You Never Know Who You'll Run Into Online

Tonight I got an email from a "shirt-tail" relative of mine in Arizona, forwarding a request for information on one of my family lines.

Let me first give you some background on "Ray." I first met Ray on the Prodigy Message Boards some 12 years ago, when I first got my computer and decided to use the Internet (such as it was back then) to do a little Family History Research (aka Genealogy). Ray is probably related to everyone who ever lived in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, which is where my great grandfather was born, in 1848. Ray has a picture of one of my relatives, an Alexander Millet, who was an early settler of Jo Daviess County. Ray also has "The Gold Rush Letters." They were saved and passed down through his family until Ray ended up with them. The letters were written by his gg (unsure of how many "gg's it is) grandparents when "grandpa" went off to the California Gold Rush and left wife and kiddies back home in Illinois. In the letters, my gg grandmother, "the Widow Millet" is reported to have married Adonijah Bixby. He also mentions seeing "A Millet" in his travels. Well, we're pretty sure that "A Millet" is the Alexander Millet that Ray has a picture of. We're not sure yet if this Alexander is my gg grandfather's brother or Uncle, but we know there's a relationship there somewhere.

Ray is also responsible for "The Jo Daviess Family Circle." This group is made up of a bunch of descendants of early Jo Daviess County Illinois settlers. Most of us are related to one another somehow. My main interests are the Johnson and Millet families, with a side interest in some others, like Lyon, Tyrell, Partridge, and so forth.

Now that you know a little bit about Ray and our "circle," you'll perhaps appreciate the events that took place tonight.

I got an email tonight from Ray. Haven't heard from him in a while. It was a forward from someone who was researching our Johnson line. He had sent it to those of us who were from the Johnson's of Jo Daviess County. I began reading the email, and got to the part that said, "my grandfather was Milton Melvin Johnson." Well, that's my grandfather too! Who is this person who is a grandson of my grandpa, and carries the name "Johnson." My grandparents only had one son! His name hadn't registered with me when I first began reading, so I went back to the beginning and read the name.

OMIGOSH! This must be my 1st cousin, whom I haven't seen in anywhere from 20 to 38 years, depending on whether he was at my mother's funeral in 1981, my aunt's funeral in 1987, or my grandmother's 85th birthday in 1969. Thinking back, I remember being at his house when I was a kid--probably a teen-ager as he is only 8 years older than me. But he was married with a couple of small children at that time. Eight years is a big difference when you're young.

My mother was married for 10 years before she had me. There was a war in there, which was convenient in some ways, because I'd probably be somewhat older if it weren't for the war. My cousin David was born several year before the war. He had an older brother as well, and a little sister who was 2 years older than me. There was an older sister to my mother and David's father, whose children were also a lot older than me. In fact, I was nearly grown up when I realized that their kids were only "once removed" cousins, and that our full cousins were their parents. So that is one reason I suspect, why we lost track of each other.

Anyway, cousin David may still live in Portland. "Cousin Ray" lives in Arizona. Only on the Internet can you be re-introduced to your first cousin who lives probably half an hour away, by someone who is a 2-3 hour plane ride away. I'll report back if I hear back from David, and if we get together for lunch or dinner or something.