Other Members of the Family

When I was a kid, my family bought a small farm. It was the first house that we owned, having been renters for many years. Our farm was across the road from cousin Zelner and his wife Alberta. At one point I asked Mom how were we related to Zelner, and she didn't know, but thought it was distantly. Well, this lack of information got my interest going in the family genealogy. About that time I began asking older members in the family when various people had been born, married, died, had children, and had been buried. I kept notes on all the conversations and began to compile family records.

While in college I worked summers and Christmas vacations at the Lake Placid Club in the Adirondack Mountains of New York as a bell hop. At one point, I was checking in a guest who happened to have our family name. He wanted to know why I was a bell hop, and I explained the need to make money to attend college. When I asked about the family, he mentioned a cousin who was also interested in the family genealogy and had recently published a book on the subject. He thought if I contacted her that she might be able to explain how we were related to the cousins whose farm was across the road from ours. I wrote Ethel a long letter explaining my question and included as much information as I had collected to that point.

Several months passed, and I had forgotten about my request to Ethel, since I was back in college, and there was little time for genealogy research. Much to my surprise, I got a letter in the late fall from Ethel running to more than thirteen pages detailing exactly how we were related. It was indeed a distant relationship, since I think we were seventh cousins or something like that. This infusion of information caused me to purchase Ethel's book which was dedicated to the man I had checked into the Lake Placid Club so many months before. One of the highlights of my life was meeting Ethel and her husband and having dinner in their lovely home in Madison, Wisconsin,

Whenever I would get to a new city, I would look up in the phone book to see if any of the entries included people with the family name. I had learned from Ethel that we were all related since all descended from one immigrant to this country. One time I called to speak to a Carl and discovered that he had just died, and why was I calling at this time. This struck my funny bone, and I weakly said I was so sorry, but that I researched the family genealogy and hung up, laughing for a long time. After that experience, I only called a few more and did so gingerly.

One person I called in Hawaii had the same name and the same middle initial. He was an ensign in the Navy and stationed there. We got together and started to share family stories (his family lived in Colorado), and he had a middle initial from his mother's maiden name as did I. We were born within two weeks of each other, and he said that I looked much like his two brothers. We still keep in touch and he did make the Christmas list.