New Year, New Mysteries

2021 has started off much the same as where 2020 ended - COVID, quarantines, social distancing, etc. However, rather than focusing on negative challenges, I have been tackling some old, and some new family mysteries.

I was surprised to receive a number of messages from other Ancestry members over the holidays, each reaching out to me in hopes of finding a missing piece of their family history puzzle, and in one instance, a really kind lady trying to locate the descendants of a person born early in the 20th century as she had come into possession of that individual's old baby photo album.

2020 came and went and I was still unable to locate my maternal 2x Great Grandfather's origins, but I have been receiving and reviewing new leads on that old case. I have been searching for my Great, Great Grandfather Crosby's story for over a decade now, and while I am not much closer to solving the question of who his parents were and what happened to them, I have managed to find other Crosby descendants who have provided me with photos of my 2x Great Grandfather as well as other family members. I count all that as a "win".

I continue to find more famous ancestors and distant cousins, but I have yet to actually connect with any of the living celebrity cousins. Oh well, sometimes it's better to keep the idea of what a celebrity is like rather than actually meet them and find out that you were way off-base. I have had the pleasure of meeting several celebrities in my life - almost all of them while I was traveling - and that's not too shabby in my books. Besides, if I ever met one of my really well-known cousins, I'd probably not be able to speak to them and end up looking like an idiot!

One of the several people who have reached out to me recently, who is also a DNA match, provided me with valuable information about our shared family. This has put me on the path to discovering yet another US President in the family tree, as well as another US Vice-President. And no, it's not the one that is currently in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (phew!), but I still doubt that my family Presidential connections will make my cross-border travels any easier, or allow me special access should I ever return to D.C.!

The exploration into my family's past continues...