I hope everyone is enjoying the Thanksgiving weekend. By now, you all may well be out shopping for Black Friday deals. Not me, I’m actually all finished and have been reflecting on the thoughts in a few posts earlier this year.

Remember when the question was raised about whether genealogy was better “in the old” (pre-internet) days or whether it is better today?

My take on the situation was pretty much middle of the road, as I would love to see more people doing actual research, especially in physical locations, not online, but the availability of so much material online today is fabulous.

One of the reasons I began my blog is that I love to find distant – or not-so-distant – cousins working on various branches of the family tree. That is one way that the “empty branches” obtain new growth on them.

This month has been the best yet since Empty Branches began in January 2014. I have been contacted by two descendants of Revolutionary War soldier Moses Woosley and have shared the probate file that proves all of his children and a good smattering of his grandchildren because their parent pre-deceased them.

I have also been emailing a Sturgell cousin, who somehow found my blog and we’ve been sharing information and old family photos AND I found a new Sturgell cousin descended from one of Isaac Sturgell’s estranged daughters.

Both the Sturgell and Woosley lines are Dave’s. However, I’ve had success with my family, too.  Another distant cousin contacted me about my Kucharik family from Vysna Sebastova, Slovakia. The family there was quite small and I’m elated that a descendant found me.

Lastly, yet another cousin, this one part of my Stewart/Stuart family, found me this week. We are also in the midst of trading information about our family tree.

All of these contacts came through internet clues. Without an online search engine, it isn’t likely that any of us would have found each other, at least not without knowing who we were looking for and putting in a lot of time and effort in the search.

So. . . . this Thanksgiving weekend, I am thankful for each of my newly discovered cousins. Genealogy is a fabulous hobby!