Aine and I have been emailing all through each day and evening since we 'met' only a week ago across the wonders of the internet. Our ties to all things family are strong, and we relate on that topic so well. We understand each other, I guess.
As the words fly between us, similarities and preferences seep from our words, and we're discovering so many things. We like the same kinds of music. We'll eat nearly everything. We both write and have been in writing groups. We're both crafts persons and have a strong interest in photography. We're both married for the second time to men who, (dare I say it?) worship us.
Both of the men, too, seem very alike in personality and interests. They are each of Scotch-Irish descent, a bit reserved at first, but warm up and are very friendly. Each of them hates crowds and large groups. Both are avid readers of the same types of books, and watchers of the same tv programs. They are both outdoor guys...never wanting to be in a stuffy house. Both are sky watchers and weather predictors. Trees and plants, flora and fauna...nature boys! It all seems to be going so easily.
So easily, in fact, that we've adjusted our schedule so that we will visit East Hampton at the same time as the trip Aine and Bruce have scheduled. We will share the exploration of the cemetaries, digging up the old bones of our family (not literally, of course.) We'll follow the footsteps our Lopers left for us...walking the same paths they walked. We'll visit the sad-looking old Life Saving Station in Amagansett, and the sites where others stood (if we can figure out where!) I'll give Aine and Bruce a guided tour of the area, and point out the Loper homes which still stand, or at least, the property where they were. We'll try to meet with other Loper family members, some of which I know, some I don't, though we lived in the same town for decades. It's time I met them!
All Mike and I have done since this began is to talk about Aine and Bruce....and I'm told the same going on in an old house in Maine, only with our names as the subject of conversation! The brain matter is brimming with information, and the faces are grinning with anticipation....even the men's! We've decided to share a cottage, and although people may think it's crazy because we've never met, we may actually know more about each other than most of the people we've known all our lives!
This computer, once feared, once hated, has become my best friend, for it's introduced me to many new people and reconnected me to many old friends. What a wonderful invention!
Stay tuned for more of these stories! I believe that this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Continuing Saga....
Unexpected family, as I wrote yesterday. Little did I know! Aine and I have been wearing out the keyboard on our computers, and our heads are spinning with information shared and to be shared. Not only on the Loper families, but...with the discovery of an O'Sullivan name in her photographs, we began to speak on that surname.
The wind was knocked out of us both, as she hunted through her notes. With a tiny smidgeon of information I'd given her on my former, late, father in law, she shot back an email with much information on him. Some was new to me, but the rest was true! Her great-grandmother was an O'Sullivan from my Patrick's location in Ireland, and she had a much younger brother in her 14 siblings, named Patrick. Parental names for both her and my subject are the same. Both her Patrick and mine arrived in the US in the same year. Can it be that they are one in the same family?! We now have a contact at work in Ireland on this.
I feel as if we've tumbled into the twilight zone! If this mystery unravels and connects my children to her on another level, I will be doubly blessed, in the meeting of Aine, as I've had so little to offer my kids on their paternal side. But God has granted me yet another blessing in life the meeting of Aine, whether or not Aine's O'Sullivan bunch lines up with ours.
If it does, I will also begin to believe the old adage...."It is a small world." Indeed!
The wind was knocked out of us both, as she hunted through her notes. With a tiny smidgeon of information I'd given her on my former, late, father in law, she shot back an email with much information on him. Some was new to me, but the rest was true! Her great-grandmother was an O'Sullivan from my Patrick's location in Ireland, and she had a much younger brother in her 14 siblings, named Patrick. Parental names for both her and my subject are the same. Both her Patrick and mine arrived in the US in the same year. Can it be that they are one in the same family?! We now have a contact at work in Ireland on this.
I feel as if we've tumbled into the twilight zone! If this mystery unravels and connects my children to her on another level, I will be doubly blessed, in the meeting of Aine, as I've had so little to offer my kids on their paternal side. But God has granted me yet another blessing in life the meeting of Aine, whether or not Aine's O'Sullivan bunch lines up with ours.
If it does, I will also begin to believe the old adage...."It is a small world." Indeed!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Unexpected Family
For a good many years, I've been exploring my ancestral lines. A few months ago, I bought a 3month subscription to Ancestry.com, hoping to find some hidden bits that have thus far eluded me. I got more than I'd bargained for!
On that site, you can enter your own information, and the website will automatically give you hints on others who are searching the same family names. At times, you discover that there's no connection, but at other times you will get lucky and connect with someone who is searching and entering information on the same family line as yours. Such is the case with me. I've been corresponding for a few days, non-stop, with a woman who is, like me, a 12th generation member of the Loper family. Our line converges at the seventh generation, making us distant cousins.
What a delight she is! She's warm, friendly and willing to share all she knows about the family. I've been doing the same. Aine (pronounced Ahn-ya) and I have shared our other interests, both of us endulge in crafts, writing, gardening. We've compared notes about our husbands and their likes and their ancestries. These men are, as Aine says, 'cut from the same tartan cloth'. We look forward to a day when we will meet. In fact, they are going to East Hampton to look further into her predecessors lives, to see their stomping grounds. We have a trip planned for later than their visit, but all four of us are thinking how wonderful it would be for us all to be there together. In fact, they've even offered to share the rental which I helped set up for them there!
I don't know if our schedule will be worked out so that we can go during the time of their visit, but I believe we will meet face to face sometime, somewhere. Whether or not that comes to fruition, I've no doubt that we will continue with our email correspondence and develop this fabulous friendship we've begun.
Life brings its sorrows, no doubt, but oh...when it brings such joyous surprises, all else pales! I look forward to seeing how this all plays out.
On that site, you can enter your own information, and the website will automatically give you hints on others who are searching the same family names. At times, you discover that there's no connection, but at other times you will get lucky and connect with someone who is searching and entering information on the same family line as yours. Such is the case with me. I've been corresponding for a few days, non-stop, with a woman who is, like me, a 12th generation member of the Loper family. Our line converges at the seventh generation, making us distant cousins.
What a delight she is! She's warm, friendly and willing to share all she knows about the family. I've been doing the same. Aine (pronounced Ahn-ya) and I have shared our other interests, both of us endulge in crafts, writing, gardening. We've compared notes about our husbands and their likes and their ancestries. These men are, as Aine says, 'cut from the same tartan cloth'. We look forward to a day when we will meet. In fact, they are going to East Hampton to look further into her predecessors lives, to see their stomping grounds. We have a trip planned for later than their visit, but all four of us are thinking how wonderful it would be for us all to be there together. In fact, they've even offered to share the rental which I helped set up for them there!
I don't know if our schedule will be worked out so that we can go during the time of their visit, but I believe we will meet face to face sometime, somewhere. Whether or not that comes to fruition, I've no doubt that we will continue with our email correspondence and develop this fabulous friendship we've begun.
Life brings its sorrows, no doubt, but oh...when it brings such joyous surprises, all else pales! I look forward to seeing how this all plays out.
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