Today’s Discovery: My Newfound Facebook Friend (and Cousin) Who Lives In England and My College Friend (From Back In The ’80s) Are Related To Each Other.
It is stated that if you go far enough back in time, for enough generations, you will find that we’re all related. So true.
However, it IS fun to make the connections and figure out exactly where and how certain persons in our lives are related. Especially when it’s a connection you weren’t even looking for!
This week I was on the Georgia Genealogy Network page on Facebook. A fellow researcher posted her story, including that she had lived in Texas previously and now lives in England. I’ll call her Mary. She noted some locales in South Georgia that are of particular interest in her research. People responded; conversations ensued, including what surnames she was researching.
Since those locales and surnames she named dovetailed my own genealogical research, I reached out and began a conversation with her. Well, it turns out that she and I are fifth cousins! I love meeting new cousins from around the world through this hobby called genealogy—it’s one of the amazing aspects of tracing our heritage.
Then, I noticed one particular surname she named– Studstill. I don’t have this name in my own family tree but I have come across it many times in my research. Obviously, there were a number of Studstill’s in the small towns of Georgia and Florida where my ancestors came from. The name caught my attention because that is the maiden name of one of my closest college friends from back in the ‘80s, and back in Virginia. Her name is Pam. I wrote my new friend in England, Mary, and told her about Pam. And I wrote Pam and asked her about her lineage. We shared data and records about the Studstill family back and forth.
Long story short– it turns out that Mary and Pam are related as well—through that Studstill line!
The gravestones of two shared ancestors of Mary and the author, Julie: Edmund Mathis, born abt. 1717 in Isle of Wight, Virginia, and his wife, Mary ‘Molly’ Price, born 1725 in Isle of Wight, Virginia.
So, go ahead—start the journey of tracing your family tree. You never know who you’ll find that you are related to. Or the fun connections that you will make.