September has arrived, which means fall will be upon us very soon. Even though it’s hot in Tucson, I still prefer warmer weather to cold weather, which we also get.

On the positive side, it’s a holiday weekend and it’s time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver.

I like this week’s challenge:

1)  Most genealogists try to stay in contact with their aunts, uncles and cousins.  Who among them made the most effort to stay in contact your family?  Did they write, use the telephone, send cards or gifts?  Did they visit you, and/or did you visit them?

Like Randy, my immediate family was small. Growing up, on my mother’s side, I knew three grandparents, two aunts, one uncle, two cousins and my grandfather’s aunt and his first cousin. They all lived in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, while we lived in New Jersey.

On the paternal side, not only was my father an only child, but two of his first cousins lived in California with their families while my great grandmother and Nana’s other family members lived in Czechoslovakia. Nana did have one brother who lived nearby in Clifton, but I didn’t see him often. That’s probably because Nana saw Pete every Sunday at church!

In spite of the distance apart from both sides of the family, there was frequent communication. My family drove to Maine every summer for a couple of weeks and stayed at my grandparents’ camp. When I was 12, my aunt and uncle invited me to spend summers at their camp in New Hampshire. Cards and letters were exchanged over many holidays and there were usually a couple of phone calls in between visits.

I remember excitedly talking to the long distance operator and being able to place the phone call when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old (with Mom next to me).

I also spent several Easter weeks in Massachusetts visiting, too.

I only met Aunt Pearl, my grandfather’s aunt, a couple of times. However, her son, Charles, was my genealogy mentor, who shared all the family stories and old photos with me when I got hooked on genealogy.

On the paternal side, I remember that my dad’s cousin, Steve, was in New Jersey on business and brought his daughter, Peggy, with him. She was a year or two younger than me, but we had a fun time playing. I didn’t meet his other California cousin, Nick, until I moved there. After that, we got together fairly often because he lived in Burbank and I was in Rancho Cucamonga.

Through the years, holiday cards and family photos were often exchanged.

Nana kept in touch with her family in Europe through letters (many of which she saved and I’ve inherited), but I don’t remember her ever talking to them on the telephone. There weren’t any phones in the village, as far as I know, even in the 1960s.

I have vivid memories of the mailman coming to our house and, as I collected the mail, noticed distinctive envelopes with unusual stamps – letters from Europe. I would excitedly bring the letter upstairs to Nana, letting her know she had news from Czechoslovakia.

The family also shared photos, which I’ve also inherited.

I really regret not being able to meet my great grandmother. She died in June 1967. My grandmother’s church friends had planned a charter trip to Slovakia to visit the village, but it was cancelled a couple of months before happening and my great grandmother passed away. Nana left Udol in 1910 and never saw her mother again. This was to be her last opportunity and it was missed.

Today, I keep in touch off and on with my first cousins and share holiday messages with my second cousins. Thanks to Facebook, I’ve been able to use translation websites to converse with my Rusyn family. None of my generation speaks English, but their children and grandchildren do, so sometimes I can even write in English!

Thanks, Randy, for this fun challenge.