Yesterday I was updating the address list, trying to identify family members who might want to help me set up an ancestral family organization. I found some new contact information, but wasn't quite sure it belonged to my cousin. I needed outside verification.
So, I looked at his children and saw a daughter with a unique given name and unique married name. I put her husband's name in the Switchboard search engine and came up with a positive contact. I called the daughter, but no one answered. I left a brief message: "I'm trying to reach so and so, I'm your cousin, want to talk about family information, blah, blah, blah..."
To my surprise, Circe called me back in the afternoon. We had a good visit. I put her stalker/identity-theft fears to rest with detailed information from my database and assured her that her information will only be used for genealogical purposes.
She's in the middle of an adoption, so has no time to help set up the family organization. She's interested in being involved once it is organized, though. Yes, the address I found is her father's contact information. He might want to become involved, but her cousin Paul is the genealogically motivated one in the family...
I didn't have her connected to a cousin Paul.
It turns out that I had her family in my database twice. Once as descendants of one corner of the family on her father's side and a second time as descendants of a different, more closely related, corner of the family on her mother's side! I hadn't connected the dots yet. With her help I got the puzzle pieces connected.
After the call was finished, I had to merge the two family records (six individuals in all) to clean up the file. Fun!
For the second day in a row I have been blessed with extra, unexpected, helpful, welcome information from my routine efforts.
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