings to you both!

[ewstanley]

What a great story.

[kittygilchrist]

I'm just bumping in case anybody needed this that overlooked it.
god bless you,
Kitty

[janieb]

How wonderful that you were able to locate a long lost cousin and also a half sister. When I first signed up for Facebook a few years ago, I was able to find some cousins in Washington that I had not had contact with for almost 50 years. Since then my sister and I have gone up there twice to see them and we were also able to connect with a couple more. We would also love to someday to locate a half-brother who was put up for adoption when he was a little over 1 year old but his name would have changed so we really would not know how to find him.

[mommieswamie]

Originally Posted by RETIREDSFW

Thank you for sharing your story. I just found my half-sister. My father was married before he married my mother. He had one child who he never supported. Two weeks ago, thanks to ancestry.com and findagrave.com, i find the last name of his first wife with a short obit that gave me my half-sister's married name. She grew up in norfolk, va & i was in portsmouth, va. I called her & we talked for a long time. My siblings & i will be meeting with her on july 27 which is her birthday. We are all excited about this. She will be 75 & i am 68. My friends laugh when i say i spend my day looking for dead people, but sometimes you find a live one.

I never dreamed that my simple, but oh so happy, story would elicit such responses. I am still basking in the happy satisfaction of having found my cousin and to be able to welcome her to her father's side of the family and to let her know that she is loved by all of us - people that she did not even know existed.

I am also so very happy for you to have found your half-sister. What a joy that must be. I love ancestry.com and findagrave.com, but do you know about familysearch.org and genealogybank.com. Genealogybank especially has so many wonderful newspapers that are indexed. I am highjacking my own thread by getting into this, but genealogybank was not only helpful in finding my cousin, but I have also read first hand accounts of my uncle being shot down in the South Sea Islands, hiding out for 6 weeks, then returning to this country and calling my grandfather only to find out that he had been reported missing and presumed dead all that time. I can only imagine my grandfather's shock at that phone call.

I am so so happy to have found my cousin before it was too late, just as I am so happy for you to have found your half-sister. July 27 will certainly be a very happy day for all of you. Please let us know how it goes.

[senior citizen]

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[LatDoc]

Sweet story...thanks for sharing.
Now for my tale....got into Ancestry.com last year.
Found out my mother's mother....who I know very well (I thought)...had nine sibs.
I only knew one...Uncle Jim. Never heard of the others but will try and find out more in time.
Point is...I so wish I had asked more questions when she was alive.....not sure she would have told the truth but I never asked...and of course now she is gone.
There were lots of secrets back then...for many reasons....mostly the depression and families with lots of kids that got scattered about or died.
I don't even know how my parents met....there should be a list of questions we ask our parents and grandparents....in fact I'll google the subject as see what is out there. I'll bet back to you on this.