10 46 pm pst   [ my face hurts ]

My face hurts from smiling. I got an unexpected e-mail today from a woman who asked if we were related. We are. Her great-grandfather is the only brother of my great-grandmother. We must have been on the phone for an hour, and I was so delighted to be talking to someone so interested in my research and so willing to share information.

She's a relation on my paternal tree -- on a branch that I had been staying away from for a long time. I'd given up hope of finding any of the other branches without writing letters to Israel and France. This call was a wonderful surprise.

So now I will have to go all crazy researching this branch again. It amuses me how my interests come and go, but are never truly lost. I was thinking today that I no longer have to have a reef tank, but I'd still really like one.

Current tree stats:

Summary of Paternal file:

2 Adoption cards
58 Citation cards
140 Death cards
30 Divorce cards
18 Document cards
127 Event cards
2 Family Event cards
221 Marriage cards
0 Name Change cards
608 Person cards
117 Place cards

Summary of Maternal file:

0 Adoption cards
51 Citation cards
116 Death cards
9 Divorce cards
9 Document cards
37 Event cards
2 Family Event cards
157 Marriage cards
0 Name Change cards
464 Person cards
79 Place cards