My New Cousins

'New Cousin David, friend Jan and Cousin-in-law Tom

This story begins in January of this year. I've had an on and off again account with Ancestry.com for several years. Back in January there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me in my Ancestry mail folder. It was precisely the sort of email I'd hoped for years ago when I started work on my family tree.

Mar 11, 2017

Hi, Claire-My name is David Roberts and I live in Denver, Colorado. I recently received genetic results from 23andMe and discovered I have West African ancestry as well as European. This led me to begin searching, and I discovered my grandfather William White and my mother Barbara White and her siblings on the Miller family tree. This was a complete surprise, because my grandfather had lived as a Caucasian with my grandmother and their children. As far as I know, after around 1930-35, my grandparents separated and never again lived together. The children kept in some touch with William, but were never aware (as far as I knew) of his West African ancestry. So I am fascinated whether you or anyone in your family knows anything about my grandfather, who died some time before I was born. If you'd be interested in exchanging discovery or information, I'd be happy to do so.

David Robert

I knew who William White was: my maternal grandmother's half brother. I met him at my grandmother's house back when I was a kid. I knew him as my great uncle, who used to visit my grandmother at her Bronx home. So Robert is my great uncle's grandson, ergo, my second cousin. I ran

William White

across his name some time ago in Ancestry.com records - I had no idea I'd ever get to make his acquaintance, much less meet him, but meet him I did!

So I have found a new cousin! David is a doll, and since January we've communicated via email. He
is so considerate and kind, I mean, a real pleasure to call family. On his part he says he is tickled to suddenly find himself looking forward to meeting & enjoying his Carter Cousins. It was overwhelming to suddenly meet someone I have known existed but never expected to meet. I am so overjoyed to now have David & Tom in my life. I always say I'm lucky and this is yet more proof it is so.

David and his hubby Tom - my 'cousin-in-law' - flew in from Denver to visit their Sacramento friends. I visited and met my cousins there.

Jan, Tom and David chat on the news of the day

What a time we had! We all brought family photos & whatever family 'paperwork' we had. David brought along a couple of his grandfather's papers, the one below being a Military Census card from 1917. That's great uncle William Cuthbert White's actual signature, by COMMAND of the NY state governor (hahahaaa!).

David showed me photos of his mother Barbara, and his Aunt Anne. I told him I thought his Aunt Anne had a familiar look about her. She rather reminds me of my mother. I'm sorry David's mother, his aunt and uncles are all now in the past tense. We missed out on so many years of each other's lives. We will have to dedicate ourselves to making up for lost time.

Norma

Anne 

And here is Anne with a nephew on the left, and my mother with my brother Juan on the right.

Can you see the family thing there? Anne and Norma are cousins and they look so, to me at least.






Our cousins meeting up was hosted by David & Tom's long time friends Jen & Andrew. Jen was there all day, and she kept us all well refreshed and awesomely fed all day. A big treat was via the miracle that is PCs we reviewed our Ancestry family tree as well as 23 & Me data on Jan's big screen TV. It was cool to see my Aunt Grace's name listed on David's 23&Me as a DNA relative. I'm going to get my helixes tumbled & sorted by 23&Me and soon I will soon be on that list.

What a fascinating day today was! It began about 9 AM or so and by the time I left - nearly 10 PM - I was surprised at just how exhausted I was - high spirits can do that to you.  I'm am so looking forward to David and his hubby Tom  meeting the rest of the family!

[UPDATE: Based on dates, I can surmise that my memories of meeting William White are false memories, formed because my family spoke so much about visiting with William at the Bronx home of my grandparents, that I began to believe I had met him. Even if I had met him at my Grandparent's house, I wouldn't remember as I was only 2 years old when William White died.

Ironic side note, David & his family lived in San Diego in the same time period that I did in the late 60s & early 70s. And he has visited Sacramento county again & again in the era that I lived here too.] 

You Say It's Your Birthday!

Gulf Fritillary in Robbie's front yard amidst the lavender

Some birthdays I try to do something extra, by which I mean go on a pelagic birding trip. This year I celebrated with a fun version of 'same old, same old'. I got up at 4:50 AM, drove to the Bay area where I got my 'hair did'. Following that, as-per-usual, I met up with my friend Robbie so we could go out to brunch.

We went to our absolute favorite cafe for our hair-day brunch, Rick and Ann's. If you ever get a chance to visit Berkeley, that is THE spot for breakfast. I'm pret-ty sure their other meals are great too, but I've only been there for my favorite meal of the day, breakfast. Treated myself to Doc's Delight which is a massive waffle, apple sausage (yum...) and two eggs, which I take poached.

Oh... and instead of coffee, I had a nice bottle of Cock & Bull, a rich ginger beer. 

Roberta was a dear and treated me - hey it is my b-day after all.  I am so spoiled. Robbie had the Yukon Gold Plate, i.e, a veggie hash with served with 2 eggs - she has taste too so also chose poached eggs - and a scone. 

Them's good eats.

If you count the doggie legs, there are
six, so there are at least 1.5 dogs shown

Now Robbie & I have brunched in Berkeley for like forever, but today was extra special, well hell, it is my birthday after all. As we left, there was a man with two stately & gorgeous Irish Wolfhounds. I bustled on over to chat with the doggy Daddy, who was very nice indeed. I told him what a fantastic birthday treat it was for me to get in some petting time with his hounds. Yep! This was a functional and fun birthday.