Cousins

Tuesday I found a website listing the descendants of a Danish ancestor. His descendants are all kin of mine. Of particular interest were those people who connect into my ancestral surname project, which is to identify all of the children of the children of the children of the children of Joseph and Cornelia.

The website included records of family members I had never seen before, providing information as fresh as 2002. Unfortunately there was no way to programmatically copy the data I needed to add to my database, so I went through the website, page by page, and transcribed the gold I found there.

For the past four years I have tracked the number of people I have identified as members of Joseph and Cornelia's family. At the beginning of 2001 I had identified 17,405 family members.

Almost a year ago, on August 12, the total number of identified family members surpassed the 29,000 mark. Since that time the number 30,000 has been steadily before me.

The database has grown a bit unevenly over the years:

• In 2001 I added about 1,800 records
• Somehow in 2002 I added about 6,400 records
• In 2003 I identified 1,300 more family names
• Last year I added 2,300 records to my database

Well, by the end of June I only needed to identify another 165 people to hit 30,000 family members. When I found the website Tuesday, I knew it might hold enough information to help me surpass my goal. Yesterday I finished going through the website, adding records.

When I was sure that I'd extracted all I could from the website, I ran the routine that counts the number of Joseph and Cornelia's family members over 10 generations. I didn't quite hold my breath, but I was full of anticipation as the process ran to completion. The total:

29,995

Oh my.

Close. So close.

Where could I go? What could I dig up? My brain began running through the possibilities.

As I cast about for ideas, I remembered that I had several census records copied on my jump drive. I had copied them to take home and use to document family members. I hadn't gotten around to that activity recently, so I had a little stockpile.

I went to the first record. I'd already added the new names of children in that family.

I went to the second record. I'd already added the new names from family as well.

Goodness.

I looked at the third record. The family of Charles and Laura, living in Pocatello in 1920.

Heavens!

They had six children in their household, none of whom were yet recorded in my database.

Quickly I transcribed the record, then added the children to the family. The oldest son, Hyram, was Charles' son from a previous marriage. Even so, he's a member of the family.

Though I knew what the total would be, I ran the process again, just for good measure. My new total from the afternoon of Wednesday, 13 July 2005?

30,001

What fun!

How many more cousins will I find before year end?