Favourite Find - Week 2 #52ancestors

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Week Two's writing theme challenges us to reflect on our favourite find in relation to our family tree.

It is a big task trying to narrow a favourite find down to just one. In honesty I'm always so excited any time I can find additional proof to pinpoint records for family members or to back up family stories. Some of the best finds are ones that you just stumble across. 

I've already talked about the chance find of a "Missing Friends" advert that helped me answer a long standing mystery for those trying to locate John Lees Ross' family. Another favourite was a single line in an online book that shows John Laing had gone to Braidwood as a child and was living with Michael Hart. My latest find using DNA to confirm my "unknown" Grandfather and Great-Grandfather were special moments in my genealogical digs. One of my earliest finds that transformed the information the family knew about Sarah Weatherstone from a few lines about her children to pages that included newspaper sources and prison records was a definite highlight. Stories of bushrangers, murders and shoes hidden below Edinburgh Castle are ones I love to share.

My favourite find though? It has to be the cousins that are also keepers of their trees. They have been so helpful in my journey and I get excited whenever I can share something with them that they didn't know. Without each one of them my tree would have many branches missing. Some stop by this blog and post findings, some share resources via email and others are keepers of well researched trees. 

To my cousins close and distant, thank you.



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