One wonderful bonus that derives from doing genealogy research, and especially from doing it through ancestry.com, is that you find many other family trees that include the names of your ancestors, which means you are related in some way (usually third, fourth cousins, etc.). Ancestry gives you a means of contacting the owners of these trees, and thus I have been able to connect with many people who are related to either me or my husband. For example, I spent an hour talking by phone to a third cousin of my husband's - one he never knew. And I have received or sent emails to several of my own third cousins, formerly strangers to me.
Recently, I found a family tree that included the names of my husbands' 3rd great grandparents. The owner of the tree claims these same ancestors as her 3rd great grandparents and so I contacted her through ancestry. It turns out we have both been using the same researcher in Croatia and have been able to find several "lost" genearations. We have since been sending emails back and forth and are still amazed that we have connected.
Then just a few days ago, I learned through a second cousin of mine that he had connected with a distant cousin in Germany, from the Schulien branch of our family. My second cousin gave me an email address and this weekend, I heard from my cousin in Germany. Now we are "friends" on facebook.
It truly is a small world, and more and more I can see that if you go back far enough, we are all related.
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