I had put up some new names on the Brennan-Mueller family tree - descendants of Ned Brennan (my father's family) who would be my 3rd cousins. I had never met these cousins, and had actually never heard their names, even though they live in Lima, Ohio, the town where my parents and I were born and where they lived until their early twenties. Then, during a phone conversation with Tim, a second cousin on my mother's side of the family, I learned something fascinating.
Tim happened to mention the surname of the family I had just added to my tree, not knowing about my connection to them, so I said "those are my relatives." He seemed surprised, then begin reciting the names of the children in this family - all 12 of them. Turns out he had gone to school with some of them, and knew their mother as well. She had been a friend of his mother, and he told me, she had been a friend of my mother as well.
I wondered aloud if my mother realized that her friend was related to my dad. He said he was sure she knew as those Irish clans are pretty tight.
Lima is really not that large of a town. Most of the residents belong to either a large Irish family, a large Italian one, or a large German one. At least, that was the case when my parents lived there. So I suppose my mother knew - although I had never heard of this family before, so perhaps she didn't. People don't always keep track of their second and third cousins.
Anyway, my husband and I are visiting Lima this spring, so perhaps I can visit with the woman who once knew my mother and find out.
The list of relatives I want to see is growing longer and longer.
