An Unusual Story

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Chance and Skill Intertwine

Editor's note: Recently this story was submitted to society@skcgs.groups.io and several of you read it and commented.  It is such a great example of stating the problem, showing the methodology and resolving with that touch of serendipity we all desire, we felt it needed to be presented here.





I had an unusual story to share that I thought this group would appreciate.


Research Question: Find a Missing Half-Sibling

My mother knows of my interest for genealogy and research and mentioned to me in February her friend has been searching for a half-sibling for a long time and maybe I could possibly help her. My mother is 80 and her friend 74.


Skimpy Information of a First Marriage



My mother's friend Linda shared that her father was married before he married her mother. She discovered this after he died 35 years ago. Her father's brother shared a newspaper clipping of an article written about the wedding with a photo of the couple seated at a table on an Army base.  No date visible. All it had was their names and the bride's maiden name and town she was from.


Building a Tree

 Her father was in the Army in the early 1940's.  I started out with a search for the maiden name with the 1940 census and found the likely family. Started a tree and located the young bride's mother's obituary in 1973 listing her with a married surname of Smith living in Kansas. I then located a Kansas 1960 census that shows the matching name and a daughter, oldest child, with the same surname as my mother's friend's father!


Using All the Records



Reaching Out to Family

 I now had the name of the half-sister! I did more research and found lots of information and kept adding to the tree. My hope was to find someone within the family that could get her a message. Sadly, everyone I connected with had little knowledge of who she was or connections to other family members who "might." I kept searching. Last week I identified the half-sister's Facebook page. I sent her a friend request and message and waited. No response. 


Waiting.....

Chance Intervenes

Then the strangest thing happened.  I work for a large company and a customer from Florida called in to my department.  After helping him for a few minutes I saw his wife's name in their customer file. I recognized the name. It was the half-sister's daughter's name. I was talking with her son in law! He was so very kind and when I embarrassingly shared my story of looking for his mother-in-law, he shared that she passed away due to Covid last year. What are the chances I would receive a random call from the one person I was desperately trying to locate? Living in Florida? I was shaking I was so excited! 

Family Reunited

My mom's friend was sad she never met her sister, but happy I found 2 nieces. I think I should buy a lottery ticket!


Sande Lien

Sande Lien was born and raised in Olympia, Washington and now resides in Maple Valley, Washington.  Her maternal heritage is Hispanic from several generations in southern Colorado.  Her paternal heritage is Norwegian from early immigration to Minnesota and North Dakota.

Sande has honed her genealogical skills researching the large families on both sides of her family tree.  She uses online sites, Google, DNA and "Facebook stalking."  She has solved several mysteries and is always looking for a new challenge.  

Thank you so much for sharing!

Comments

  1. MarciaApril 7, 2022 at 3:47 PM

    What a great story! A nice reward for persistence and alertness! Also inspiring for that extra effort. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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