Cousins Unite!

Last week my cousin Donna came to visit and brought her darling daughter, Lindsay, who was a year old the last time I saw her. Yes, it has been that long! They drove here to Virginia Beach from Buffalo, NY and spent one whole day with me. Can you believe it? Donna had to get back for an appointment on Thursday, but decided to make the tip anyway, even tho it was a quick one with lots of driving.

This is how we looked last time we saw each other! Lindsay grew up to be a wonderful young woman and I enjoyed her so much. She seemed to be content to sit and look through the family history research that I have accumulated for the Winspear family over the years. She even spouted names and dates that she remembered from visiting cemeteries with her mom. How lucky Donna and Lindsay are to be able to team up and enjoy doing the searching and researching together!

As I mentioned in a previoius post, Donna and I only recently reconnected after all these years. Our fathers were brothers, Jim and Burt Winspear, of Buffalo, NY. Donna happened upon my Dad's blog while searching on line for Winspear information. Since Winspear history has been my pet project for years, we got together and shared info. I have lots of names and dates and am still finding more! Donna has the advantage of visiting local sites and cemeteries in Buffalo and surrounding area. She knows where all the bodies are buried! 

We had so much fun talking and sharing and scanning photos. We discovered that we have much more in common than just our family history. So now were are delighted to be not only cousins, but friends! And Lindsay too! 

FAMILY CONNECTIONS

This is my Uncle Burt Winspear, Grandpa Jim's younger brother. I love this photo of him! He was about to be made captain when he died fighting a fire in Buffalo, NY in1975. He and his wife, Margie, had four children. Recently his daughter Donna left a couple e-mails on Grandpa Jim's blog. I contacted her by e-mail and then we spoke by phone. We have not been close over the years. We moved from Buffalo when I was 14 years old and Donna was a baby. I remember Grandma Bessie was so delighted with Donna because she finally had a grandchild with red hair like her own! 

When I was 18 Linda and I went back to Buffalo for a visit.

 Linda, Cheryl, Donna on my lap, Grandma Bessie and Margie

When Dad and I lived in Rochester for a brief while we saw Aunt Margie and her family again. Donna had grown up and had twin girls, by then. Cheryl couldn't make it that night and I hope to connect with her soon also.

Now another 20 years has passed! I am so delighted to be talking to my cousin again. And now I find that we have something in common that we can share. Donna has recently taken an interest in genealogy! We spoke for over an hour last week catching up on family and family history. She and her daughter, Lindsay-in the above photo, have been going to the County Court House and looking up records and searching microfilms. etc. They also went to the Lancaster Rural Cemetery where my mom and Jennie and I went back in 1988 to the Winspear family plot. Donna was as thrilled as I was to find the resting place of almost all our ancestors (the American ones).

It is a rather funny feeling to go to the cemetery and find all the grave stones. We felt the presence of our ancestors around us. Of course we know their spirits have moved on, but somehow we felt them, as though they were watching and knew we were there searching for them and wanting to say hello!

Our Winspear ancestors left Yorkshire, England in 1831 and settled in the Buffalo area. They raised large families and were active in their communities. Donna teaches 5th grade and talks about them to her class as part of their local history of Cheektowaga, NY. Isn't it fascinating that her family is still located in this same community where our ancestors settled? Her daughter is the eighth generation living there! 

Just thought you might like to know... 

LOOKING FOR SOMEONE?

As you all know I dabble in genealogy. Recently while playing on line I googled my great-grandfather's name and found a link to a genealogy website where someone was looking for information on his family. I shared what I knew and the woman had this photo, above, that she emailed me. What an exciting find! It reminded me of that commercial that has been on TV for Ancestry.com where the woman says, " you don't even have to know what you are looking for, just look"! Kate Spencer North is my great-grandmother, and her father, John North, is my great-great-grandfather. We are not sure of the names of the others in the photo, but all are family, surely. They lived in Syracuse, NY, where Grandma Bessie is from, and Kate is Bessie's mother. This was a very exciting photo for me to come across.

Years ago when I was doing research I sent to England for a birth certificate for Kate. Look at all the great information on this document! Today most of this is available at Ancestry.com. You have to pay to join and then search for the info on line. What a fabulous boon to genealogists! In case you don't already know this, you can go on line to lds.org and download a program called PAF for free. Here you can begin to enter your family genealogy on charts where you just fill in what you know and search for the rest. At new.familysearch.com you can find additional information that the LDS church has compiled. Keep in mind that I have already entered a lot of information, so don't reinvent the wheel. Just ask me!

I want to encourage you all to watch the TV show, Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC, Friday nights. It has been really great! It has followed the ancestry search for Sarah Jessica Parker, Emmit Smith, Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Broderick. If you missed any of them you can see them on line at the above link. You may also have an "on demand" button on your TV remote that lists that show. This coming Friday they will show the episode with Brooke Shields. Check it out!

Love you all!

MOM