| My Success Story: |
I have been a contributer to Rootsweb for two years and wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the resources you make available to genealogists.
My interest in family history goes back many years. My mother and her siblings were born during the depression years. Due to a failed marriage, difficult financial conditions and tragic illness, the children were seperated and placed in various families.
My mother has known of her parentage since her teen years. We are fortunate that she was adopted by her fathers family. That allowed a sense of knowing, in part, our heritage. I also allowed enough information to continue useful research on her mother's family.
It has taken many years, but all of the children born to my grandparents had been located and re-united. The last brother was found in 1997. It was a wonderful reunion that was marred only by the fact that we had not yet located at least one child born to my grandmother, from a later marriage.
As with many adoptions, we had no way of knowing what happened to my grandmother after she signed the final adoption papers. We were unable to locate any marriage or death record and no idea what name she had been using. After so many years of fruitless research I had neary given up on finding any more of the family.
In January of 2000, I paid a visit to the Rootsweb page and was pleased to see an updated version of the Social Security Death Index. I immediately began searching my usual list of names, including my grandmother and her known siblings. I received a match for my grandmothers youngest sister and her husband. The social security index listed both with a last address in a small community in Missouri. I followed the links, provided by Rootsweb, and arrived at the Wright County, Mo genweb page.
The Wright County genweb page happened to have listed obituaries from the local funeral homes. I did a quick search and found an obituary for my grandmothers older brother, listing his survivors.
I followed up this information on the white pages and found a likely name listed in the small town of Hartville, Mo. With shaking hands I dialed the number and attempted to explain the reason for my call. Fortunately, my new found cousins listened long enough to know that I was not telemarketer! We had a very nice chat and they did indeed have a little information on my grandmothers family, including her married name and the names of two children born after 1940.
Having exhausted the Rootsweb page, I took the new information and searched the IGI files of the LDS church. I did indeed find information on my grandmother as well as a list of submitters. Being the impatient person that I am, I could not wait for a reply by mail. I again used a computer search to locate phone numbers of the submitters. On my first attempt, I reached a very kind woman who listened long enough to understand my request. She gladly gave me the phone number to another family member who had more information.
At this point I wanted to verify the information I had received. I had no way of knowing what my mother's half brother and sister knew of thier mother's past marriage. When I reached the subitter, I provided her with the information I had and why I believed that the person she submitted to the IGI was my grandmother. As it turns out, she is the older step sister to my mother's half siblings. She spent an hour on the telephone with me and assured me that my new found family would greet us with open arms.
We have since had numerous phone conversations with my aunt and uncle. We have had a brief weekend reunion and are planning a big family reunion in July. My mother and her brothers and sisters have up sixty years of catching up to do.
Our family if so very fortunate. The extended family inculdes seven children all of them raised in different families. They are all loving and wonderful people.
Thanks to Rootsweb, my mother now knows where her biological mother is buried. She has been reunited with all of her siblings and some of her mother's family. Our family continues to grow and thrive.
Thank You!
Christine Roberts
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