Friday, October 4, 2019

Blessings: Distant Cousins Find This Blog!

When I started this blog in 2014 , I did so because I wanted to share the photos and stories of the ancestors with my family. With my blog, I could give a little bit at a time. A picture here, a story there, in the hope that someone out there would enjoy and appreciate what I was sharing.

I never knew at the time that one day I would be writing about what my blog has given back to me!

Through the "Blogger Contact Form", this past summer I met three distant cousins for the very first time:
  1. June 2019: A distant 2nd cousin from our Foreman family tree contacted me
  2. July 2019: A distant 5th cousin from our Colorado Moynahan family tree contacted me
  3. August 2019: A distant 4th cousin from our Tilbury Moynahan family tree contacted me

The Blogger Contact Form




The three emails started with the same following subject line:

"From: Blogger Contact Form
 Subject: [My Moynahan Genealogy Blog] 
New message received."

From the Blogger Contact Form June 2019

What the "New message received" said (edited):
"I was beginning to research my heritage on my Mother’s side when I came across your blog. Fred and Hannah were my great grandparents. Their daughter, Geraldine was my maternal grandmother! They were a very close family, so I spent some time with most of them growing up...... I was just a child when Hannah died, I believe she was killed in a car  accident when a tire came off a truck .... I have a picture of the Foreman family when they had 4 of their children, I’d be happy to share it with you, and any other info you might be interested in."
Pictured Top: Geraldine (Foreman) Whitehorn, Carlie (Whitehorn) Morris, and Hannah (Hegna) Foreman.
Bottom: Frederick Dixon Foreman, Hannah (Hegna), and their 1st 4 children: left to right: Geraldine, Lola, Shirley and Don.


The Gifts This Contact Gave ME

For the very FIRST time, I
  • Saw a photograph of my husband's grandfather (Donald Jennings Foreman 1911-1967) as a young boy (far right in family photo above)
  • Saw a photograph of my husband's great-grandfather (Frederick Dixon Foreman 1880-1951)
  • Learned that my husband's great-grandmother Anna Otili (Hegna) Foreman (1885-1965) died in a tragic, freak accident on the Burlington Skyway Bridge
What's Next?

I immediately researched the automobile accident and I will dedicate a blog post to share all of the many new photographs and information I received. I feel so grateful.

Previous blog posts on Foreman-Hegna family:

From the Blogger Contact Form July 2019

What the "New message received" said (edited)
"Was cleaning out my father-in-laws home and came across James Moynahan’s handwritten memoirs-several hundred pages of his life and civil war. He was my wife’s gr-gr grandfather. They are descended through A.E. Moynahan. Wasn’t sure if you had these or were interested in a copy."
Photo: James Moynahan with his first grandchild Zelda Moynahan;
Bottom: James Moynahan hunting

 The Gifts This Contact Gave ME

For the very FIRST time
  • I learned the names of ALL of Matthew and Honora (O'Leary) Moynahan's (1770-1860) children! This was HUGE! I knew that there were six sons and three daughters (thanks to Timothy Moynahan 1813-1902) but I was missing many names, especially of the women (except Mary named in Matthew's will)
  • I learned that they all came over at once except for two sons (James and Jeremiah) who arrived later (around 1830 or 1831)
  • I learned that the eldest son received an education (all the others did not)
  • I learned that the Moynahans "were all large men and women. My father James being 6 1/2 feet in his stockings and heavy built with large bones and muscles"
James Moynahan (1842-1919) had written ".. all large men and women ..."  in the margins of his memoirs

What's Next?
I am excited that such great care is being taken with these precious memoirs and they are being scanned and documented. I am so grateful for all that has already been shared with me. I love reading James (1842- 1919) and Zelda (1901-2002, pictured above with James) Moynahan's account of life in Colorado. I will blog and update some of the information I have previously blogged about.

Previous blog posts on the Colorado Moynahans: 
Previous blog posts on the Maidstone Moynahans
 
From the Blogger Contact Form August 2019

What the "New message received" said (edited)
"I am a Moynahan from the Tilbury Moynahans and have been enjoying your blog. I have visited Ireland, Colorado, Detroit and many Moynahan locations over the years."
 
Photo: Top: The Moynahan Family:  left to right back row: Ernie, Joe, Liz, Jerry.  Front row: Tim, Amy, Malvina
Bottom: Wedding Thomas and Donna (Dibbley) Moynahan and Timothy and Malvina (Duplessis) Moynahan

The Gifts This Contact Gave ME

For the very FIRST time
  • I saw photographs of the Tilbury Moynahans
  • I met my Tilbury cousin in person (this week!) when he was in Ottawa with his wife for a conference and he shared more photographs and a book of the Colorado Moynahans from his travels.
  • I heard about the St Francis Xavier cemetery which my cousin knows very well having worked there as a boy and later in life.
What's Next

I plan to blog more about my Tilbury Moynahans and visit one day. When I told my 4th cousin that one regret I have had for many years was that in the 1990s, on a visit to Jerry and Aldeen Moynahan's home, that I decline an offer to visit the Tilbury Moynahan farm (based on a eight hour drive ahead of me with two small children.). My cousin said he would take me there on my next trip passing through. Given all that my cousin had already given me, this generous offer to erase a regret from decades ago made this precious indeed.

Previous blog posts on the Tilbury Moynahans 

 Blogging About Family History

I had my reasons for starting this blog and I have been thanked countless times by family. There are so many more benefits to blogging (organizing your thoughts, correcting errors, etc.) but meeting distant cousins who you never knew about? That's been a highlight for me after all these years.

If you have family history that you want to share, here are some links that can help

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1 comment:

  1. Marian B. WoodOctober 6, 2019 at 2:50 PM

    Cindi, congratulations. A genealogy blog is one of the best tools for cousin bait and you have really had incredible luck. Looking forward to reading more about what your cousins have shared and your subsequent research!

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