52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, Week 35, Genealogy Friends

I love having genealogy friends, whether they are cousins or not. It provides an avenue to bounce ideas, thoughts, theories and questions off other researchers and also be a sounding board for them. Better yet, it gives me friends who understand the crazy hobby and this crazy hobbyist.

So today I want to say a big old North Carolina HEY to local friends Cheryl M and Sharon F, cousins Laurel P and Lorna W, German guru Mary P and cousin-of-cousins Rob W. And I must add a Swedish HEJ to almost-cousin Benny E.

The weekly blogging prompt asks how we met, so I have to write a few words about Rob, who is amazing. He has spent many years compiling what he calls a forest, rather than a tree, focusing on everyone in a single Oklahoma county. He has a lot of my family members in his forest and I can't remember exactly how we connected. He has sent me many obituaries for my family members and we have pooled our knowledge to identify the parentage for some of the women that appear in my tree and his forest.

Rob is not the only researcher who focuses on a location, rather than a family. These sorts of researchers provide a great service to the genealogical community by giving our family members the context of friends and neighbors. The in-depth knowledge they have and share are invaluable for revealing otherwise hidden relationships.

So thanks, Rob, and the rest of my genealogy friends. I'll see you gathered 'round the 1940 census.

Here's a look at a family reunion with the genealogy buffs at top left going over a chart. This genealogist was behind the camera. The neutral colors of this paper never appealed to me, but with mixed clothing colors, I appreciated how the neutrals didn't clash with anything. Using this kit for a series of family reunion photos gave me a new perspective on the benefits of earthtones.

ClubScrap Private Eye paper kit