Small World

One of the things I like the most about genealogy is finding distant relatives all over the world.  Ancestry.com makes it easy to contact people who share some of your ancestors.  As I've said before, in the past, I've heard from cousins of mine and of my husband, and I've reached out to a few distant relatives I've never met. 

Just a few days ago, I contacted some Schulien relatives in Illinois when I came across their family tree that listed a common great, great, great grandfather.  They responded and offered to answer any questions about the family.  I'm also in regular touch with a second cousin in Ohio in the Schulien family (Hi Tim!).

Then, yesterday I received a message through ancestry.com from someone who is a distant relation on the Brennan side of my family.  I responded to her and am waiting to hear back.  Her message prompted me to do some work on the Brennan side to see how her family is connected to mine. 

And now I have contacts in four European countries (Ireland, German, Croatia, and the Czech Republic) who have helped me or are in the process of helping me with my family trees. It amazes me how willing people are to help each other in the arena of genealogy.

Every day, the phrase "small world" becomes more meaningful.  And as I've said before, if you go back far enough, we're all related to each other. Maybe that could inspire us to treat each other a little better than we sometimes do.